At the time it seized power the danger to the movement lay in the fact that, on one hand, it might become “ossified” by taking over the state machine and frozen into a form of absolute government, and that, on the other hand, its freedom of movement might be limited by the borders of the territory in which it came to power. This transformation never occurred in the totalitarian, the Bolshevik and the Nazi movements.
In other words, when the time came for the socialist movements to seize power in their respective countries, they had already been transformed into national parties.
The socialist movement was spared this crisis, first, because the national question-and that meant the strategical problem involved in the revolution-had been curiously neglected by Marx and Engels, and, secondly, because it faced governmental problems only after the first World War had divested the Second International of its authority over the national members, which everywhere had accepted the primacy of national sentiments over international solidarity as an unalterable fact. The book was singled out for praise on both sides of the Atlantic, and is considered by the author to be his most prescient effort in social theory.When a movement, international in organisation, all-comprehensive in its ideological scope, and global in its political aspiration, seizes power in one country, it obviously puts itself in a paradoxical situation. This work will be of special interest to political scientists, intellectual historians, and sociologists. It shows not only what might have helped the older generation avert the catastrophe of Nazism, but also how today's generation can prevent another such catastrophe. The End of Economic Man is a book of great social import. He explains the tragedy of Europe as the loss of political faith, resulting from the political alienation of the European masses. The End of Economic Man is a social and political effort to explain the subjective consequences of the social upheavals caused by warfare.ĭrucker concentrates on one specific historical event: the breakdown of the social and political structure of Europe which culminated in the rise of Nazi totalitarianism to mastery over Europe. Drucker provides a special addition to the massive literature on existentialism and alienation since World War II. In some ways, this book anticipated by more than a decade the existentialism that came to dominate the European political mood in the postwar period. Drucker explains and interprets fascism and Nazism as fundamental revolutions. In The End of Economic Man, long recognized as a cornerstone work, Peter F.
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