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The Return to Marx Rick Kuhn. Henryk Grossman and the Recovery of Marxism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007. xv + 332 pp. $60.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-252-03107-6. Reviewed by Gary Roth Published on H-German (May, 2007) Rick Kuhn's biography of Henryk Grossman man's thesis was by then largely immaterial, since draws attention to a theorist who has always oc‐ few people remembered his book by the late cupied an odd place within the Marxist canon. 1930s. Known exclusively for his contributions to Marxi‐ When Grossman frst published his magnum an economic theory, Henryk Grossman's most in‐ opus, the tendency within the various socialist fluential book, The Law of Accumulation and and communist movements was either to revise Breakdown of the Capitalist System, was pub‐ Marx or ignore his economic theories altogether. lished in Germany on the eve of the 1929 Depres‐ Except among small groups of left communists, sion to widespread reviews but almost no practi‐ centered primarily in the United States around cal influence.[1] Grossman (1881-1950) seemed to Paul Mattick, Grossman's exegesis of Marx found have anticipated the economic collapse and of‐ few supporters. Mattick wrote dozens of articles fered a deeply persuasive explanation of its ongo‐ and reviews about Grossman's thesis but was nev‐ ing persistence and severity. Following Karl Marx, er able to convince any of the more popular left he stressed the inability to extract a sufficient journals to publish a piece about his colleague. mass of surplus labor from the working popula‐ Grossman's core audience at any point in time tion, a matter that became ever more difficult probably numbered in the hundreds, perhaps a with the replacement of labor by technology. He few thousand at most. His readers, in any case, also offered a means to understand why a crisis were members of a rather rarified group, since might not lead automatically to the restoration of his book presupposed a knowledge of the three profitable conditions. Neither inflationary policies volumes of Marx's Capital (1867-94), an uncom‐ nor deficit spending were sufficient on their own mon phenomenon even within the Marxist Left. to prompt a sustained level of economic function‐ Socialists and Social Democrats thought in terms ing that surpassed the pre-crash heights. Only the of the reform of the existing economic system, not world war eventually erased the crisis. That the its collapse. The communist parties, on the other world's economic difficulties confirmed Gross‐ H-Net Reviews hand, were so fxated on the Soviet Union that chic nature of the production process, in which Grossman's ideas were of no consequence to firms habitually over- or undershot existing de‐ them, even though some adherents appreciated mand due to lack of planning within the "free his condemnation of the capitalist economy. The market" context. For Grossman, these explana‐ rise of German fascism, however, reoriented the tions focused on concrete manifestations of crises entire Left from the economy of the Depression to rather than their underlying causes and he the politics of democracy, a transformation which moved the focal point of the debate from the over‐ left Grossman isolated and irrelevant. This fate he production of commodities to the overproduction shared with Marxian economic theory. of capital. This aspect of Marx's theory had never If Grossman's infuence was quite limited, this found resonance within the bourgeois world, as was not the case with his impact on the Marxist Marx's theories of value and surplus value were canon. Prior to Grossman, Rosa Luxemburg was far too abstract to be of much practical use, except the last writer to attempt a breakdown theory. as guideposts for radical social movements. Her effort, some ffteen years earlier, had been Following the Depression, Grossman's ideas based on Volume II of Capital. At the time, virtual‐ remained dormant until interest in Marxian eco‐ ly everyone rejected her thesis, the orthodox be‐ nomic theory revived during the 1960s and 1970s, cause she had revised Marx, inappropriately in when the world's economy unraveled anew. Much their opinion, while the mainstream of the social‐ of his work was republished in Germany, where ist movement hoped for a peaceful transition to a the new Left was more Marxist-inclined than per‐ humanistically-based socialism, an aspiration in haps in any other country. With the subsequent tune with the relative success of the various so‐ decline of the new Left, Grossman's exposition of cialist, labor, and trade union movements. In the the catastrophic aspects of Marx's theory seemed aftermath of the First World War, it was the ultra- out of touch with reality yet again. Some discus‐ Left, such as the Marxists to the left of the Com‐ sion of his ideas can still be found here and there, munist Party, that gave her ideas, as well as her but much of it is highly academic and focused on politics, a new hearing. methodological considerations which are ex‐ Grossman's interpretation of Marx shifted the pressed, as is the habit in the feld of economics, locus of theorizing to the largely ignored Volume with mathematical formulas and without direct III of Capital (1894). In his book and in subse‐ reference to social conditions or the actual econo‐ quent articles, Grossman reframed Marx's theory my. of capitalist development by targeting the domi‐ Much to the credit of Kuhn's biography, Gross‐ nant paradigms of economic thought.[2] He criti‐ man is presented as a complex, talented individu‐ cized theories that posited a fundamental equilib‐ al whose career progressed through marked shifts rium in the economy, an assumption common‐ at different points in his life. Grossman had a place in mainstream economics and common much more varied career than often assumed. His enough within Marxism as well. The Marxist tra‐ book on capitalist breakdown was such a signifi‐ dition, on the other hand, tended towards theo‐ cant achievement that it lends itself to images like ries of disequilibrium, a trait it shared with the those stemming from the twenty-five years Marx emerging feld of liberal economics. Luxemburg, is alleged to have spent in the British Library re‐ for instance, had posited a basic disjuncture be‐ searching and writing Capital, while he was actu‐ tween the economy's ability to produce commodi‐ ally spending considerable time sitting in cafes, ties and the restricted capacity of the population drinking coffee and beer, and talking with to consume. Other theorists pointed to the anar‐ friends. For neither Marx nor Grossman does the 2 H-Net Reviews image quite mesh with reality. While still a stu‐ comments when he wrote to Mattick, in one of his dent, Grossman dedicated himself to labor orga‐ few surviving letters, that the failure of the Ger‐ nizing and the development of a Jewish working- man Communist Party to thwart the fascists was class movement in Poland modeled on the Jewish due to its paltry, inadequate leadership--this a Bund in Russia. The Bundists were socialists and statement about a party that prided itself on its anti-Zionists, but they were also cultural national‐ leadership capabilities. Grossman defended the ists who favored nondiscriminatory policies and Soviet Union against its critics on the Left, includ‐ separate cultural and educational institutions ing Mattick and his colleagues of the Frankfurt within a multicultural state. Two years of engaged School. If he had been a "critical" Stalinist in the political activity culminated in Grossman's sud‐ mid-1930s, all reserve slipped away by the end of den return to graduate school, where he pursued the decade. With the anti-communist hysteria that a law degree. His mentor and post-doctoral re‐ unfolded in the United States in the late 1940s, search supervisor was Carl Grünberg, the future Grossman felt himself in danger of prosecution. founder of the Institute for Social Research (the An offer to join the faculty at the University of Frankfurt School). During the First World War, Leipzig in the newly founded GDR resulted in his Grossman was employed as a statistician, demog‐ 1949 relocation. But he was already an ill man rapher, and economist by the Austrian Ministry of and his death followed at the end of the next year. War. His scholarly pursuits were as much applied Although he had continued to write during the as theoretical. Expelled from Austria after the war years of exile, his level of productivity declined when the socialist-dominated coalition purged the progressively and he never rekindled his research civil service of all non-Austrians, Grossman super‐ program. Except for a few essays and reviews, he vised Poland's newly established census bureau did not follow through on the many aspects of his until political pressure forced his ouster because theoretical work he had hoped to clarify, includ‐ he planned to count the minority populations of ing its empirical verification. the country accurately. He was, however, able to The strongest parts of Kuhn's biography cen‐ secure a university appointment, which he held ter on the earlier aspects of Grossman's career, from 1922-25. When membership in the Polish particularly on his attempts to create a counter‐ Communist Party and repeated arrests led to his part to the Russian Bund within the prewar Aus‐ expulsion from Poland, Grünberg invited him to trian empire. This section of Kuhn's book is also join the Frankfurt School. Grossman's book on the most elaborated, although Kuhn's habit of al‐ capitalist breakdown became the school's most ternating between chronological and episodic well-known and influential publication during the modes of presentation lends a certain confusion early 1930s.
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