Comments on: Not loyal to the king…

By: Ken MacLeod

Ken MacLeod — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 16:59:04 +0000

I’m no Marx scholar, but I’ve read a few biographies, and Wheen’s biography seems sound on the facts and defensible on the interpretations. It quotes the sentence queried above as: ‘He has not been loyal to his own King and Country.’ (p 356 of the 1999 hardback edition.)

By: Another Damned Medievalist

Another Damned Medievalist — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 22:36:48 +0000

More importantly, I’ve heard ol’ Karl was a Gooner …

By: rea

rea — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 00:52:16 +0000

“The King of Prussia? Seems a little odd to bring that up” Particularly as, by 1874, the King of Prussia was more usually known as the Emperor of Germany . . .

By: Tom Runnacles

Tom Runnacles — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 18:53:57 +0000

I’d like to echo andrew here: I too raced through Wheen’s Marx book but often wondered, precisely because it was so entertaining, whether he was terribly reliable. Judging from his journalism FW is definitely a very funny and clever guy, but it’d be handy if an echt Marx scholar could give some indication about the man’s accuracy as a biographer.

By: ajay

ajay — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 17:23:03 +0000

The King of Prussia? Seems a little odd to bring that up in what was, after all, a comment on his suitability for British citizenship – would fervent Prussian loyalty make him a better potential British subject? – but maybe the reasoning was “he’s already been disloyal to one monarch, how do we know he’ll be loyal to another?” I think all this goes to prove is that the immigration and asylum business in 1870s Britain was no more logically-driven than it is in 2000s Britain.

By: Matt McGrattan

Matt McGrattan — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 16:37:03 +0000

Does seem odd. I’d have expected, if they were using some kind of gender-neutral form, that it’d read: “has not been loyal to the Crown”

By: david

david — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 16:34:52 +0000

The new Wheen book is sub-mediocre, but that won’t keep me from someday remembering to check the Marx book out of the library.

By: Motoko

Motoko — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 16:25:09 +0000

The quote is from 1874…

By: dave heasman

dave heasman — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 16:20:54 +0000

This seems odd. If the wikipedia is correct, then Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) unless he came to England before 1839, which King were the Metropolitan Police thinking of? King Victoria?

By: rob

rob — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 14:48:26 +0000

‘How mumbo-jumbo conquered the world’

By: rob

rob — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 14:45:59 +0000

I liked Wheen’s biography, although I have no idea how accurate it is, since I am by no means an expert on Marx. I forget the name of his new book, but it’s supposed to be rather good as well.

By: andrew

andrew — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 14:27:55 +0000

Perhaps it’s already been discussed here (?), but what do folks make of Francis Wheen’s 1999 biography of Marx? Eagleton ate that shit up, and I must confess, so did I. Front to back in a matter of days. Hadn’t expected such a page-turner (which I normally hate).