Book Review: ‘Rosa Luxemburg’

‘Rosa Luxemburg’. By Wendy Forrest. (Hamish Hamilton. £6.99)

New on the shelves of the children’s section in the local public library, one of a series “In Her Own Time”, is this book on Rosa Luxemburg. Contrary to the perceived correct behaviour for women of her time, Luxemburg did not wait at home for a husband and children to look after, but campaigned for socialism, was imprisoned and finally murdered. The book is a breath of sanity among the usual mind-bending and cobwebbed Never Never Land found on children’s bookshelves. It is especially encouraging to see children introduced to Luxemburg’s definition of the cause of war, so relevant today: “The fight against militarism cannot be separated from the socialist class war as a whole . . . Wars between capitalist states are as a rule the result of their rivalry for world markets . . . Wars are therefore inherent in the nature of capitalism; they will only cease when capitalism is abolished”.

Eva Goodman