hey! everybody has to start somewhere, and there is no definite introductory book that will suit every person, but to be broad, you can divide Marxism into its philosophy, and its economics. To start with Marxist philosophy of historical materialism and dialectical materialism, few introductory topics might be
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific- Engels
The German Ideology- Marx
Critique of Gotha- Marx
Dialectical and Historical Materialism- Stalin
for introduction to Marxist economics, the first volume of Kapital will usually cover everything, but to start things off, you can read the shorter (20-30 pagesish) works by Marx, Wage/Labour/Capital, and Value/Prices/Profit. Both of these lay the foundations of Kapital and the mode of production as found in capitalism
David Harvey has an introductory course which consists of solely understanding kapital, which can be found here- https://davidharvey.org/
Foundations of Leninism- Stalin; What is To Be Done (Lenin); State and Revolution (Lenin) for basic socialist theory in Marxism-Leninism
history has to be understood in its context, and to understand the history of communism, you'll have to understand communist revolutions throughout the world, now that depends on whether you want to study the July-26 movement in Cuba, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Chinese revolution, etc. I'd say focus on the particular history of each country after the basics of philosophy is understood!! Have fun and good luck :)
Edit- didn't see the 30 year thing, may I know your reasoning behind it?
hey! everybody has to start somewhere, and there is no definite introductory book that will suit every person, but to be broad, you can divide Marxism into its philosophy, and its economics. To start with Marxist philosophy of historical materialism and dialectical materialism, few introductory topics might be
for introduction to Marxist economics, the first volume of Kapital will usually cover everything, but to start things off, you can read the shorter (20-30 pagesish) works by Marx, Wage/Labour/Capital, and Value/Prices/Profit. Both of these lay the foundations of Kapital and the mode of production as found in capitalism
David Harvey has an introductory course which consists of solely understanding kapital, which can be found here- https://davidharvey.org/
Foundations of Leninism- Stalin; What is To Be Done (Lenin); State and Revolution (Lenin) for basic socialist theory in Marxism-Leninism
history has to be understood in its context, and to understand the history of communism, you'll have to understand communist revolutions throughout the world, now that depends on whether you want to study the July-26 movement in Cuba, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Chinese revolution, etc. I'd say focus on the particular history of each country after the basics of philosophy is understood!! Have fun and good luck :)
Edit- didn't see the 30 year thing, may I know your reasoning behind it?