An important contribution to our understanding of twentieth-century MarxismDuring the first decades of the twentieth century, Rosa Luxemburg was the leader of the workers’ movement in Poland and Germany. She made a remarkable contribution to socialist theory and practice, yet her legacy remains in dispute. In this book Norman Geras interrogates and refutes the myths that have developed around her work. She was an opponent of socialist participation in the First World War and, as Geras shows, her views on socialist strategy in Russia were closer to Lenin’s than any other leader’s. Geras explores the development of Luxemburg’s critique in the period following the war and demonstrates how her thought is distinct from the social democratic or anarchist theories into which it is often subsumed. Geras brings new light to bear on one of the most misrepresented figures in radical history, illustrating her inspiring lack of complacency and her commitment to questioning those in authority on both the Right and the Left.
No great socialist thinker has been so often misrepresented as the Polish revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. In this scrupulous study, tightly argued, Geras systematically considers and refutes the major myths which have developed about her work. He shows how her views on socialist strategy in Russia were closer to those of Lenin than any other leader, and clarifies her famous theory of the mass strike. Her critique of the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution is distinguished from social-democratic or anarchist attacks, to which it has often been assimilated. Widely praised on its first publication, "The Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg" is an important contribution to our understanding of an earlier generation of Marxism in Poland and Russia.
“This is a useful and thoughtful book, in which the power and originality of Rosa Luxemburg’s thinking emerges.”
—E.H. Carr, Times Literary Supplement“Geras’s book is indispensable for a proper understanding of Luxemburg.”
—Books and Bookmen 
