Book Sold
The books full title is Ireland and the Irish Question – A Collection of Writings by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels.
This scarce polemic was first published in 1972. The book contains the thoughts of both Marx and Engels on how best to describe the British colonisation of Ireland. The book contains copies of their letters and articles on the subject.
The Tribune said of the book in September 2020 –
“The scattered thoughts of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels on Ireland, collected in a 1971 volume introduced by the communist historian Desmond Greaves, have been pored over by generations of Marxist scholars and activists. Mainly journalistic pieces and private letters, they do not amount to a structured examination or theorisation of the Irish question, much less form part of a general theory of imperialism. But they exceed their commentary on any other national or colonial question, India included. Crucially, as “England’s first colony,” Ireland was the key site for their observations on the nature of colonial capitalist development”
This is an unusual book by authors that many thought did not have entrenched views on the “Irish Question”.