Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution by Hal Draper

[Caj]

I was wondering if Hal Draper's Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution would be a good introduction to Marxist thought. Would the writing be understandable to someone who has read little of Marx's or Engel's actual works? (I've read The Communist Manifesto, Engel's Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy, and The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844) If it would be a good introduction, which volume would you recommend reading first? Volume 1?

[Broletariat]

For understanding Marx, I recommend reading Marx and asking questions.

Marx tends to be interpreted in various different ways, so its best to just go straight to the source.

[Rooster]

If you can get it cheap then sure, why not? Draper is a no-bullshit writer so it should be pretty easy to follow.

I was recommend a book called Marx in his own Words written by Ernst Fischer. I haven't read it but I ordered it (still waiting) for really cheap. Anyway, I think it's sections of Marx with Fischer's own take on it in plain language going through some main themes. At least, that's how it was sold to me.

You can read some of Draoer's stuff here: http://marxists.org/archive/draper/index.htm

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

An interesting guy, Ernst Fischer. He was on the left of the Austro-Marxist Social-Democratic party structure in Vienna and switched to the KPO in 1934 when the fascists took over. Very much involved with cultural issues - I've been going through some of his early writings about psychoanalysis.

[Hit The North]

I would recommend Draper for being - as rooster puts it - a "no bullshit writer". He writes in the clear style of the best Marxist activists (Lenin, Trotsky, Cliff, for example), always writes from the point of view of revolution from below and, I would suggest, he is a trusted (if fallible) interpreter of Marx's ideas.

[eyeheartlenin]

I second Rooster's endorsement of Hal Draper's work. When I was in Solidarity (briefly), the other Solidarity comrade and I read the first volume of Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution, and it was great. As Draper relates, Marx began his career by attacking state censorship -- tremendous! The second volume of Draper's work, on Bonapartism, is also good, as I remember.

I wish you all the best in your endeavor!

[A Marxist Historian]

I would recommend Draper for being - as rooster puts it - a "no bullshit writer". He writes in the clear style of the best Marxist activists (Lenin, Trotsky, Cliff, for example), always writes from the point of view of revolution from below and, I would suggest, he is a trusted (if fallible) interpreter of Marx's ideas.

He writes very well (a lot better than Tony Cliff!), and much of it is a great book.

However, he is basically a Social Democrat, and large swatches of the book are a thinly disguised polemic against the Marxist and Leninist concept of the state. A trustablev interpreter of Marx he is not.

He resurrects some old, never reprinted and basically erroneous articles by Marx about Louis Bonaparte to try to prove that the state isn't really armed bodies of men repressing the working class on behalf of the bourgeoisie like Lenin said and Marx said later, but something in some ways independent of classes.

Ultimately he is defending Max Shachtman's idea of that the Soviet Union as "bureaucratic collectivist" rather than a degenerated workers state as Trotsky believed.

-M.H.-