Marx Myths & Legends

Terrell Carver

Marx’s ‘Illegitimate Son’... or Gresham’s Law in the World of Scholarship

Terrell's contribution to Marx Myths and Legends goes to the disputed claim that Marx fathered an illegitimate son with the family's servant Helene Demuth. Terrell's work on this dispute draws on a life-time's study of the character and lives of all the figures in the life of Marx and his family and an impressive record of scholarship.

Source: “Marx’s ‘Illegitimate Son’... or Gresham’s Law in the World of Scholarship” was written for “Marx Myths and Legends” by Terrell Carver, University of Bristol in February 2005, and rights remain with the author, as per Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Licence 2.0.


Biographical information

Born in the US in 1946, Terrell has taught at Bristol University since 1980 where he is currently Professor of Political Theory and is a member of the Editorial Commission for the Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe. As well as expertise in Marx and Marxism, Terrell has recently been studying feminist theory and theories of masculinity and the relation between European and Japanese political theory. One of Terrell's interests has been to understand the exact roles played by Karl Marx on one hand and Frederick Engels on the other in the formation of the Marxist canon.
Terrell has translated Marx and Engels, edited the Cambridge Companion to Marx and Palgrave's forthcoming Advances in Continental Political Thought, and authored A Short Introduction to Engels (2003), The Postmodern Marx (1999), Marx's Social Theory (1983) Gender is not a Synonym for Women (1996) and many others.

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