BOOK REVIEW. ‟PLANTE EXOTICE. TEORIA ȘI PRACTICA MARXIȘTILOR ROMÂNI” [EXOTIC PLANTS. THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE ROMANIAN MARXISTS] BY ALEX CISTELECAN AND ANDREI STATE (EDS.). CLUJ-NAPOCA: TACT PUBLISHING HOUSE, 2015, 357 PAGES / SOCIOLOGIA ISTORICĂ A LUI HENRI H. STAHL [THE HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY OF HENRY H. STAHL] BY ȘTEFAN GUGA. CLUJ-NAPOCA: TACT PUBLISHING HOUSE, 2015, 387 PAGES

Abstract

In 2015, Tact, a Romanian publishing house, published two books that engage with the history of 20^th century Romanian Marxist thought: an edited volume on the theory and practice of Romanian Marxist theorists, coordinated by Alex Cistelecan and Andrei State, and a book on the historical sociology of Henri H. Stahl by Ștefan Guga. In the local context, the project of intellectual engagement with Romanian Marxist thought is not a mere analytical effort. The exercise of the authors, as well as that of the publisher, is also a performative gesture aiming to disrupt what they see as a dominant post-1989 taken-for-granted in the social sciences: relating to Marxism through the condemnation of communism. It is a constitutive gesture to simultaneously establish intellectual predecessors and open up a debate on local applications of Marxist social theory within the small but growing intellectual new left in Romania.