Norman Geras (; 25 August 1943 – 18 October 2013) was a

political theorist A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars. Here the most notable political theorists are categorized by their ...

and

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of Politics at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

. He contributed to an analysis of the works of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

in his book '' Marx and Human Nature'' and the article "The Controversy About Marx and Justice". His "Seven Types of Obloquy: Travesties of Marxism", appeared in the ''Socialist Register'' in 1990.

Biography

Geras was born in

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council cl ...

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kn ...

, to a Jewish family. Arriving in the UK in 1962, he read philosophy, politics and economics at

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after ...

, and graduated in 1965. He was a research student from 1965 to 1967 at

Nuffield College, Oxford Nuffield College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college and specialises in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. Nuffield is one of Oxford's newer co ...

, before joining the University of Manchester as a lecturer in 1967. He married the children's writer

Adèle Geras Adèle Daphne Geras (née Weston; born 15 March 1944) is an English writer for young children, teens and adults. Early life Geras was born in Jerusalem, British Mandatory Palestine to British Jewish parents. Her father (later a lawyer and Hi ...

(born

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, 1944) in 1967. One of their two daughters is

Sophie Hannah Sophie Hannah (born 1971) is a British poet and novelist. From 1997 to 1999 she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and between 1999 and 2001 a junior research fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She lives with h ...

, the poet and author. Connected with the Trotskyist

International Marxist Group :''See also the International Marxist Group (Germany). The International Marxist Group (IMG) was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1968 and 1982. It was the British Section of the Fourth International. It had around 1,000 members and supporte ...

at the time of writing his study of

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...

's political thought, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' obituarist wrote of Geras' aim for the book: "He set out to defend (as he would then have seen it) Luxemburg’s Marxist orthodoxy. It may seem perverse to Geras’s later admirers across the political divide that he would then have regarded this as a point in Luxemburg’s favour, but the quality of his scholarship was undeniable. He showed that Luxemburg had largely shared Lenin’s own pre-1917 analysis of the revolutionaries’ task." Geras was on the editorial board of ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960. History Background As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...

'' from 1976 to 1992, and then on the editorial board of ''

Socialist Register The ''Socialist Register'' is an annual socialist publication. It was founded in 1964 by Ralph Miliband and John Saville. They had criticisms of the ''New Left Review'' (''NLR'') after Perry Anderson became editor of the ''NLR'' in 1962. Miliband ...

'' from 1995 to 2003. After retiring as a Professor in 2003, he wrote a

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

, which focused on political issues, such as the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

, which he supported, his academic interests, and a range of other topics, including popular music,

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and films. In 2006, he was one of the principal authors of the

Euston Manifesto The Euston Manifesto ( ) is a liberal conservative, pro-American, 2006 declaration of principles signed by a group of academics, journalists and activists based in the United Kingdom, named after the Euston Road in London where it had its meetin ...

. Geras's 1989 essay "Our Morals: The Ethics of Revolution" was on the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

's list of essential reading for the Justice and Injustice politics module in 2017, but the university warned students to read the essay only in a secure setting where it could not be seen by "those who are not prepared to view it", and not to read it on personal devices. This was after the essay was identified by the university as "sensitive" under the "Prevent" counter-terrorism programme. Geras rejected terrorism, but argued that violence could be justified in the case of grave social injustices.

Bibliography

* 1976: ''The Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg'' (1983 paperback: ) * 1983: '' Marx and Human Nature: Refutation of a Legend'' * 1986: ''Literature of Revolution: Essays on Marxism'' * 1990: ''Discourses of Extremity'' * 1995: ''Solidarity in the Conversation of Humankind: Ungroundable Liberalism of Richard Rorty'' * 1997: ''The Ashes '97: The View from the Boundary'' (with Ian Holliday and Tom Jenkins, Illustrator) * 1998: ''The Contract of Mutual Indifference: Political Philosophy After the Holocaust'' (1999 paperback: ) * 2000: ''Enlightenment and Modernity'' (edited by Geras and

Robert Wokler Robert Lucien Wokler (6 December 1942 – 30 July 2006) was a British historian who was a leading scholar of the political thought of the Enlightenment. References * https://www.jstor.org/stable/26222117 * https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rob ...

) * 2002: ''Men of Waugh: Ashes 2001'' * 2005: "On the London Bombings". ''

Telos Telos (; ) is a term used by philosopher Aristotle to refer to the final cause of a natural organ or entity, or of a work of human art. Intentional actualization of potential or inherent purpose,"Telos.''Philosophy Terms'' Retrieved 3 May 2020. ...

'' 132 (Fall 2005). New York
Telos Press
* 2011: ''Crimes against humanity: Birth of a concept'' * 2019: ''The Norman Geras Reader: What’s There Is There'' (Manchester University Press). co-editors: Eve Garrard and Ben Cohen.

References

External links

Normblog

Geras' Twitter page

1989

Imprints, 2002
Alibi AntisemitismFathom: For a deeper understanding of Israel and the region
29 January 2013
Obituary
in ''Socialist Review'' by Paul Blackledge {{DEFAULTSORT:Geras, Norman 1943 births 2013 deaths Academics of the University of Manchester Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford British bloggers British Jews British Marxists Jewish socialists Marxist theorists British political philosophers People from Bulawayo Rhodesian Jews Zimbabwean emigrants to the United Kingdom