Marxism and nationalism : theoretical origins of a political crisis

Designed to be an account of the classic Marxist theories of nationalism. Nimni aims to explain why Marxists in Europe have failed to conceptualize the national question. He looks at the writings of Marx, Engels, Kautsky, Luxemburg, Bernstein, Lenin, Gramsci and Bauer. Contrary to the arguments of several works, he suggests that a general Marxist theory of nationalism can be derived from the theory of evolution and the theory of the economic determination of the forces of production. A significant section of the book is devoted to the Austro-Marxist tradition, and in particular the work of Otto Bauer. Nimni intends to demonstrate that this work fills an important gap not only in Marxist literature, but also in the literature of nationalism. He argues that it is Bauer's theory that can extricate the Marxist tradition from the current political and theoretical impasse on the problematic topic of nationalism.