Bourgeois Liberty and the Politics of Fear: July 2014

My name is Marc Mulholland. I am a Fellow (lecturer and tutor) in the History Faculty of Oxford University. My College is St Catherine's. I come from Ireland.

This is a blog relating to my book published in 2012 by Oxford University Press, Bourgeois Liberty and the Politics of Fear: From Absolutism to Neo-Conservativism. Now on sale here and here. If you want 20 per cent off the price, I can arrange that! Send me a message or leave a comment, and I'll tell you how.

The thesis my book is examining was rather pithily summarised by Leon Trotsky in 1939: "Wherever the proletariat appeared as an independent force, the bourgeoisie shifted to the camp of the counter-revolution. The bolder the struggle of the masses, the quicker the reactionary transformation of liberalism." [Context is here]

However, my book isn't a defence of Trotskyism, or indeed any particular ideology. It's a study of an idea that took shape in Left, Right, and Centre variations.

This blog has tid-bits not included in the book, and other thoughts that occur.

You can see book details at the OUP website.

Wednesday, 30 July 2014

The First World War and the Collapse of the Second International

On 4 August 1914 the German socialist SPD voted for war credits. Within days, the socialist Second International had shattered, as national parties rushed to support their own countries in the conflagration of conflict. Why did this happen? Customarily this is seen as a morality tale of betrayal. Here I give another take.

However we see it, it was a tragic debacle.