If the Russian Revolution Never Happened, Who Was Karl Marx? | Phillip Magness & Kate Wand

Karl Marx’s theories sparked the Russian Revolution in 1917. His communist ideology was foundational to the USSR, and other oppressive regimes, which led to the state murder of hundreds of millions of people. Yet despite the 20th century Marxist democide, Marx remains one of the most popular so-called intellectual figures of the last century, up to this day. “Appearing in 3,856 syllabi as of 2015, Marx’s Communist Manifesto is consistently among the most frequently assigned texts in American college classrooms.”

But what if the Russian Revolution had never happened? Would anyone today even know who Karl Marx was? And is there a way to measure that empirically?

Phillip Magness, the director of research and education at AIER and his colleague Michael Makovi set out to do just that. What did they discover? In this episode of Liberty Curious, you are going to find out.

What I really wanted to ask Phil first was, “Who was Karl Marx?”

*** Please note that the opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and her guests. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Institute for Economic Research. The content presented in this show is intended for educational purposes only, and should not be considered as financial advice. ***

The Mainstreaming of Marx: Measuring the Effect of the Russian Revolution on Karl Marx’s Influence: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/722933

Das Karl Marx Problem: https://www.aier.org/article/das-karl-marx-problem/

When Lenin Read a Book on Marx: https://www.aier.org/article/when-lenin-read-a-book-on-marx/

Phil Magness on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilWMagness

aier.org/podcasts

0:00 - intro

1:18 - Who was Karl Marx?

4:24 - Who influenced Marx?

7:43 - Marx's obscurity

11:47 - Surplus Value

15:08 - Russian Revolution

20:00 - Straight into Communism

22:24 - Democratic Socialism

26:33 - Cult of Marxism after 1917

33:50 - Totalitarianism

37:05 - Technocracy

39:05 - Neo-Marxism / Critical Theory

43:22 - Research: The Mainstreaming of Marx

51:20 - What ifs?

52:15 - the 1916 project

55:50 - Times of Crisis

59:16 - Russian Revolution vs. American Revolution

1:02:26 - Collectivism vs. Individualism

1:03:44 - Last thoughts