The Marx-Engels Reader

This excellent book contains some of the shorter writings of Marx and Engels in full, as well as extracts from their longer works.In his speech at Marx’s graveside (which is included in this collection), Engels outlines the three key elements of Marxism. Firstly, there is the materialist conception of history. Engels states that: “Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history…”As Marx himself puts it in “Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy”:“In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.”Secondly, Engels points out that Marx “also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production…” and particularly emphasises the “discovery of surplus value”, which is the mechanism through which the capitalist class exploits the working class (which today includes both manual and white collar workers).As Marx wrote in “Capital”: “The essential difference between the various economic forms of society, between, for instance, a society based on slave-labour, and one based on wage-labour, lies only in the mode in which this surplus-labour is in each case extracted from the actual producer, the labourer.”(Marx’s analysis of capitalism also makes good use of his dialectical approach and his theory of alienation.)Thirdly, Engels shows that Marxism is the theory of working class revolution. “For Marx was before all else a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to contribute to… the liberation of the modern proletariat…”A revolution was necessary partly because “... the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another...” (The Civil War in France) and partly because in the process of the class struggle the ideas of the majority of the working class would change, as is shown in these two passages from “The German Ideology”:“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time the ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production...”“Both for the production on a mass scale of this communist consciousness, and for the success of the cause itself, the alteration of men on a mass scale is necessary, an alteration which can only take place in a practical movement, a revolution; this revolution is necessary, therefore, not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but also because the class overthrowing it can only in a revolution succeed in ridding itself of all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society anew.”Finally, the democratic nature of the revolution that Marx envisaged (in total contrast to the bureaucratic and tyrannical Stalinist regimes which claimed to be following Marx, but which in fact were/are state capitalist societies) is shown when Marx writes (in “The Civil War in France”) about the short-lived Paris Commune as his model for a workers’ state:“(The Paris Commune) filled all posts — administrative, judicial and educational - by election on the basis of universal suffrage of all concerned, subject to the right of recall at any time by the same electors. And in the second place, all officials, high or low, were paid only the wages received by other workers.”Extracts like these make this book a must for anyone interested in Marxism. And don’t forget that: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.” (Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach”.)Phil Webster.

Read the 50 volumes from marx or you get the important material here. The book is structured beautifully and has a good balance with letters and with material and does not become overburden with minute details, which is easy when it comes to marx and Engel.Is this book for the beginner who wants just to know what these two where on about? Yes and no. First pick up David Harvey instead and continue with Robert Paul Wolff. Both have lectures on YouTube and complement each other, and you will to get a good baseline. Then come back to this book and enjoy it.

An outstanding reference source. Read to give me an insight on Marxism.A month not wasted. Have read the communist manifesto several times, but unfamiliar with capital ( summarised here) or earlier/later works.The genius of either men cannot be denied.

The best one volume digest of Marx's esential ideas. What is not in this bopok is of secondary importance for understanding Marx's philosophy. A classic.

I like the information that I required to simplify and verified comparable ideas for my paper.