Reading Marx

[Avocado]

I have read the Communist Manifesto, The German Ideology and On the Jewish Question.
I feel that I must read Capital sooner or later.

Any suggestions?

[Luc]

All rather short

Engel's letter about the state:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/letters/75_03_18.htm

Socialism: Scientific and Utopian (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm)

The Principles of Communism (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm)

On Authority (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/10/authority.htm)

:)

edit: and Critique of the Gotha Programme (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/index.htm) and The Civil War in France (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1871/civil-war-france/index.htm)

all relativly short

o wait most fo those are Engels my bad :lol:

[Brosa Luxemburg]

Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 is supposed to be great (still have to read it)

Critique of the Gotha Program is great.

[Geiseric]

Wage Labor and Capital, Principles of Communism, The Familly, State, and Private Property.

Just read their selected works on marxists.org, the CM isn't very important imho.

[The Jay]

Try reading: The German Ideology.

[Ostrinski]

Read Wage Labor and Capital a couple times before trying to tackle Capital.

http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/index.htm

Note that it will take a few times to understand all the concepts in Capital, it is thick.

Good luck.

[Avocado]

Try reading: The German Ideology.

AH! I have read that too - prescribed reading as part of a course on my undergraduate degree (many moons ago) - along with Two Treatises of Government, The Prince, Leviathan, The Social Contract.

[The Jay]

AH! I have read that too - prescribed reading as part of a course on my undergraduate degree (many moons ago) - along with Two Treatises of Government, The Prince, Leviathan, The Social Contract.

I've read all of those except the Two Treatises!

[Avocado]

I've read all of those except the Two Treatises!

If you are going to read Locke, then read his 2nd Treatise. The first is a refutation of the Divine Right of Kings - largely redundant now. the second Treatise is interesting with respect to his idea of property rights and ownership - which I wholeheartedly disagree with - but nonetheless is relevant in understanding how Capitalism is some respects justifies itself.

[Caj]

Marx:

Wage Labour and Capital,
Value, Price and Profit,
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts,
Critique of the Gotha Programme

Engels:

The Principles of Communism,
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific,
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

You can find all of these for free at marxists.org

If you want physical copies of these works, check out Red and Black Publishing's Essential Writings of Marx and Essential Writins of Engels, in which all of the above listed works are included except Value, Price and Profit.

[Book O'Dead]

I have read the Communist Manifesto, The German Ideology and On the Jewish Question.
I feel that I must read Capital sooner or later.

Any suggestions?

Sorry to disappoint you but you don't read Capital; you study it.

[Anarpest]

1. Write down or otherwise list your primary concerns and questions about Marxist theory. If, from what you've read, you're unclear on some aspects of Marx's views or how certain views could make sense or tie into the whole, then these should be your priorities, since reading about them will automatically be intellectually stimulating.

2. Read texts dealing with the subjects in question in accordance with how important you feel them to be to you. I've found it quite useful to Google certain words in Internet Archives of thinkers like Bakunin, Marx, Kropotkin, etc., by using a domain search, so that could be handy.

3. Get more doubts. Repeat from 1.


Sorry to disappoint you but you don't read Capital; you study it.

Maybe that applies to the second and third volumes, as unpublished manuscripts, but you very much do read the first volume, and it is often an entertaining read. As with any decent non-fiction book, of course you have to think about what you are reading, but it's hardly a high school textbook.