Blood and Progress: Violence in Pursuit of Emancipation

by Nick Hewlett

Overview

How do we decide when violence in pursuit of emancipation is legitimate and what form – if any – should it take?
Every day, we hear about war, state repression, uprisings, suicide bombing, gang warfare, slavery and domestic abuse. Is it realistic to think of a future that is free from violence? And can we justify the paradox of violence in pursuit of a peaceful future? Nick Hewlett places the goal of a wholly peaceful society centre-stage to give us a new understanding of violence in pursuit of peace.
Hewlett brings together the modern history of capitalist violence and communist violence; political thought on insurgent violence; a passionate defence of the idea of peace and non-violence; and the political economy of contemporary capitalism. He explores topics ranging from the prospects for peace and non-violence to Fidel Castro’s ethics of guerrilla warfare, and from the brutality of US foreign policy and the violence of historical communism to the meaning of terrorism today.
Strongly argued and supported by a wealth of facts, Blood and Progress is suffused with the profound belief that we need to go beyond the inequalities and injustices of the current age and towards societies characterised by equality, deep democracy and peace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474410601
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	09/20/2016
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Nick Hewlett is Professor of French Studies at the University of Warwick.

Table of Contents

AcknowledgementsIntroduction

1. Non-violence as an imperative goalUtopiasModernity, liberalism and non-violence The Post-war period in the West Elias, Pinker and the ‘civilizing thesis’Feminism, feminization and maternalismModern medicine

2. Capitalism, communism and violenceThe other side of modernity Communism and violenceUS violence abroad since 1945Structural violenceLate capitalism and its futures

3. Castro, humanism and revolutionHistory will absolve meCuba’s history of violenceCastro’s ethics of violenceInfluences on Castro’s thoughtCuba and the USA With and beyond Castro

4. Marx, Engels and the place of violence in historyEngels’s theory of GewaltLenin and the October RevolutionThe structural violence of modernity(Re-)interpreting and complementing Marx and Engels’s ethics of violenceBalibar’s critique of Marx on violence

5. Terror and terrorismDefining TerrorismTerrorism from above, terrorism from below The Middle East Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS)

ConclusionsReferences and bibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

Nick Hewlett’s Blood and Progress constitutes an engaging meditation on the paradox of violence for the sake of peace. [It] is part of a growing literature which acknowledges the regrettable necessity of constrained violence in some cases for progressive social change… The dominant view that positive social change necessarily stems from non-violent struggle does a disservice to the reality of history. Blood and Progress is not only an important corrective to such a view but also an informed guide on the way forward.

Political Studies Review - Guy Lancaster