From: "Rosser Jr, John Barkley" <rosserjb-AT-jmu.edu>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Pipes
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 1996 16:32:38 -0500 ()


To Justin,
     I think that we have basic agreement here, but let me 
repeat.  The important parts of this book are not the parts 
actually written by Pipes, some of which is seriously off 
the wall, as I mentioned in my original post.  It is the 
documents, their contents, and their implications.  These 
must, of course, be considered in the light of the 
possibility that they are/were forged, and in the fact that 
this is a very small selection of what is issuing forth 
>from these archives and were especially selected by Pipes 
to make Lenin look bad.  Thus, caveat emptor, but 
denouncing the book by denouncing Pipes is inadequate.
Barkley Rosser
On Tue, 29 Oct 1996 15:41:39 -0500 (EST) Justin Schwartz 
<jschwart-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us> wrote:


> 
> Pipes' History was translated in Russian with great fanfare.
> Unfortunately, no one can afford to buy it, or any other book; the few
> with money, of course, are uninterested in reading and need no persuasions
> about the Evils of Communism. The situation in France in not surprising.
> You guys have lead the antirevolutionary intellectual wave, starting with
> trhe New Philosophers in the 1970s. Remember Henri-Levy? Whatever happened
> to that turkey, anyway? 
> 
> It has to be emphasized that (a) there are respectable right wing studies
> of the USSR and the Russian revolution. One may differ with Conquest,
> Shapiro, Crankshaw, Service, etc. on various conclusions, points of
> method, lots of things. But these are people from whom one can learn. (b)
> There are respectable left wing critiques of Leninism, too many to
> mention. Sam Farber is a case in point. (c) But Pipes is a real disgrace,
> not because he's right wing, but because he is so ideologically blinded
> that it short circuits his ability to reason and to gather and appraise
> evidence. Frankly, I am deeply irritated at the time I wasted plowing
> through his History. --jks
> 
> On 29 Oct 1996, jc mullen wrote:
> 
> > I agree with Justin about Pipes. But Pipes is extremely important. Here in
> > France his History of the Russian Revolution was trumpeted ( full page covergae
> > in Le Monde) and praised . Really a good sign of how capitalismin deep crisis
> > prefers idiocy to anything else (see Yeltsin etc)
> > John Mullen
> > SI France
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >      --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
rosserjb-AT-jmu.edu






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