Best Lectures on Marxism, Ever

I’m a huge fan of the late great George Walsh. I heard this giant of intellectual history speak live in 1989, and I’ve listened to his recorded lectures over and over. As I’ve recounted before:

Who was George Walsh?  While I am not an Objectivist, I consider him to be the greatest of the professional Objectivist philosophers.  Walsh didn’t write much, but he was a great reader and an amazing speaker.  In the late 80s and early 90s, Laissez-Faire Books sold tapes of his lecture series on Marxism, the Judeo-Christian Tradition, Rousseau, Protestant Fundamentalism, and the Role of Religion in History (eventually transcribed and turned into his only book).  All of these lectures are first-rate…

Walsh’s two great strengths: Old-fashioned scholarship and a brilliant sense of humor.  Unlike modern “publish-or-perish” academics, Walsh’s priority was learning his topic forward and backward.  When he lectures on Marxism, for example, you can tell that he spent decades reading not just the collected works of Marx, but dozens of minor Marxists, critics, and apostates.  Then he went on to study the actual history of Marxism, and the complex connections – and disconnections – between theory and practice. 

Now, in cooperation with the Salem Center, I’m working to make all of Walsh’s timeless talks publicly available. Starting with the aforementioned lectures on Marxism, delivered in the mid-80s - just a few years before the collapse of the Soviet bloc. The lectures, in order:

Lecture #1: The Precursors of Marxism

Lecture #2: Marxist Philosophy

Lecture #3: Marxist Economics

Lecture #4: Marxist Politics

I hope you enjoy them!

P.S. For more background on Walsh, see here, here, and here. His one published book is a transcription of his lectures on The Role of Religion in History. See also his essays on Marcuse and Kant.