Karl Marx's materialistic conception of history claimed to account for the past, confidently predicted the future, and made history itself. In analyzing the Marxian theory of social evolution, M. M. Bober closely examines the writings of Marx and his friend, Friedrich Engels, tracing the formulation of the doctrine in Capital, The Poverty of Philosophy, Civil War in France, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, The Communist Manifesto, and other of their voluminous publications. By careful, objective investigation, the author is able to present an accurate interpretation of Marx's economic and historical concepts, and he evaluates the theory in the light of actual historical development.
In the extensive revision of his authoritative study, Bober has taken full account of developments since its first publication. Unknown writings by Marx and Engels recently have been discovered; new voices have been raised in defense of and against Marxian concepts; and economic theory has changed, with the problems of the business cycle and economic calculation assuming greater prominence. Bober's critical analysis of Marx and of his influence make a valuable and timely book, of interest not merely to scholars but also to everyone who is stirred to serious reading by the present conflict of political ideologies.
In 1913 Charlie Birger began his career as a bootlegger, supplying southern Illinois with whiskey and beer. He was charismatic, with an easygoing manner and a cavalier generosity that made him popular. The stuff of legend, he was part monster, part Robin Hood. In the early days, he would emerge from his restaurant/saloon in tiny Ledford in Saline County with a cigar box full of coins and throw handfuls in the air for the children. Echoing the consensus on Birger, an anonymous gang member called him "enigmatic," noting that "he had a wonderful quality, a heart of gold. There in Harrisburg sometimes he'd support twelve or fifteen families, buy coal, groceries. . . . [But] he had cold eyes, a killer's eyes. He would kill you for something somebody else would punch you in the nose for."
Drawing from the colorful cast of the living, the dead, and the soon-to-be-dead—a state shared by many associated with Birger and his enemies, the Shelton gang—DeNeal re-creates Prohibition-era southern Illinois. He depicts the fatal shootout between S. Glenn Young and Ora Thomas, the battle on the Herrin Masonic Temple lawn in which six were slain and the Ku Klux Klan crushed, and the wounding of Williamson County state's attorney Arlie O. Boswell. As the gang wars escalated and the roster of corpses lengthened, the gangsters embraced technology. The Sheltons bombed Birger's roadhouse, Shady Rest, from a single-engine airplane. Both Birger and the Sheltons used armored vehicles to intimidate their enemies, and the chatter of machine gun fire grew common.
The gang wars ended with massive arrests, trials, and convictions of gangsters who once had seemed invincible. Charlie Birger was convicted of the murder of West City mayor Joe Adams and sentenced to death. On April 19, 1928, he stood on the gallows looking down on the large crowd that had come to see him die. "It's a beautiful world," Birger said softly as he prepared to leave it.
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