We see a lot of account requests from people who are just yet dipping their toes in marxism and communism. We can’t abandon new comrades to the flow of the current they are floating in, pulling them in all directions without a reason or goal in sight. They need a comprehensive, actual study plan.
I purposely limited myself to 6 books (honorable mentions would have been State and Revolution and the Manifesto) as this is like a crash course to get you to an adequate level. If you read say a chapter every night (and for principles of communism just do it in one go it’s super short), you should finish everything in around a month.
This thread should also double as an ask your questions thread. But I feel there’s also a whole thing around asking questions; people want to know about the war in Ukraine, about US imperialism, about what’s happening in China or the DPRK… but while this is important, it’s parallel to your marxist studies. You must, alongside current events, learn about the fundamentals as well. Sometimes it seems less important because there’s major stuff happening and “theory” is seen as some dead wood, something you can pick up but was written a century ago and so has little relevance to our world today, but it’s the opposite. If you truly want to understand what’s happening today, you have to understand not only what happened in the past that led to today, but also the theory that was written down in the past and is still applicable.
So anyway, feel free to ask for clarification on stuff you don’t understand, not focusing solely on current events as I often see around the grad 🙆♀️
lists include too many books and act more like repositories than actual reading lists or syllabus.
This is so true and I’m guilty of doing it myself. Someone will ask for a suggestion and boom, here’s every book written on the topic.
Great list. I don’t remember reading this work by Harman but I’ll give it a go. The rest, I can agree, are a great place to start and to build a solid foundation. As you say, we (should) never stop learning, so if someone gets the basics down with this list, they can choose a direction for further study and follow it.
I think we might also want to select some podcast episodes that offer solid commentary that make the texts more accessible. Possibly Red Menace?
Marx Madness as well for podcasts.
Marx Madness has been my jam, got me through a ton of theory. Just finished Black Reconstruction which was one hell of a journey. Looking forward to Neo-colonialism next
I second Red Menace, that’s been my go-to lately since I’m too busy with school to do other readings and listening on my commutes has been a pleasure. My gut reaction was to look for episodes on books on this list lol.
This is a pretty good list I think for new Marxists. I agree that often people are suggested like 100 books to start with and it may be overwhelming. I probably would have put State and Revolution instead of Imperalism but I am interested to hear why you didn’t put in State and Rev because I personally would have thought of it as absolutely essential reading.
It’s also fundamental reading, but it’s partially incorporated in Harman’s pamphlet. I added it as an honorable on the category along with the manifesto still.
Gotcha. I had read what Harman wrote so I didn’t know that. Thanks
I’d say to make
Value, Price, and Profita requirement alongsideWage Labour and Capital; they’re often published together too. But regardless, good list.Where’s the list?
This is the list from the page:
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How marxism works - Chris Harman - Harman was in a Trotskyist party, but his short pamphlet (44 pages) remains one of the best introductions to marxism. You could give this to an absolute beginner who’s never even heard of the word philosophy before and they’d come out with working knowledge of marxism. It’s wrong in a couple places if I remember correctly, but it’s nothing you won’t fix with further reading.
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Principles of communism - Engels - Engels wrote this pamphlet in an FAQ format, which explains in very simple terms what communism is, where it’s coming from, etc. Very short read and absolutely vital to understand not only (marxist) communism but also the class struggle and the history of how we got where we are now (capitalism).
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Elementary principles of philosophy - Georges Politzer - Philosophy is not difficult or only for academics when Politzer teaches it. Under this seemingly innocent title lies a complete course on dialectical materialism, one of the fundamental parts of marxism.
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Wage labour and capital - Marx - Marxism is also about the economic theory and Value, price and profit provides the basis of that field in a smaller and easier package than Capital. Wage labour and capital was compiled from three lectures Marx gave; as simple as you can get it. If you want to follow up on that, read Value, price and profit right after, but it’s optional.
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The three sources and three component parts of Marxism - Lenin - To tie it all together, I added this short essay by Lenin which explains the three components of marxism: the philosophy of dialectical materialism, the labour theory of value on the economic side, and the class struggle as the third component. In my opinion this pamphlet is too difficult for a first-time reader despite its shortness, it works best as a reminder of what marxism actually is. Never forget these components and you will never stray wrong.
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Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism - Lenin - Finally, to breach into the 21st century (despite being written a century earlier!), you must understand imperialism. We live in the age of imperialism still, as it is after all the highest stage of capitalism. NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, all these modern-day projects are purveyors of imperialism in the world.
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There’s a link in the post to:
https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Category:Crit's_absolute_beginner_reading_list
There is currently no text on that page.
works for me, is it still broken for you?
Yeah, I figured it’s working elsewhere based on other comments, but on Memmy I get directed to a “This page has no text” message on the wiki.
can you post a screenshot?
Scream’s link is broken (at least for me), your’s in the OP works fine. When I click scream’s link it adds a 25, turning Crit%27s into Crit%2527. I’m not sure if it’s a liftoff issue or firefox, the link is correct when I click but is changed before the page loads.
However I don’t get taken to the this page is blank error, just a generic one. I wonder if some apps aren’t handling links properly?
Maybe it’s Firefox? I just grabbed the link on the page I got.
Weird, if so.
There is when I look at it.
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Just got through the first one and it’s a cool read.
I already expected from the Trotsky references that the USSR takes would be weird, but one thing I found surprising was his portrayal of feminism. From my understanding, what he calls “feminism” is just the liberal feminism traditionally espoused by the likes of the LibDems or the Labour party and that there was actually always a strong Marxist Feminist current.
Can somebody more well versed in that help me understand it better?
I’m currently reading “Counterrevolution and Revolt”, and there are a few interesting points regarding your list.
The modern working class is not composed mainly out of factory workers and other producers of material goods. The vocabulary needs to be adapted to be approachable, and the concepts relatable. Otherwise you either get an intellectual “elite” using specialised terms to quickly exchange ideas, or a circlejerk where everyone is repeating stuff like “seize the means of production”. In either case the message wasn’t received by the group it should have.
Another important point is that the Russian texts don’t have much relevance to modern workers. We’re not starving, oppressed, and fighting for survival. Capitalism has had decades to learn how to keep the working population docile. It might be a better idea to use texts that deal with modern forms of capitalism because they’re more likely to successfully introduce these topics to non- academic beginners.
If I remember correctly, he also had a similar point about Marx and how the economy and capitalism in the 70s (when the book was written) were completely different to what Marx was writing about. My take is that if you give someone a difficult book, written about a difficult topic like economy, and on top of that it’s written about a system that’s not the one you’re living in, they’re most likely not going to finish it.
That’s from the perspective of spreading the idea of a revolution to common people. If the goal was to create a list for academics to begin their revolutionary education, I’d add a note about some TLDR of German idealism for the more adventurous.
Post the list, the link isn’t working.
