What do you think?
Rate this book
Karl Marx: An Illustrated History
This classic biography of Karl Marx, complete with Gareth Stedman Jones’ poignant introduction, is unlike any other account of its subject. Focusing as much on Marx’s private life as on his public persona and work, this classic biography looks in detail at his relationship with his mother and father, wife and friends, and includes generous quotations from a wide range of correspondence in addition to virtually every photograph in existence of Marx and his closest associates.
Blumenberg examines Marx’s early writing as a schoolboy and his romantic poetry whilst a student, as well as his exchanges with close friend and collaborator Frederick Engels. In these pages are moving accounts of the privations of Marx’s poverty-stricken life in London and the tragedies which struck his family, as well as discussions of his intellectual development and political activity.Including virtually every photograph in existence of Marx and his closest associates, and focusing as much on his private life as on his public persona and work, Werner Blumenberg’s biography provides an intimate portrait of the making of a complex intellectual the New Yorker dubbed “the next most influential thinker.”
Blumenberg examines Marx’s early writing as a schoolboy and his romantic poetry whilst a student, as well as his exchanges with close friend and collaborator Frederick Engels. In these pages are moving accounts of the privations of Marx’s poverty-stricken life in London and the tragedies which struck his family, as well as discussions of his intellectual development and political activity.Including virtually every photograph in existence of Marx and his closest associates, and focusing as much on his private life as on his public persona and work, Werner Blumenberg’s biography provides an intimate portrait of the making of a complex intellectual the New Yorker dubbed “the next most influential thinker.”
192 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1962
5 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 24, 2023
Una biografía. No está mal. Es interesante.
"La crítica, desde su juventud y durante toda su vida, no consistirá en rechazar con displicencia lo que lee ni, como harán luego los ortodoxos del marxismo organizado, en lanzar a la hoguera y condenar lo que se desvía de un supuesto camino recto. En Marx, la crítica no consiste en negar el pasado, sino en montarse sobre él para ver más lejos."
Me ha parecido interesante cómo cuenta que Marx debía ser un personaje intransigente, narcisista, vehemente con su forma de relacionarse, incluso hasta llegar a ser poco triunfador socialmente. No obstante, la falta ese extremismo que sí que tienen luego los marxistas, le hace separarse incluso en vida de algunos de ellos.
Me hace gracia que tanto él como Engels son dos personajes que rajan de todo el mundo pero son amigos entre ellos, y que rechazan el apelativo de "socialdemócrata", que para ellos es un "calificativo asqueroso".
Introduce el concepto de revolución permanente en la circular del comité central de marzo de 1850, concepto que pese a ser marginal en su filosofía, luego desarrolla Lenin.
Engels llega a decir sobre los partidos:
" Por fin ahora estamos en situación de demostrar qu eno necesitamos la popularidad ni el soporte de un partido en ningún país; qu eno arriesgamos nuestra independencia en semejantes bagatelas... Cuando esos señores nos necesiten, nosotros dictaremos nuestras propias condiciones... ?Cómo personas como nosotros que huyen de la hipocresía como si fuera de la pesta, podrían militar en un partido? ¿Qué nos importara a nosotros, que despreciamos la popularidad, que si nos equivocamos somos nosotros mismos, qué nos importará, repito, un partido, es decir, una pandilla de asnos, que vota por nosotros porque nos creen iguales a ellos? En verdad que es una suerte no "representar" más a esos estúpidos lacayos con los que nos habíamos confundido en los últimos años..."
También habla de su vida personal, y la verdad es que la persecución política en Prusia, Francia y Bélgica le lleva a tener que emigrar a Londres como apátrida, donde vive en la pobreza con su mujer y sus hijos mientras estos van muriendo. Es sorprendente que en esa situación personal consiguiese sacar adelante tanto. La verdad es que me sorprende que viva con su mujer durante toda su vida. También se sospecha que tuvo un hijo con el ama de llaves. Me hace mucha gracia que su hija Laura se casase con Paul Lafargue y su hija Jenny con Charles Longuet. Las comidas familiares tenían que ser graciosas.
Ha sido entretenido y he aprendido, pero no lo recomiendo ni me ha encantado.
"La crítica, desde su juventud y durante toda su vida, no consistirá en rechazar con displicencia lo que lee ni, como harán luego los ortodoxos del marxismo organizado, en lanzar a la hoguera y condenar lo que se desvía de un supuesto camino recto. En Marx, la crítica no consiste en negar el pasado, sino en montarse sobre él para ver más lejos."
Me ha parecido interesante cómo cuenta que Marx debía ser un personaje intransigente, narcisista, vehemente con su forma de relacionarse, incluso hasta llegar a ser poco triunfador socialmente. No obstante, la falta ese extremismo que sí que tienen luego los marxistas, le hace separarse incluso en vida de algunos de ellos.
Me hace gracia que tanto él como Engels son dos personajes que rajan de todo el mundo pero son amigos entre ellos, y que rechazan el apelativo de "socialdemócrata", que para ellos es un "calificativo asqueroso".
Introduce el concepto de revolución permanente en la circular del comité central de marzo de 1850, concepto que pese a ser marginal en su filosofía, luego desarrolla Lenin.
Engels llega a decir sobre los partidos:
" Por fin ahora estamos en situación de demostrar qu eno necesitamos la popularidad ni el soporte de un partido en ningún país; qu eno arriesgamos nuestra independencia en semejantes bagatelas... Cuando esos señores nos necesiten, nosotros dictaremos nuestras propias condiciones... ?Cómo personas como nosotros que huyen de la hipocresía como si fuera de la pesta, podrían militar en un partido? ¿Qué nos importara a nosotros, que despreciamos la popularidad, que si nos equivocamos somos nosotros mismos, qué nos importará, repito, un partido, es decir, una pandilla de asnos, que vota por nosotros porque nos creen iguales a ellos? En verdad que es una suerte no "representar" más a esos estúpidos lacayos con los que nos habíamos confundido en los últimos años..."
También habla de su vida personal, y la verdad es que la persecución política en Prusia, Francia y Bélgica le lleva a tener que emigrar a Londres como apátrida, donde vive en la pobreza con su mujer y sus hijos mientras estos van muriendo. Es sorprendente que en esa situación personal consiguiese sacar adelante tanto. La verdad es que me sorprende que viva con su mujer durante toda su vida. También se sospecha que tuvo un hijo con el ama de llaves. Me hace mucha gracia que su hija Laura se casase con Paul Lafargue y su hija Jenny con Charles Longuet. Las comidas familiares tenían que ser graciosas.
Ha sido entretenido y he aprendido, pero no lo recomiendo ni me ha encantado.
May 19, 2025
At my venerable age, this is, amazingly, the first book I’ve read on the subject of Karl Marx (my only tangible connection to Marxism so far being a badge I bought and wore in the 1980s with the legend ‘Je suis Marxiste, tendance Groucho’!). It was originally published in 1962 in German, and seems somewhat old-fashioned in its presentation, but I feel glad to have read it, even though it wasn’t very digestible at times! It has certainly encouraged me to read further.
I also enjoyed reading the opinions of Marx at the end of the book, all from the 1920s and 1930s – particularly these:
George Bernard Shaw (extract from ‘What I Owe German Culture’ 1911)
‘The world is greatly indebted to Marx for his description of the selfishness and stupidity of that respected middle class so worshipped in Germany and England, and Das Kapital is one of those books that changes people if they can be persuaded to read it. However, it is the work of a man who was not a member of normal German or English society and who wrote about capitalists and workers like a class-war correspondent.’
Stefan Zweig (answer to a questionnaire in ‘International Literature’, 1933)
It was at the University that I first got to know the work of Karl Marx; and I found it a blessing, after all the abstract interpretations of the world, such as those of Hegel and Schelling, to find at last an intellectual work which looked straight at life, and took its material not from History but from the Future. The wonderful compelling logic, the merciless diagnosis, and above all the prophetic way of posing a problem, all made a most profound impression on me, and I felt deeply the dynamic power concentrated in these few hundred pages.
Book note:
My local library, Y Gaer, moved into new and beautiful premises a few years ago, which were built thanks to a European Community grant. Ironically, Brexit happened before the building was completed, and since Powys Council, due to central government cuts, could not run the library without extra funding, it had to rent out quite a lot of space to a local privately funded education college. Consequently, a lot of shelf space was lost, and a large number of books had to go into storage. This book was one of them. It was first borrowed in 1973, according to the old borrower record on the frontispiece, and it bears the following typed message tucked inside the plastic cover:
Ymddiheurwn am gyflwr gwael y llyfr hwn; yr unig gopi sydd ar gael yn y sir.
Or, for those who do not speak Welsh:
Apologies for the poor condition of this book; only copy available in county.
Crikey! I’m grateful I got hold of it then!
I also enjoyed reading the opinions of Marx at the end of the book, all from the 1920s and 1930s – particularly these:
George Bernard Shaw (extract from ‘What I Owe German Culture’ 1911)
‘The world is greatly indebted to Marx for his description of the selfishness and stupidity of that respected middle class so worshipped in Germany and England, and Das Kapital is one of those books that changes people if they can be persuaded to read it. However, it is the work of a man who was not a member of normal German or English society and who wrote about capitalists and workers like a class-war correspondent.’
Stefan Zweig (answer to a questionnaire in ‘International Literature’, 1933)
It was at the University that I first got to know the work of Karl Marx; and I found it a blessing, after all the abstract interpretations of the world, such as those of Hegel and Schelling, to find at last an intellectual work which looked straight at life, and took its material not from History but from the Future. The wonderful compelling logic, the merciless diagnosis, and above all the prophetic way of posing a problem, all made a most profound impression on me, and I felt deeply the dynamic power concentrated in these few hundred pages.
Book note:
My local library, Y Gaer, moved into new and beautiful premises a few years ago, which were built thanks to a European Community grant. Ironically, Brexit happened before the building was completed, and since Powys Council, due to central government cuts, could not run the library without extra funding, it had to rent out quite a lot of space to a local privately funded education college. Consequently, a lot of shelf space was lost, and a large number of books had to go into storage. This book was one of them. It was first borrowed in 1973, according to the old borrower record on the frontispiece, and it bears the following typed message tucked inside the plastic cover:
Ymddiheurwn am gyflwr gwael y llyfr hwn; yr unig gopi sydd ar gael yn y sir.
Or, for those who do not speak Welsh:
Apologies for the poor condition of this book; only copy available in county.
Crikey! I’m grateful I got hold of it then!
March 1, 2023
Amongst the complaints issued toward this book by other reviewers, I am currently interested in the accusation that the biography was far from comprehensive, or incomplete. I have not read any other biographies on Karl Marx, so these claims may be true. But such accusations seem to focus more on a perceived lack of content, while ignoring the wealth of historical analysis which the work presents.
Is there analysis Werner Blumenburg presents narrow? Can any biography explicate with full comprehension the intricacies of the man, his historical context, his philosophical ideas, his struggle with politics and practice, as well as his evolving mood and character? Certainly, we should not demand full comprehension in such a way, for Marx is human, all-too-human! However, Blumenburg does offer a more-or-less comprehensive study into the humanity, suffering, and subject aspects of Marx. In a precisely Marxist way, the reader may come to understand how the world shaped Marx, and how Marx shaped the world.
In the conclusion, Blumebenburg asserts that the problems posed and found within Marx and Marxism -- their intricacies, mutauations, and failures -- “cannot be solved in an abstract and dialectical fashion: the solutions can only be given concretltly in detailed analysis. Moreover in the process, since the thinker and the politician is ultimately a living man, his supreme subjectivity should on no account be overlooked” (161).
What are aspects of Marx’s ‘supreme subjectivity’?
Marx’s family history; his evolution from student to economic-philosopher; Marx’s laziness, illness, and suffering: Marx’s intellectual rigor, and passion for revolution; his pessimism; his grandeur; his Bourgouise snobbery; his consistent belief that the proletariat will prevail; his anti-sociabillity; his involvement in journalism, and party politics.
Like any person, Marx lived a life of many seeming contradictions! But as Deleuze and Guattari says, nobody has ever died from contradictions! Instead they live many lives, and suffer many more.
Is there analysis Werner Blumenburg presents narrow? Can any biography explicate with full comprehension the intricacies of the man, his historical context, his philosophical ideas, his struggle with politics and practice, as well as his evolving mood and character? Certainly, we should not demand full comprehension in such a way, for Marx is human, all-too-human! However, Blumenburg does offer a more-or-less comprehensive study into the humanity, suffering, and subject aspects of Marx. In a precisely Marxist way, the reader may come to understand how the world shaped Marx, and how Marx shaped the world.
In the conclusion, Blumebenburg asserts that the problems posed and found within Marx and Marxism -- their intricacies, mutauations, and failures -- “cannot be solved in an abstract and dialectical fashion: the solutions can only be given concretltly in detailed analysis. Moreover in the process, since the thinker and the politician is ultimately a living man, his supreme subjectivity should on no account be overlooked” (161).
What are aspects of Marx’s ‘supreme subjectivity’?
Marx’s family history; his evolution from student to economic-philosopher; Marx’s laziness, illness, and suffering: Marx’s intellectual rigor, and passion for revolution; his pessimism; his grandeur; his Bourgouise snobbery; his consistent belief that the proletariat will prevail; his anti-sociabillity; his involvement in journalism, and party politics.
Like any person, Marx lived a life of many seeming contradictions! But as Deleuze and Guattari says, nobody has ever died from contradictions! Instead they live many lives, and suffer many more.
June 9, 2017
A very interesting approach to a biography, is this one of Karl Marx
Instead of a manual about the greatness and godliness of Karl Marx, we have here a brief account of his life, what he has been through since his birth through growing up and turning the scholar and the revolutionary politician.
The tome is profusely accompanied with photographs and illustrations the carry throughout the narrative. It is also very useful the notes and quotations of the correspondence between Marx and his acquaintances, but above all the way Blumenberg accompanies the milestones of Marx's life with acute references to the books he was writing all along.
There is plenty to study using this book as a chronological guide of what Marx was creating, just some additional comment about the permanent revolution, that according the historian was a mistake appropriated by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, actually it was trough Trotsky's elaboration on the concept of the permanency of the revolution. Although the author clearly establishes that his is not a biography of Marxism, but strictly of Marx, a very different feat.
Very good read, indeed, that prompts one to give it several tries in order to grasp it better.
Instead of a manual about the greatness and godliness of Karl Marx, we have here a brief account of his life, what he has been through since his birth through growing up and turning the scholar and the revolutionary politician.
The tome is profusely accompanied with photographs and illustrations the carry throughout the narrative. It is also very useful the notes and quotations of the correspondence between Marx and his acquaintances, but above all the way Blumenberg accompanies the milestones of Marx's life with acute references to the books he was writing all along.
There is plenty to study using this book as a chronological guide of what Marx was creating, just some additional comment about the permanent revolution, that according the historian was a mistake appropriated by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, actually it was trough Trotsky's elaboration on the concept of the permanency of the revolution. Although the author clearly establishes that his is not a biography of Marxism, but strictly of Marx, a very different feat.
Very good read, indeed, that prompts one to give it several tries in order to grasp it better.
January 3, 2025
Karl Marx war ein deutscher Philosoph und Ökonom, der im 19. Jahrhundert lebte. Er ist bekannt für seine Kritik am Kapitalismus und seine Ideen über eine gerechtere Gesellschaft.
Seine wichtigsten Gedanken waren:
Klassenkampf: Die Gesellschaft ist in Klassen geteilt (z.B. Arbeiter und Besitzer).
Ausbeutung: Die Arbeiter werden von den Besitzern ausgebeutet.
Kommunismus: Er träumte von einer Gesellschaft ohne Klassen und Ausbeutung.
Marx' Ideen haben die Welt verändert. Sie inspirierten viele Revolutionen und soziale Bewegungen. Auch heute noch diskutieren wir über seine Theorien, besonders wenn es um Themen wie Ungleichheit und soziale Gerechtigkeit geht
Umso trauriger das man die Monografie in der Pfeife rauchen kann. Das Buch ist sehr langweilig und ausschweifend geschrieben. Das hat mir leider gar nicht gefallen, es war ein Kampf das Buch fertig zu kriegen.
Seine wichtigsten Gedanken waren:
Klassenkampf: Die Gesellschaft ist in Klassen geteilt (z.B. Arbeiter und Besitzer).
Ausbeutung: Die Arbeiter werden von den Besitzern ausgebeutet.
Kommunismus: Er träumte von einer Gesellschaft ohne Klassen und Ausbeutung.
Marx' Ideen haben die Welt verändert. Sie inspirierten viele Revolutionen und soziale Bewegungen. Auch heute noch diskutieren wir über seine Theorien, besonders wenn es um Themen wie Ungleichheit und soziale Gerechtigkeit geht
Umso trauriger das man die Monografie in der Pfeife rauchen kann. Das Buch ist sehr langweilig und ausschweifend geschrieben. Das hat mir leider gar nicht gefallen, es war ein Kampf das Buch fertig zu kriegen.
April 30, 2021
Provides some insight but not anything approaching comprehensive, and doesn't really consider or summarise much of his work. Compared to Macey's biography of Foucault, which I read recently, its a pretty disappointing work that's shaped inordinately by the SocDem leanings of the author (even the modern foreword warns of where this causes mistakes). Only picked up because it's the only biography of Marx available in my uni library, and I wouldn't recommend it - look for a more recent biography perhaps.
December 16, 2020
Fand ich teils schwer zu lesen.
January 16, 2016
“Marx" (4/5)
Karl Marx era, esencialmente, un burgués temperamental y autoritario. Ésta es una muy buena biografía, que acompaña la trayectoria personal del personaje con la de su pensamiento. El autor en ningún momento es imparcial cuando se aventura a emitir juicio, pero obviando esto, es una obra muy recomendable.
15.01.16
Karl Marx era, esencialmente, un burgués temperamental y autoritario. Ésta es una muy buena biografía, que acompaña la trayectoria personal del personaje con la de su pensamiento. El autor en ningún momento es imparcial cuando se aventura a emitir juicio, pero obviando esto, es una obra muy recomendable.
15.01.16
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews