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From International Socialism, No.23, Winter 1965/66, p.31.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Sons Against Fathers
E. Lampert
Oxford, 63s.
This book is an account of the eighteen-sixties in Russia and the new sort of radical opponent of Tsarism that followed Herzen and preceded Populism proper. It includes a long essay on the general history with perceptive examination of the motives behind and the results of the emancipation of the serfs; attached to this are three long studies of Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov and Pisarev, considering in turn the life of each, his general philosophy, his political position and his views on art and literature. The first general essay is excellent and informative – the author is sympathetic to the radicals, and goes widely into the background. The biographies are similarly interesting although covering ground already well-examined by others; the examination of the views of the three is less satisfactory – the author’s style is discursive, occasionally repetitive and, as is the case with most examinations of ‘philosophies,’ diffuse – the concrete views of each author are of academic interest, although even then the presentation of those views is difficult without intimately integrating such views in their background, rendering them specific even if, through each life, they may be contradicted. Problems of ideology, problems of individual beliefs: the two cannot interestingly be isolated from the problems of society and the individual.
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Last updated on 8.10.2007