The Worldview and Philosophical Methodology of Marxism-Leninism: Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism Part 1

by Luna Nguyen, Vijay Prashad (Foreword), Taimur Rahman (Introduction)

"In order to build socialism, first and foremost, we need to have socialist people who understand socialist ideology and have socialist values."

These are the immortal words of Ho Chi Minh, who helped guide Vietnam through decades of revolution against French colonialism, Japanese fascism, and American imperialism. These words reverberate today in the classrooms of Vietnamese high schools and colleges, where students are required to study a full curriculum of socialist theory rooted in the foundational works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Now, for the first time, the materials used to train Vietnamese students in the core ideological system of dialectical materialism and materialist dialectics is available to the English speaking world through Luna Nguyen's groundbreaking translation of Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism, Part 1: The Worldview and Philosophical Methodology of Marxism-Leninism for University and College Students Not Specializing in Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought.

This text, originally produced by Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training for use in universities, provides a brief history of Marxism-Leninism as well as thorough explanations of the principles and laws of dialectical materialism, materialist dialectics, and the cognitive theory of dialectical materialism. The first English edition is brought to you by Banyan House Publishing in collaboration with Iskra Books and The International Magazine. We have done our best to deliver a textbook which is highly optimized for collective training as well as self-study and for use as a companion piece for further reading. The book includes an original glossary, appendices, and illustrations and annotations by Emerican Johnson as well as a foreword by Dr. Vijay Prashad and introduction by Dr. Taimur Rahman.

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Economics, Theory, Nonfiction

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2023

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dialectics can be a pretty confusing topic even after a lot of reading and thought, but this textbook does a really great thing making it easy to understand. The extensive annotations do a great job providing needed context and fleshing out sections with examples and diagrams. Great text, definitely want to read the future parts

[Mtume Gant · Rating 5 out of 5]

You will not find a better text on learning Dialectical Materialism, both complex and easy engage with. Really a fantastic job done here by Luna Nguyen. All Marxists should be engaging with this text, especially if building cadre and organizing.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellently translated, annotated, and illustrated. This is the book I'll be recommending to newcomers to Marxism from now on.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read with clearly lots of effort put in by the translator. Included in addition to the base contents of the textbook are many extra explainers that cover in more detail the concepts dealt with by the original text, as the original authors could rely on a base level of knowledge for the students who would be expected to study the work.

I’m coming at it with a few years now of reading communist/Marxist theory and it was a great addition and refresher for me, filling in gaps in my knowledge and giving me a robust baseline. This will likely help me gain more from texts I’ve already read, encouraging me to potentially re-read works that started me on my radicalisation journey like Lenin’s Imperialism, and State and Revolution.

It may be a little heavy a read as a first foray into Marxism-Leninism and communist thought, but I don’t think there are many texts as thorough and clear as this one for teaching all of the basics required to get the most out of Marxist theory. I would highly recommend this to new communists and ones well on their education journeys.

[Carlos Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was thinking I'd briefly skim this, since it's not exactly my first diamat rodeo, but it was sufficiently interesting and well-written that I ended up reading in detail, and I'm now resolved to re-read in the near-ish future.

Luna has done a remarkable job translating and (extensively) annotating this text. The result is a pretty comprehensive, thoughtful and undogmatic introduction to Marxist philosophy. Reading it, I had a surprising number of "huh, that's interesting" moments.

A very good addition to the Iskra Press catalogue. Recommended.

[Hyacinth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely essential reading

[Ezra · Rating 3 out of 5]

An astounding bit of translation of what seems to have been a very technical text. The ideas are explained in a clear and detailed manner. The annotations and illustrations help get the ideas across but it would be easier to study this book in a class as it was designed for. In-class discussions with an instructor and fellow students would also help.

This was like reading a philosophy textbook, which isn't that unusual because that's basically what it is. I thought it would be more about developing socialism and class dynamics but it's closer to something like phenomenonology. I didn't know Marx dealt so much with the fundamental questions of reality and what one can know.

Luna Oi joked in one of her videos that she didn't like studying this in high school because it was "boring as fuck". I guess she came back to it and learned to appreciate what it was trying to teach. I can't say I liked it either but it is interesting to see the theoretical underpinnings behind something like dialectical materialism. It'll be interesting to read the two further texts in this series. 3.5/5

[chance nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

read it a few months ago. it did a really good job at explaining the concepts to me in a way that made my understand it and I wish more books were like that.