3 - The Bourgeois Socialist

Summary

Chapter 3 analyzes the tension between his bourgeois upbringing and his socialist convictions. In his early twenties Tinbergen went through his most radical period in which his socialism was fostered within the social-democratic student clubs, the Workers Youth Movement (Arbeiders Jeugd Centrale, AJC), and the pacifist milieu. He sought to identify closely with the fate of the workers. Through Tinbergen’s review of the novel A Middle-Class Man (Der Bürger) by Leonhard Frank, about a bourgeois man who seeks to join the socialist struggle, the tensions in his life and work during this period are explored. The chapter details how Tinbergen tried to find his own role, and that of his fellow students, in the fight for socialism. This involved finding the right response to Marx, exploring modern approaches in economics, and identifying the way in which he could contribute most to the socialist cause. Initially, he believed this would mean becoming one with the workers and the workers’ movement, but within a few years Tinbergen distanced himself somewhat from these movements, and became convinced that modern scientific economics was the way forward.