David Priestland

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David Priestland is a British historian. He teaches modern history at the University of Oxford and is Fellow of St Edmund Hall. [1]

Contents

Career

Priestland's research focuses on the history of the Soviet Union and the development of communism and neoliberalism. [2] He is an occasional political and cultural commentator for The Guardian and New Statesman . [3] [4] His main works include a global history of communism, The Red Flag, a history of Stalinism in the USSR, and a historical sociological essay on modern global history focusing on neoliberalism and global capitalism, 'Merchant, Soldier, Sage: A New History of Power', which focuses mainly on a power struggle between three 'castes', or socio-cultural groups, fighting for domination within society. Priestland's main argument is that humanity has shifted from societies oriented towards a warrior-class, through periods of sage dominance into a modern hegemony of merchants, which has culminated in dominance by businesspeople and entrepreneurs. [5] In the book, Priestland's voice is mostly critical of global capitalism, which has attracted some notable criticism from other academics. [6] [7] However, Sir Richard Evans, former Regius Professor of History at Cambridge, comments in The Guardian that 'among the many contributions to the dissection of our current predicament, this is surely one of the most-thought provoking'. [8]

Selected works

Related Research Articles

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Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology that became the largest faction of the communist movement in the world in the years following the October Revolution. It was the predominant ideology of most communist governments throughout the 20th century. It was developed in Russia by Joseph Stalin and drew on elements of Bolshevism, orthodox Marxism, and Leninism. It was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, Soviet satellite states in the Eastern Bloc, and various countries in the Non-Aligned Movement and Third World during the Cold War, as well as the Communist International after Bolshevization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-capitalism</span> Political ideology and movement opposed to capitalism

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Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some scholars consider it to be the left of communist parties, while others broaden it to include the left of social democracy. In certain instances—especially in the news media—far left has been associated with some forms of authoritarianism, anarchism, communism, and Marxism, or are characterized as groups that advocate for revolutionary socialism and related communist ideologies, or anti-capitalism and anti-globalization. Far-left terrorism consists of extremist, militant, or insurgent groups that attempt to realize their ideals through political violence rather than using democratic processes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass killings under communist regimes</span>

Mass killings under communist regimes occurred through a variety of means during the 20th century, including executions, famine, deaths through forced labour, deportation, starvation, and imprisonment. Some of these events have been classified as genocides or crimes against humanity. Other terms have been used to describe these events, including classicide, democide, red holocaust, and politicide. The mass killings have been studied by authors and academics and several of them have postulated the potential causes of these killings along with the factors which were associated with them. Some authors have tabulated a total death toll, consisting of all of the excess deaths which cumulatively occurred under the rule of communist states, but these death toll estimates have been criticised. Most frequently, the states and events which are studied and included in death toll estimates are the Holodomor and the Great Purge in the Soviet Union, the Great Chinese Famine and the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China, and the Cambodian genocide in Democratic Kampuchea. Estimates of individuals killed range from a low of 10–20 million to as high as 148 million.

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A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country, sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic, is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. The term communist state is often used synonymously in the West, specifically when referring to one-party socialist states governed by Marxist–Leninist communist parties, despite these countries being officially socialist states in the process of building socialism and progressing toward a communist society. These countries never describe themselves as communist nor as having implemented a communist society. Additionally, a number of countries that are multi-party capitalist states make references to socialism in their constitutions, in most cases alluding to the building of a socialist society, naming socialism, claiming to be a socialist state, or including the term people's republic or socialist republic in their country's full name, although this does not necessarily reflect the structure and development paths of these countries' political and economic systems. Currently, these countries include Algeria, Bangladesh, Guyana, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.

World communism, also known as global communism or international communism, is a form of communism placing emphasis on an international scope rather than being individual communist states. The long-term goal of world communism is an unlimited worldwide communist society that is classless, moneyless, stateless, and nonviolent, which may be achieved through an intermediate-term goal of either a voluntary association of sovereign states as a global alliance, or a world government as a single worldwide state.

Anti anti-communism is opposition to anti-communism as applied in the Cold War. The term was first coined by Clifford Geertz, an American anthropologist at the Institute for Advanced Study, who defined it as being applied in "the cold war days" by "those who ... regarded the [Red] Menace as the primary fact of contemporary political life" to "[t]hose of us who strenuously opposed [that] obsession, as we saw it ... with the insinuation – wildly incorrect in the vast majority of cases – that, by the law of the double negative, we had some secret affection for the Soviet Union." Stated more simply by Kristen Ghodsee and Scott Sehon, "the anthropologist Clifford Geertz wrote that you could be 'anti anti-communism' without being in favour of communism."

Communism has been a part of French politics since the early 20th century at the latest. It has been described as "an enduring presence on the French political scene" for most of the 20th century.

References

  1. "Professor David Priestland". St Edmund Hall . Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  2. "Professor David Priestland". University of Oxford . Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  3. "David Priestland". The Guardian . Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  4. "Writer: David Priestland". New Statesman . Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  5. Priestland, David (30 August 2012). Merchant, Soldier, Sage: A New History of Power. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN   978-0-14-197082-0.
  6. "Priestland contends perpetual power struggle in Merchant, Soldier, Sage". The National. 25 October 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  7. Timmins, Adam. "review of Merchant Soldier Sage".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. Evans, Richard J. (23 August 2012). "Merchant, Soldier, Sage: A New History of Power by David Priestland – review". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 13 September 2024.