Communist Literature

[Egalitarianism]

I already own "Capital" and the "Communist Manifesto" by Karl Marx

What are some good writings from Lenin that you would recommend ?
Any that are available from Amazon.com ?

Please feel free to recommend any piece of literature that you feel would give a newcomer to Communism a deep understand of the ideology.

Extra Question: Have you read any of the writings of Ho Chih Minh and if so what is your critique of those writings ?

[Dean]

I already own "Capital" and the "Communist Manifesto" by Karl Marx

What are some good writings from Lenin that you would recommend ?
Any that are available from Amazon.com ?
What is to be Done? (http://marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/index.htm) by V I Lenin- the quintessential piece


Please feel free to recommend any piece of literature that you feel would give a newcomer to Communism a deep understand of the ideology.

Marx's Concept of Man (http://marxists.org/archive/fromm/works/1961/man/index.htm) by E Fromm - A favorite author of mine, he is very easy to read but he doesn't dumb things down.


Extra Question: Have you read any of the writings of Ho Chih Minh and if so what is your critique of those writings ?

I read "On Revolution" and it didn't offer me much, it was too propagandistic.

Have you read all of Capital? I read it previously but I admit I didn't take the time to really understand it initially, so I am re-reading it. I think it is worth it, but if you had read it, I am a bit surprised you haven't read his other works besides the manifesto, or something else that is easier.

[Caj]

What are some good writings from Lenin that you would recommend ?
Any that are available from Amazon.com ?

Robert C Tucker's The Lenin Anthology. I highly recommend it.

[GoddessCleoLover]

The Manifesto is fairly easy reading for the most part, but IMO one could spend years really absorbing Capital. With respect to Lenin, I would recommend The State and Revolution. Antonio Gramsci's The State and Civil Society makes interesting complementary reading as a follow-up to The State and Revolution.

[Egalitarianism]

Hi no I haven't read Capital. Since I'm new to Communism I'm starting with the Manifesto tonight and I'll see if I can tackle "Capital" afterwards.

[Caj]

Hi no I haven't read Capital. Since I'm new to Communism I'm starting with the Manifesto tonight and I'll see if I can tackle "Capital" afterwards.

Capital is a beast. At the very least, read Marx's Value, Price and Profit and Wage Labour and Capital before attempting Capital. I'd also familiarize myself with classical economics. Maybe read Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations or something by Ricardo, Say, etc.

[Prometeo liberado]

Capital is a beast. At the very least, read Marx's Value, Price and Profit and Wage Labour and Capital before attempting Capital. I'd also familiarize myself with classical economics. Maybe read Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations or something by Ricardo, Say, etc.

I have to agree with you on that. I just about cracked my eyes out of their sockets trying to get on that. The archaic language doesn't help though.

[Ostrinski]

I second the notion that Capital is easier once you've familiarized yourself with Marx. I read it before so, and I ended up skipping over large sections that I couldn't understand. Once you're used to his language though, it's a completely different experience. It's indescribable.

Also, I have Dover Publications' Essential Works of Lenin. It contains The Development of Capitalism In Russia, What Is to Be Done?, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, and State and Revolution.


I'd also familiarize myself with classical economics. Maybe read Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations or something by Ricardo, Say, etc. I agree here as well. Reading classical economics is essential in understanding the historic importance of socialism, imo to know what systemic contradictions that it addresses.

Don't bother with Ho Chi Minh. He didn't make any contributions to Marxism-Leninism, if that is what you were looking for.

[eric922]

Capital is a beast. At the very least, read Marx's Value, Price and Profit and Wage Labour and Capital before attempting Capital. I'd also familiarize myself with classical economics. Maybe read Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations or something by Ricardo, Say, etc.
Isn't the Wealth of Nations as hard a read as Capital or at least almost? I know it's very long, but I've heard some say that Smith had a better writing style than Marx, though I've never read Smith so I can't say much.

[Caj]

Isn't the Wealth of Nations as hard a read as Capital or at least almost? I know it's very long, but I've heard some say that Smith had a better writing style than Marx, though I've never read Smith so I can't say much.

It's not that hard to understand. It's just really fucking long and gets boring in certain sections.

I'm currently reading Ricardo, and he's harder than Smith.

[Ostrinski]

Isn't the Wealth of Nations as hard a read as Capital or at least almost? I know it's very long, but I've heard some say that Smith had a better writing style than Marx, though I've never read Smith so I can't say much.I found Wealth of Nations easy as hell to read, and this is coming from someone who had trouble with Capital at first. Smith was a lot less verbose than Marx, making him easier to understand despite being relevant a whole century before Marx.

I haven't read any Ricardo.

[-NW2-]

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressel is a great and easy read for any learners or beginners. It was that book, many years ago that got me asking questions that turneed me towards socialism.

David Harveys comanion to Marx's Capital is a helpful book. Although sometimes it can be as complicated as Capital itself!

[JeVousAimeGuillotine]

:lol: Am I the only one who feels like it's a bit of a waste of money to go out and buy books on this particular subject, because of sites like marxists.org. They literally have everything you could possibly want on the subject of communism. They even have a wide selection of anarchist and socialist works on there.

[GoddessCleoLover]

I enthusiastically endorse David Harvey as a guide to Marx's Capital. A excellent series of his lectures on Capital has been posted online, at Youtube I believe.

[Dr Doom]

eclipse and re-emergence of the communist movement by gilles dauve.

[Rooster]

I already own "Capital" and the "Communist Manifesto" by Karl Marx

What are some good writings from Lenin that you would recommend ?
Any that are available from Amazon.com ?

You can normally get a second hand copy of Lenin (and usually hard back) for basically the cost of shipping. I've bought tons of stuff for a penny. The only worthwhile ones if you're new would be The State and Revolution and maybe Lenin's biography of Marx, you know, as an introduction. I personally think it's much better to read Lenin when you know the context in which he's writing. So, for that reason, I recommend An Economic History of the USSR by Alec Nove and basically anything by EH Carr such as The Bolshevik Revolution which is in three volumes. Sheila Fitzpartrick's works are also highly recommended particularly The Russian Revolution which should be pretty easy to get cheap. I see it all the time in second hand book stores.


Please feel free to recommend any piece of literature that you feel would give a newcomer to Communism a deep understand of the ideology.I feel an absolute must for a basic grasp of Marx is Ernst Fischer's Marx in his own Words. Again, you should be able to get it pretty cheap on Amazon. The book tries to show a development of Marx's thought and uses excerpts from many works with the authors own interpretation (which I usually agree with). It might be worth getting a selected writings of Marx because they contain usually some of the more readable or important works. The best one I've seen is the Selected Works of Marx and Engels in Three Volumes which I don't think is in print any more but if you see it, you should pick it up. If not, then I recommend you at least get Engel's Socialism: Utopian and Scientific for a quick run down on Marxist ideas regarding revolution, socialism and capitalism. Wage-Labour and Capital by Marx is a must, to be honest. I don't think you should tackle Capital straight away unless you are familiar with some of the more basic concepts. If you are, then like the other posters, I recommend trying to use David Harvey's companion book. That's just from the top of my head. I've probably missed something out but I think that might be a good short reading list for people. Harvey is a decent enough contemporary writer that you can look into and his books are quite easy to read. Also, I forgot to mention, Hal Draper's Two Souls of Socialism is really worth the read. He talks about the differences between socialism from above and socialism from below. You probably won't be able to find this in book form and will have to rely on marxists.org to provide the text for you but it's not very long or hard to read.


Extra Question: Have you read any of the writings of Ho Chih Minh and if so what is your critique of those writings ?They're pretty hard to come by in English. The ones I have read weren't that particularly enlightening.


:lol: Am I the only one who feels like it's a bit of a waste of money to go out and buy books on this particular subject, because of sites like marxists.org. They literally have everything you could possibly want on the subject of communism. They even have a wide selection of anarchist and socialist works on there.

I don't like reading from a screen. I also like the fact that books don't have a battery life and that I can read them in the bath without worrying about dropping them or losing them when I'm travelling as they don't really cost that much.