Prophet of Revolution: Karl Marx

by Alfred Apsler

Prophet of Revolution [May 01, 1967] Apsler, Alfred …

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Rosie Gearhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently acquired a whole shelf full of Messner biographies, written around mid-20th Century for teenagers. This was the first of the bunch that I read. In glancing through the others, this one seems to be less narrative and more straight fact. Many of them seem like they would work for middle school age, but I would put this one at high school and above.

It was an excellent introduction to Marx. I came to the book knowing nothing about Marx except that his ideas were used as justification for Communist regimes that killed millions of people. I didn’t know when he lived or where, what his personality was like, or even much about his world-shaping ideas. Now I do.

From start to finish, the story of his life made me sad. Easily angered, harsh, slow to forgive, arrogant, procrastinating - his habits shaped him as they do for us all. He saw the great injustice done to the working class, but his only acceptable answer to the problem was to fight. REVOLUTION. Peaceful progress was scorned. His hatred was his moral fuel.

I thought the author did a good job of telling this story in an unbiased and balanced way. From his standpoint, we can take the bits of good - awareness of the economic factor in human relations and social conflict in history - and leave the rest.

I plan to have my high schoolers read this as part of their homeschool curriculum and recommend it for anyone looking for an intro to Marx’s life and ideas.

[grllopez ~ with freedom and books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty fair bio of Karl Marx (for young people). Published in 1967, the author, who predicted an eventual abatement of Marxism, had no idea what the noxious ideology would eventually do to the hearts and minds of people and governments everywhere.