Sartre Against Stalinism

Most critics of the political evolution of Jean-Paul Sartre have laid emphasis on his allegedly sympathetic and uncritical attitude to Stalinist Communism due, to a large extent, to their equation of Marxism with Stalinism. It is true that Sartre was guilty of many serious misjudgements with regard to the USSR and the French Communist Party. But his relationship with the Marxist Left was much more complex and co tradictory than most accounts admit. This book offers a political defence of Sartre and shows how, from a relatively apolitical stance in the 1930s, Sartre became increasingly involved in the politics of the Left; though he always distrusted Stalinism, he was sometimes driven to ally himself with it because of the force of its argument.

Most critics of the political evolution of Jean-Paul Sartre have laid emphasis on his allegedly sympathetic and uncritical attitude to Stalinist Communism due, to a large extent, to their equation of Marxism with Stalinism. It is true that Sartre was guilty of many serious misjudgements with regard to the USSR and the French Communist Party. But his relationship with the Marxist Left was much more complex and co tradictory than most accounts admit. This book offers a political defence of Sartre and shows how, from a relatively apolitical stance in the 1930s, Sartre became increasingly involved in the politics of the Left; though he always distrusted Stalinism, he was sometimes driven to ally himself with it because of the force of its argument.

Acknowledgements
Bibliographical Note
Abbreviations
Chronology

Chapter 1. Introduction: Claiming the Corpse

PART I: THE MAKING OF A REBEL

Chapter 2. ‘La Communiste’
Chapter 3. The Threat of Fascism
Chapter 4. War within War

PART II: POSTWAR CHOICES

Chapter 5. The Better Choice
Chapter 6. Materialism or Revolution?
Chapter 7. The Spectre of Trotsky
Chapter 8. The RDR
Chapter 9. Which Camp?

PART III: RAPPROCHMENT WITH STALINISM

Chapter 10. Reorientation
Chapter 11. Dangerous Liaison
Chapter 12. Debate with the Far Left
Chapter 13. Laying the Ghost

PART IV: TOWARDS A NEW LEFT

Chapter 14. From Practice to Theory
Chapter 15. The Battle over Algeria
Chapter 16. Rebuilding the Left
Chapter 17. May to December
Chapter 18. Conclusion: Sartre’s Century?

Bibliography
Index