Marx: A Beginner's Guide

Beginner's Guide (Oneworld Publications)

by Andrew Collier

An accessible and jargon-free introduction breathing new life into the achievements of Karl Marx

Although one of the most influential thinkers of the last millennium, Karl Marx was relatively unheralded during most of his lifetime. Famous for predicting the inevitable demise of capitalism, it was only after his death that his immortal clarion call reached a wide "Workers of the world unite – you have nothing to lose but your chains."

Andrew Collier breathes new life into the achievements of Karl Marx, arguing that his work is still of vital relevance in today’s global climate of inequality. Covering all the elements of Marxist thought from his early writings to his masterpiece, Das Kapital, Collier probes the apparent inconsistencies in Marx’s work and reclaims him as a philosopher and political theorist. This jargon-free introduction is a timely reminder of his undiminished influence, and will fascinate students, activists and interested readers alike.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, History, Nonfiction, Economics

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

Reviews

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this on audiobook while going to the gym. This is bar none the best introduction to Marx's work. Not only does Collier summarized Marx succinctly, and correctly, he also brings the reader well into the 21st century regarding debates within Marxism.

If you're only going to read one book on Marx, this should be it.

[Saad Abdulmahmoud · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Collier’s boek Marx: A Beginner’s Guide is een waardevolle bron voor een ieder die geïnteresseerd is in het begrijpen van Marx’ filosofie en de impact ervan op de moderne samenleving.

Dit boek biedt een toegankelijke en jargonvrije introductie tot het denken van Karl Marx. Collier presenteert Marx niet alleen als revolutionair, maar benadrukt ook zijn rol als een van de eerste echt democratische denkers.

Het boek behandelt de verschillende elementen van het marxistische gedachtegoed, van Marx’ vroege geschriften tot zijn hoofdwerk “Het Kapitaal”, en de kernonderwerpen arbeid en samenleving. Collier onderzoekt de traditionele opvatting van Marx als activist en analyseert de schijnbare inconsistenties in zijn werk, waarbij hij Marx herpositioneert als filosoof en politiek theoreticus.

Door het gebruik van diverse voorbeelden, variërend van Aristotelisch denken tot Thatcheristisch beleid, maakt Collier Marx’ ideeën begrijpelijk en relevant voor de hedendaagse lezer. Het boek sluit af met een prikkelende beoordeling van Marx’ blijvende invloed op het politieke landschap van de 21e eeuw en benadrukt de huidige mondiale ongelijkheden.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not having read Marx myself so far it's difficult for me to judge the quality of this book in terms of accuracy. However, I read it mostly on the way to and back from work during the busiest season of the year and still think I managed to understand quite a bit of what Collier is saying so there's that.

It's also obvious that this isn't a "neutral" depiction of Marx' thoughts, but I didn't mind that.

The reason I came across this book was that I came across this quote on tumblr, and it's still the passage that stayed with me the most:

"To look at people in capitalist society and conclude that human nature is egoism is like looking at people in a factory where the pollution is destroying their lungs and saying that it is human nature to cough." (p. 29)

[Burrito von Ska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. I’m no expert (obviously, or I likely wouldn’t be reading the “Beginner’s Guide,” would I?) but this book was wicked approachable, and I feel like I have a clearer understanding of Marx and Marxism than I did going in, and that’s really the whole point of this series, isn’t it?

[Stefan Gugler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd say it's a 4.5; really, really good introduction from several criteria.

Collier describes Marx's main theses in a very accessible way (to the extent that he uses different translations from the original German, depending on which one is the easiest to understand for a given explicandum). He goes over all the main works and doesn't leave the discussion at the Capital alone. Where needed, there are secondary sources as a supplement to corroborate or infer what Marx might have thought about a given circumstance.

What really made it a rounded up rather than rounded down 4.5 is that Collier is epistemically humble/rigorous enough to include a bunch of rebuts that people have launched over time and ranks them according to how convincing they are. The ones that are (at least in Collier's view [but can't demand more, I suppose]) false or based on a misreading are debunked but the more severe ones like the human nature argument or Marx's blind spot/forgetting about nationalism are allotted a lot of credit and discussion without dismissing them.

After discussing all the main theses, Collier goes on to talk about further philosophical ideas of Marx without going too tangential. There are some instructive demarcations on Hegelian philosophy, dialectical materialism, history as a science, or more modern incarnations of Marxism, Communism, or Socialism. I think when discussing those, the introduction started to burst its banks a bit and Collier had to curb the text. Me personally, I would have enjoyed more discussions of the 20th century, especially because it comes up in discussions a lot. But in a discussion on Marx I guess it makes sense to stick to the man.

All in all really very nice (at least it hit my sweet spot of how much I already knew and how much new was brought to the table). It's definitely written with a sympathetic regard to Marxism but I think not in a flamboyant fashion that would deter people outside or really averse to the ideology.

[Rian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Explains Marx's ideas from the position of a Marxist. The historical description is concise some basic concepts are carefully explained. In the end, Collier loses credibility by defending even the most outdated or in my view strange argument. The last chapters of glowing praise for Marx relevance today are almost painful to read and full of bewildering conjecture (e.g. Marx's predictions were "surprisingly precise", Marx "clearly shows that"). What is missing is more serious juxtaposition of Marx and 150 years of economic research after Marx that would have qualified Marx's work as a historically important and quite meaningful attempt to make sense of what happened during the industrial revolution. Instead Collier takes the easy road and dismisses summarily economics altogether.

[Dale · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was more of a defense of Marx and Marxism than a beginner's guide.

I was hoping for a more critical reading of Marx than a book by his champion.

[Cass W · Rating 4 out of 5]

reccomend, helped me a lot with abstract concepts i knew abt but didnt understand

[MJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less a true beginner's guide than an interpretation of several Marxist theories by Collier. I came expecting a simplified introduction to Marxism and a technical overview of Das Kapital, but found much more narration than I should have liked. The section on contradictions and holes in Marx's worldview was particularly silly -- Collier is laughably quick to switch gears immediately upon introducing them.

Nonetheless, Collier provides sensible, personal interpretations of Marxist concepts which, if I may not outright agree with, can at least entertain and consider. The author shines most in his chapters on dialectical materialism and the implications of unrestrained capitalism left to its own devices. His passion is infectious, yet he admirably avoids sloganism [complete] one-sidedness. He even admits that Das Kapital may advocate a more practical social democratic political-economic structure just as it may a communist one. It is, as many people forget, a book about *capitalism* after all.

As uncertainty of our planet's environmental well-being abounds, it's worth considering some of the Collier-Marxist proposals this book has to offer.

Four-out-of-five.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really a beginner's guide at all. Basing the rating off of that. Informative, but excluding the first chapter this book isn't aimed as a "beginner's guide". Very hard to follow, Collier has a grand lexicon on the English language and he uses it here with earnest. I'm a pretty average to very slightly above average person of intelligence, not a moron but not a college professor, and I was cracking the dictionary much too often. The only people who are going to find this totally digestible are people who are already well-versed in Marx (and maybe a few other subjects like economics, philosophy, Hegel, etc) or the very intelligent person that already is well-versed in economics and philosophy but somehow missed Marx(which would take quite an effort not to know him at that point, no doubt).

The information is there, but this isn't a beginner's guide. If you're looking for a true beginner's guide to Marx, I suggest looking elsewhere.

[M. Adib · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quantitative Review:

Contents/Information
Little-to-None
Brief (general)
Moderate ✅
Packed ✅
Very Packed

Perspective of Contents
Objectively scientific [scientific, include social sciences]
Objectively humanistic [for Humanities and Arts field]
Subjectively humanistic ✅ (don't talk about other opposing point of views)
Critical ✅ (somewhat)
Subjectively Biased ✅
Objectively/Scientifically Controversial
Subjectively/Humanistically Controversial ✅ (mostly)
Opinionated
Anecdotal

Language style (vocabulary, voice)
Children's
Informal
Formal and Informal (middle)
Formal
Academic ✅
High Level ✅

Organization
Little-to-None
A little
Moderate ✅
High
Very High

Level of Comprehension (is it hard to comprehend the contents?)
Very low
Low
Medium
High ✅
Very High ✅

[Kinch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and very concisely written. Collier is clearly a partisan; a fact the book could have made clearer from the outset. A more critical discussion of Marx would have improved the book (Collier can barely bring himself to make anything beyond half-criticisms), but overall it is a great introduction to Marx's thought. Collier also finds some interesting ways to apply Marxist concepts to contemporary issues, such as globalisation and environmental crises.

[Jacob Sen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author doesn’t actually present Marx in an objective way; the book reads more as apologia than an introduction to his thought. Throughout the majority of the book, you’d be hard pressed to be able to distinguish this text from a dime-a-dozen mass-produced socialist pamphlet

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting mostly when he's not actually talking about Marx

[Kshitiz Goliya · Rating 5 out of 5]

ENLIGHTENING