Any good Trotsky collections/anthologies?

  1. Rooster - 7th November 2011, 21:13
    I'm looking for a book for someone's christmas and I was wondering if you guys ever came across any good selected collections/anthologies of Trotsky's writings? Preferably it would be in a single book, you know, just so that I can wrap it up and not spend too much moola on it.
  2. Commissar Rykov - 7th November 2011, 21:48
    I found this: http://www.amazon.com/Writings-Leon-...706010&sr=8-20

    It has different years of his writings but I couldn't find anything showing what they contained it was the only anthologies I could find and I haven't purchased them myself.
  3. graymouser - 16th November 2011, 23:04
    No, the Writings are not an anthology, they are a part of the frustrating publication history of Trotsky's work. If you want to give someone a single book, get them The History of the Russian Revolution. It's a masterpiece.

    For the most part Trotsky's writings are scattered through 20 some odd books, plus a 14 volume series of writings. How it was done is ass backward: articles were collected topically and everything from 1929-1940 that didn't make it into a collection was put into the Writings series during the '70s. So for instance, although Whither France? was written in 1936, it is neither in the 1935-36 volume nor the 1936-37 volume, but instead in Leon Trotsky on France, a collection of Trotsky's writings on France (but not his writings on the dispute in the French section of the International Left Opposition, which are referenced in the ... On France writings but are in another book, Crisis of the French Section). The pre-1929 stuff is even more frustrating as it's sporadic what is even in print.

    Rather than subject whoever this is for to all that, get the History. They'll appreciate it.
  4. A Marxist Historian
    A Marxist Historian - 17th November 2011, 06:53
    No, the Writings are not an anthology, they are a part of the frustrating publication history of Trotsky's work. If you want to give someone a single book, get them The History of the Russian Revolution. It's a masterpiece.

    For the most part Trotsky's writings are scattered through 20 some odd books, plus a 14 volume series of writings. How it was done is ass backward: articles were collected topically and everything from 1929-1940 that didn't make it into a collection was put into the Writings series during the '70s. So for instance, although Whither France? was written in 1936, it is neither in the 1935-36 volume nor the 1936-37 volume, but instead in Leon Trotsky on France, a collection of Trotsky's writings on France (but not his writings on the dispute in the French section of the International Left Opposition, which are referenced in the ... On France writings but are in another book, Crisis of the French Section). The pre-1929 stuff is even more frustrating as it's sporadic what is even in print.

    Rather than subject whoever this is for to all that, get the History. They'll appreciate it.
    And, while you're at it, let's not forget the two filler volumes for the Writings, containing stuff they hadn't dug up yet when the collected works series was being issued. And then there is his collected works in Russian, all 27 volumes of it, much of it still not translated into English...

    The History is a good choice, but it is after all three volumes and some 2,000 pages, so maybe not ideal.

    One good possibility would be Leon Trotsky Speaks, a speeches collection with some great stuff in it, covering his whole lifetime. If you can find a copy that is, way out of print.

    -M.H.-
  5. eyeheartlenin
    eyeheartlenin - 17th November 2011, 07:51
    There is an anthology from the 1960's, that I just found on amazon.com, at a reasonable price, The Age of Permanent Revolution: A Trotsky Anthology, edited by Isaac Deutscher. I am amazed they still list it; I remember buying a copy when i was an undergraduate.
  6. Rooster - 17th November 2011, 16:45
    Wow, thanks for all the suggestions. I saw a book years ago in a crummy second hand store and the book was called something like... The Theories (or ideas) of Leon Trotsky. I can't remember who wrote it but it was one of this big glossy ones which kind of put me off it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
  7. Rooster - 26th November 2011, 20:00
    There is an anthology from the 1960's, that I just found on amazon.com, at a reasonable price, The Age of Permanent Revolution: A Trotsky Anthology, edited by Isaac Deutscher. I am amazed they still list it; I remember buying a copy when i was an undergraduate.
    I ended up getting this which is exactly what I was looking for. Seems to be nice little book and for a reasonable price.
  8. Olentzero
    Olentzero - 23rd December 2011, 08:08
    And then there is his collected works in Russian, all 27 volumes of it, much of it still not translated into English...
    How easy/difficult is it to find that? I've heard of its existence, but never been able to track a set down, even in a library...