Henryk Grossman, a Marxist activist and theorist: on the 50th anniversary of his death

Abstract

Some of Henryk Grossman’s contributions to Marxist economic theory are familiar. Ignorance and misinformation about his life has accompanied and sometimes underpinned widespread criticism of his account of economic crises and neglect of his other work. Grossman’s life and work before he moved to Frankfurt am Main in 1925 and wrote his best known publications are therefore outlined, highlighting his deep and active involvement in the Jewish social democratic movement in Galicia before and in the Polish Communist movement after the First World War. This is a modified version of an essay originally published in Paul Zarembka (ed.) Value, capitalist dynamics and money, Research in political economy 18 2000, Elsevier Science, Amsterdam 2000 pp. 111-162. RPE web sites: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka/homepage.htm, www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookseriesdescription.cws_home/BS_RPE/description