Hey guys.
I've spent most of my life as a moderate lib, until about 6 months ago when I became full-on leftist. However, I know very little Marxist theory.
Assuming I know nothing, what books would recommend to some like me? Obviously Marx, but what else? And in what order? Would anyone be willing to curate a list of books that would give me the basics on Marxist theory and history from the perspective of Marxism? Any advice would be helpful.
Thanks!
I actually found Kropotkin more inspiring and visionary, and struggled with State and Rev, but found Lenin more pragmatic and I think I agree more with his worldview now.
Socialism: Utopian & Scientific - A great introduction into socialist theory, and the difference between the utopian socialisms and scientific socialisms. Most importantly, details and explains dialectical materialism. This text is incredibly important as it sets up the program of a large majority of the following texts.
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State - Really does well to show just how deeply our productive social relations define our personal social relations and the norms that we abide by.
Communist Manifesto - A timeless short pamphlet that still does well to outline Marxist thought to this day.
State and Rev - The seminal text for any Marxist Leninist. Opinions on this text will likely determine which branch of leftist thought that you fall into.
Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism - A thorough analysis of capitalism's evolution with regards to imperialism and the condensing of operations into monopolies. Capitalism has since evolved, but this will give you a very good understanding of Marxist philosophy with regards to capitalism and its many forms.
Wretched of the Earth - An analysis of revolutionary potential of settler colonial societies, really hammers home the fact that class is merely a portion of the current hegemony, and that settler colonialism and race are just as important to the contradictions as they stand
Settlers - A detailed history of settler colonialism and the unbelievable crimes Europe has committed upon the rest of the world (much like Wretched of the Earth)
Blackshirts & Reds - Looking at the 20th century from a Marxist-Leninist perspective, revisiting American anti-communism
EDIT: Currently reading The Long 20th Century as well as The Dawning of The Apocalypse (Gerald Horne).
spoiler
Folks, settler colonialism, its very bad!
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire is all about revolutionary thought in education, but he may be a great third or fourth read. This is the single most important book in my praxis.
The others likely mentioned are State and Revolution by Lenin, Settlers by Sakai, and Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti. Chapo are (rightly) obsessed with those three.
One I'd add that doesn't seem to come up often here is Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg. It's a short pamphlet, but a great read, and takes a dialectical approach to what we here would deem electoral vs revolutionary politics. Rosa is good, and distills theory/ideology down pretty concisely.
I thought people recommended The Wretched of the Earth by Fanon instead of Settlers by Sakai?
This is honestly my favorite socialist text in general. It's reasonably short, uses relatively simple language, very clearly addresses the question of, "Why should I, a random person, care about this?" and it was written by fucking Einstein so very few people will outright say "i dont give a shit what he thought"
A lot of good suggestions here. I’ve found that listening to Richard Wolff as well as Revolutionary Left Radio has helped a lot. Red Library is also very good. Why Theory gets into Hegel and Lacan and others but is occasionally way over my head. I’ve also found some of Bertell Ollman’s online writings pretty helpful. But definitely read the classics mentioned elsewhere in this thread first.
Do you mind my asking how you were radicalized?
I second the recommendations for both Wolff and Rev Left Radio. Wolff's lecture on socialism was what really made it click when I started researching, and Rev Left Radio has given me a pretty broad overview of a lot of different leftist thinkers and topics.
I'd start with the "Jesus fucking christ you guys make the original subreddit look like the fucking red army" copypasta
i cannot recommend wage, labor, and capital and value, price, and profit enough. capital is a super foundational text but being as dense as it is, it turns you off from other theory for a bit.
I haven't read any Mao, but these are rally good recs, and many of them get missed in most threads (at least on the old subreddit).
Dialectical and Historical Materialism is the only Stalin I've read. I remember thinking it was really insightful, but I mostly read it on weekends while drinking back in college...sooo.....the details are very fuzzy.
Bakunin and Kropotkin. Even if you want to go the ML route, you'll need to dunk on anarchists eventually, so you might as well peer over the fence to see what's up.
:kropotkin-big:
The bread book is a pretty easy read too, compared to some of the other dense leftist material out there.
reading is only half of the homework, engage with your community, that's the second half
I'd like to advise reading some archaeological works to go with Engels. Engels was working with the best science the 1850s had to offer, and our understanding of the world has changed a lot since family, private property, and the state.
For marxism specifically, read
Critique of the Gotha Program
The Civil War in France
The first chapter of capital, and the chapter on primitive accumulation.
Debt: The First 5000 Years - David Graeber (RIP) This book neatly picks apart so many things that are wrong with contemporary neoclassical economics, and its a nice 21st century critique as well, since so many classical works miss the last century or more of not only historical development itself, but also of investigative procedure and method to develop models out of that history.
Also, when it comes to Kropotkin, the standard recommendation is usually Conquest of Bread, which don't get me wrong is a decent book, but I think its popularity really tends to overshadow Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. Particularly if you have passion towards the natural sciences, biology in particular. In addition to being a political/philosopher, he was also a biologist with several achievements of note. I'd recommend this book if you have any sort of inclination or fascination with studying the living natural world, as it does a great job setting egalitarianism and a world with no individual is privileged over others into a scientific context.
And if that sounds like something you're into, I'd also recommend "The Mis-Measure of Man" by my top dude Stephen Jay Gould is a wonderful debunking of things like IQ and Skull-shapes.
