Review of The Hungarian Writings by Karl Polanyi

ABSTRACT

In the current times of political crisis, a giant thinker such as Karl Polanyi will return to the forefront of intellectual debate. Many of his important early articles have only been available in Hungarian or in German. With the publication of The Hungarian Writings (2016), edited by Gareth Dale (Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Brunel University London), a major gap in Polanyi studies has been filled. These essays, published for the first time in English, provide a key to understanding Karl Polanyi’s later works. The range of issues that are reviewed in these writings is astounding. Everything from Marxism to politics, economics and sociology is examined by the extraordinary mind of the author. Events such as the Russian revolution and the significance of Bolshevism are also explored. Lastly, a section of correspondence to such eminent intellectuals as Georg Lukaćs and Istvan Meszaros gives the reader an inside look into the socialist worldview of Karl Polanyi. This book truly shines a new light on many aspects of Polanyi’s critique of capitalism developed in his magnum opus, The Great Transformation (1944). Various aspects of The Hungarian Writings will be explored in depth in this critical review.

KEYWORDS:

• Karl Polanyi
• socialism
• Marxism
• economics
• the great transformation

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on Contributor

Omer Moussaly obtained his PhD in political science in 2014 from UQAM (Montreal) with a thesis on the life and work of Antonio Gramsci. He is also a postdoctoral researcher at the UNESCO, Chair on the Philosophical Foundations of Justice and Democratic Society at UQAM and is currently pursuing research on the works of Algernon Sidney with the Chair on Critical Antiquity and Emerging Modernity at l’Université Laval (Quebec City). His research interests are mainly concerned with critical theory and the history of political thought. He is the author of Progrèset action collective, portrait du méliorisme aux États-Unis (Québec: Presses de l’Université Laval, 2016) and one of the authors of the collective book, Unsystème sans qualité. Matériaux pour une critique du capitalisme (Montréal: M éditeur, 2017) as well as of many peer-reviewed articles in English and in French.