The Austrian Revolution (Paperback)

Otto Bauer (author), Eric Canepa (editor), Walter Baier (translator), Walter Baier (editor)

£24.99

Paperback 400 Pages
Published: 16/09/2021

Synopsis

This is the story of the decline and fall of an empire, a region devastated by war, and a world stage fundamentally transformed by the Russian Revolution. Bauer's magisterial work -- available in English for the first time in full -- charts the evolution of three simultaneous, overlapping revolutionary waves: a national revolution for self-determination, which brought down imperial Austro-Hungary; a bourgeois revolution for parliamentary republics and universal suffrage; and a social revolution for workers' control, factory councils, and industrial democracy.

The brief but crowning achievement of Red Vienna, alongside Bauer's unique theorization of an "integral socialism" -- an attempted synthesis of revolutionary communism and social democracy -- is a vital part of the left's intellectual and historical heritage. Today, as movements once again struggle with questions of reform or revolution, political strategy, and state power, this is a crucial resource. Bauer tells the story of the Austrian Revolution with all the immediacy of a central participant, and all the insight of a brilliant and original theorist.

Publisher: Haymarket Books
ISBN: 9781642591620
Number of pages: 400
Dimensions: 228 x 152 mm

MEDIA REVIEWS

'It is largely thanks to Otto Bauer's The Austrian Revolution that I discovered the richness of the Austro-Marxist tradition and the many affinities between the writings of Bauer and of our Gramsci, especially on the question of hegemony.' - Luciana Castellina, co-founder of Il Manifesto

'The revolution in Central Europe in 1918-21 was a giant event that came closer to changing world history than most of us realize. For English-speakers, this translation opens a challenging new window on the Austrian workers' council movement and the role of the Entente powers in the counter-revolution that followed. Published in 1923, it stands unique as an analysis of the revolution's internal dynamics and the costs of defeat.' - Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums

Otto Bauer's The Austrian Revolution is one of the classics of Marxist political analysis comparable to Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire or Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution, and it is one of the forgotten shining gems of the extraordinarily rich literature of Austro-Marxism.' - Michael R. Kratke, author of Friedrich Engels

'Red Vienna and the contributions of its protagonists like Otto Bauer are tragically overlooked on the contemporary left. Baier and Canepa have edited a thrilling work from Bauer with the aim of correcting that and to chart a new course for those looking for alternatives to bankrupt social-democratic parties and defeated Leninist ones.' - Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin