Rosa Luxemburg was among the last of the truly international revolutionaries, owing her civil allegiance to the proletariat of all countries and to the governments of none. For the first time she has found a biographer with the skill as well as the will to accept her multinational existence as the principle of his research. -- Carl E. Schorske * American Historical Review *
The definitive biography in the English style-lengthy, thoroughly documented, heavily annotated, and generously splashed with quotations-is among the most admirable genres of historiography, and it was a stroke of genius on the part of J. P. Nettl to choose the life of Rosa Luxemburg, the most unlikely candidate, as a proper subject. The ease with which Nettl handles his biographical material is astounding. His treatment is more than perceptive. His is the first plausible portrait of this extraordinary woman, drawn con amore, with tact and great delicacy. A splendid work. -- Hannah Arendt * New York Review of Books *
This work is clearly a labor of love. Aside from reading widely in published sources, Nettl sought out people who had information about Rosa Luxemburg, and he ransacked the archives in Warsaw, East Germany, Bonn, Amsterdam and Israel in the preparation of his study. It is hard to imagine that he missed anything of consequence relating to his heroine, who in her time,he believes, attracted more people to revolutionary Marxism than any other socialist leader. A thoughtful and imaginative writer with a strong analytical bent, Nettl raises many interesting problems. Nettl's work is extremely impressive and by far the most thorough and penetrating biography of Luxemburg -- Abraham Ascher * Problems of Communism *
With Rosa Luxemburg J.P. Nettl emerges as one of the outstanding scholars on the history of European socialism. While the 827 pages of the main body of his study are incisively focused on the life of his subject, the many-sided career of this woman challenges her biographer to become an expert in the evolution of Marxist theory, the German, Polish, and Russian socialist movements, and the Second International. Nettl has met this challenge with diligence and force. The extended and generally excellent treatment of intellectual biography in Rosa Luxemburg is accompanied by lively and perceptive personal narrative. One cannot leave these volumes without a vivid sense of her forceful character. -- Robert H. McNeal * Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/ Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique *
J. P. Nettl's work reveals his profound knowledge of Marxist theory and socialist history, and admirable command of his sources, and sincere, though not blind, admiration for his subject. The result is an important and long overdue study which goes far toward presenting Rosa Luxemburg in a light that does justice to her work and person. In retelling the story, Nettl's account is more balanced, searching, and thorough than all earlier biographies of Luxemburg. The study may well arouse controversies in many quarters, but it will not soon be superseded. -- Werner T. Angress * Journal of Modern History *
An original and provocative, and never boring biography of one of the leading figures of international socialism. -- F. L. Carsten * Slavonic and East European Review *
Nettl has given a clearer description of Luxemburg's personality, and has overcome what her sentimental German friends regarded as a dichotomy between her personal and political lives. Nettl clearly brings out the link between her humanism and her revolutionary ideology. The portraits of her colleagues and opponents are also well drawn, as well as Luxemburg's relations with them; the close relationship between her political and personal friendships is clearly shown. -- J. K. Eaton * Political Quarterly *
A remarkable woman about whom J. P. Nettl has written a remarkable book. -- Eric Hobsbawm * Economic History Quarterly *
These volumes are less a biography of a person than an analysis of the revolutionary movements which helped to shape modern European history. Refreshingly free of the obscurantism of contemporary social science, the author nevertheless provides analysis in depth of the political sociology as well as the ideological foundations of modern Socialist-Communist movements. The author of these volumes, however objective he may be, is not neutral in his judgment of Rosa Luxemburg. His manifest admiration for her is obvious but has not impaired his scholarship or his judgment as a scholar. -- Peter H. Odegard * Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science *
In a massive work that supersedes all previous studies of the subject, J.P. Nettl has fulfilled his intention of providing a fairly complete picture of Rosa Luxemburg as a living and active person in both her private and political life. Impressive research in both published sources and archival collections gives this book an unmistakable solidity, and yet it is written in the main with zest and sophistication. He has succeeded magnificently in conveying the incandescent quality of Rosa Luxemburg's personality. And if the reader should chance not to share Mr. Nettl's obsession, he can hardly fail to be attracted by this vital, courageous, agile-minded, freedom-loving woman, to be moved by her heroism in life and her martyr's death. -- Samuel H. Baron * Russian Review *
Nettl's book is far more than a biography, and reveals, through Luxemburg's life and work, a whole historical period which, far belonging to the irrevocable past, still determines the present and future. Although these events and movements have been dealt with in numerous other books, seldom have they been treated in such close connection with the particular ideas and activities of Rosa Luxemburg. And as regards her work in the Polish social-democratic movement, which fills about half the book, as it filled half of Rosa Luxemburg's life and interests, very little of this has been related previously. This alone gives Nettl's book a special importance and a definite place in the literature of Marxism. -- Paul Mattick * Science & Society *
If Rosa Luxemburg deserves a monument, she has it in the book under review. Among several monographs on contemporary socialist leaders published in recent years, this stands out for its completeness. There is hardly an aspect in the life of Red Rosa that has not been mentioned, elucidated, and interpreted by the author. Moreover, he brings into focus events, figures, and problems connected with the biography of his heroine. And since Luxemburg cast her lot with German and Polish and, to a certain extent, Russian socialist movements and with the Second International, he has made a contribution to the history of the Social Democratic parties in Central and Eastern Europe between the end of 1890 and 1918-19. Nettl's biography of Rosa Luxemburg is an impressive achievement and deserves the attention of everybody interested in the history of the Socialist movement. -- Boris Sapir * Slavic Review *
Nettl's book is the first thorough and scholarly attempt to do justice to this amazing and dramatic career. Thoroughly readable. It would be difficult to think of another work of this magnitude in this difficult and controversial field which has so brilliantly justified itself or preserved so fair and even a balance between sympathy and criticism. * Times Literary Supplement *
Excellent * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *
