[DEBORD].- R., Bruno [Bruno Rizzi], The Bureaucratization... - Lot 666 - Les ventes Damien Voglaire SRL

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[DEBORD].- R., Bruno [Bruno Rizzi], The Bureaucratization... - Lot 666 - Les ventes Damien Voglaire SRL
[DEBORD].- R., Bruno [Bruno Rizzi], The Bureaucratization of the World. Bureaucratic Collectivism. Quo vadis América? Paris, L'Auteur (on deposit at Messageries Hachette), 1939, in-12, 350 pages, br. with a few annotations in pencil on the inside pages (cover slightly browned, spine pitted). First edition printed at 500 copies. Bruno Rizzi (1901-1977) was an Italian revolutionary activist. After having participated in the foundation of the Communist Party of Italy, he left it in 1930 on the basis of criticisms close to those of Trotsky. Having taken refuge in France, he took part in the debates that ran through the communist opposition to Stalinism. During these years, he developed an unparalleled thought process that he presented in 1939 in a book entitled "The Bureaucratization of the World". Published on a self-publishing basis, its distribution was soon prevented by the Nazi occupation. This explains in part why Guy Debord called it "the most unknown book of the century" when it was partially republished in 1976 by Gérard Lebovici at Champ Libre. But for Debord it is not the weakness of the edition and the time when it appeared that explain alone its "disappearance" it is also and especially that among the rare holders of the work, many are those who plundered and disguised it. Among these are the founders of Socialisme ou Barbarie and James Burnham, ex-Trotskyites who have become a major reference of the neo-conservative current. "The Bureaucratization of the World" is not only the "most unknown book of the century" but also, according to the philosopher Donald Clark Hodges, "one of the most controversial of the twentieth century". An exceedingly rare book which Debord noted in 1976 was not in the collections of the BNF. The BNF was quick to acquire it. It can be consulted there, as well as at La Contemporaine (ex-BDIC), on microfilm. But many national libraries only have the partial 1976 reprint, as is the case at the Royal Library of Belgium. Moreover, we have not found any trace of a previous passage in auction rooms.
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