Marx-Engels Reader

by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Robert C. Tucker (Editor)

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.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction, Economics, Sociology, Theory, History

788 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

With the help of Friedrich Engels, German philosopher and revolutionary Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867-1894), works, which explain historical development in terms of the interaction of contradictory economic forces, form many regimes, and profoundly influenced the social sciences.

German social theorist Friedrich Engels collaborated with Karl Marx on The Communist Manifesto in 1848 and on numerous other works.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin in London opposed Communism of Karl Marx with his antithetical anarchy.

Works of Jacques Martin Barzun include Darwin, Marx, Wagner (1941).

The Prussian kingdom introduced a prohibition on Jews, practicing law; in response, a man converted to Protestantism and shortly afterward fathered Karl Marx.

Marx began co-operating with Bruno Bauer on editing Philosophy of Religion of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (see Democritus and Epicurus), doctoral thesis, also engaged Marx, who completed it in 1841. People described the controversial essay as "a daring and original piece... in which Marx set out to show that theology must yield to the superior wisdom." Marx decided to submit his thesis not to the particularly conservative professors at the University of Berlin but instead to the more liberal faculty of University of Jena, which for his contributed key theory awarded his Philosophiae Doctor in April 1841. Marx and Bauer, both atheists, in March 1841 began plans for a journal, entitled Archiv des Atheismus (Atheistic Archives), which never came to fruition.

Marx edited the newspaper Vorwärts! in 1844 in Paris. The urging of the Prussian government from France banished and expelled Marx in absentia; he then studied in Brussels. He joined the league in 1847 and published.

Marx participated the failure of 1848 and afterward eventually wound in London. Marx, a foreigner, corresponded for several publications of United States.
He came in three volumes. Marx organized the International and the social democratic party.

Marx in a letter to C. Schmidt once quipped, "All I know is that I am not a Marxist," as Warren Allen Smith related in Who's Who in Hell .

People describe Marx, who most figured among humans. They typically cite Marx with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, the principal modern architects.

Bertrand Russell later remarked of non-religious Marx, "His belief that there is a cosmic ... called dialectical materialism, which governs ... independently of human volitions, is mere mythology" ( Portraits from Memory , 1956).

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bi...
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/...
http://www.historyguide.org/intellect...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic...
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

Reviews

[Manny]

I am ugly, but I can buy for myself the most beautiful of women. Therefore I am not ugly, for the effect of ugliness - its deterrent power - is nullified by money.

K. Marx, "The Power of Money in Bourgeois Society", p. 103.
___________________

Less than a week later, I come across this passage in Jo Nesbø's Gjenferd (apologies to my Norwegian friends, I've ended up with the Swedish edition, but Scandinavian books are hard to find in Australia):

Rik. Han måste bli rik.

För pengar är som smink, de täcker över allt, de ger dig allt, även sådant de säger inte är till salu: respekt, beundran, förälskelse. Det var bara att se sig omkring, skönhet gifter sig med pengar varje gång.

Rich. He had to be rich.

Because money is like makeup, it covers everything, it gives you everything, even the things that aren't supposed to be for sale: respect, admiration, love. Just take a look around, beauty marries money every time.

[Egor xS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't recommend this more. Was so engrossed in Marx and Engels that I neglected to reply to emails etc., so when I got to the end, my girlfriend abandoned me. Hope she returns.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether or not one is a Marxist, knowledge of Marx' work is important in understanding the variety of political philosophizing over the millennia. Marx' political thought is sometimes difficult (think the "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844") and sometimes transparent (e.g., "The Manifesto of the Communist Party," more popularly referred to as the "Communist Manifesto").

This edited work is one of the best introductions to the works of Marx (and Engels). The volume begins with the early Marx, which includes the "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844," excerpts from "The Holy Family" (in which he attacks some of the other socialists of the era), "Theses on Feuerbach," and the first of the truly classic works that Marx and Engels co-authored, "The German Ideology." It is interesting to note that "The German Ideology" covers much the same territory as "The Holy Family," with the major exception that Marx now addresses the intriguing and offbeat work by Max Stirner, "The Ego and His Own." In the process of addressing Stirner, Marx and Engels take the philosophical edifice to a more powerful level, creating a new perspective with a move away from idealism and toward materialism.

Other major works included are excerpts from "Das Kapital" (fairly turgid reading, I fear), the "Manifesto of the Community Party" (which ends with the famous phrase [page 500:]) "The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains."), the "Critique of the Gotha Program," and "The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" (with its great introductory phrase [page 594:] "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.").

The final section of the work features the work of Engels, including "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific," "Anti-Duhring," "The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State."

If one be interested in learning more about Marx (and Engels), this is an accessible edited work that provides some of the key works.

[Ben Jaques-Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the summer of 2001, I took a socialist history class. Summer school classes are unrelenting in the amount of reading needing to be done. I have clear memories of coming straight home after class, swimming through the thick humidity of North Carolina, and proceeding to spend the afternoon, evening, and night reading Marx. Class struggle. Dialect materialism. Proletarian revolution.

[Julio Pino · Rating 5 out of 5]

An anthology of "Marxism's Greatest Hits" by a sympathetic yet critical editor, Robert C. Tucker. (Not to be confused with his contemporary, Robert W. Tucker, neocon snob.) Marx the economist, philosopher, polemicist, sociologist and Old Testament prophet, raging against the Moloch of mammon, are all on display here. My one criticism is that Marx's voluminous writings on China, India, and the rest of what came to be called the Third World, are largely omitted. Marxism presents an alternate road to development, and Marx foresaw that the peoples of the South, along with Russia, might take up the cause of socialism first. Nice red cover, although I still prefer my bright blue edition.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know. It is important to read Marx. Especially for a historian, Marx's materialist conception of history is so influential, so pervasive, so inescapable, that there is really no excuse for never reading the man's work. And I have tried. I had to read the Communist Manifesto at some point my freshman year of college, and my eyes glazed over then, and then my current course of study rolled around, and there is Marx, on the syllabus. And I thought, good. Now I am older. More mature. I shall read Marx, and enjoy and understand him. And then it was just a friggin' slog. Man alive. And the thing is, I agree with him! When I snap back to clarity (the fifth time through a paragraph, usually) I think, yup, makes sense. All history is grounded in real people, their material life, and their economic interactions with each other. Class struggle is the foundation of history. You got it Marx. Makes sense. Why does there need to be 768 pages of this? And it isn't that it is all dull- there are some wry, witty parts (the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte is pretty good).
This is me, reading Marx. "So much is this activity, this unceasing sensuous labor and creation, this production, the basis...(I could go for a coffee right now. And a cookie. A snickerdoodle. Mmmm. A big soft one. I wonder where I could get one? Where is the nearest cookie to me)...for a year, Feuerbach would not only find an enormous change in the natural world, but would very soon find...(do snickerdoodles have almond in them? A hint of almond? I think they do. I'll bet if I had one right now, I would be able to detect subtle notes of almond. I HATE MARX I HATE MARX)...in all this the priority of external nature remains unassailed, and all this has no application to the original men produced...(what is wrong with me? Shouldn't I be able to pay attention to this? Maybe I have attention deficit disorder. They just couldn't tell when I was a kid because they didn't give me Marx. I have marxist ADD. ADD caused by analysis of eternal class conflict. I hope the proletariat never seizes control of the levers of state power, just because it would piss Marx off...aaaand I think I just read that sentence three times. Damn.)

[Nicole ✨Reading Engineer✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like everyone who ever wants to get engaged in political or philosophical discussions need to read this book. It is very good in delving into the Communist frame of references, and no internet search can do it justice.

[celestine · Rating 5 out of 5]

An indispensable guide to the absolute bois. This was published back in the 70s when many texts written by Marx and Engels were yet to be published or read in the US. It combines what Tucker thinks are the most important texts of the authors, in mostly chronological order/the order of Marx discovering what he was on about. It includes the full texts of several of his manuscripts and the Communist Manifesto, as well as portions of others, and collects portions of the vols. of Capital. It also, of course, includes some of Engels' seminal writings. A great reader.

[Jiahe Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watched a documentary about this dude’s life and made myself feel very stupid and insignificant. The funniest part is that I even got slightly jealous of him because I’ll never be as smart as 18-year old Marx even at the age of 80 (I very rarely compare myself to geniuses but DAMN! His teenage aspirations sounded just as naïve and lofty as those of an adolescent who didn’t know better—aka me—but obviously he achieved them more or less).

Karl was built different.

I liked the earlier Marx stuff a lot more and found myself nodding along as I was reading.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blah blah blah blah Marx blah commodity blah

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

as with the kamenka collection, a distillation of the MEGA for use by undergraduates in resolving revolutionary facial hair care product problems.

[xDEAD ENDx · Rating 3 out of 5]

The range of writings included in here is great, spanning form early Marx to later Engels and hitting upon social, economic, and revolutionary theory. The depth, however, I found to be lacking. I find it irritating that some of Marx and Engel's most important works are abridged, as if an additional 20 pages here and here would be too much for an 850 page book. Perhaps this is just a general problem I have with anthologies and readers...

It's humorous that in one of Engel's letters included in here, written near the end of the 19th century, he criticizes those who see his and Marx's works as only focusing on economic issues, due to not reading into the nuance. Well, perhaps abbreviated texts is part of the issue.

[Public Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is among the most challenging things I've ever read. I realize that Marx was mostly writing for a pretty select group of 19th century intellectuals - especially with Kapital, but this just straight up beat me. I have no familiarity with Hegelian philosophy. My mind was constantly drifting, unable to concentrate on what Marx was trying to get across. That is mostly my fault, but I'm not exactly sure what the editors who curated this were trying to do. Provide a broad overview of Marxian philosophy and context? Okay, I guess.

Some parts that were meant for working people were easy to get through - the letter to the German workers for example or the Communist Manifesto. There were brief periods where I was able to latch on and feel like I was gleaning something meaningful. Then there are long sections where one can feel lost. I found the entire last half of the book devoted to communist revolution especially unhelpful in understanding Marxian principles and philosophy. Discussing the relative benefits of Paris barricades in the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, say, does not really illuminate much for a modern reader.

I learned a lot more listening to Richard D. Wolff's 8 hour lecture series on the introduction to Marxian economics than I got out of this book. I'm going to attempt to read Wolff's textbook on Neoclassical vs. Marxian economics soon. Hopefully that will provide more illumination.

It's called the Marx-Engels Reader which implies that it is broad and condensed. This book is presented as something that is accessible to someone who is just developing an interest in what Marx and Engels have to say. I feel this volume is probably beyond what most beginners can easily comprehend or appreciate.

[Malia Losa · Rating 4 out of 5]

in many ways i️ am a karl stan

[Rhea]

I didn't actually finish the whole book — I just read the half of it that we were required to read for class. I feel this is unfair to rate since it's not meant to be a book, but rather just a collection of Marx's writing. Definitely very thought-provoking and each time I re-read the passages, I look at it with a fresh light. Communism can be bars at times. Makes me think a lot about Byung-Chul Han's more contemporary work, which I want to read more of. Workers of the world, unite!

[Maggie McKneely · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t agree with almost anything that Marx believes, but he is fascinating ideologically. You have to give kudos to a man who takes his philosophy all the way to its logical conclusion - the end state of communism means humans won’t even have private sensorial experiences - and still doesn’t think the premise is wrong. That’s gutsy.

Also apparently almost no one today is either a Marxist or communist, according to what Marx actually wrote. Leftists today are something else; just as radically dangerous, but to label them as either of those terms requires a serious redefinition. This was worth reading just to correct my own ignorance.

[Serhan Celebi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A satisfactory selection from Marx-Engels literature. This book definitely does give you an overall understanding of Marxist views, which has a longstanding repercussions even today, 150 or so years after. I can't give it 5-stars only because this book is merely a selection of original scripts and does contain little commentary from its author.

[Ed Baldwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can't participate in a political debate in America without first reading Karl Marx. It's that simple, because Marx, a German living in England at the height of the Industrial Revolution saw the consequences of unbridled capitalism on helpless workers first hand. Much has happened in government and economic philosophy since then, but it was Marx that laid the foundation for all political discourse to follow.

Marx believed the workers should own the means of production, and, seeing no way for that to happen in 19th century England, he advocated violent overthrow of the capitalist system. That seems a bit extreme now that we've evolved government authority to accomplish what Marx thought would require revolution. All modern governments control capitalist excess with laws and regulations. Marx would be proud.

Marx distrusted the bourgeois, or middle class of shopkeepers and small businessmen who made their living from their own property. He felt they disadvantaged the proletariat. The recent promise to re-build the middle class includes a clever re-definition of middle class to mean middle income. Lenin famously bragged that government could "crush the bourgeois between taxes and regulations." Sound familiar?

Marx hated finance capitalists, i.e., those making money from money, such as landlords, bankers, stock brokers, insurance companies.

Look at the headlines of the recent election cycle and you'll see Karl Marx in nearly every one.

[John Lesmeister · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of two collections of the Red Beard's work I have used, the other being David McLellan's Karl Marx: Selected Writings. Both are excellent: scholarly, organized and graced with intelligent commentary and background. However, if you asked me which to make your not-so-little red book of choice, I would choose this one for a few reasons. For one, it contains a thorough index, which greatly enhances the book's use-value as a reference. For another, it is compact and portable--this is the Marx you can read on the subway. Furthermore, unlike the other collection, this volume contains a number of valuable selections from Engels' work including "The Origins of the Family" and "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific", as well as a generous offering of Marx's later texts including some of his interventions in the First International.

One remark on the content. Obviously it is impossible to intelligently review all of the essential works of Marx and Engels on Goodreads. However, it is possible to comment on the editorship. Robert Tucker, in his introduction, explicitly denies the notion of an epistemological break between the young and mature Marx. This is not an uncontroversial claim, and it is important to read Althusser's critiques of Marxist humanism to see why the continuity of Marx's work might be problematic.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tucker breaks down difficult passages by Marx in clear prose explaining Marx's thinking. Tucker restates plainly but effectively that given the division of labor between capitalist and worker, exploitative behavior by the capitalist is logical and not at all 'unjust' by virtue of applying some outside moral criteria to condemn it. The Marxist system does not concern itself with issues of justice, in particular, that comes later, or co-develops by other thinkers, namely Marx's contemporaries. Tucker simply reiterates Marx's contention that when a capitalist has purchased a worker's labor he also has purchased and gets use of his 'surplus' as well. At the going rate this is as inevitable, natural and logical as could be, given the rewards built into selling human labor on the market like any other commodity. This, Marx would claim, does not make the capitalist herself, unjust, She's playing the rules presented her. Rather it's that the system which produces such workers, that offers them up for sacrifice in this way, that is evil. Tucker's book is a quick read and good companion for Marx's denser works.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modes of Production, alienated labor, surplus value... I loved reading this book. It really demonstrated the intelligence of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. I would go on to say that I don't agree with every single thing in the book... but I feel that has already been overstated about the man and his intelligence. This is an incredible read for anyone with an open mind and a dictionary. Disclaimer: do not just read the Communist Manifesto! It is oversimplified and will mislead you into thinking that you understand Marx.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've found that Fredrick Engels has been lost under the tidal wave cast by Marx, even though the former helped keep Marx on his feet and was more a collaborator than some second fiddle. This is a bit more clear in this collection, where tone and tints of the ideas behind Marxist theory are different than in works written exclusively by Marx. Some of the pieces are repetitive.

[Rachael Kosinski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really, really not an advocate of communism in theory or practice, but was an interesting read. I did appreciate Engels's thought processes about industrialization forcing people into beyond horrible slum conditions and trying to bring about change so that didn't happen anymore.

[Esteban del Mal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marx changed the way I think. I'm less enamored of him as I grow older (anyone claiming to have the key to history should be locked in a padded cell), but still amazing stuff.

[Livia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tiresome to read, verbose, so convoluted. Some conceptual bangers in there but someone needed to tell this guy that brevity is the soul of wit!!

[Jomar Canales Conde · Rating 5 out of 5]

what can i say: we all better do our homework (read marx)!!!

[Mitchell Staude · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't read it all, but read all assigned readings for a 19th Century Philosophy course, as well as some other selections. I was surprised by how well he writes.

[Timur Usenov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously my king.

[Veronica Ciastko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish the guy was a clearer writer, but he had the right ideas.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read like 30% of this before I couldn't do it anymore don't do it guys revolutions not gonna happen anyway read something enjoyable å