The Dialectic of Position and Maneuver: Understanding Gramscis Military Metaphor

by Daniel Egan

Overview

Military metaphors have long played a role in framing questions of Marxist political strategy. Most famously, Gramsci articulated much of his social theory in terms of wars of position and wars of maneuver. In this work, Daniel Egan argues that previous commentators have viewed the distinction between these two phases of struggle too statically.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608468379
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	03/27/2018
Series:	Studies in Critical Social Sciences
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	156
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Daniel Egan, Ph.D. in Sociology, Boston College, 1994, is Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. His major research and teaching areas are social theory, political sociology, and globalization. His current work focuses on the intersection between military doctrine and social theory.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: Marxism and the Military Metaphor

2. Gramsci’s Marxism
Working Class Organization and Revolutionary Politics
Political Relations of Power

3. War of Maneuver and War of Position
War as Metaphor
Analysis of the Metaphor

4. Marxism and Insurrection
Engels and Insurrection
Lenin, Trotsky and Insurrection
The Communist International and Insurrection
The Gramscian Nature of Insurrection

5. Soviet Military Doctrine
Creating the Red Army
Soviet Military Science: Tactics, Operational Art, Strategy
Deep Battle and Gramsci’s War of Position

6 Marxism and Guerrilla Warfare
People’s War
The Foco
The Gramscian Character of Guerrilla Warfare

7. Conclusion: Lessons for Socialist Political Strategy
The Dialectic of Position and Maneuver
The Gramscian War of Position and Twenty-First Century Socialism

References
Index