Thomas Sowell's book on Marxism....

[RadioRaheem84]

Thomas Sowell, the right wing Uncle Tom of the libertarian movement, wrote a book a while back simply titled Marxism, that I didn't even notice I had on my shelf . I began reading it and was surprised at how concise Sowell explains Marx's writings in an objective manner (or at least how objective a right winger can be). Of course for anyone who know a little about Marx's writings can see the obvious subtle interjections of libertarian critique in some of the pages, but all in all, the book is not that bad in explaining Marxist doctrine. It's only when you get to the end that Sowell dedicates the last chapter to his critique of Marxist thought. And of course, it's a mish mash of the typical critiques of Stalinism and the way the Soviet Union ran, etc. It was actually wonderful in how Sowell cemented my belief in Marxism and I was relieved in how weak his arguments against it were! It should be refreshing to anyone in how the libertarian mindset revolves around this "statist" presupposition to anything Marxist.

How ironic that a libertarian convinced me of Marxism, eh? I wouldn't recommend this book to someone very fresh to the ideas of Marx, but to someone in between. It's really good if you can jump over the obvious attempt to subtly interject libertarian ideas into the examination. I know it's wild of me to recommend a libertarian book in a Marxist forum but trust me it's an ironic thing that happens once in a blue moon. It's a testament to Marxism in general.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Forgive me, but it can't be all that good if his explanation of Marxism doesn't already rule out, say, Stalinism as Marxist.

This book does not make that mistake:

http://www.istendency.net/pdf/revideas.pdf

[RadioRaheem84]

Well I meant that it dives off into the whole premise that Marx's ideas lead to Stalinism and uses the Soviet Union as an example. Most of the time he uses any nation that has a planned economy (planned in the "leftist" sense) as Marxist and ultimately erroneous.

For instance, Sowell says that it was his time working at the post office or some government job I believe in the United States that had him question his Marxist beliefs, i.e. statist beliefs. :lol:

[black_tambourine]

I had a similar reaction to Leszek Kolakowski's Main Currents on Marxism, which was my first exposure to Marx's thought. The first volume where he goes over Marxism in depth is epic, and his criticism of the theory in the subsequent volumes just seems fallacious and even juvenile.