Chris Harman – författare

We've been told for years that the capitalist free market is a self-correcting perpetual growth machine in which sellers always find buyers, precluding any major crisis in the system. Then the credit crunch of August 2007 turned into the great crash of September October 2008, leading one apologist for the system, Willem Buiter, to write of "the end of capitalism as we knew it."As the crisis unfolded, the world witnessed the way in which the runaway speculation of the "shadow" banking system wreaked havoc on world markets, leaving real human devastation in its wake. Faced with the financial crisis, some economic commentators began to talk of "zombie banks" financial institutions that were in an "undead state" and incapable of fulfilling any positive function but a threat to everything else. What they do not realize is that twenty-first century capitalism as a whole is a zombie system, seemingly dead when it comes to achieving human goals.

"Compelling . . . [a] classic study of the revolutionary process" (Neil Davidson, author of How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions?). As the First World War was about to end in defeat, German sailors began to mutiny—giving voice to the widespread anger against the elites who had led the nation into war and the calamitous impact of that decision on everyday people. The events that followed would eventually result in the parliamentary democracy known as the Weimar Republic—and the socialists who had initially risen up would be attacked by German counterrevolutionary troops, their uniforms marking the debut of a new symbol: the swastika. Because of the socialists'' defeat in Germany, Russia fell into the isolation that gave Stalin his road to power. Here, Chris Harman unearths the history of the lost revolution in Germany and reveals its lessons for the future struggles for a better world. "Chris Harman''s compelling analysis of the failed German Revolution covers the entire period from 1918 to the debacle of 1923, paying close attention to episodes such as the Bavarian Soviet Republic which are often neglected or minimized. Harman clearly demonstrates that this example of ''lost revolution'' was the real turning point in German history when history failed to turn, with dire consequences." —Neil Davidson, author of Discovering the Scottish Revolution

Chris Harman unearths the history of the lost revolution in Germany—the swastika entered modern history on uniforms of the counterrevolutionary troops of 1918–1923—and reveals its lessons for struggles for a better world.Chris Harman is the author of many books, including A People's History of the World.

In the Russian revolution of 1917, workers took control of a major country for the first time in history. To millions throughout the world, the Russian workers' state offered new hope. People everywhere turned from the grim alternatives of a declining capitalism - unemployment, poverty, the threat of new wars - to place their hopes in the government that the soviets, councils of working people, put into power in Russia. And for a short time, their hopes were realized. Never before had such sweeping changes in society been carried out in so short a time.

In this monumental book, Chris Harman achieves the impossible-a gripping history of the planet from the perspective of the struggling people throughout the ages.From earliest human society to the Holy Roman Empire, from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, from the Industrial Revolution to the end of the millennium, Chris Harman provides a brilliant and comprehensive history of the planet. Eschewing the standard histories of ''Great Men,'' of dates and kings, Harman offers a groundbreaking counter-history, a breathtaking sweep across the centuries in the tradition of ''history from below.'' In a fiery narrative, he shows how ordinary men and women were involved in creating and changing society and how conflict between classes was often at the core of these changes. While many pundits see the victory of capitalism as now safely secured, Harman explains the rise and fall of societies and civilizations throughout the ages and demonstrates that history never ends. This magisterial study is essential reading for anyone interested in how society has changed and developed and the possibilities for further radical change.

In this monumental book, Chris Harman achieves the impossible-a gripping history of the planet from the perspective of the struggling people throughout the ages.From earliest human society to the Holy Roman Empire, from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, from the Industrial Revolution to the end of the millennium, Chris Harman provides a brilliant and comprehensive history of the planet. Eschewing the standard histories of 'Great Men,' of dates and kings, Harman offers a groundbreaking counter-history, a breathtaking sweep across the centuries in the tradition of 'history from below.' In a fiery narrative, he shows how ordinary men and women were involved in creating and changing society and how conflict between classes was often at the core of these changes. While many pundits see the victory of capitalism as now safely secured, Harman explains the rise and fall of societies and civilizations throughout the ages and demonstrates that history never ends. This magisterial study is essential reading for anyone interested in how society has changed and developed and the possibilities for further radical change.

Our rulers today, in an age of permanent inter-imperialist war, still glorify the 'civilisation' of the Roman Empire. It is therefore timely to remember the greatest ever challenge to that empire was from below, the mass slave revolt led by the Thracian gladiator Spartacus from 73-71 BCE. Chris Harman (1942-2009) was a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party and its forerunner, the International Socialists, in Britain. From the early 1960s, Harman had written about Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and the Spartakist League in his 1982 classic work, The Lost Revolution: Germany, 1918-1923. During the 1990s, Chris was working on his magisterial A People's History of the World (1999), and the year before this work was published, he gave a talk on Spartacus at the annual Marxism Festival in 1998. The speech, published for the first time, with additional original notes by Chris, is a vivid account of one of the most heroic, but also tragic class struggles in history, plus a fascinating historical and materialist discussion on the interrelationship between slavery, the impoverishment of the Roman peasant, and the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.

Germany 1918-23 A revised edition of a very readable account of this decisive event in 20th century history. Unusual in that it is written from a point of view sympathetic to the revolution and to its tragic leading figures, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.

A highly accessible introduction to the vital theoretical issues in the interpretation of marx's theory of history. Essential for all students of Marx and Marxism.