Product Description
Written by communist theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto positions the Communist League's purposes and program. It presents a methodical approach to the class struggle (historical and present) and the troubles of capitalism.Amazon.com Review
"A spectre is haunting Europe," Karl Marx andFrederic Engels wrote in 1848, "the spectre of Communism."This new edition of The Communist Manifesto, commemorating the150th anniversary of its publication, includes an introduction byrenowned historian Eric Hobsbawm which reminds us of the document'scontinued relevance. Marx and Engels's critique of capitalism and itsdeleterious effect on all aspects of life, from the increasing riftbetween the classes to the destruction of the nuclear family, hasproven remarkably prescient. Their spectre, manifested in theManifesto's vivid prose, continues to haunt the capitalistworld, lingering as a ghostly apparition even after the collapse ofthose governments which claimed to be enacting its principles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (304)

product of its socio-economic background
These words got their power from the harsh social conditions, that were created by the communisms antagonist: the capitalism. Sad thing is - we learned nothing from history. Look at our crowded prisons. Only the political reflex could be erased.

very pleased
This product arrived two days after it was purchased and in the exact condition promised. I am very happy with the seller and would definitely buy from them again!

Free Kindle Edition
This is a review for the free kindle edition.Given that it is a free edition, it has no table of contents or hyperlinks, but given that this is basically a pamphlet, it is not really that important.I was easy to use the `search this book' option to find the 4 different sections the start with the roman numerals I through IV.I also like the `popular highlights' feature on the kindle, of which 3 or 4 sentences were highlighted that people thought were interesting.They were quotes that we worth noting.

Marx' pamphlet was clearly written and did a good job of presenting his ideas.I summarize the main sections below.

The first section is a summary of the class struggles between the proletariats and the bourgeois, or the oppressed and the oppressors.He actually does a good job pointing out many actual problems.

The second section describes the relationship between proletarians and communists.He makes it clear that the aim of communists is to overthrow the bourgeois class to be replaced with the proletariat class.

The third section describes the socialist and communist literature and describes each type of socialism.He clearly dislikes socialists almost as much as he does capitalists.

The fourth section was a summary of the differences between communism and various other opposition parties, mostly socialists.He dislikes most of them because they do not go far enough in overthrowing the existing systems of government.

I was struck by his belief that swapping the two classes would result in a permanent fix to the problem.History has born out that empowering the oppressed class just turns them eventually into oppressors.Communists eventually become an elite class and there still becomes a less privileged class.The incentive to excel becomes stifled and overall prosperity suffers.

This was worth reading and is a good reminder to all of us to do everything we can to prevent a class of people from feeling oppressed.Many ideas of communism were very bad, but some of their solutions were good, including universal free education.I'm still convinced that the US system of government is the best there is, though it is not perfect.

Worthwhile even now
The reason I wanted to read The Communist Manifesto now is that I don't remember reading it in school and this current financial mess, called the Great Recession, seems at its core the result of greed gone wild, underpinned with our system of capitalism which seems to have in it the very incentives to bring on this excessive greed. So, I was hoping this book would give me some meaningful thoughts with which to further have clues to the way things might play out during this financial mess including the political ramifications. And, from what I do know about Marx, I suspect what happened here is something he had thought out, in a general way, many years before. The Manifesto and the book's foreword cover things like......

1. 1847, Marx and Engels joined the League of the Just (renamed the Communist Party) with its object to overthrow the bourgeoisie with rule by the proletariat and a new society without classes or private property.

2. 1871, Civil war in France - Marx defended it and it then gave him notoriety as a dangerous leader of international subversion and feared by governments.

3. Over the next 40 years the Manifesto conquered the world and carried forward a rise of new (socialist) labor parties. None were called Communist until the Russian Bolsheviks. Mostly in central Europe to Russia. Small in SW Europe.

4. When a major state (Russia) represented Marxist ideology, the Manifesto became atext in political science and still remains so.

5. It was written for a particular time in history

6. Marx and Engel's Communist Party was not an organization - more of a historical document.

7. Two things which gave the Manifesto its force - a) the vision that capitalism was not permanent/stable, b) The revolutionary potential of a capitalist economy.

8. We live in a world where this transformation has largely taken place.

9. Capitalism can't provide a livelihood for most of the working class.

10. There will always be the oppressors (capitalists - bourgeoisie) versus the workers

11 The Bourgeoisie has stripped all occupations down to paid workers.

12. The need for constantly expanding market for its products means ultimately global.- effecting even a world literature, cheap prices - will make all nations bourgeoisie.Eventually overproduction leading to barbarism because of too much civilization. The proletariat/workersbecome mere appendages and lose all character. Brings more collisions between societies and trade unions will flourish. The worker groups get bigger and more powerful through education provided by the bourgeoisie. Other classes except the proletariat will decay.

13. Wage labor rests on the competition between laborers. Communists flourish independently of national borders.

14.Communism abolishes bourgeoisie property, no big deal since 90% of private property belongs to the bourgeoisie. Small peasant property is destroyed daily by industry. Average wage of laborers is the minimum wage, just for subsistence. Education is rescued from the influence of the ruling class. Since family is a bourgeoisie thing affirmed by property, family is destroyed - children are transformed into simple articles of commerce and instruments of labor. Working men will have no country. Communism's desire is to abolish countries and nationality. National differences and antagonisms will vanish. External truths like freedom and justice will be common to all states. But, communism will abolish eternal truths like religion and morality - a new basis. Communism will raise the working class to the ruling class.

15. Specifically, communism will:
a) Abolish property in land and application of all rents to public purposes.
b) Abolish inheritance.
c) Confiscate property of emigrants and rebels.
d) Have a national bank.
e) Centralization of communication and transportation by the state.
f) Factories and instruments of production to be owned by the state.
g) Combine agriculture and manufacturing so there will be no distinction between town and country.
h) Free education.

So, I would say the Communist Manifesto, though really just applied to a time in history and times have surely changed quite a bit since then, but I would also say what it was concerned about also shouldn't be ignored when trying to understand the current economic stress we are in. Our capitalism, though obviously very successful especially in many respects, does show strain in the following areas, as Marx could have likely anticipated like a) the gap between the well-off and the poor and even middle-class has dangerously widened such that our political divisions reflect that and has turned more heated and split, making compromise among our politicians very difficult - hard to govern the country efficiently. b) He warned that the bourgeoisie (today's well-off) has been unable to effect the tools to elevate everyone enough, judging by our failing infrastructure, healthcare costs the highest in the world, etc. c) He anticipated the global impact, ever searching for the least cost workers, such that our manufacturing workers are left without jobs. We can even see this global force in our illegal immigration problems - workers from Mexico, etc coming here, somehow even breaking down our borders - something Marxapparently could see. I did leave off some other things in how the Manifesto was relevant now, in this short paragraph, but from the points, above, it can be seen there are others.

In conclusion, I give the book 5 out of 5 stars. It is a short enough book and just its impact has been monumental in history, it is worthwhile to keep in mind as one tries to figure out what might come next from this Great Recession.

Just What I Expected
With the things going on in our coutry today everyone should read the Manifesto. No one can deny its influence on centuries of political and econonmic thought and everyone should be familiar with its precepts. With that said, as I read it the thought that kept coming to my mind was what happens after the revolution? It's very general and is meant to be so as even in the 1800's there were many Socialist sects with their own individual needs which communism was attempting to unite. However, a lot of the logic didn't follow for me. For example,

"When, therefore, capital is converted into common property, into the property of all members of society, personal property is not thereby transformed into social property. It is only the social character of the property that is changed. It loses its class character."

These ideas and many others along this same line make me question how viable communist ideas are in the real world. And the most telling of all was the introduction to this edition and the notes from Friedrich Engels. The preface to this edition was written in 1888 and Engels admits that some of his suppositions about history are wrong and that some applications of his principles have been unsucessful. However, the excuse as always is they (whatever socialist group) didn't do it right. ... Read more

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Selected Essays is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Karl Marx is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Karl Marx then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Product Description
Selected Writings, written by legendary author Karl Marx, is widely considered to be one of the greatest classic texts of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Selected Writings is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Karl Marx is highly recommended. Published by Classic Books International and beautifully produced, Selected Writings would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Behrang Tirgari
This is and excellent selection of Karl Marx's works, especially for those who do not have enough time to go specifically through all of his works.

An excellent collection
This is a brilliant collection of some of the very best writings of Karl Marx. A must read for anyone with interest in Marx's early writings (non-Marxist period), letters, essays, his Doctoral thesis, and then later on his political writings forming the `theory of historical materialism', commonly referred to as Marxism. Personally, his `Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts 1844' is really a very nice reading because it renders a very attractive insight into Marx's early intellectual and psychological fight against Hegel's Phenomenology to form the basis of his theory later on. Also included is: Critique of Hegel's works and A Poverty of Philosophy (critique of Proudhon) which are excellent readings. Recommended to everyone; quintessentially to anyone trying to get an insight into one of the greatest intellectual minds of all time.

Subhasish Ghosh

St. Cross College
University of Oxford

Wonderful Anthology Of Marx's Theories and Ideas
When one considers the incredible influence that Marxism has had in the unfolding history of the later nineteenth and twentieth century, the beginning student of the combined writings of both Marx and Engels will find this collection of the essential works of these two pioneering socialists absolutely essential reading. Its list of included works covers the waterfront of all that is required to gain a fruitful first look at the wealth of their philosophical musings, and the nature of their revolutionary canon, as well. Reading this material is essential if one is to understand the depth of Marx's understanding and the detail of his genius, however discredited he may be in current estimations. Indeed, with the rise of international corporatism is so close to his prognostications regarding the final phases of capitalism that it is hard to deny his continuing relevance.

Included here is everything from the Communist Manifesto all the way to Volume One of Das Capital. One can gain a better appreciation for his ideas regarding the way in which the antagonism between the oppressed and the oppressors provides the motive force for history, and how all history is the history of such class struggles between the owners of the means of production, on the one hand, and the workers, who have nothing to barter with but their considerable capacity to accomplish labor. If one want to gain a better appreciation for the nuances regarding how alienation is created buy the organization of work, or the origin of property, or even the ways in which all of the aspects of a particualr society's culture are manifestations of the values of the ruling class, then a careful reading of the material found here will serve you well. I highly recommend this book. Enjoy!

A Great Anthology
This is the best Marx anthology available.Aside from selections takenfrom all of Marx's major works, it contains lesser-known selections on avariety of topics.The whole presents a steady stream of selectionsthrough Marx's life.Consequently, it gives the length and breadth ofMarx's writing without burying you in a life-time of reading.Shortexplanatory introductions help place the selections in Marx's developmentand in broader history.

A good follow up is Main Currents of Marxism byLeszek Kolakowski (3 volumes).Unfortunately those books are out of printin America, but they can still be found in good libraries and in theused-book market.

Excellent Selection of Marx's Writings.
This is an excellent selection of the writings of Karl Marx.This includes many writings which do not make it into the usual Marx/Engels Readers;Writings including Marx's Letters, his criticism of Bakunin, morewritings on economics than in the usual Reader, and so on.One flaw of it,though, is that it does not contain the later writings of Engels writenafter Marx's death.I suppose this is to be expected;It is after all*Marx's* writings, not Engels.However, the loss does not affect it much,and the book is still one of the most valuable tomes of Marxism I'vebought.I'd recommend anyone interested in the thought of Karl Marx to getthis book;If one is interested in both the writings of Marx and Engels,I'd recommend they get this book and the Marx/Engels Reader to supplementit.I have both, and both are fascinating. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is an outstanding overview of the life and thoughts of Karl Marx. The editor masterfully weaves together Marx's published works and private letters into a rich tapestry of history and ideas. In addition to what you might expect to find in a collection like this (the text of "The Communist Manifesto", selections from "Das Kapital"), there are also tidbits from Marx's hand that help you truly understand the man and the history of his ideology, from his predictions on the fates of France and Russia, even down to his favorite color (red, of course) and his old report cards. No serious student of economic and political philosophy should be without an understanding of Karl Marx. This book provides it like no other. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A Must Read for Every Individual of the Working Class
If you've ever wondered what all the fuss is about with regard to Socialism, this is the book to get you started. Marx, the true father of Socialism, was an economic genius, ranked with the likes of Einstein and his theory of relativity. Socialism is most likely not anything close to what you have been told or what you have assumed. As you will learn here, in the writings of Marx, Socialism is not the Nationalism forced upon Germany by the Nazi tyrant Hitler, nor the tyrannical form of Communism that Stalin forced upon Russia. Instead, true Socialism is not a controlling force by rather the result of the "energy and independence" of the working class, who emancipated and united, use "political power to the attainment of social ends." Socialism is a true form of democracy, where the State is governed by the working class, to serve the working class, unlike Capitalism, which, through propaganda, would have the people believe they live within the framework of a democratic republic, but who are in fact governed (directly and indirectly) by the few ruling class elite, who exploit the working class to service their accumulation of wealth and the power it affords them nationally and internationally. "Workers of the world, Unite!"

Evil must be Understood in it's Entirety
The Communist manifesto goes along with such books as Mein Kampf which everyone should read, not because of their insight, wisdom nor to be illuminated but because the logic is flawed ideas are dangerous.Communist class warfare has killed 100 million people, it was and is an evil movement and it is important to understand the ideology behind the genocides of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot and so on.This is not a book which should be referenced day by day but read with close attention to every detail to combat the ideology.A travel version will not provide full comprehension of the evils of Communism.

Fine Introduction
There is little question that Marx was the most important economic/political theorist of the modern era. The question then, is how to present an overview of his thought in a single volume.

This collection includes sections from Marx's earlier more philosophical period as a gradute student. It includes his dissertation on democritus and Epicurus as well as the famous essay 'On the Jewish Question.'

Additionally, there is the great 'German Ideology,' 'Gundrisse,' and the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (one of the most important works on political revolution in the entire literature. Of course you will also find the Manifesto, and selections from Capital (though far from comprehensive) as well as the Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844.

I was also pleased with the editor's inclusion of several letters of Marx between him and friends and family, mostly Engels. Also, there are report cards from the young Marx while he was in school, a fun extra.

The Portable Marx is a good way to begin to immerse yourself in Marx, though only a thorough reading of Capital will really allow you to appreciate the depth and range of his genius.

good intro to Marx's thought
In addition to Marx's writings, this book consists of introductions to various sections of Marx's writings by Prof Kamenka, a chronology of events in Marx's life, letters and other documents by and about him and a glossary of Marxian terms. The writings can be tedious, windy full of run-on sentences, sometimes unreadable. I skipped some of them, including his speech "Value, price and profit," which Kamenka claims was a good laymen's introduction to the ideas of "Capital," but I gave it up after a few pages.The first section of writings is from before 1844. In the tradition of the enlightenment, he discusses the concept of "alienation," how human nature is based on the need to maximize one's creative potential.Yet under capitalism, the worker is turned into a machine; the product he makes, or help makes under the division of labor, does not give him any value, but the wealth from it goes to his boss. The workers intellectual capabilities and self-esteem are stunted. Thus, a truly just society would give the worker the freedom to pursue his dreams, not having to worry about renting himself out to capitalists to survive.Workers, those who actually produce wealth, would directly manage businesses (not state bureaucrats).

As we progress along the years with Marx, he begins to develop his redoubtable historical materialist conception of history. This is a "scientific" thesis that all societies pass through slavery, feudalism, and capitalism and then capitalism starts to break down because of its own "contradictions." In unrestrained capitalism, capitalists try to maximize profit anyway they can. They build up excess capacity of factories and other facilities to try to compete but unfortunately in unregulated competition, all but a select few are destroyed. The petit bourgeoisie i.e. peasants and small business owners are also wiped out by big business. The capitalists in order to keep up their rate of profit, increase the hoursof their slaves and try to reduce their wages and getting out of doing anything for them to make their conditions better. The capitalist system will eventually collapse from all of this and the urban wage slaves, the proletariat will take over the means of production, eventually instituting democratic workers control over these means. As Prof. Kamenka notes later, it is rather vague if Marx conceived of various measures to forestall capitalism's, destabilization. ...

His writings from the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte are certainly interesting, though his efforts to apply his theories to the situation in France somewhat take away from his analysis of the events. He conceives the France under Louis Philippe (1830-48) to be under the control one of section of the bourgeoisie, basically stock market swindlers. The rest of the proprietered classes revolted against this one faction in 1848. The ruling classes promised the proletariat radical democratic reforms to get their support for the overthrow but once they had consolidated their power, they massacred them into submission. The peasants were the majority of France at that time, and they, of course, valued stability above all else to maintain their meager property. The Bourgeois republic that was consolidated in 1848 could not provide the requisite stablity for capitalist operations, so up rose Louis Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon to establish a dictatorship.

In his article,"The Indian revolt" from 1857 he breaks free from the vague theorizing and comes out with first rate journalism pure and simple. He reminds his readers that with all the hocus pocus of holy horror in England of the atrocities of the Indian sepoys , British troops were raping and burning down villages in China not that long ago. He quotes the proud numerous proud accounts from British soldiers of routine racist massacre and torture. Such as "not a day passes but we string up ten to fifteen of them(noncombatants)" and "every nigger we meet we either string up or shoot."

Another first rate piece of journalism, is his inagural address to the international working of 1864. Again, no tedious theorizing but a straightforward report on the condition of the British working classes. This was in a period, he notes, which the Chancellor of the Excheqeur slobbered over as a period of unprecedented expansion of wealth for all Britons. He contrasts this with a quote from William Gladstone that this increase in wealth was actually exclusvely confined to the property-owning minority. He quotes extensively from house of lords reports that worry about the severe malnourishment among agricultural laborers and which also noteed that the worst conditions of these laborers was better than the average amongst urban laborers.

The best writing by far is his stuff on the Paris commune of 1871, after France's defeat by Bismark's Prussia. Prussia and the French elite combined to crush these communes. These communes were set up as local, regional and national bodies. However, the local communes had the predominant power. Each body selected delegates to the higher bodies. Each body had reprehensive from the working class paid at workingperson's wages. Any government official could be removed from power at anytime by a recall type action. This is clearly what Marx had in mind as a system to govern the "transition to communism," instead of the dictatorship over the proletariat that was set up in the so-called "communist states" under his name.

The Critique of the Gotha program for 1875 consists of Marx attacking the German workers party somewhat pedantically but it consists of interesting comments. He denounces the party for its advocacy of state power to achieve its ends. He even denounces them for calling for government control of the schools.

A rich, accessible introduction to Karl Marx
"The Portable Karl Marx" is a splendid anthology of Marx'writings, political, philosophical and economic. The book also features aselection of Marx' personal letters, his university records and variousprivate documents, including his birth certificate, all which help toilluminate the character of one of the prophets of the modern age. Thecompendium of extracts traces Marx' intellectual trajectory, from his earlydiscipleship to the critical idealism of Hegel, onto his maturity, by whichtime he had established himself as a luminary of political thought. Thechief doctrines of his mature philosophy are expounded here, such ashistorical materialism, surplus value and the class struggle, which wouldbe generated by the contradictions and tensions of capitalism itself,leading to the growth of an educated proletariat which would freethemselves from their yoke and revolt to usher in the era of communism.Karl Marx is, along with Freud and Nietzsche, one of the focal points ofthe culture of the twentieth century. Contemporary debates on politicalphilosophy cannot do without having recourse to, or at least coming toterms with, his shattering insights and path-making formulations. ... Read more

Product Description
One of the most notorious works of modern times, as well as one of the most influential, "Capital" is an incisive critique of private property and the social relations it generates. Living in exile in England, where this work was largely written, Marx drew on a wide-ranging knowledge of its society to support his analysis and generate fresh insights. Arguing that capitalism would create an ever-increasing division in wealth and welfare, he predicted its abolition and replacement by a system with common ownership of the means of production. "Capital" rapidly acquired readership among the leaders of social democratic parties, particularly in Russia and Germany, and ultimately throughout the world, to become a work described by Marx's friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels as 'the Bible of the Working Class'. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (45)

in a word evil
this goes aginst every thing of nature and man releastionship with nature. read it if you would like i did then after word read mein kampf then you might get a whole new look at the nazi party and europe from 1914 till WW2

If you are interested in how the capitalist mode of production works, this is your book
A great read if you can get thru the first several chapters.I might also suggest that you purchase the book "A Companion to Marx's Capital" by David Harvey which helps you thru each chapter.Professor Harvey also has a great on-line lecture course which is also very useful but, only after you have read the book.

Marx's Capital
It is difficult to write a review for a book that is so widely known, which so much has been written about, and which inspires such extreme degrees of both love and hatred. I also freely admit that I am far from being an expert in Marxian economics or economics in general (when I have gained more confidence in my understanding of Marxian economics I intend to update my review).

There are two main criticisms of Marx that are very often leveled against Capital and against Marx's thought in general that I think are invalid and I would like to get them out of the way at the beginning of my review.

The first criticism often leveled against Marx is based on the idea that the failure of the various "socialist" states, the various economic difficulties those states faced while they existed, as well as the atrocities that were often committed in Marx's name, constitute irrefutable evidence of the falsity of Marx's main ideas. The point I would make in this regard is that the title of Marx's book is Capital and for good reason. Marx's book is about the functioning and the dynamics of an economy dominated by capital, or the private ownership of the means of production, and the social relations that are inherent to such a system. In other words, Marx's book is about capitalism not about socialism. His analysis of the dynamics of a capitalist society and economy has to be assessed on its own terms and should not be assessed based on the problems faced by, or the relative inefficiencies of, the socialist economies. In my opinion there is much in Marx's analysis of capitalism that is both valid, and often brilliant, and which does not in anyway rely for its validity on the possibility or desirability of a fully planned or state run economy. The fact that such state run economies were prone to serious economic problems, and ultimate failure, does not, therefore, invalidate Marx's analysis of capitalism.

The second major objection that is often raised against Marx is that he underestimated capitalisms ability and inherent tendency to raise everyone's standard of living including that of the laborers. People often argue that Marx's thought is largely a reaction against conditions that were prevalent at the time he was writing and during the early phases of the industrial revolution but were not inherent to capitalism per se. They point out that the standard of living for most laborers is much higher today than it was in Marx's time and that the conditions, therefore, for Marx's negative views of capitalism have largely disappeared. We can ignore, for the time being, the question as to whether these improving conditions are the result of an inherent tendency of capitalism or whether they are the result of direct political action in the form of labor laws, welfare programs, and forms of social security.

But there are a couple of points I would like to make about this criticism. First, I think Marx would disagree in principle with measuring the effects of capitalism purely in terms of the purchasing power of the lower classes. Marx believed that a social system based on the private ownership of the means of production was inherently exploitative and alienating (and it is possible for the rate of exploitation to rise even as real wages increase). The capital-labor relation in Marx's view is a social relation of dominance which is obscured under capitalism and by bourgeois economics which view the capital-labor relation as being based on free exchange in the labor market. It must always be remembered that Marx's book is not simply an economic treatise in the narrow sense, but is equally a book of sociology, and many of the problems that capitalism raises should be considered sociological as opposed to purely economic.

The second point I would make is that Marx believes there is a general tendency in the capitalist mode of production towards crisis and eventual breakdown. This tendency is obscured by certain counter-tendencies but it is still present. Marx does not believe that the periodic crises of capitalism are simply strange anomalies but are inherent within a system that is based on the production and expansion of surplus value, or exchange value, as opposed to use value (for more on this see The Law of Accumulation and the Breakdown of the Capitalist System by Henryk Grossmann). Neither of these problems are solved simply by increasing the purchasing power of the lower classes.

I do not believe Marx should be immune to criticism. His works and ideas should be picked apart and criticized to exactly the same degree as anyone else's. But these two criticisms are not really criticisms, they are ultimately just excuses for dismissing Marx out of hand, and I do not believe Marx should be dismissed out of hand.

When I have the time I intend to add to my review a brief summary (to the best of my very limited abilities) of the differences between Marxian and Neoclassical economics. So stay tuned! There is more to come...

-Brian

If flawed, it is also powerfully revealing
CONTENT;Marx's book Capital is not about Communist revolution, it is an analysis of the function of Capitalism and its development.Marx believes that Capitalism derived from the mass-scale production of commodities, which can be any manufactured item of value.In a capitalist economy, the bourgeoisie (the factory owners, upper classes) own the means of production, and the proletariat (the working classes) are mercilessly dependent upon the factory owners.In a prior age, man owned how own labor, tools, and the profits of his labors entirely, but in the factory age man has become "alienated" from the tools, the means of production, and most importantly the profits of labor (which he calls unpaid labor or "surplus value"), so that his own work becomes just another cheap commodity on the market; and for capitalism, the cheaper the labor, the better.The end result is a system of antagonism, capitalists getting ever richer and seeking more labor markets to exploit, and the proletariat getting all the more exploited and impoverished.Marx does not vividly describe the apocalyptic downfall of capitalism in this book, but he does directly infer it from his analysis of capital formation, and its flaws.In sum, Marx thinks capitalism thrives in the machine age by sucking profits, "vampire-like" from the proletariat, and the only solution will be to put a stake through the heart of the capitalist system.While I do not agree with his full analysis and would not abandon capitalism for communism, I find in it much valid commentary on disturbing aspects of capitalism.
Marx does not comment much on religion in this book.For that read "On Religion"On Religion

ANALYSIS: Why should one read Marx in an era in which Marxism has been disproven by the facts of history?Given the sobering and failed examples of Soviet Russia and Communist China, one cannot read Marx (in my view) in the hope of adopting the system.Marxist-Communist systems are flawed, and democratic, free-market systems, which are soberly and appropriately regulated for social-welfare spending are of course superior.Yet the reading of Marx will not show a man whose mind and thought has been rendered totally obsolete, for there are many insights which Marx has into capitalism and the capitalist processes that are still as informative today as they were then.In short, Marx reveals the shortcomings and flaws of the capitalist system, even if he has not produced the appropriate answer to those flaws.One should say Marx's own remedy is even more flawed than the system he hoped to replace.Yet, Marx lived and wrote Capital at a time during which the U.S. was emerging from the manacles of slavery, that was a burden to the principles of our Constitution almost as badly as it was a burden to black American slaves.Marx witnessed horrible labor oppression in England - awful factory conditions where people were working 12-16 hours a day, sometimes more; where factory laborers were living on starvation wages and often dying very young due to overwork.It is a small wonder he sought such a radical answer, and could not have foreseen the capacity of free-market economies to become more open, honest, and democratic - and to reform themselves without a Communist revolution and without a dictatorship of the proletariat.Again, in sum, democratic free-market economies can reform themselves, but they should be sobered by the appalling extremes of laissez-faire to which they may sink if left to the whims of a market with no social conscience or vision.Read this book if you are interested in political-economy, and the bulk of Marxist thought.Agree or disagree with Marx, it is at least incumbent to understand him.That said, Marx could have written this book in about half or a third of the length, in my opinion.Much is over-written and over-stated, but there are some priceless gems of thought and observation, amidst much that is repetitive or flawed.Marx does not show us the way, but he does show us the gristly guts of capitalism if it is not checked by any voice of moral and social conscience.

Mysticism riddled with contradictions and ambiguity
This book is one of the most ambiguous books ever written, mired in confusion, contradiction, and ultimately mysticism. There's about as much economics in this book as there is in the Dao Di Jing. Its ultimate virtue, however, is that Marx unwittingly puts to sleep the labor theory of value, first put forth by Adam Smith. He logically depicts what a world should look like if classical doctrines were correct; unfortunately, his conclusions are entirely at odds with the real world--it is the ultimate reductio ad absurdum. Furthermore, this book is responsible for the murder and starvation of millions, as capital accumulation and the division of labor must necessarily disintegrate without private ownership over the means of production. Capital is heterogeneous, and complementary, and as such, requires disseminated ownership and a dynamic process of trial and error on the part of the capitalists, along with a functional price mechanism coordinating production.

It was known, long before Smith fused his own personal Calvinist beliefs with economics, that value does not exist in the material world, but rather is confined to the subjective preferences of individuals. The mixture of religion and economics inevitably breeds inescapable confusion and contradiction, as demonstrated by Ricardo who proclaimed, "I cannot get over the difficulty of the wine which is kept in the cellar for three or four years [i.e., while constantly increasing in exchange value], or that of the oak tree, which perhaps originally had not 2 s. expended on it in the way of labour, and yet comes to be worth £100." The idea that labor magically creates value, on its own, is something even the most socialistically inclined economic student is unable to take seriously. Furthermore, the labor theory of value does not allow for mutually beneficial exchange, and therefore cannot explain why voluntary exchange takes place, and ultimately why prices emerge.

Without the labor theory of value, you don't have exploitation, and therefore can't accept his dialectic. Furthermore, the so-called tension between the forces and relations of production are, of course, entirely illusory. There is no contradiction, as the laborers demand capital in order to increase their productivity, and therefore their remunerations. The empirical evidence supporting this claim is torrential, as nations with plentiful and dynamic capitalists (and relatively minimal government interference) have the highest income per capita, and standard of living. And nations, who have taken this horrific book seriously, are forever trapped in poverty and face unspeakable human right violations. The dramatic and inescapable contradiction which plagues this book is that, on the one hand, Marx focuses on social relation, and yet, at the same time, this book ultimately seeks to end all voluntary social interaction.


Don't waste your money on this incomprehensible and barren book. ... Read more

Product Description
This revised and enlarged edition of the leading anthology provides the essential writings of Marx and Engels--those works necessary for an introduction to Marxist thought and ideology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Misleading Link
I was specifically looking for "The Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd Edition" which I need for a class at college, and under that book, this Kindle edition was listed. I assumed (which I realize I should not have) that amazon would not have posted a "Kindle Edition" of a book unless it was a Kindle edition of the book I was actually looking for. While this seems to a fine Marx-Engles reader, it has no value to me, because it is not the Marx-Engels reader that I need for class, so now I have to buy an additional book, which is frustrating.

Amazing Condition
Product seemed as if it was completely brand new, and arrived in a reasonable amount of time.

Review of Tucker's M-E Reader
I feel the sheer popularity of this volume on college campuses should suggest it superiority. However, I'll note in detail that the editor makes an excellent use of footnotes, and that the introduction is very helpful at placing Marx in historical context.

Difficult to comprehend
I bought this for class and I HATE MARX. Other than that, thank you for the fast shipping.

Not the Marx-Engels Reader
I recently purchased this product thinking it was an ebook version of the Marx-Engels Reader by Robert C. Tucker. It is not. It has some of the works in Tucker's version, but not all, and now serves me little purpose for my course designed around the reader. If you're looking for the Robert C. Tucker version this is not it. ... Read more

Product Description

This is an electronic edition of the complete book complemented by author biography. This book features a table of contents linked to every chapter. The book was designed for optimal navigation on the Kindle, PDA, Smartphone, and other electronic readers. It is formatted to display on all electronic devices including the Kindle, Smartphones and other Mobile Devices with a small display.

Product Description

This is an electronic edition of the complete book complemented by author biography. This book features the table of contents linked to every chapter. The book was designed for optimal navigation on the Kindle, PDA, Smartphone, and other electronic readers. It is formatted to display on all electronic devices including the Kindle, Smartphones and other Mobile Devices with a small display.

Customer Reviews (2)

good stuff
Must read, gives the basic tools to understand history.Slow going at times, but buckle down and do it.This is a specific case study of how, if you "follow the money", the driving forces of events become clear and the most absurd happenings make sense.

Marx's political thought as its best
Many consider this work as Marx's best effort towards political philosophy. While the Communist Manifesto and the Critique os the Gotha Programme are also classics in marxian political thought, this bookspresents the best and most profound theoretical analysis. Just as the twopanphlets above mentioned, this one came up as an "writing ofoccasion", but more than a pamphlet this is a book, and a classicalone. If the Manifesto should be the gateway to marxian political thought,the Brumaire is the book for those who wish to deepen their knowledge onmarxian political conceptions. A must for anyone concerned with politics ingeneral. ... Read more

Product Description
Featuring the most important and enduring works from Marx's enormous corpus, this thoughtful new collection spans Marx's development from the Hegelian idealism of his youth to the mature socialism of his later works. Organized both topically and in rough chronological order, the selections include writings from Marx's early more purely philosophical works, the central writings on historical materialism, excerpts from Capitaland writings of a more political nature from his later period. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Not exactly what I was looking for...but still good
I just finished this book last night.I read this book because I wanted to learn more about Karl Marx's thoughts on communism.Communism was my ONLY interest in reading this book.A narrow interest?Yes, but that was what I wanted.

This book gave me a lot of insight on the foundations of communist thought-alienation of labor, use-values, labor, etc... What it did not include was a very explicit connection between Marx's view of the political economy and how communism addresses these wrongs.It also did not give Marx's vision of a communist utopia in explicit format.To be sure, it gave me glimpses of BOTH-and I can infer a lot from them.His comments on the Paris commune, and some of his other political writings gave a little more insight.But still, any understanding I have is based on inferences and not on concrete explicit writing.

This book also included a great deal of material about religion, philosophy (not strictly communist philosophy)-specifically Marx's conflicts with Haeglanism (sp?)Since I did not care about these things, I found them to be very VERY difficult to get through.

Another review had some comments about the editor.I largely agree with that comment-but would expect nothing else.I mean, would you really want to read a book edited by someone who dislikes Marx?I think not.I could do without the pedantic nature, though.

A final word about Marx's writing.I understand that a lot of this material was in the form of notes and unedited manuscripts.But that does not change the fact that Marx's writing is incredibly difficult to follow at times.His sentences are incredibly long.They full of parenthetical phrases and clarifications of conditions of the sentence.I often found myself reading paragraph long sentences 2 or 3 times just to keep track of his point.As I said before, a lot of this writing was in the form of manuscripts or even personal notes.I'm sure with editing, these writings would have been more readable as were his more polished writings.Although even his more polished writings tended to get a little confusing for the same reason.

standard intro
A good introduction but the professor's introductions are sycophantic, eulogizing and unbearably pedantic. The religious insinuation of Marx with Axial wise men is voluptuous and intellectually vulgar; as one of the first anti-State economists Marx deserves better. This edition is used widely by universities, so this treatment comes to no surprise.

Other recommendations:

Actually reading the volumes of Capital

The Trotsky compiled reader.

From Marx to Mises: Post-Capitalist Society and the Challenge of Economic Calculation
-- David Ramsay Steele

The Myth of National Defense
-- Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Nation, State and Economy
Theory of Money and Credit
--Ludwig von Mises

marxists.org
mises.org

(avoid the viking portable Marx, get the real deals)

let take a walk through social revolution
Karl Marx is absolutely brilliant concerning his approach to peasant revolution.Such examples of his brilliance is China, Russia, Southeast Asia, and Cuba.Marx understood the importance of the proletarian's existence in the social order and food chain.In these selected writings, Marx discusses the manipulation of the proletarian by the bourgeois social class, the importance of a collectivist society, the failures of capitalism, the advantages of socialism, etc...Ultimately, Marx states that, with the exception of China, capitalism will evolve into perfect communism.He also states on page 175 10 characteristic of a capitalistic society evolving into communism: 1)abolition of land property and rent, 2)a progressive income tax, 3)abolition of all inheritance, 4)confiscation of property, 5)centralization of credit into the state, 6)centralization of communication, 7)state-owned businesses, 8)equal liability to all labor, 9)abolition of difference between town and country, and 10)free education in public schools.This book is an excellent edition to any student of political philosophy.

Excellent
I'm taking anthropology in College, and Marx has been a big influence in the studies. One of the required textbooks was this one. It was great. It goes deep into socilogical culture analysis, communism, and religion.

iwould recommend this book to anyone! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

It will reveal some things you never knew about Marx
I enjoyed this work from McLellan and I thought it was well written, interesting and informative. I wish it had a bit more complete explanation of Marx's economic ideas but this is a biography of the man. Marx's saying that "Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it" says it all. Marx did put out some revolutionary ideas and the author does straighten out some of Marx's accomplishments in the last chapter. I found his comments about Lenin's use of Marxism very interesting. In summary, a very well written book worth your time.

Karl Marx:A Biography
I bought this book for a class that I was taking and I enjoyed the book overall.I wouldn't say that it was fantastic, but it was a very good book.There were a few things that annoyed me, including the author's use of, in my opinion, too many block quotes.It is a very informative book though.

Standard biography of Marx
This well-written account of Marx's life stands above the rest. It is a sympathetic but not uncritical recounting of Marx's life. McCellan's book Karl Marx: Selected Writings is a good companion to his biography.

Lacking in the book, however, is much discussion of the ideas of Marx.

For beginners, a clear presentation of the philosophical background of Marx's work can be found in Isaih Berlin's biography of Marx. A variety of opinions about Marx's political, social, and historical theory can be found in the Cambridge Companion to Marx. Ernst Fischer's How to Read Karl Marx clearly discusses some of the foundational notions in Marx's economic theory.

Highly entertaining
David McLellan's biography of the great man is perhaps the best of of them all. He describes with much wit and feeling Marx' life, from his upbringing in Trier to his final death in London. But not just this: included are also shorter overviews of various other people who played a significant role in the life of Karl Marx, starting of course with Jenny von Westphalen and Friedrich Engels, but also less well-known people such as Herwegh and Kugelmann. McLellan never introduces anyone without telling you what kind of person he was and what role he played in the politics of the time, making the era truly come alive, with all its grandeur and all its silly infighting.

For this biography is certainly not a hagiography. McLellan shows Marx in all his brilliance and his wit, and as the greatest thinker of the age, but he also shows his bad sides: his vindictiveness, his pettiness, his rudeness, his incompetence at managing his financial and personal affairs, and of course the infamous bastard son. All the childish infighting between the socialist émigrés in London, Bruxelles and Paris is revealed, where Marx certainly does not get off scot-free. But there is also room for showing Marx as a family man, as loyal to his few close friends, and as a visionary thinker.

McLellan focuses primarily on Marx' life in a "human interest" manner, rather than concentrating on the development of his theories, although those are of course mentioned. Because of this, many amusing and sometimes surprising anecdotes and oddities turn up to keep this book a page-turner. Before our eye passes a carpet belonging to Leibniz, a drunken outing which ends in vandalism and a police chase, Marx on the run for his creditors, yelling at the Prussian censor, Engels making a wine-tasting tour, a chance meeting with Bismarck's niece, French pornographic verse, carbuncles, and many more things.

There are some minor problems with the book, as can be expected. Occasionally a strange spelling is used ("Carlsbad", "Vera Sassoulitch"), although this may have been fixed in the new edition. The final chapter, an epilogue concerning Marx' legacy, is very superficial and includes all sorts of nonsense about Marxist theory being outdated, and could best have been left out altogether. There is also the tendency to denigrate Engels undeservedly; but this is unsettlingly common among secondary authors on Marx, and is partially reinforced by Engels' personal modesty about his contributions. In any case these are all small issues, and any reader interested in the life of Marx as opposed to 'merely' his theories can do no better but to read this book. ... Read more

Product Description
In this stunning book, the first comprehensive biography of Marx since the end of the Cold War, Francis Wheen gives us not a socialist ogre but a fascinating, ultimately humane man, while still examining the criticisms of his detractors. A study in contradictions, Karl Marx was at once a reserved scholar, a fiery agitator, and a gregarious socialite, while his intellect and ideology were once described as "Rousseau, Voltaire, and Hegel fused into one person." He lived both at the center and on the fringes of his age, and his oratory and writing continue to change the contemporary world. In his entertaining, offbeat style, Wheen offers an eminently readable biography of one of history's most unforgettable figures.Amazon.com Review
Karl Marx, whose influence on modern times has been compared to that of Jesus Christ, spent most of his lifetime in obscurity. Penniless, exiled in London, estranged from relations, and on the run from most of the police forces of Europe, his ambitions as a revolutionary were frequently thwarted, and his major writings on politics and economics remained unpublished (in some cases until after the Second World War). He has not lacked biographers, but even the most distinguished have been more interested in the evolution of his ideas than any other aspect of his life. Francis Wheen's fresh, lively, and moving biography of Marx considers the whole man--brain, beard, and the rest of his body. Unencumbered by ideological point scoring, this is a very readable, humorous, and sympathetic account. Wheen has an ear for juicy gossip and an eye for original detail. Marx comes across as a hell-raising bohemian, an intellectual bully, and a perceptive critic of capitalist chaos, but also a family man of Victorian conformity (personally vetting his daughters' suitors), Victorian ailments (carbuncles above all), and Victorian weaknesses (notably alcohol, tobacco, and, on occasion, his housekeeper). But there is great pathos, too, as Marx witnessed the deaths of four of his six children. For those readers who feel Marxism has given Marx a bad name, this is a rewarding and enlightening book. --Miles Taylor, Amazon.co.uk ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Marx:The man, not so much his beliefs
After reading this book, the reader wants to have a beer with Karl Marx.That may sound strange, but this is what Wheen does.He does a masterful job of telling the story of the man who was Karl Marx.You sometimes felt that you were a cricket on his shoulder (horrible Disney reference) in that you could feel his thoughts in social situations.My only issue with this book and the reason why I'm only giving it three stars is that Wheen didn't really expound on the man's writings and beliefs.Maybe I'm wrong, but a biography should include the internal and intellectual development which created such important writing.Regardless of how you view Marx, his writings had an impact on our world.It would have been so much better if he had delved into his writings and their effects at the time.WHY were they viewed with such disdain?Most of us know why, but it would have been nice if he had intertwined that into his story.

Lacks political basis
Wheen tries to follow a current fashion and divorce the man and the politics. This is often done to Marxists because authors don't want to show what the theory of Marxism is. In the his introduction to Trotsky's autobiography, Joeseph Hanson makes a statement that could very well apply to Marx, too. "To make a truthful film of Trotsky requires taking him as a political figure, but not the kind characteristic of the bourgeois world of today. He was of a different kind-commited, like a great artist, to presenting a faithful reflection of his times, or, moe accurately, a scientist who has become convinced that the main problem facing mankind is to change the framework of our times, to end the agonizing epoch of warring classes and to replace it with a society built on the foundation of a rationally planned economy. He could be pictured truthfully as a tribune and fighter preoccupyed with constructing the organization required to win socialism on a world scale. To make a film of Trotsky in which all this is cast aside is like presenting Pierre and Marie Curie without their drive to discover the secret of radioactivity or the drudgery of fracinating huge amonts of pitchblende in order to isolate the mysterious substances, polonium and radium; or a "drama" of Loius Pasteur without his passionate interest in bacteriology and the painstaking laboratory work he engaged in against the advice of well-meaning friends who sought to persuade him not to waste his valuable time on chimerical and insoluble problems."
Marx's writing on the Civil War In France and others show that he was indeed interested and active in the politics of his time. The Communst Manifesto actually grew out of his work with the international. Any revolutionary will tell you: It's not about the men, it's about the IDEAS. Revolutions, down-swings, life of a revolutionary revolves around the smell of a fresh print. The man and the idea become bound together flesh and blood, and to seperate Marx from his ideas is to cut off his greatness, leaving a messy bookworm in Soho, London.

The Human Side of Citizen Marx .
If you want the best inside look of the man,Karl Marx, this is it.There are no weighty theories or politicial axioms edified in this cornerstone book.One book-example given is of Marx's young daughter,Eleanor,giving him a personal quiz.What is your favorite colour? (Answer-)Red! What is your favorite past-time? (Answer-)Book-Worming! etc.etc.
Years later,after Eleanor got into a tense arguement with her husband ,she committed suicide.Gray-haired Marx ,the rebarbative rebel and Mary Burns the Irish red-head firebrand, had a son together,who later become an auto mechanic. -Yet,Marx was a sinecure thinker,thanks to Engles.Marx rather liked to play the part of the agent provocateur.He miasmatically smoked black cigars ,lazily reading the afternoon London newspapers,on his Soho couch. He was an arm-chair philosopher,and not an active participant in storming the governmental offices of repression.This book is the best personal portrait of a very complex and mysterious historical thinker .An excellent biograghy !

Let us now praise famous ragamuffins!
As the reader below observed, this book was a chilling read. Marx was a very strange fellow and this reading this book felt like surveying the scene of a car accident. It hurts to continue but one finds themselves so intrigued that they can hardly stop. For my part, I disagree thoroughly with just about every idea Marx had. Still, I thought it refreshing to read a biography of the man that objectively treated Marx as human first, ragamuffin later; Unlike the brief essay on him in Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals," which is meant only to slam Marx and infuriate the reader.

I took half a star away for the a-little-less-than-constant humor (or so the author thought.) At first it was mildly amusing, probably do to its gauche inapropriateness. After the first few chapters though, it became a nuisance. How about this one? "Like another Marx, Karl did not want to belong to any club that would have him as a member." PUKE!!

The other half star is deducted for a suggestion the author makes about three-quarters through, when discussing Das Kapital. He suggests that Marx did not mean Kapital to be a work of science, but a work of ART (he means this literally, not figuratively.) His evidence? Marx refered to Kapital as his "work of art" (my guess, this is metaphor). Also, the author argues, if Marx had already summed up the themes of Kapital in a speech a few years earlier (he did), then why did he write a 1000 page tome espousing the same ideas (he did). Honestly, with flimsy evidence like that, this claim looks utterly ridiculous - not to mention likely insulting to any Marxist or person who takes Marx seriously as a thinker. Enough to cost half a star.

Otherwise, this book is an unbiased, humanistic read that plays just like a novel. Marx, of course, is a far superior character than any author could ever devise and in the end, my bet is that whether you love or hate him, you will find yourselves modifying your opinion to ambivalence as Marx (the person, not the manifesto) is much too complicated to love or hate.

Top Marx
I would not have imagined that a biography of Karl Marx could be such an entertaining and interesting read. This was. Much more has been written about the 'ism' than the man. This is a fascinating insight into his life, his poverty, his exile, his contradictions as well as his thinking.

What was most noticeable was the remarkable loyalty of Engels - friend, ghost-writer and benefactor - who even became a stranger in a strange land (Capitalism) to help finance publication of Marx's ideas, often in the face of staggering procrastination by the latter.

This is a very readable account of the life and carbunkles of one of the last century's most influential figures. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the only unabridged edition to take into account the whole of Capital. It offers virtually all of Volume 1, which Marx himself published in 1867, excerpts from a new translation of "The Result of the Immediate Process Production," and a selection of key chapters from Volume 3, which Engels published in 1895. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Stuck reviewing an abridged edition
...P>The key to grappling with Vol. 2 involves two major problems.

First, Marx took capital as irrational, and the capital-labor relation as an anatagonistic relation of domination.So part of the problem with Capital involves explaining how capitalism can even function in the first place.This helps us to grapple with Marx's discussion of circulation sans crisis.

Secondly, think of department one and department two as capital and labor respectively and it makes a lot more sense.As with Vols. 1 and 3, every aspect of Capital is steeped in a description of the antagonistic social relations (class struggle) and the forms in which they appear (form here means 'mode of existence', the way in which the antagonistic social relations make themselves apparent to us.)

The reason that Marx investigates the forms of the underlying social relations has to do with Marx's conception of science.Marx uses the term science to denote thought which critiques, which does not assume that essence and appearance (form and content) mirror each other, but are mediated and therefore distorted and not directly perceived.

As for the people who continue to insist that Marx wrote an alternate economics textbook, wake up.The book is not about economics per se, since Marx felt that the separation of the economic from the political, legal, artistic, etc. was a specific manifestation of the capital-labor relation.He critiques this separation and does so, not through a transhistorical set of 'laws' (as so many claim), but through a critique of bourgeois society's own understanding of itself (most prominently for Marx, via political economy.)For Marx, the 'laws' of capital are the forms of motion of the class struggle, not transhistorical, disembodied rules.

A complete argument can hardly be made here, but do yourself a favor if you wish to make a comment on or engage with Marx: read what Marx says.Like any other worthwhile intellectual, Marx takes a lot of effort (an acquaintance with Hegel helps a lot).Unlike most, Marx really was serious, even (especially) in relation to Das Kapital, that the point is not to understand the world, but to change it.Theory can never resolve the contradictions of the practical world, only revolutionary practice, the self-activity of the working class (most of us), can produce a society based on the 'free association of producers', in which 'the freedom of each is the precondition of the freedom of all'.Hardly the vision of a totalitarian.

A tottally refuted work on economics
Capital, from Karl Marx,has to be respected as a book that moved all the intellectual scenario of the late past century and early twientieth century. But, altough Adam Smith's Wealth of the Nations still is ascientifically and theoretically valid work, the Capital was completellyrefuted book (in that Karl Popper's sense). The Capital was based in adeterministic view of world, which was comprensible in that period ofhistory, when the Newton's Science was the gratest scientific achievement.But that determinism was crushed with the advent of Enstein's theory ofRelativity, and the most important of all, the advent of Quantum Mechanics,in the early years of this century. In a indirect way, the whole point madeby Marx was destroyed: His premise which says that, studying the past, wecan predict the future. Appling a method used in the Exact Sciences(inferential-deductive) Marx thought was possible to known the future (theinexorable Communism, coming from the struggle of classes)from simplyanalising the past, as the mathematics would do with a theorem. Marx viewedEconomics as a static system(not the way Smith already viewed theEconomics, a century earlier), and the free will as a illusion, since allideologies was merely a subproduct of particular economic era (againdeterminism). And the worst of all, the moral fundaments of hisrevoluttionary ideals was: since we already known that capitalism will bereplaced by Communism, one way or another, let's end it ourselves, rightnow, no matter how much blood we'll provocate. In other words is somethinglike this: If you, my friend, are going to die one day, one way or another,I'll kill you right now! A interesting book, but only as a curiosity(because of his influence) and nothing else. As a economic work, itstottaly refuted for a long time.

great book
it reveals how capitalism work

it is simply gorgous
it rips off the veneer and hypocrisy of capitalism shows how human being is reduced to machines

a serious analisys of economic relation
very important words over the economic vision over english production mode in the last century and your generic influence in future world. many economics appointments of the industrial world, statistics and a great concepcion of many categories of the political economy ... Read more

Product Description
Written in 1833-4, when Marx was barely twenty-five, this astonishingly rich body of works formed the cornerstone for his later political philosophy. In the Critique of Hegel's "Doctrine of the State", he dissects Hegel's thought and develops his own views on civil society, while his Letters reveal a furious intellect struggling to develop the egalitarian theory of state. Equally challenging are his controversial essay, "On the Jewish Question and the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts", where Marx first made clear his views on alienation, the state, democracy and human nature. Brilliantly insightful, Marx's "Early Writings" reveal a mind on the brink of one of the most revolutionary ideas in human history - the theory of Communism. This translation fully conveys the vigour of the original works. The introduction, by Lucio Colletti, considers the beliefs of the young Marx and explores these writings in the light of the later development of Marxism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

indispensable...
Indispensable for a correct reading of Karl Marx. To fully understand his point of view and critics you need to cover the early writings first, so that you won't form a wrong idea what Marxism is about, like most people usually do.

Not for beginners
As someone who thought he had a relatively good grasp of what Marxist philsophy is comprised of, it came as something of a surprise that this text was so incomprehensible. This was the first actual Marx I have ever set out to read. I believed that _Early Writings_ might a good place to start (you know: start at the beginning, as they say). At any rate, I would encourage someone who is a novice at this sort of thing to start with another book. From the very start I had a difficult time determing exactly what Marx was getting at. The first 200 pages are a refutation to a Hegelian concept of the state. If you are not familiar with the writings and ideas of Hegel, you will not want to read that particular work. The second half of the book is more approachable, but not what I would term "accessible" by any means. I would recommend this only to people that already have extensive knowledge of Marx's terminology and belief systems. Without this prerequisite, you might as well be reading Latin.

To Learn More About A Legend
This book gives the reading a kind of "before they were stars" approach.It provides a good spring board to seeing how Marx metamorphasized from Das Capitol into the Communist Manifesto.I recommend this book for anyone who is looking to get to the base of and learn more about this influential write and philosopher. ... Read more

Product Description
Volume: 2Publisher: Chicago, C.H. KerrPublication date: 1908Subjects: CapitalEconomicsSocialismNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

An astonishing achievement
I hate how some of the other people reviewing the volumes of Das Kapital fail to see that at least in this book, Marx wasn't advocating anything.It was his analysis of the fundamental features of capitalism.This book deals with the cell of capitalism: the commodity.This book is simply Marx's analysis of how the labor in the production of commodities becomes the commodity itself (commodity fetishism).He identifies the three circuits of capital required to produce commodities in a capitalist society: money capital, productive capital, and commodity capital.The third chapter I found to be very interesting because in this chapter Marx identifies two forms of consumption, these being productive consumption and personal consumption.This created the circular flow of money to becoming either money capital or productive capital.Highly recommended for anyone looking to understand how societies function and how capitalism really works.

The production process as a necessary evil for the purpose of money-making
The most important point made in this volume is : "The production process appears simply as an unavoidable middle term, a necessary evil for the purpose of money-making."In his time, Marx could not have foreseen how this reality would transform our world beyond all imagination, once the current phase of mass consumption on a global scale was reached.Most objects capitalism offer today are objects with little usefulness, but are so thoroughly pushed by publicity and social conformism that they seem to fulfill vital necessities of life.

EASY-QUICK-EFFICIENT
When I need a book it is almost too easy to get what I want. Choices of edition, binding, condition. Keep it up.

Must read
Although Marx's Capital remains a difficult read, it is essential for understanding the current economic mess, in particular the growth of unproductive speculative capital.With speculative debt reaching nearly ten times the level of the world's productive economy (GDP), it appears that the barons of capitalism have sealed their own fate.Find out why.

Big Impact on My Life
I used to ascribe to Marxist philosophy.However, there are problems with his analysis, and it can be seen in concrete terms from command economies.If the labor theory of value is true, then there is no difference between 1year old scotch and 15-year old scotch whiskey, although conisseurs ofliquor would disagree... shoddy products and inefficent workers come intoplay.Another problem is that Marx promises "Proof" of the labortheory of value but never gives it.Also, he talked alot about Capital butnot a lot about Communism.He never discussed how Communist society wouldwork in a modern world, giving us only vague extrapolations from"Primitive Communism" or Hunter/Gatherer societies.Worth themoney though. ... Read more

Product Description
Nearly two years before his powerful Communist Manifesto, Marx (1818-1883) co-wrote "The German Ideology" in 1845 with friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels expounding a new political worldview, including positions on materialism, labour, production, alienation, the expansion of capitalism, class conflict, revolution, and eventually communism. They chart the course of 'true' socialism based on Hegel's dialectic, while criticising the ideas of Bruno Bauer, Max Stirner and Ludwig Feuerbach. Marx expanded his criticism of the latter in his now famous Theses on Feuerbach, found after Marx's death and published by Engels in 1888. "Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy", also found among the posthumous papers of Marx, is a fragment of an introduction to his main works. Combining these three works, this volume is essential for an understanding of Marxism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Revolutionary
The German Ideology indexes Marx's 'break' from a philosophical humanism to a period of revolutionary materialism. This extraordinary book attacks the 'materialisms' of Feuerbach, Stirner, and Bauerin turn, and attempts to formulate a new conception of man as framed in terms of his alienation from the sum of productive forces. Marx's theses on Feuerbach are obviously the most read and oft quoted, and they are true landmarks in the history of political consciousness. Marx is clearly carving out a new space of empirical inquiry, a space which would give rise to a scientific analysis of the material conditions of reality-and to propose a radical political program of revolutionary change. His discussion of Stirner is laborious and painstaking; it is clearly less read and considered than it should be. It's too bad that this text is in such a poor edition-the footnotes do not lead anywhere and no one will take responsibility for the bad translation. Hopefully someone will put together a better edition in the future.

An epistemological break?
Structural Marxists and others inclined to see a sharp epistemological break between the young Marx, still a social philosopher, and the mature Marx, a scientist with a genuinely new method, historical materialism, often point to The German Ideology (1847) as marking the rupture between the two views.Specific individuals are of little or no interest.The emphasis is on entire social systems and the ways that individuals fit into them.

As one reads The German Ideology it is clear that class is a characteristic of an entire society, rather than a characteristic of individuals.A society may be organized into classes, but these are structured arrangements of positions to be filled by people.The positions, organized into objectively conflicting sets, are the classes.It makes little difference who occupies the positions, because human beings' historically specific nature and their life course and prospects will be determined by their class location, the role they are assigned in the process of material production.

From this vantage point, it is also useful to think of class as a societal-level relational phenomenon:capital and labor are engaged in a struggle across a broad range of fronts.Capital dominates and exploits because capital owns and controls the means of material production.Labor has nothing to offer but labor, or as Marx referred to it from The German Ideology on, labor power.The latter usage emphasizes the one-dimensional character of interchangeable laboring people in a capitalist society:they are the work they can do; that work can be assigned a dollar value; and that is their only valuable characteristic.In this way, labor power is clearly transformed into a commodity, exchangeable for other commodities, whatever they may be.

In effect, labor power is reduced to the status of a thing to be bought, sold, and used in ways that maximize productivity, minimize costs, and further exaggerate the difference between the value produced by labor power and the compensation labor receives.In this context, laboring people survive economically only at the sufferance of capital.

Again, this is all very impersonal.In the preface to the first edition of the first volume of capital Marx notes that, as a social theorist, he dealt with individual human beings only insofar as they were "personifications of economic categories, embodiments of class relations and class interests."

From The German Ideology on a heavy emphasis on determinism is quite consistent with Marx's view.Abstract dehumanization, moreover, applies to capitalists as well as to laborers.In The German Ideology Marx characterizes the 16th century forerunners of contemporary capitalists as functioning in precarious circumstances fraught with uncertainty as to the nature and stability of the emergent markets in which they participated.The high level of risk that pervaded their social and economic environment imbued them with a"haggardly, mean, and niggardly spirit."They were not born haggardly, mean, and niggardly, nor did they choose to develop these characteristics.Instead the contextually determined nature of their lives determined that they would acquire these unappealing traits.

As with the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, The German Ideology remained unpublished during Marx's lifetime.Now that both are available, evidence of Marx's theoretical development is evident as we move from one to the other.However, reading one after the other reveals nothing contradictory in Marx's developing thought about capitalism and the historically specific nature of human beings.Instead, the two documents seem complementary rather than inconsistent.In the Manuscripts, Marx devoted a good deal of attention to discrediting the academic economics of his day.In The German Ideology, Marx and Engels did much the same thing for academic philosophy and history.I see ongoing theoretical development, but no epistemological break.

Read the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 and The German Ideology.There is a good deal of overlap, but I benefited from both.

Important for scholars of Marx -- but HORRIBLE edition
This edition is of very poor quality. The typeface changes by the chapter; the footnote symbols do not correspond to any actual footnotes; there is no introduction; and there is no named translator.

Clearly Prometheus Books simply copies-and-pastes existing versions of texts without any editorial oversight. This is a truly awful publishing company.

Best Footnotes around
If you are thinking about buying your own copy of The German Ideology I probably don't need to convince youof the value of this work.Like most things Marx wrote, it is demanding and rewarding--probably more difficult than the Communist Manifesto, less so than Capital or the Grundrisse.If you're not sure where you stand on Marx's style and difficulty preview any of his works free at marxists.org

That said, if you are looking for a copy of The German Ideology I highly recommend this one. Instead of messing around with lots of distorting introductions it just has a really nice text with footnotes to chart Marx's deletions and rearrangements.So not only does this edition give historical context for the later works like Capital, it also gives a sense of how Marx's thinking and style were changing as he wrote this book.The inclusion of deletions is particularly interesting to see what Marx didn't want to say but almost did anyway.

Buy another edition --- not poor but WRONG translation
German Ideology is one of the most important texts among the classics of Marxism. I do not need to say much on German Ideology. But I should warn the possible readers about the edition of the book. The problems of the edition are not limited to the technical ones. Since I had been familiar with the text before I read this edition, I realized some conceptual errors due to translation.

Let me give an example.

I do not know why but the editor of the volume put an "irrelevant" text called "introduction to the critique of political economy" which is now the first chapter of Grundrisse. Although this text is marvelous and one of the two texts written by Marx on his own methodology, i. it was written later than German Ideology and in terms of their contexts there is a lack of coincidence between these texts and hence it can not be an introductory text for German Ideology ii. one of the most important emphases in the text is translated so that it says diametrically opposite what Marx says in the original text.

In penguin edition Marx says

"It appears in the process of thinking, therefore as a process of concentration, as a result, not as a point of departure, even though it IS the point of departure in reality and hence also the point of departure for observation and conception."

In this edition Marx says the opposite

"In our thought, it therefore appears as a process of synthesis, as a result and NOT AS A STARTING POINT OF OBSERVATION AND CONCEPTION." p.16

Obviously the first one is true for Marxist methodology.

Five stars are for Marx not for the editor or publisher... ... Read more

Product Description
Communism as a political movement attained global importance after the Bolsheviks toppled the Russian Czar in 1917. After that time the works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, especially the influential "Communist Manifesto (1848)", enjoyed an international audience. The world was to learn a new political vocabulary peppered with 'socialism', 'capitalism', 'the working class', 'the bourgeoisie', 'labor theory of value', 'alienation', 'economic determinism', 'dialectical materialism', and 'historical materialism'. Marx's economic analysis of history has been a powerful legacy, the effects of which continue to be felt world-wide. Serving as the foundation for Marx's indictment of capitalism is his extraordinary work titled "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts", written in 1844 but published nearly a century later. Here Marx offers his theory of human nature and an analysis of emerging capitalism's degenerative impact on man's sense of self and his creative potential. What is man's true nature? How did capitalism gain such a foothold on Western society? What is alienation and how does it threaten to undermine the proletariat?These and other vital questions are addressed as the youthful Marx sets forth his first detailed assessment of the human condition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

A primer for understanding today's global economic mess
Social theorists, Marxists among them, often make a sharp distinction between Marx's early work, especially the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, and everything that came after The German Ideology.In this view, the early Marx was a social philosopher who had not yet promulgated a method or constructed a coherent conceptual framework, while his later work, especially the first volume of Capital, escaped the soft amorphousness of social philosophy and gave us rigorous social and economic science through application of historical materialism.There may be merit to this distinction, but I think that, at best, it is vastly overdrawn.

Either explicitly or by unmistakable implication, the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts give us nearly all the basic and most compelling ideas that provide the foundation for Marx's later work.The objectively determined antagonism between capital and labor is explained with clarity and force.The fact that capital and labor constitute classes in a macro-level sense, rather than through reference to characteristics of individuals or status groups seems undeniable.The structural determination of behavior takes the focus off ostensibly rapacious capitalists and laboring class victims, making notions like "good guys," "bad guys," and even free will seem obsolete and beside the point.Determinism is the watchword.

Perhaps the most insightful and interesting observation in the Manuscripts is Marx's conclusion that the more workers produce the stronger the hand of capital.The more productive the worker the more he undercuts his position with respect to capital.Technological innovations, for example, make workers more productive, but they also reduce the demand for labor and reduce labor costs.

When Marx wrote the Economic and Philosophical manuscripts he had not yet made the distinction between labor and labor power, and the commoditization of labor was less clear.Furthermore, he had not yet augmented use value and exchange value with his own notion of value, measurable units which could be objectively quantified in terms of labor power.The distinction between labor and labor power, however, seems obvious even if unstated in the Manuscripts, and Marx's elaborated account of value has always seemed to generate confusion, raising all sorts of measurement problems which seem unlikely to be solved.Thorstein Veblen, generally sympathetic toward Marx's work, dismissed the labor theory of value as unduly metaphysical; probably as good a characterization as any.

To his credit, toward the end of the Manuscripts, Marx engages in an hypothetical discussion of something he calls "primitive communism."This is a world fraught with envy and resentment, the product of a premature effort to produce a genuinely communist society.This illustration was used to emphasize Marx's admission that he did not know what form a genuinely communist or socialist society would take.Instead, this was something that would have to emerge historically.

At the risk of gross over-simplification, I'll offer a Marxist explanation of the economic mess we share today:too many laboring people make too little money and are forced to rely on credit offered by the capitalist class.When borrowers are completely tapped out, unable to pay what they've borrowed, the system collapses.Fundamentally, this is not because loans were unduly risky, but because most people had so little that risky loans were essential to maintaining the bare rudiments of a lower-middle class life style.

A Classic of Marxism
You don't have to agree with Marx to appreciate this book.Inside you will find a concise collection of his writings that speak to the heart of the Marxists idea of economics.Compelling, controversial, and even flat out wrong - the challenge of Marxism is one that all serious thinkers about economics must face at some point - whether we agree with it or not.This small volume serves as a very useful introduction to the thoughts of Karl Marx.

From Narcissism to Dementia
The capitalist will compete with other capitalists for the services of the worker, bidding up the worker's wages to its "market value." This market value will be auctioned upwards until the point is reached where the capitalist's profit no longer compensates him for his risk and sacrifice. This empirical fact is obvious to everyone who lives in a capitalist system. It is the reason why 90% of workers make far above minimum wage. It is also quite opposite to the Marx theory of labor which claims that wages will always seek the minimum amount to keep the worker alive and working.

This book is interesting in that it is the unfolding of Marx's descent from acute narcissism to full-blown dementia. His increasing disassociation with reality can be seen in his misquoting and taking out of context the very opposing words of Adam Smith and Jean-Baptiste Say.

Unfortunately, the demented state that Marx was in by the end of these writings lead to the eventual murder of over 100 million people in the twentieth century.

Marx's Manuscripts
Marx's Philosophic Manuscripts are just that. Dont think you'll get a nice package of arguments. I'd like to think of this as Marx "in the raw" so be ready to follow Marx as he organizes his own thoughts.

The Blueprint for Economic Democracy
Many people have sounded the Death Knell of Marx with the fall of the Eastern Bloc in the 80's and 90's. Many who have been interested in Marx read 'The Communist Manifesto' an admitedly dated work and never go beyond it. It must be remembered the Manifesto was a simplified form of practical ideas printed to drive the working class to action.

Marx was a student of Hegel, a notoriously difficult and deep philosopher to understand, but it shaped Marx to a degree that few understand. Marx was more than an economic philoshpher, he was an astute observer of psychology, sociology and anthropology. All of his philosophy shines in clarity in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844.

Of all of Marx's works we see most the thesis and theory devised from his understanding of the human condition through historical analysis. This work is the most accessable, easily understood work by this great thinker. If you have the desire to truly understand a major influence for the framework of many socialized democracies of modern Europe, the drives for nationhood and equality that rocked Europe in revolt in 1848 or desire to truly understand the whole theory of Marx this small book is an absolute must.

Marx was a both a materialist and process theorist in philosophical terms. His later socio-econmic works were a sort of working blueprint based upon the historical, psyhcological, sociolgoical, economic and anthropologic theories laid down in this work. ... Read more

Product Description
The late Reverend Richard Wurmbrand spent 14 years as a prisoner of the Communist government in Romania , where he was persecuted for his faith in Jesus Christ. His experience led him to spend further years researching Karl Marx and the Communist doctrines he developed. While Communism portrays itself as a noble endeavor for the good of mankind, and claims an Atheistic view, Wurmbrand exposes its true roots, revealing that Karl Marx and the fathers of the modern Communist/Socialist movements were inspired by the powers of darkness.

By examining the confessions, writings, and poetry of Marx and his followers, the author demonstrates how the "prince of darkness" gave these men the "sword" by which they have terrorized the nations. Wurmbrand proves that this movement is not simply the work of greedy men, hungry for wealth and power, but is "after the working of Satan" with the intent of destroying mankind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Karl Marx
Got as a gift for a friend.I received it quickly and in excellent condition.

MARX & SATAN by Richard Wurmbrand
Marx & Satan (1986) is a spiritual biography (of sorts) of Karl Marx by Richard Wurmbrand, erstwhile victim of Soviet persecution and founder of The Voice of the Martyrs, a nonprofit international Christian anti-persecution organization. Here, Wurmbrand suggests that Marx, the founder of modern Communism, converted from Christianity to Satanism at a young age and then used Communism as a tool to spread hatred and destruction.

Some of the facts in this matter appear to be beyond reasonable question, both from historical record and Marx's own writings. Obviously Marx hated God vehemently, and his writings do give the impression of belief rather than atheism. Wurmbrand suggests, based on Marx's own writings, that Marx was a hater rather than a lover of humanity (and that Marx's supposed love for the proletariat was a fiction created by the Communists), and all things considered that seems quite reasonable. But to say that Marx's primary goal was to promote Satanism, as Wurmbrand suggests, moves squarely into the realm of speculation (and Wurmbrand has, at least, the good grace to acknowledge that much of what he asserts is circumstantial, although he seems quite sure of his evidence).

Beyond the basics of Marx's upbringing, writings, and relationships with other Communist fathers like Engels, Wurmbrand is all over the place with poor reasoning, wanton speculation, and straw man arguments: Karl Marx turned to Satanism and wanted to use it to destroy humanity because nobody appreciated his poetry. Darwin is to blame for the millions of murders committed by the Communists. Led Zeppelin backmasked satanic lyrics into "Stairway to Heaven." Ludicrous assertions like these make Wurmbrand look foolish.

It doesn't help that Wurmbrand seems to have no sense of irony or metaphor when he interprets the writings of others. Much of what he analyzes is poetry, and yet he takes every line about demons and such to be disturbingly literal. His inability to apply even the most basic critical reading skills neuters a number of his arguments.

It's important to consider that based on Wurmbrand's own horrific experiences with the Communists, he's about as anti-Communism as they come, and it's somewhat understandable that he swings too far the other way (for more information, see Wurmbrand's superior work, Tortured for Christ). Even so, some of the places Wurmbrand goes in this book are flat-out ridiculous.

I don't want to suggest that Marx & Satan might not be worth a read, but be prepared to wade through a whole lot of bathwater in order to find the baby.

One of the most important books ever written!!!
This is one of the extremely few books which should be read by every person on this planet.Only fools and despots would oppose its reading.

Everyone should read this book!!!!
This really should be required reading here in America with our new administration!Scary?, yes!Necessary information?, Definitely!!!We have an admitted Marxist turned communist in the White House advising our president(B.O.)!Does anyone care?

Scholarly Evidence Convinces
Who was Karl Marx?Richard Wormbrand allows the reader to decide, in a thin but powerful volume replete with original source quotations and references.Reverend Wormbrand is not a "fanatic" or a "right-wing extremist" or an "anti-Semite" as other reviewers accuse.He is a Jew himself, who did convert to Christianity and was imprisoned and tortured for many years under the Communists in Rumania.The negative reviewers obviously have not actually read the book, which is humble, circumspect, and full of forgiveness for those who have been taken in by evil.This is the same Richard Wurmbrand who founded the organization that distributes the book, "Jesus, Friend of Terrorists" to offer a hand of love and forgiveness to the FARC guerillas in South America. So, if you are thinking that maybe Rush Limbaugh wrote this book to somehow discredit the left-leaning Democrats, you would be very wrong.

The overwhelming evidence in the words of Marx himself is very clear--even if Marx was not a practicing Satanist, he was extremely familiar with Satanism, he wrote a Satanic play, he wrote Satanic poetry, and he was filled with hatred for mankind in general, and Christians in particular.Richard Wormbrand establishes this very easily, by using direct quotations from the writings and correspondence of Karl Marx.The biographers of Marx usually contend that he was baptized into Christianity at the age of 7 for "business reasons".His father, a Jew, was a lawyer--and presumably would get more business as a Christian.The truth is that we don't know if the senior Marx was a real convert or a convert for expediency.But it is certainly possible that sometime during his teen years, Karl felt that his father was a hypocrite.That might have led him to hate Christianity, and also to hate Judaism.We do know that Marx wrote some virulent anti-Semitic materials, which was curious considering his ethnicity.In any case, his rebellion against traditional religion might very well have led him to extremes.That makes the idea that he was, in fact, a Satanist seem rather plausible. But again, even if he did not truly believe in Satanism, his pride, venom, and hatred are evident from his own words.It is abundantly clear that he was less an "economic theorist" than he was an anarchist and anti-Christian zealot.
The only disagreement I have with this book is that Richard Wormbrand seems to equate "extreme" evil (such as the tens of millions killed under Communist regimes) with evidence of Satanism.I personally believe that mankind can come up with some pretty extreme evil even without the black candles and bad poetry of Satanism. ... Read more

Product Description
THEORIES OF SURPLUS VALUE is the fourth volume in KarlMarx's (1818-1883) monumental work, DAS KAPITAL (CAPITAL).Dividedinto three parts, this compelling work reviews classic economicanalyses of labor and value (Adam Smith, David Ricardo, ThomasR. Malthus, and others), focusing on the concept of surplus value--thedifference between the full value of a worker's labor and the wagesreceived for that labor.This is a key concept for Marx, sincecapitalism maintains its power through controlling surplus value. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The definative history of classical/pre-classical economics.
This book represents the painstaking effort of a great mind. An excrucriatingly detailed critical review of the economic literature pre-dating Marx is undertaken. Anyone seeking to understand the history of economics must carefully review this epic work. Historians too, will appreciate the extensive treatment of the contexts into which generations of economic ideas were born. Marx's revolutionary new theory of class emerges clearly from his critical reading of the great and not-so-great works which provided the foundation on which his break-throughs were built. ... Read more

Product Description
Unfinished at the time of Marx's death in 1883 and first published with a preface by Frederick Engels in 1894, the third volume of "Das Kapital" strove to combine the theories and concepts of the two previous volumes in order to prove conclusively that capitalism is inherently unworkable as a permanent system for society. Here, Marx asserts controversially that - regardless of the efforts of individual capitalists, public authorities or even generous philanthropists - any market economy is inevitably doomed to endure a series of worsening, explosive crises leading finally to complete collapse. But he also offers an inspirational and compelling prediction: that the end of capitalism will culminate, ultimately, in the birth of a far greater form of society. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent service, perfect condition
What a bargain and with minimum effort I found the cheapest, best deal on the market.

More than a classic--a Magnificent Work!!
It is annoying to see how other customers denigrate a classical and well-thought book only with untruthful reasons; the book is a jewel of economic and social thought and very heavy on its arguments. It is well introduced by Ernest Mandel and magisterially translated for David Fernbach. It is well laid out and thought-provoking and it should be read after the Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy (Penguin Classics) and the Early Writings (Penguin Classics) and may be accompanied by a guide or companion of Marxist thought. A classic that will get over the bad facts mistakenly attached to it and that will be a cornerstone in Economic Theories. Remember, in it what is exposed is the weaknesses of capitalism, not a blueprint of bloody revolution and tragic tyranny, as it was made by the betrayers and corrupters that manage to make it happen like that.

Impressive and worthy read!
At the final of this extensive and tough read, the rewards are worth the effort. This third volume of Das Kapital concludes Marx attempt to describe how a Capitalist economic and society works. The most difficult part of it is to follow the concepts and ideas that compose the subject and how the different concepts are related to one another.The most impressive part of all is the scope of the work and how it formulates the inherent flaws and machinations of the capitalist system. Overall, a tough read, but a rewarding experience.

An Essential Text (if a bit difficult for the lay reader)
The third volume of Das Kapital is a bit more well known than the second and it makes for some interesting, if somewhat dry, reading. This volume has gained notoriety through the works of Bohm-Bawerk who insisted that Marx's theory of value was inconsistent. In the third volume, Marx says that instead of commodities selling at their value per se, they rather sell according to a certain formula that he lays out. Instead f commodities selling at the "old" formula of p= v+s+c, now commodities sell at r(v+c)+v+c. Now, such a modification does not alter the dynamics of the capitalist system one whit. Rather, it allows Marx to show how values as such are translated into prices. Rudolf Hilferding wrote an excellent criticism of Bohm-Bawerk's critique which is, alas, rather hard to find now. *whew*
Alright, the rest of the volume deals with Marx's theory of rent and his rather short contribution to a theory of credit and banking. once again, Rudolf Hilferding elaborates upon Marx's theory of credit, banking, and "fictitious capital" in his work Das Finanzkapital. Written in 1911, it predicted the First World War and was regarded as the fourth/ fifth volume of Capital (the fourth volume of Capital sometimes held as Marx's Theories of Surplus Value, a history of bourgeois economic theory).

I hope this has been relatively coherent. All in all, it isn't Daniel Steele or the Da Vinci Code. Nor is it the Leftist equivalent of Mein Kampf. Rather, it's a somewhat dry, but extremely important, economics text, far better than anything Adam Smith ever produced. I recommend it to economics students, Marxian scholars, and anyone seeking an economic justification of socialism. I hope this was of some use to you.

A rationalization for slavery and slaughter
The book that spawned the deaths of over 100 million people in the 20th Century is, ironically, only a boring litany of economic fallacies. The poverty of the labor theory of value, the absurdity of economic progresswithout a price system, and the necessary terror that accompanies socialismare all exposed in detail in George Reisman's CAPITALISM. All of you poorproletarians with computers out to read how effortlessly a real economistdismantles your dogma. ... Read more

Product Description
This title is the classic communist party manifesto which started this one and a half decade political movement. The seven rarely published prefaces, mostly written by Frederick Engels after the death of Karl Marx, are included making this publication the complete communist manifesto. Although this title is known as one of the most famous left-wing propagandist publications, it serves as a lesson for those of all political philosophies. The Communist Manifesto should be required reading when studying political science, radicalism and radical political thought. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

A Monumental Piece of Work
There are very few books that have changed the course of history.The Communist Manifesto is one of them.Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels set forth a radical idea that would change the course of history and the world we live in.Regardless if you agree with them or not they created something that people still talk about and debate to this day.All you need to do is read the Manifesto really; there is no need to read the prefaces that follow.Everyone should read it just so you know what goes through the mind of a (true) communist.

Well Worth Reading -- Even if you disagree
The Communist Manifesto is a fascinating read for four reasons.

First, it gives an extremely clear view (of course) of Marx's thinking about class struggle, ending with the famous dictum that the workers "have nothing to lose but their chains". His economic analysis is, God knows, quite flawed, but his observation of many problems, the exploitation of the workers, the problems with unrestricted free trade, is by no means stupid or unsophisticated.

Second, is also fascinating in how Marx thought (almost) completely in generalities. Aside from a few other intellectual writers -- in short, from people just like him -- who are positively or negatively mentioned, both "the proletariat" and "the bourgeoisie" are undifferentiated masses, not people; nobody else is mentioned by name. It is here -- the treating of human beings as if they were cattle, of caring nothing for any particular individual's rights -- where Marx went so completely (and tragically) wrong, considering it (quite explicitly) perfectly natural for the rule of law, morality, freedom of the press, democracy, and privacy as so much extra baggage, to be thrown out as the perfect Communist society is created.

Third there's Marx absolute conviction that he has it all figured out. He hadn't merely pointed out problems with capitalist society or with unrestricted free trade, but has found the hidden explanation (class struggle) for everything that ever happened before in human history, and the perfect society that will finally bring happiness. In this, Marx is like strict Freudians (not Freud himself) who think "neuroses" due to unconscious conflicts explain everything about a person's entire previous history, and that they have found out the magic solution (psychotherapy) that will, at long last, cure them. But Freudians, unlike Marx, weren't calling for a world revolution and the abolition of the rule of law and human rights.

Fourth, and sadly, we see how so much of what is seen as "progressive" and "revolutionary" analysis on the political left for the last 150 years later and more, had not merely been influenced by, or based on, Marx -- but had been quite literally just quotes from Marx, dressed up for the needs of the moment. It is a mirror image of fundamentalism: like Christian cults or radical Muslims, the Marxists have the ONE book that has ALL the answers. Sociologically, at least, this book had become a religious founding text, and Marxism is its religion. There is no God but class struggle, and Marx is His prophet.

Wow.....
It makes me laugh how people will rate this work not because of how thought provoking or productive it is but they rate it on what society feels and thinks and that this is all a rant about communism and whoever enjoys this is a godless terrorist. How society has such little intelligence these days and so much misinformation is quite hilarious and scary all in one thought. Let society control your thought process all....if you want someone else thinking for you.

Sad
The communist manifesto pretends to be an answer to the sufferings of people by stripping them of all of their freedoms and replacing their minds with an oppressive totalitarian regime ran by selfish, snob-nosed, godless, evil, children starving, genocidal, blood thirsty, narcissistic, cowards.

It is what it is.
I got this book because I wanted to know what it said.In that respect- I could NOT be dissatisfied.It says what it says.However, I was hoping this book would be a through explanation of communism-how it works, how it is better than capitalism, etc....But that is NOT this book.

This book is "red meat" for those who are already acquainted with communist thought.When I first read the book, I got the sense that I was missing something.It seemed to presuppose a certain understanding-one which I did not have at the time I first read this book.I gained a better understanding when I read "Karl Marx Selected Writings" edited by Lawrence Simon.That book also contains the Communist Manifesto.So, if your goal is to get an understanding of communism from the ground up-better start there and not here.

The writing in this book (and in all of Marx's writing) is a little tough to follow.Marx tends to write run-on sentences and use a lot of qualifying phrases.This makes his work less readable.That is why I knocked off a star.

I gave this book 4 stars because I don't want to be one of these morons who give books they disagree with politically 1 star and then rant about their disagreements.I gave this book 4 stars on it's readability and how well it illustrates the points it is supposed to make.I was completely horrified by what I read-but-that doesn't mean I take away stars on those other accounts. ... Read more