Why Read Marx Today

  why read marx today: Why Read Marx Today? Jonathan Wolff, 2002-08-29 'All too often, Karl Marx has been regarded as a demon or a deity - or a busted flush. This fresh, provocative, and hugely enjoyable book explains why, for all his shortcomings, his critique of modern society remains forcefully relevant even in the twenty-first century.' Francis Wheen, author of Karl Marx In recent years we could be forgiven for assuming that Marx has nothing left to say to us. Marxist regimes have failed miserably, and with them, it seemed, all reason to take Marx seriously. The fall of the Berlin Wall had enormous symbolic resonance: it was taken to be the fall of Marx as well as of Marxist politics and economics. This timely book argues that we can detach Marx the critic of current society from Marx the prophet of future society, and that he remains the most impressive critic we have of liberal, capitalist, bourgeois society. It also shows that the value of the 'great thinkers' does not depend on their views being true, but on other features such as their originality, insight, and systematic vision. On this account too Marx still richly deserves to be read.
  why read marx today: Critiquing Capitalism Today Frederick Harry Pitts, 2017-10-17 This book critically introduces two compelling contemporary schools of Marxian thought: the New Reading of Marx of Michael Heinrich and Werner Bonefeld, and the postoperaismo of Antonio Negri. Each stake novel claims on Marx’s value theory, the first revisiting key categories of the critique of political economy through Frankfurt School critical theory, the second calling the law of value into crisis with reference to Marx’s rediscovered ‘Fragment on Machines’. Today, ‘postcapitalist’ conceptualisations of a changing workplace excite interest in postoperaist projections of a crisis of measurability sparked by so-called immaterial labour. Using the New Reading of Marx to question this prospectus, Critiquing Capitalism Today clarifies complex debates for newcomers to these cutting-edge currents of critical thought, looking anew at value, money, labour, class and crisis.
  why read marx today: Why Read Marx Today? Jonathan Wolff, 2003-08-28 'All too often, Karl Marx has been regarded as a demon or a deity - or a busted flush. This fresh, provocative, and hugely enjoyable book explains why, for all his shortcomings, his critique of modern society remains forcefully relevant even in the twenty-first century.' Francis Wheen, author of Karl Marx In recent years we could be forgiven for assuming that Marx has nothing left to say to us. Marxist regimes have failed miserably, and with them, it seemed, all reason to take Marx seriously. The fall of the Berlin Wall had enormous symbolic resonance: it was taken to be the fall of Marx as well as of Marxist politics and economics. This timely book argues that we can detach Marx the critic of current society from Marx the prophet of future society, and that he remains the most impressive critic we have of liberal, capitalist, bourgeois society. It also shows that the value of the 'great thinkers' does not depend on their views being true, but on other features such as their originality, insight, and systematic vision. On this account too Marx still richly deserves to be read.
  why read marx today: How To Read Marx Peter Osborne, 2014-04-03 Emphasizing the Romantic heritage and modernist legacy of Karl Marx's writings, Peter Osborne presents Marx's thought as a developing investigation into what it means, concretely, for humans to be practical historical beings. Drawing upon passages from a wide range of Marx's writings, and showing the links between them, Osborne refutes the myth of Marx as a reductively economistic thinker. What Marx meant by 'materialism', 'communism' and the 'critique of political economy' was much richer and more original, philosophically, than is generally recognized. With the renewed globalization of capitalism since 1989, Osborne argues, Marx's analyses of the consequences of commodification are more relevant today than ever before. Extracts are taken from the full breadth of Marx's writings, from his student Notebooks on Epicurean Philosophy, via the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts and The Communist Manifesto to Capital.
  why read marx today: How to Read Marx's Capital Michael Heinrich, 2021-08-23 An accessible companion to Karl Marx's essential Capital With the recent revival of Karl Marx's theory, a general interest in reading Capital has also increased. But Capital—Marx’s foundational nineteenth-century work on political economy—is by no means considered an easily understood text. Central concepts, such as abstract labor, the value-form, or the fetishism of commodities, can seem opaque to us as first-time readers, and the prospect of comprehending Marx’s thought can be truly daunting. Until, that is, we pick up Michael Heinrich’s How to Read Marx's Capital. Paragraph by paragraph, Heinrich provides extensive commentary and lucid explanations of questions and quandaries that arise when encountering Marx’s original text. Suddenly, such seemingly gnarly chapters as “The Labor Process and the Valorization Process” and “Money or the Circulation of Capital” become refreshingly clear, as Heinrich explains just what we need to keep in mind when reading such a complex text. Deploying multiple appendices referring to other pertinent writings by Marx, Heinrich reveals what is relevant about Capital, and why we need to engage with it today. How to Read Marx's Capital provides an illuminating and indispensable guide to sorting through cultural detritus of a world whose political and economic systems are simultaneously imploding and exploding.
  why read marx today: An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital Michael Heinrich, 2012-06-01 The global economic crisis and recession that began in 2008 had at least one unexpected outcome: a surge in sales of Karl Marx's Capital. Although mainstream economists and commentators once dismissed Marx's work as outmoded and flawed, some are begrudgingly acknowledging an analysis that sees capitalism as inherently unstable. And of course, there are those, like Michael Heinrich, who have seen the value of Marx all along, and are in a unique position to explain the intricacies of Marx's thought. Heinrich's modern interpretation of Capital is now available to English-speaking readers for the first time. It has gone through nine editions in Germany, is the standard work for Marxist study groups, and is used widely in German universities. The author systematically covers all three volumes of Capital and explains all the basic aspects of Marx's critique of capitalism in a way that is clear and concise. He provides background information on the intellectual and political milieu in which Marx worked, and looks at crucial issues beyond the scope of Capital, such as class struggle, the relationship between capital and the state, accusations of historical determinism, and Marx's understanding of communism. Uniquely, Heinrich emphasizes the monetary character of Marx's work, in addition to the traditional emphasis on the labor theory of value, this highlighting the relevance of Capital to the age of financial explosions and implosions.
  why read marx today: Why Marx Was Wrong Lawrence Eubank, 2011-11-02 The subject of this book is the negative assault on democratic capitalism embodied in Capital A Critique of Political Economy, Marx's great work devoted to delineating the crimes and inequities of capitalist societies and market economies. The book is a systematic, step-by-step analysis of Marx's logic. It is a deconstruction of the arguments and deductions by which he reaches his main conclusion: that capitalism is corrupt in its essential nature, and that capitalists gain wealth not by any legitimate means, but by appropriating unpaid labor or surplus value from the working masses. Despite the disappearance of the Soviet bloc and the waning of Communist zealotry, that is still a widely-believed doctrine. Marx's accusation against capitalism, and the course of argumentation by which he arrives at it, together form the subject of the present volume.
  why read marx today: Das Kapital Karl Marx, 2012-03-27 One of the most notorious works of modern times, as well as one of the most influential, Capital is an incisive critique of private property and the social relations it generates. Living in exile in England, where this work was largely written, Marx drew on a wide-ranging knowledge of its society to support his analysis and generate fresh insights. Arguing that capitalism would create an ever-increasing division in wealth and welfare, he predicted its abolition and replacement by a system with common ownership of the means of production. Capital rapidly acquired readership among the leaders of social democratic parties, particularly in Russia and Germany, and ultimately throughout the world, to become a work described by Marx's friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels as 'the Bible of the Working Class'.
  why read marx today: Introducing Marx Rius, 1999 Devised by Mexican cartoonist, Rius, this text provides an introduction to Marx, a philosopher that many consider to be as relevant today as he has ever been, as the world moves towards unregulated free-market economies.
  why read marx today: Karl Marx Allan Megill, 2002 Why did Karl Marx want to exclude politics and the market from his vision of a future socialism? In Karl Marx: The Burden of Reason, Allan Megill begins with this question. Megill's examination of Marx's formative writings casts new light on Marx's relation to philosophy and reveals a hitherto largely unknown 'rationalist' Marx. In demonstrating how Marx's rationalism permeated his attempts to understand politics, economics, and history generally, Megill forces the reader to rethink Marx's entire intellectual project. While Megill writes as an intellectual historian and historian of philosophy, his highly original redescription of the Marxian enterprise has important implications for how we think about the usability of Marx's work today. Karl Marx: The Burden of Reason will be of interest to those who wish to reflect on the fate of Marxism during the era of Soviet Communism. It will also be of interest to those who wish to discern what is living and what is dead, what is adequate and what requires replacement or supplementation, in the work of a figure who, in spite of everything, remains one of the greatest philosophers and social scientists of the modern world.
  why read marx today: The Essential Marx Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, 2006-07-21 Shortly before he was assassinated in 1940, Leon Trotsky — one of Marx's most devoted converts and a key figure in the Russian Revolution — made this selection from Capital, to which he appended his own lengthy and insightful introduction. Compact and fascinating, this invaluable work not only presents Marx's thoughts in his own words but also places them in the swirling context of the 20th century. A critical analysis of ideas that have influenced millions of lives for well over a century, this book will be an important addition to the libraries of students and instructors of economics, history, government, and Communist thought.
  why read marx today: Marx at the Margins Kevin B. Anderson, 2016-02-12 In Marx at the Margins, Kevin Anderson uncovers a variety of extensive but neglected texts by Marx that cast what we thought we knew about his work in a startlingly different light. Analyzing a variety of Marx’s writings, including journalistic work written for the New York Tribune, Anderson presents us with a Marx quite at odds with conventional interpretations. Rather than providing us with an account of Marx as an exclusively class-based thinker, Anderson here offers a portrait of Marx for the twenty-first century: a global theorist whose social critique was sensitive to the varieties of human social and historical development, including not just class, but nationalism, race, and ethnicity, as well. Through highly informed readings of work ranging from Marx’s unpublished 1879–82 notebooks to his passionate writings about the antislavery cause in the United States, this volume delivers a groundbreaking and canon-changing vision of Karl Marx that is sure to provoke lively debate in Marxist scholarship and beyond. For this expanded edition, Anderson has written a new preface that discusses the additional 1879–82 notebook material, as well as the influence of the Russian-American philosopher Raya Dunayevskaya on his thinking.
  why read marx today: Political Thought Michael Rosen, Jonathan Wolff, Catriona McKinnon, 1999 Human beings live together in societies which, by their very nature, give rise to institutions governing the behavior and freedom of individuals. This raises important questions about how these institutions ought to function, and the extent to which actual systems of government succeed or fail in meeting these ideals. This Oxford Reader contains 140 key writings on political thought, covering issues about human nature and its relation to society, the extent to which the powers of the State are justified, the tension between liberty and rights, and the way resources should be distributed. Topics such as international relations, minority rights, democracy, socialism, and conservatism are also discussed by contributors ranging from Plato and Aristotle to Foucault, Isaiah Berlin, and Martin Luther King.
  why read marx today: Karl Marx Francis Wheen, 2000 Looks at the life of the father of Communism focusing primarily on the human side of the man rather than his works.
  why read marx today: A World to Win Sven-Eric Liedman, 2018-05-01 This essential Karl Marx biography expertly weaves the complex personality of the legendary thinker through the turbulent passage of global history. The first biography to give equal weight to both the work and life of Karl Marx, A World to Win follows Marx through childhood and student days, a difficult and sometimes tragic family life, his far-sighted journalism, and his enduring friendship and intellectual partnership with Friedrich Engels. Building on the work of previous biographers, Liedman employs a commanding knowledge of the 19th century to create a definitive portrait of Marx and his vast contribution to the way the world understands itself. He shines a light on Marx’s influences, explains his political and intellectual interventions, and builds on the legacy of his thought. Liedman shows how Marx’s masterpiece, Capital, illuminates the essential logic of a system that drives dizzying wealth, grinding poverty, and awesome technological innovation to this day. Compulsively readable and meticulously researched, A World to Win demonstrates that Marx’s work remains the bedrock for any true understanding of our political and economic condition, even two centuries after his death.
  why read marx today: Karl Marx Frank W. Elwell, Brian Andrews, Kenneth S. Hicks, 2020-12-15 Covers all aspects of the philosopher, journalist, political organizer, and activist's life and works, including a comprehensive historical timeline of the major events, works, and concepts related to Marx.
  why read marx today: Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life Jonathan Sperber, 2014-03-10 This biography of the philosopher and political revolutionary describes his childhood and family life along with his public life as an agitator and dissident and compares him to his contemporaries including Napoleon III, Bismarck, Adam Smith and Charles Darwin. 15,000 first printing.
  why read marx today: The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx Alex Callinicos, 2012-01-31 An accessible introduction to the author of Capital and coauthor of The Communist Manifesto, with a focus on his relevance in today’s world. Few thinkers have been declared irrelevant and out-of-date with such frequency as Karl Marx. Hardly a decade has gone by since his death in which establishment critics have not announced the death of his theory. And yet, despite their best efforts to bury him, Marx’s specter continues to haunt his detractors more than a century after his passing. As the boom and bust cycle of global capitalism continues to widen inequality around the world, a new generation is discovering that the problems Marx addressed in his time are remarkably similar to those of our own. In this engaging and accessible introduction, Alex Callinicos demonstrates that Marx’s ideas hold an enduring relevance for today’s activists fighting against poverty, oppression, environmental destruction, and the numerous other injustices of the capitalist system.
  why read marx today: How to Change the World Eric J. Hobsbawm, 2011-01-01 The ideas of capitalism's most vigorous and eloquent enemy have been enlightening in every era, the author contends, and our current historical situation of free-market extremes suggests that reading Marx may be more important now than ever. Hobsbawm begins with a consideration of how we should think about Marxism in the post-communist era, observing that the features we most associate with Soviet and related regimes--command economies, intrusive bureaucratic structures, and an economic and political condition of permanent was--are neither derived from Marx's ideas nor unique to socialist states. Further chapters discuss pre-Marxian socialists and Marx's radical break with them, Marx's political milieu, and the influence of his writings on the anti-fascist decades, the Cold War, and the post--Cold War period. Sweeping, provocative, and full of brilliant insights, How to Change the World challenges us to reconsider Marx and reassess his significance in the history of ideas.--Publisher's website.
  why read marx today: Reading Capital Today Ingo Schmidt, Carlo Fanelli, 2017 Recent years have seen a surge of interest in Marxian political economy and especially Marx's great work Capital. 150 years after the book's original publication, are there readings of Capital that can help us find new pathways to progressive or revolutionary change? In this wide-ranging new volume, leading thinkers reflect on Capital's legacy, its limitations and its continuing relevance for today, highlighting issues including ecology, gender, race, labour, communism, the 'Third World' and imperialism. The contributors also aim to identify the connections between Capital and various socialist projects of the past, and draw lessons from those experiences that might contribute to the reinvention of socialist politics today. Contributors include: Ingo Schmidt, Carlo Fanelli, William Pelz, Anej Korsika, Prabhat Patnaik, Beverly Silver, Silvia Federici, Paul Thompson, Chris Smith, Peter Gose, Justin Paulson, Jeff Noonan, Hannah Holleman and Peter Hudis.
  why read marx today: Karl Marx's Theory of History Gerald A. Cohen, 2020-05-05 First published in 1978, this book rapidly established itself as a classic of modern Marxism. Cohen's masterful application of advanced philosophical techniques in an uncompromising defense of historical materialism commanded widespread admiration. In the ensuing twenty years, the book has served as a flagship of a powerful intellectual movement--analytical Marxism. In this expanded edition, Cohen offers his own account of the history, and the further promise, of analytical Marxism. He also expresses reservations about traditional historical materialism, in the light of which he reconstructs the theory, and he studies the implications for historical materialism of the demise of the Soviet Union.
  why read marx today: Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society Michael Heinrich, 2019-07-02 A new, comprehensive biography of the life and work of Karl Marx For over a century, Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism has been a crucial resource for social movements. Now, recent economic crises have made it imperative for us to comprehend and actualize Marx’s ideas. But without a knowledge of Karl Marx’s life as he lived it, neither Marx nor his works can be fully understood. There are more than twenty-five comprehensive biographies of Marx, but none of them consider his life and work in equal, corresponding measure. This biography, planned for three volumes, aims to include what most biographies have reduced to mere background: the contemporary conflicts, struggles, and disputes that engaged Marx at the time of his writings, alongside his complex relationships with a varied assortment of friends and opponents. This first volume will deal extensively with Marx’s youth in Trier and his studies in Bonn and Berlin. It will also examine the function of poetry in his intellectual development and his first occupation with Hegelian philosophy and with the so-called “young Hegelians” in his 1841 Dissertation. Already during this period, there were crises as well as breaks in Marx’s intellectual development that prompted Marx to give up projects and re-conceptualize his critical enterprise. This volume is the beginning of an astoundingly dimensional look at Karl Marx – a study of a complex life and body of work through the neglected issues, events, and people that helped comprise both. It is destined to become a classic.
  why read marx today: Marx for Today Marcello Musto, 2013-09-13 Since the onset of global crisis in recent years, academics and economic theorists from various political and cultural backgrounds have been drawn to Marx's analysis of the inherent instability of capitalism. The rediscovery of Marx is based on his continuing capacity to explain the present. In the context of what some commentators have described as a Marx renaissance, the aim of this book is to make a close study of Marx's principal writings in relation to the major problems of our own society, and to show why and how some of his theories constitute a precious tool for the understanding and critique of the world in the early twenty-first century. The book brings together varied reflections on the Marxian oeuvre, drawing on different perspectives and fields, and argues its case in two different parts. The first will encompass such diverse areas and themes as political thought, economics, nationalism, ethnicity, post-capitalist society, freedom, democracy, emancipation, and alienation, showing in each case how Marx has still today an invaluable contribution to make. The second presents a complete and rigorous account of the dissemination and the reception of Marx’s work throughout the world in the last decade. Both parts make a significant contribution to the current research on Marx and Marxisms. This book was originally published as a special issue of Socialism and Democracy.
  why read marx today: Specters of Marx Jacques Derrida, 2012-10-12 Prodigiously influential, Jacques Derrida gave rise to a comprehensive rethinking of the basic concepts and categories of Western philosophy in the latter part of the twentieth century, with writings central to our understanding of language, meaning, identity, ethics and values. In 1993, a conference was organized around the question, 'Whither Marxism?’, and Derrida was invited to open the proceedings. His plenary address, 'Specters of Marx', delivered in two parts, forms the basis of this book. Hotly debated when it was first published, a rapidly changing world and world politics have scarcely dented the relevance of this book.
  why read marx today: Karl Marx's Das Kapital Steve Shipside, Karl Marx, 2009 First published in 1876, Das Kapital is Karl Marx's most important contribution to the world of political economy. Kapital is a critical analysis of capitalism and its practical economic application and also a critique of other related theories. Today it is considered one of the most influential books ever written. Through Marx's criticisms of the vulnerability of free-market capitalism we can see the inevitability of recent financial turmoil. In this timely interpretation, Steve Shipside uses twenty-first century examples and case studies to re-evaluate Marx's text for the new world of business and economics. Today's reader will discover:* Why bigger business is not necessarily better business;* How to develop a workforce made up of creative individuals;* Why a successful business needs to develop a social conscience;* The best ways to introduce new strategies, systems and technologies to your team;* Why you need to keep your staff fit, healthy and happy.This interpretation of Karl Marx's Das Kapital is not a substitute for the original. Its purpose is simply to illustrate the timeless nature of Marx's insights by bringing them to life with contemporary examples. Given the continuing turbulence of the global economy this brilliant interpretation of a classic of political economy couldn't be more timely. Marx's views frequently chime with criticisms of current business practice and gathering anti-globalisation sentiment, making Das Kapital as relevant today as it was 140 years ago.
  why read marx today: Marx's Inferno William Clare Roberts, 2016-12-20 Marx’s Inferno reconstructs the major arguments of Karl Marx’s Capital and inaugurates a completely new reading of a seminal classic. Rather than simply a critique of classical political economy, William Roberts argues that Capital was primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers’ movement. Understood in this light, Capital emerges as a profound work of political theory. Placing Marx against the background of nineteenth-century socialism, Roberts shows how Capital was ingeniously modeled on Dante’s Inferno, and how Marx, playing the role of Virgil for the proletariat, introduced partisans of workers’ emancipation to the secret depths of the modern “social Hell.” In this manner, Marx revised republican ideas of freedom in response to the rise of capitalism. Combining research on Marx’s interlocutors, textual scholarship, and forays into recent debates, Roberts traces the continuities linking Marx’s theory of capitalism to the tradition of republican political thought. He immerses the reader in socialist debates about the nature of commerce, the experience of labor, the power of bosses and managers, and the possibilities of political organization. Roberts rescues those debates from the past, and shows how they speak to ever-renewed concerns about political life in today’s world.
  why read marx today: Political Identity Robert Meister, 1990
  why read marx today: The Philosophy of Marx Étienne Balibar, 2017-01-03 Written by one of political theory's leading thinkers, The Philosophy of Marx examines all the key areas of Marx's writings in their wider historical and theoretical context-including the concepts of class struggle, ideology, humanism, progress, determinism, commodity fetishism, and the state. Etienne Balibar opens a gateway into the thought of one of history's great minds. In this updated edition to this now classic work, Balibar has added a substantial introduction and new material. Complete with key information boxes for the student to make the most challenging areas of theory easy to understand, this remains the best available introduction to the most important thinker of the past 200 years.
  why read marx today: Why Marx Was Right Terry Eagleton, 2018-01-01 Cover page -- Halftitle page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface to the Second Edition -- Preface -- ONE -- TWO -- THREE -- FOUR -- FIVE -- SIX -- SEVEN -- EIGHT -- NINE -- TEN -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index
  why read marx today: A People's Guide to Capitalism Hadas Thier, 2018-06-02 A lively, accessible, and timely guide to Marxist economics for those who want to understand and dismantle the world of the 1%. Economists regularly promote Capitalism as the greatest system ever to grace the planet. With the same breath, they implore us to leave the job of understanding the magical powers of the market to the “experts.” Despite the efforts of these mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many of us have begun to question why this system has produced such vast inequality and wanton disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory. “Thier’s urgently needed book strips away jargon to make Marx’s essential work accessible to today’s diverse mass movements.” —Sarah Leonard, contributing editor to The Nation “A great book for proletarian chain-breaking.” —Rob Larson, author of Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicon Valley “Thier unpacks the mystery of capitalist inequality with lucid and accessible prose . . . . We will need books like A People’s Guide to help us make sense of the root causes of the financial crises that shape so many of our struggles today.” —Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership “Ranging from exploitation at work to the operations of modern finance, this book takes the reader through a fine-tuned introduction to Marx’s analysis of the modern economy . . . . Thier combines theoretical explanation with contemporary examples to illuminate the inner workings of capitalism . . . . Reminds us of the urgent need for alternatives to a crisis-ridden system.” —David McNally, author of Blood and Money
  why read marx today: Adventures in Marxism Marshall Berman, 1999 Citing a lifelong engagement with Marxism, critic and writer Marshall Berman reveals the movement's positive points and suggests a new beginning for Marxism may be on the horizon with its recent 150th anniversary attention.
  why read marx today: Political Economy and the Unitive Principle T. Collins Logan, 2013-05 Beginning with an innovative way to define property, T.Collins Logan explores the moral underpinnings of civil society expressed by the unitive principle. This principle, in turn, is applied to a method of property valuation and exchange that emphasizes well-being through community-level systems and structures. T.Collins advocates for design principles and several threads of evolution that must simultaneously occur in order to achieve a more compassionate and egalitarian political economy. This is a vision that takes root in individual moral development, and expands outward into community, regional, national and global relationships. In Political Economy and the Unitive Principle, constructive change is only possible when organic, grass roots activism coincides with top-down institutional reforms. There is considerable hope and optimism among these pages, and plentiful resources to support next steps in a more positive and productive direction. Political Economy and the Unitive Principle is a thoughtful discussion of one viable alternative to an increasingly toxic commercialist corporationism.
  why read marx today: Capitalism and Classical Social Theory John Bratton, David Denham, 2024-06-03 Capitalism and Classical Social Theory offers a rigorous introduction to classical social theory, highlighting the enduring relevance of classical works for understanding the many crises of the contemporary world. This popular theory book introduces students to a selection of classical social thinkers and demonstrates the relevance of the classical canon in contemporary society – a society marked by social inequality, insecurity, transformative AI, and the climate emergency. The fourth edition features updated examples, data, and images throughout, as well as new material on early American sociology and new literature on classical social theorists from the past five years. It reintroduces a chapter on Georg Simmel and urbanism, and it includes a new chapter exploring the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and class, race, and gender. While attentive to historical context, Capitalism and Classical Social Theory argues that classical theorists speak directly to the present challenges of inequality, social change, and the climate crisis in the twenty-first century.
  why read marx today: Marx and Engels' 'Communist Manifesto' Peter Lamb, 2015-02-26 Introducing the most famous work of the nineteenth-century radical thinkers Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, this comprehensive reader's guide to the Communist Manifesto explores the key themes, ideas and issues of the revolutionary pamphlet. Beginning with a discussion of the intellectual, political and social context of the Manifesto, the Reader's Guide illustrates the themes by clearly relating points in the work to ideas and theories made in other texts written by Marx and Engels. This is followed by a closer examination and analysis of the text that covers the introductory statement and each of the chapters in detail and discusses its style, structure and intended audiences. This guide also explores the ways in which the Manifesto was received both during the lives of Marx and Engels and in the twentieth century, for example the Soviet Union's version of Marxism, China's re-interpretations of the ideas, and the innovative political philosophy found in Western analytical Marxism. As well as presenting relevant biographical points about Marx and Engels and giving concise information on prominent people mentioned in the text, this valuable study resource features discussion questions and annotated guides to further reading. For students studying political philosophy and political theories, Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto: A Reader's Guide provides a better understanding of the ideas, theories and contexts discussed in the most famous work of the writers who founded the ideology of Marxism.
  why read marx today: Using Political Ideas Barbara Goodwin, 2016-12-19 Using Political Ideas is a unique blend of political philosophy, political theory and history of political thought. It combines a critique of the major ideologies of recent and contemporary society with an analysis of the ideas that form the very stuff of political debate. By exposing the interplay between ideas and ideologies, it shows why political opponents often speak at cross-purposes and why rational agreement is so hard to achieve in politics. The sixth edition of this well respected and widely known text will be welcomed by those interested in questions such as: Is equality more important than personal freedom? Does the majority have the right to dictate to the minority in multicultural society? Is nationalism a progressive force in the world? Politics does not stand still, there are always new controversies and ideological conflicts and the climate of discussion changes. The 6th edition of this best-selling book is fully updated and includes a new chapter on authoritarian ideologies to reflect the growing extreme right-wing politics in parts of Europe. This edition also provides a variety of new learning features, a comprehensive glossary, detailed lists of further reading and a list of questions for discussion.
  why read marx today: The Politics of Transindividuality Jason Read, 2015-10-05 The Politics of Transindividuality re-examines social relations and subjectivity through the concept of transindividuality. Transindividuality is understood as the mutual constitution of individuality and collectivity, and as such it intersects with politics and economics, philosophical speculation and political practice. While the term transindividuality is drawn from the work of Gilbert Simondon, this book views it broadly, examining such canonical figures as Spinoza, Hegel, and Marx, as well as contemporary debates involving Etienne Balibar, Bernard Stiegler, and Paolo Virno. Through these intersecting aspects and interpretations of transindividuality the book proposes to examine anew the intersection of politics and economics through their mutual constitution of affects, imagination, and subjectivity.
  why read marx today: Capitalism and Classical Social Theory, Third Edition John Bratton, David Denham, 2019-05-31 In this third edition of Capitalism and Classical Social Theory, John Bratton and David Denham build on the classical triumvirate--Karl Marx, ?mile Durkheim, and Max Weber--by extending the conversation to include early female theorists such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, as well as the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois and G.H. Mead. Connecting current headlines in the political mainstream to concepts like alienation, anomie, class, gender, race, and the environment, Capitalism and Classical Social Theory sheds light on how classical social theories may be applied and understood within a contemporary context. This revised and expanded third edition features topical discussions of socio-economic shifts in the post-Trump and post-Brexit world and uses original excerpts and additional readings to further contextualize the significance of classical social theory today.
  why read marx today: Contemporary Readings in Marxism Ravi Kumar, 2022-10-06 This volume straddles between being a compilation of chapters exploring the fundamental conceptual categories within Marxism while engaging with those categories at the same time demonstrating the dynamic ability of the Marxian theoretical paradigm to evolve. Challenging the misinterpretation of Marxian theory as rigid, deterministic and outdated it shows how the concepts used by the framework become relevant tools for understanding and analysing society. Divided across two parts the volume grounds the Marxian concepts in a concrete historico-material context of India. It will be an important source for any student interested in social theory in general and Marxism in particular.
  why read marx today: Reading Marx Slavoj Žižek, Frank Ruda, Agon Hamza, 2018-06-18 Marx's critique of political economy is vital for understanding the crisis of contemporary capitalism. Yet the nature of its relevance and some of its key tenets remain poorly understood. This bold intervention brings together the work of leading Marx scholars Slavoj Žižek, Frank Ruda and Agon Hamza, to offer a fresh, radical reinterpretation of Marxism that explains the failures of neoliberalism and lays the foundations for a new emancipatory politics. Avoiding trite comparisons between Marx's worldview and our current political scene, the authors show that the current relevance and value of Marx's thought can better be explained by placing his key ideas in dialogue with those that have attempted to replace them. Reading Marx through Hegel and Lacan, particle physics, and modern political trends, the authors provide new ways to explain the crisis in contemporary capitalism and resist fundamentalism in all its forms. Reading Marx will find a wide audience amongst activists and scholars.
  why read marx today: Political Writings: Surveys from exile Karl Marx, 1973
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Oct 31, 2017 · But why are there two different As? Back in ye olde days there were many ways to write a lower-case A. (The same went for other letters, for example þ was later written "y", …

Why is "pineapple" in English but "ananas" in all other languages?
Nov 7, 2013 · I don't think we are discussing whether "ananas" or "pineapple" was used first, but where it came from and why the English language does not use "ananas" today. I would say …

Reason for different pronunciations of "lieutenant"
Dec 6, 2014 · As to why present day usage is as it is: People can be contrary. It's possible the US adopted "Loo" because and only because the Brits said "Lef" -- or vice-versa. But it seems the …

The whys and the hows - English Language & Usage Stack …
Apr 13, 2017 · The rule on apostrophes on plurals applies if the word in question is a bona fide word as a plural. My dictionary shows the plural of "why" with a simple "s." Ditto other words …

terminology - Why use BCE/CE instead of BC/AD? - English …
Why do people use the latter terminology? For one thing, I find it confusing. It doesn't help that BCE is similar to BC. But moreover, there is only one letter of difference between the two …

etymology - Why "shrink" (of a psychiatrist)? - English Language ...
I'm afraid I have to disagree here. From my understanding, and a recent article in the Atlantic, derived from the new text Marketplace of the Marvelous: The Strange Origins of Modern …

Using hundreds to express thousands: why, where, when?
May 30, 2017 · Why change register half way through? [¶ Of course, even in the middle ages, educated professionals such as architects, military engineers and accountants would work to …

How did the word "beaver" come to be associated with vagina?
From "Why King George of England May Have to Lose His Beard: How the Game of 'Beaver' Which All England Is Playing Is So Threatening the Proper Reverence for the Throne That …

"Why it is" vs "Why is it" - English Language & Usage Sta…
Nov 7, 2013 · The question: "Why is [etc.]" is a question form in English: Why is the sky blue? Why is it that …

How did the letter Z come to be associated with sleeping/snor…
May 26, 2011 · See also Why Does ZZZ mean sleep? for another theory: The reason zzz came into being is that …

What's the proper way to handwrite a lowercase letter A?
Oct 31, 2017 · But why are there two different As? Back in ye olde days there were many ways to write a lower …

Why is "pineapple" in English but "ananas" in all other lang…
Nov 7, 2013 · I don't think we are discussing whether "ananas" or "pineapple" was used first, but …

Reason for different pronunciations of "lieutenant"
Dec 6, 2014 · As to why present day usage is as it is: People can be contrary. It's possible the US adopted "Loo" …