Leon Trotsky aka Lev Davidovich

Karl Marx and Max Weber were influential sociologists that paved the way for modern sociological school of thought. Both, Karl Marx and Max Weber contributed a lot to the study and foundation of sociology. Without their contributions sociology would not be as prominent as it is today. From the contribution of how sociology should be studied, to how they applied their theories to everyday life has influenced many sociologists. Predominantly, both of these theorists’ discussed the effects of capitalism, how it has developed, shaped and changed society into what it is today. Specifically, Karl Marx’s contribution of the bourgeoisie vs. the proletariat class and Max Weber’s social stratification has helped individuals to understand how modern day society has transformed into what it is today. Particularly, this paper will lie out Weber’s theory of social stratification and Marx’s theory of the bourgeoisie vs. the proletariat class; additionally this essay will also compare and contrast the ideas of these two influential sociologists. Finally this essay will criticize both of these sociologists’ theories and display that Marx and Weber do not explain how modern day society and classes have been formed.

Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany in 1818. He came from a middle-class German-Jewish background. He attended first the University of Bonn, and later the University of Berlin. At the University of Berlin he was linked to the Young Hegelians. The Young Hegelians was a group that criticized

In 1949 china was under the expression of a communist state. The regime of china was set up in similarity to the regime of Vladimir Lenin in the Soviet Union. Mao Zedong was part of the communist party. He followed the vision of Karl Marx, by envisioning a society under his regime that all shared equal prosperity and communism. In order to bring this vision to reality, he wanted to eliminate all capitalism and its emphasis on property rights, profits, and free-market competition. In the 1950’s in the rural of china, Mao banned free markets, which involved peasants selling farm products. However the trade of capitalism still existed through the private enterprise of remnants. Mao was dissatisfied with the outcomes towards an economy of Marxism. So he strived for a stronger approach by coming up with the Great Leap Forward. However, after the intense economic development that china had suffered from the great leap forward, it left millions of individuals throughout china suffering from the masses and deaths from the collapse of the food system. Because of the major consequences that were suffered from this approach it was unable to be left unnoticed. So, in 1960 after Moa Zedong declined all responsibility towards the disaster from the Great Leap Forward, Lui Shao-chi and Deng Xiaoping were left to rectify and administer the crisis. However, their attempt to repair the economic damages towards china, only led to the reverse of Mao’s earlier policies. That were

Oskar Schindler was born on April 28, 1908 in Zwittau, Czechoslovakia. He grew up in the Sudetenland which was a part of Czechoslovakia that was mainly German. He married his wife Emilie in 1928. This caused a flaw in his relationship with his father. This caused Schindler to move Jobs ("Oskar Schindler").

     December 21, 1879 in Georgia, Joseph Stalin is born. Around the time of Stalin’s birth Georgia was not the best place to be. They were at a miserable level of poverty, there was no industry, and they had a 75% illiteracy rate and an increasing crime rate. Stalin was born to peasants. Both of his parents were illiterate and were born as serfs. His father was a rough, violent drunk who beat his wife and child, and found it hard to make a living. He

Stalin was very harsh and strict about his rules as a leader. He went too far when anyone who didn’t agree with his rules were sent away to Siberian ¨work¨ camps, and for the Ukrainians who wouldn't give up their farms they got all of their crops confiscated. Causing the starvation of 10 million Ukrainian people. When the depression hit Japanese exports to the USA and Europe stopped because they had to focus on their own industries. That cost a lot of jobs in Japan, silk farmers suffered and the rice crops also failed and caused famine. People became frustrated and started to blame the government.They were angry and needed to do something about it. Japan went too far when they invaded Manchuria in 1931. Hitler was a very powerful influential

• The Government did not have enough money to continue the war. With poor equipment, a lack of food and medicine, and epidemics

Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin was born December 18, 1878, he was in office May 6, 1941 to March 5, 1953 and he grew up in Gori, Georgia. Stalin grew up very poor and he had no siblings. Stalin's father was an abusive shoe maker and his mom was a laundress. When stalin was young he caught smallpox which left

Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the "Union Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)." He was born on December 18, 1879 in the village Gori, Georgia. His real name is Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili but he later changed it to Joseph Stalin. He was a smart kid that achieved good in school and he got a scholarship to "Tiflis Theological Seminary "in 1894. A year later he got in touch with Messame Dassy which is a secret organization that supported the independence in Georgia from Russia. Some of the workers in the organization where communists and they introduced him to Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, In 1898 he joined this organization and he also joined "Social Democratic Labor Party" and worked for the "revolutionary movement" in 1901. In 1902 he was

Joseph Stalin was born on December 18, 1878 in Gori, Georgia. Initially his family was very prosperous but then his father became an alcoholic. This led to his father’s business failing and becoming violently abusive. They moved 9 times before Stalin was the age of 10. Stalin’s mother enrolled him into a Greek- Orthodox priesthood school against his father’s wishes. When his father found outabout this he went on a drunken rampage and assaulted the town’s police chief. He was arrested andthrown out of Gori leaving his family behind. At the age of 15 Stalin was offered a scholarship to the Orthodox Seminary of Tiflis, Georgia. He was caught with materials that were banned at the school such as Marxist writings. In 1899 just before final exams the seminary raised tuition prices. Unable to pay Stalin quit the seminary. After quitting school he discovered the writings of Vladimir Lenin, a Marxist revolutionary.

On December 18, 1878 Josef Stalin was born. His family lived in a town named Gori “Georgia” in Russia. Stalin’s childhood was very rough, unstable and his living situation was poor. Stalin was the only child and was not taken care of properly. Stalin’s father was abusive and an alcoholic. His father’s occupation was a cobbler (shoemaker). Stalin’s mother was a laundress. As for Stalin though, he suffered cruel and verbal abuse from other children. During his childhood he dreamed of gaining respect and greatness. When Stalin was a teen, Stalin’s mother imagined him as a priest. Stalin was given a scholarship to attend the Georgian Orthodox Church, which did not last long because he was kicked out. After that, Stalin chose to be an underground political agitator, who was known to rebel and have strikes. Stalin later joined the Bolshevik party. The Bolshevik party caused Stalin to commit crimes such as kidnapping, extortion and

Mikhail was born on November 10, 1919 in Kurya, Kuriynsky District Russia. Kalashnikov grew up in a large peasant family. Since, he was the 17th out of 19th children he had to go hunt with his father to help feed the family. In 1930, all

Trotsky was internally exiled to Alma Ata in Kazakhstan on January 31, 1928, and following his expulsion from the Soviet Union, he was deported to Turkey (Germany refused to take him) with his wife and son in February 1929. With Trotsky gone, his supporters began to fall off and surrender to Stalin, who had them reinstated into the Communist Party (though most would later be executed in the Great Purges). His first station during exile was at Büyükada, near Constantinople. Trotsky stayed there four years, despite the large number of former anti-revolutionary (White Army) citizens in the city. Trotsky had bodyguards in the form of volunteering European supporters. The French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier offered Trotsky asylum in 1933. Trotsky then lived with his family and bodyguards at Royan, then at Barbizon, and through secret entry into Paris (he was not allowed there, officially), he was able to meet with various political European allies. In 1935, Trotsky moved to Norway following a rescinding of his French asylum. He then lived with a friend (Konrad Knudsen) near Oslo, and then was transferred to a farm in Hurum on September 2, 1936, where he was placed under house arrest. Towards the end of 1936, Trotsky was deported to Mexico, receiving a personal welcome from Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas. He lived in Mexico City with Diego Rivera, a painter, and his wife, Frida Kahlo, with whom he had an affair. Trotsky

Joseph Stalin was born on December 21, 1879, originally named Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. He was born in a village known as Gori in the Russian province of Georgia. His father was a shoemaker, and a drunk. He left Gori when Stalin was young to find work in the city of Tiflis. With his father gone, Joseph's mother, Yekaterina, made the biggest impact on his life--it was she who led him in his education. Joseph started out at the local Gori Church School. After attending there, he went to the Tiflis Theological Seminary on a scholarship. Joseph’s mother hoped that at this school, he would learn to become a priest. Instead, Stalin became a devoted advocate for Marxist revolution.

Both Karl Marx and Max Weber assert that capitalism is the dominion of abstractions and the irrational accumulation of abstract wealth for the sake of wealth. For Marx, the state of capitalism is entrenched in the social classes to which people have bben assigned. Capitalism, according to Marx, is a result of the bourgeoisie 's ascent to economic and political power. This fuels the manifestation of a system that exploits the labour power of the lower socioeconomic classes for the gain of the higher socioeconomic classes. Weber understands the state of capitalism to be the end product of the work ethic of the Protestant branches of Christianity and the secularization of Protestant puritanism, which helped fuel rationalism. Capitalism, according to Weber, is to be understood as the relations and methods of production and commodities, now rationalized. Ultimately, Marx ascribes the ascent of capitalism to the exploitation of people and power, while stressing that such a system can be overcome by a communist revolution, whereas Weber states that such a system is the result of cultural choices and is not as convinced that capitalism can be overcome.