The Young/Left Hegelians

[Zanthorus]

One thing that's always irked me about reading Marx and Engels, especially the early works like the Holy Family, is the references to various aspects of the Left-Hegelian milieu.

Does anyone have any good things to read on the Left-Hegelians and their relations to Marx and Engels?

A quick Google search came up with a guy called David McLellan who has a couple of articles on Libcom about the relationship between Bruno Bauer, Stirner and Marx. Reading through the Bauer article though he seemed to imply that Bauer was the source of Marx's critique of religion. But I've always thought that Feuerbach's contention that the truth of theology is anthropology was the decisive influence. Anyone know how legit this guy is?

[ComradeOm]

I vaguely recall Boris Nicolaievsky's biography of the man (Karl Marx: Man and Fighter) touching on Marx's student life and entry to the Young Hegelian Doktorklub. My Penguin edition of the Manifesto also contains an introduction that sketches Marx's philosophical evolution (Bauer was definitely involved). Unfortunately I don't have them on hand but you might try Google Books

[S.Artesian]

One thing that's always irked me about reading Marx and Engels, especially the early works like the Holy Family, is the references to various aspects of the Left-Hegelian milieu.

Does anyone have any good things to read on the Left-Hegelians and their relations to Marx and Engels?

A quick Google search came up with a guy called David McLellan who has a couple of articles on Libcom about the relationship between Bruno Bauer, Stirner and Marx. Reading through the Bauer article though he seemed to imply that Bauer was the source of Marx's critique of religion. But I've always thought that Feuerbach's contention that the truth of theology is anthropology was the decisive influence. Anyone know how legit this guy is?


I think, based on my ever more spotty memory, that McLellan has some pretty good credentials in the analysis of the Hegel-Marx connection. I recall he wrote things on the "young Marx" and he may also have done translation of the Grundrisse.

The Bauer and religion critique rings a bell, but I'm not sure if it is that McLellan's argument was right, or was seriously contested by others.