Something known as “Marxism-Leninism” has animated much of the world and terrified what seems like the rest of it since 1917. For much of the 20th century it was personified by Stalin and Mao Tse-tung, along with a rather varied crowd of others. Marxism-Leninism presumably represents a view of history and the nature of the human species: that is, it involves hypotheses, theories and doctrines. Notably, however, most who supported it and most who resisted it were usually quite vague about its substance. They continue to be. In this course we will attempt to get a better understanding of both Marx and Lenin and, thereby, Stalin, Mao, and the others. Then we might attempt to evaluate whether a combination of their ideas makes any sense.
