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Jacques de Kadt (30 July 1897, Oss - 16 April 1988, Santpoort) was a prominent and often controversial 20th Century Dutch political thinker, politician and man of letters. Events 1419 - First Defenestration of Prague. 1502 - Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off Year 1897 ( MDCCCXCVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common For the Icelandic Óss rune see Aesir. See also OSS. Oss ( is a Municipality and a City in the southern Events 1178 BC - A Solar eclipse may have marked the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, to his kingdom Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) Velsen ( is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Born into a liberal Jewish family, he was the youngest son of a factory manager, Roelof de Kadt, and his wife Bertha Koppens. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Author of numerous books and articles, his most important and influential work was, arguably, his remarkably prescient book Het fascisme en de nieuwe vrijheid (Fascism and the New Freedom) which was published in 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

Contents

Early career

De Kadt's early political career was shaped, in part, by the influence of Rosa Luxemburg. Rosa Luxemburg (Róża Luksemburg 5 March 1870 or 1871 15 January 1919 was a Polish-born Jewish German Marxist theorist, socialist He joined the Dutch Communist Party, soon only to become disenchanted with it and, especially, with the political developments in the Soviet Union. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 In consequence, he left the Communist Party of Holland in 1924. The Communist Party of the Netherlands ( Dutch: Communistische Partij Nederland, CPN was a Dutch communist Political party. He subsequently chronicled his embrace of, and break with, Communism in the first volume of his autobiography, Uit mijn communistentijd, published in Amsterdam in 1965 by his loyal publisher, G. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based A. van Oorschot. De Kadt developed into a trenchant and increasingly uncompromising critic of Stalinism, and articulated an independent line of socialist thought and political practice. Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 This was expressed both in the content of his first major book, From Tsarism to Stalinism published in 1935 in Antwerp,and in his pivotal role in the formation of the Independent Socialist Party (Netherlands) (OSP). Independent Socialist Party (in Dutch Onafhankelijke Socialistische Partij; OSP was a revolutionary socialist Political party in the Netherlands The book, which identified a continuity between the character of the Tsarist state and the Soviet political system under Stalin, contained an intimation of de Kadt's broader critique of twentieth century totalitarianism - a critique which was to define the nature of his subsequent political career. Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a concept used to describe Political systems where a State regulates nearly every aspect of public and private

Fascism

The 1930s marked a significant period in the maturation of de Kadt's thought. He published widely on the major political developments of the time as well as on cultural, literary and philosophical topics. His writings addressed not only the threat posed by Fascism and Stalinism but included a major study of Georges Sorel, and numerous articles on notable (and not so well known) political and literary figures. Fascism is a totalitarian nationalist and corporatist ideology Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 Georges Eugène Sorel ( 2 November, 1847 &ndash 29 August, 1922) was a French Philosopher and theorist of Revolutionary de Kadt was a prodigiously productive - if often acerbic and polemical - writer who, at his best, was a writer of great elegance and style. Bart Tromp, an editor of a posthumously published collection of essays, referred to him as 'an Orwell of Oss'. [1] De Kadt's analysis of Fascism, in what was arguably his finest book, was uncannily perceptive and prescient and stands to this day as one of the truly outstanding accounts. [2] In this book, de Kadt predicts the coming of the Second World War, the ultimate defeat of Fascism and the emergence of the United States of America and the Soviet Union as the dominant global powers. Beyond the predictively accurate analysis of Fascism and its limitations, the book contains a normative defence of 'western civilization' and its scientific underpinning - perhaps best expressed by Max Eastman's notion of 'affirmative scepticism'. Max Forrester Eastman ( January 4, 1883 &ndash March 25, 1969) was a Socialist and (late in his life Libertarian American [3] The book served as one source of inspiration for H. Floris Cohen's masterful 1994 historiographical exploration of the 'scientific revolution'. [4]

Parliamentary career

De Kadt was a Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid) member of the Dutch parliament from 1948 to 1963. He served for many years as the party's principal spokesman on foreign affairs, though his outspoken stance on Indonesian independence (of which he was a vigorous early protagonist) and his sharp, unqualified, opposition to Stalinism and the Soviet system ruled him out as a contender for the Ministerial position that was held by Joseph Luns. De Kadt was a regular radio commentator during these years. His contribution to Dutch public life and service was recognized in 1959 when he was awarded a knighthood, becoming a Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion. The Order of the Netherlands Lion (De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw is an order of the Netherlands which was first created on 29 September 1815 by the De Kadt left the Labour Party in 1970, having become disillusioned with its drift, as he saw it, in the direction of the "New Left" which he saw as dangerous to the West and its liberal democratic political tradition.

Bibliographical references

Havenaar, R. (1990)De tocht naar het onbekende - Het politieke denken van Jacques de Kadt

Pels, D. (1993) Het democratisch verschil. Jacques de Kadt en de nieuwe elite

Cohen, H. Floris (1994)The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry,Chicago, Chicago University Press

References

  1. ^ J. de Kadt, De deftigheid in het gedrang: Een keuze uit zijn verspreide geschriften, Amsterdam, van Oorschot, 1991 , p. 7 . . .
  2. ^ J. de Kadt, Het fascisme en de nieuwe vrijheid.
  3. ^ See H. Floris Cohen, The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry, 1994, Chicago, Chicago University Press, p. 4
  4. ^ H. Floris Cohen, The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry, 1994, Chicago, Chicago University Press, p. 4

External links

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