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From The New International, Vol. XVI No. 3, May–June 1950, p. 191.
Transcribed by & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
If Comrade Berg has received the impression from my review of Guérin’s work that I do not consider it of great merit or value, then he has indeed correctly understood my opinion. The sectarian and mechanically contrived approach of Guérin, to which the review called primary attention, hardly constitutes “a very small item in the book.” The two volumes of the work are completely permeated with this, both in form and content, as anyone can easily see for himself by examining the table of contents alone. That Guérin did much original research work in uncovering material about the left wing of the French Revolution is undeniable and I thought this had been acknowledged. But even this work is ruined by the use Guérin attempts to make of it in bolstering up his sectarian hypothesis. Marxian historical writing is not devoted to stale scholarship, as Guérin would be the first to insist. Guérin attempts to use his “facts” in his running two volume polemic against Robespierre. But he does not succeed, because everything is out of balance.
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Last updated: 19 October 2018