100 Best Marxism Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

The Communist Manifesto

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

5.0

"A spectre is haunting Europe," Karl Marx and Frederic Engels wrote in 1848, "the spectre of Communism." This new edition of The Communist Manifesto, commemorating the 150th anniversary of its publication, includes an introduction by renowned historian Eric Hobsbawm which reminds us of the document's continued relevance. Marx and Engels's critique of capitalism and its deleterious effect on all as

Recommended by Felipe Fernández-Armesto and Peter Singer.

Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Marx and Engels’s historical analysis is breathtakingly, brilliantly simple. I think it’s wrong but, again, you’ve just got to admire its genius. Obviously, without understanding the historical basis of Marx’s thought you can’t understand anything else in Marxism. [source]

Peter Singer

Yes, it is. I chose The Communist Manifesto, rather than, say, Capital because it shows in a much easier-to-read, shorter work something that is central to Marx’s vision. Capital is much drier, and a lot of it is focused on economics, although there are some remarkable passages of Capital describing the conditions of industrial workers in England at the time. [source]

2

Capital, Vol. 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production

Karl Marx

4.7

Capital, one of Marx's major and most influential works, was the product of thirty years close study of the capitalist mode of production in England, the most advanced industrial society of his day. This new translation of Volume One, the only volume to be completed and edited by Marx himself, avoids some of the mistakes that have marred earlier versions and seeks to do justice to the literary qua

Recommended by Liam Martin.

Liam Martin

Max Weber Protestant Ethic, and Karl Marx's Capital had a huge impact on me. If you read Marx with a critical critique you can see that he's laid out a fantastic framework on how capitalism works, I do disagree with his core premise (capitalism being bad) so I took it as a great way to understand how I could operate inside of a capitalist economy. Weber on the other hand shows you exactly how to get ahead in the world and was critical to me understanding how we reward value creators in western society. [source]

3

State and Revolution

V I Lenin

4.7

2011 Reprint of 1932 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. "State and Revolution" (1917) describes the role of the State in society, the necessity of proletarian revolution, and the theoretic inadequacies of social democracy in achieving revolution. It describes the inherent nature of the State as a tool for class oppression, a creation

4

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo revolution

C. L. R. (Cyril Lionel James

4.6

In 1789 the West Indian colony of San Domingo supplied two-thirds of the overseas trade of France. The entire structure of what was arguably the most profitable colony in the world rested on the labour of half a million slaves. In 1791 the waves of unrest inspired by the French Revolution reached across the Atlantic dividing the loyalties of the white population of the island. The brutally treated

Recommended by Ben Horowitz, Christian Wisskirchen, and Trevor Phillips.

Ben Horowitz

Co-founder/Andreessen Horowitz

A management and cultural genius better than anybody that I’ve ever read about or learned from. [source]

Christian Wisskirchen

The book highlights the achievement of the Haitian nation to be the only ever slave revolution achieving independence by armed struggle. [source]

Trevor Phillips

This book is very complex because it does not make the rebellion’s leader, Toussaint L’Ouverture, into a sort of plaster saint. [source]

5

The Society of the Spectacle

Guy Debord, Donald Nicholson-Smith

4.6

Few works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative as Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle. From its publication amid the social upheavals of the 1960s up to the present, the volatile theses of this book have decisively transformed debates on the shape of modernity, capitalism and everyday life in the late twentieth century. Now finally available in a superb Englis

Recommended by Dave Elitch and Sanja Zepan.

Dave Elitch

Dave Elitch recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show". [source]

Sanja Zepan

The most dramatic change was definitely when I read Guy Debord's The Society of Spectacle in high school. That book made me go study communicology and media, instead of everything else I wanted to study back then. It really cemented my university application. [source]

6

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (Bundled with Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Library)

Vladimir Ilich Lenin

4.6

This collection has an active table of contents for readers to access each chapter of each of the following books in the library:

1) Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
2) The April Theses: The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution
3) Materialism and Empirio-Criticism
4) The State and Revolution
5) WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

The above works details the complete aspects that Lenin contrib

7

Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition

Cedric J. Robinson

4.5

In this ambitious work, first published in 1983, Cedric Robinson demonstrates that efforts to understand black people's history of resistance solely through the prism of Marxist theory are incomplete and inaccurate. Marxist analyses tend to presuppose European models of history and experience that downplay the significance of black people and black communities as agents of change and resistance. B

8

Women, Race, and Class

Angela Y. Davis

4.5

A powerful study of the women's movement in the U.S. from abolitionist days to the present that demonstrates how it has always been hampered by the racist and classist biases of its leaders.

Recommended by Bianca Belair.

Bianca Belair

For #BlackHistoryMonth I will be sharing some of my favorite books by Black Authors 3rd Book: Women Race & Class By: Angela Y. Davis EYE-OPENING about the intersection b/w women, race, & class Some Topics: The Abolitionist, Feminist, Women’s Suffrage Movement, etc. https://t.co/RvlOadp7oU [source]

9

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific

Friedrich Engels

4.5

Socialism, Utopian and Scientific needs no preface. It ranks with the Communist Manifesto as one of the indispensable books for any one desiring to understand the modern socialist movement. It has been translated into every language where capitalism prevails, and its circulation is more rapid than ever before.

10

History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics

Lukács György

4.5

This is the first time one of the most important of Lukacs' early theoretical writings, published in Germany in 1923, has been made available in English. The book consists of a series of essays treating, among other topics, the definition of orthodox Marxism, the question of legality and illegality, Rosa Luxemburg as a Marxist, the changing function of Historic Marxism, class consciousness, and th

11

Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation

Silvia Federici

4.5

Caliban and the Witch is a history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages to the witch-hunts and the rise of mechanical philosophy, Federici investigates the capitalist rationalization of social reproduction. She shows how the battle against the rebel body and the conflict between body and mind are essential conditions for the developme

12

A Companion to Marx's Capital

David Harvey

4.5

“My aim is to get you to read a book by Karl Marx called Capital, Volume 1, and to read it on Marx’s own terms…”

The biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression has generated a surge of interest in Marx’s work in the effort to understand the origins of our current predicament. For nearly forty years, David Harvey has written and lectured on Capital, becoming one of the world’s most foremost

13

Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Karl Marx, Fredrick Engels, Martin Milligan

4.4

Communism as a political movement attained global importance after the Bolsheviks toppled the Russian Czar in 1917. After that time the works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, especially the influential Communist Manifesto (1848), enjoyed an international audience. The world was to learn a new political vocabulary peppered with "socialism", "capitalism", "the working class", "the bourgeoisie", "l

14

Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy

Karl Marx

4.4

Written during the winter of 1857-8, the Grundrisse was considered by Marx to be the first scientific elaboration of communist theory. A collection of seven notebooks on capital and money, it both develops the arguments outlined in the Communist Manifesto (1848) and explores the themes and theses that were to dominate his great later work Capital. Here, for the first time, Marx set out his own ver

Cover unavailable

15

The Wretched of the Earth

Frantz Fanon

4.4

A distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history. Fanon's masterwork is a classic alongside Edward Said's Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is now available in a new translation that updates its language fo

16

Selections from the Prison Notebooks

Antonio Gramsci, Quintin Hoare, Geoffrey Nowell Smith

4.4

An extensive anthology, including his most important writings while in prison on philosophy, history, Communist Party formation, the intellectuals, and other subjects.

17

Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments

Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Gunzelin Schmid Noerr, Edmund Jephcott

4.4

Dialectic of Enlightenment is undoubtedly the most influential publication of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. Written during the Second World War and circulated privately, it appeared in a printed edition in Amsterdam in 1947. "What we had set out to do," the authors write in the Preface, "was nothing less than to explain why humanity, instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking i

Recommended by Jack Zipes.

Jack Zipes

The two authors are also Jewish refugees from Germany in the 1940s. They published their book in 1947, and they share a great deal with Ernst Bloch, whom they knew, although they had different perspectives in regard to philosophy and sociology. Horkheimer and Adorno began as sociologists. [source]

18

The History of the Russian Revolution

Leon Trotsky

4.4

“During the first two months of 1917 Russia was still a Romanov monarchy. Eight months later the Bolsheviks stood at the helm. They were little known to anybody when the year began, and their leaders were still under indictment for state treason when they came to power. You will not find another such sharp turn in history especially if you remember that it involves a nation of 150 million people.

Recommended by Roland Chambers.

Roland Chambers

I chose this book because almost everything that people read about the Russian revolution is written by Westerners, partly because the official histories written under Stalin were incredibly boring and predictable. That all changed when the archives opened up after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but there’s a gap all the same, which Trotsky tried to fill. [source]

19

The Condition of the Working Class in England

Friedrich Engels, Victor Kiernan

4.4

The Condition of the Working Class is the best-known work of Engels, and in many ways still the best study of the working class in Victorian England. It was also Engels's first book, written during his stay in Manchester from 1842 to 1844. Manchester was then at the very heart of the Industrial Revolution and Engels compiled his study from his own observations and detailed contemporary reports. Th

20

Critique of the Gotha Program

Karl Marx

4.4

21

The Marx-Engels Reader

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Robert C. Tucker

4.4

This revised and enlarged edition of the leading anthology provides the essential writings of Marx and Engels--those works necessary for an introduction to Marxist thought and ideology.

22

Das Kapital

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Serge L. Levitsky

4.4

Das Kapital, Karl Marx's seminal work, is the book that above all others formed the twentieth century. From Kapital sprung the economic and political systems that at one time dominated half the earth and for nearly a century kept the world on the brink of war. Even today, more than one billion Chinese citizens live under a regime that proclaims fealty to Marxist ideology. Yet this important tome h

Recommended by Elon Musk.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Read this book when I was 14. [source]

23

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

Friedrich Engels

4.4

How the emergence of class-divided society gave rise to repressive state bodies and family structures that protect the property of the ruling layers and enable them to pass along wealth and privilege. Engels discusses the consequences for working people of these class institutions from their original forms to their modern versions.
Also available in French & Spanish.

24

German Ideology

Friedrich Engel Karl Marx, C. J. Arthur

4.3

2011 Reprint of 1939 Edition. Parts I & III of "The German Ideology". Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Originally published by the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow in 1939. "The German Ideology" was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels circa 1846, but published later. The original edition was divided into three parts. Part I, the most si

25

Wage-Labour and Capital/Value, Price and Profit

Karl Marx

4.3

The text of "Wage-Labour and Capital" came from lectures Marx delivered to the German Workmen's Club of Brussels in 1847, a time of great political upheaval. The relation between wage-labour to capital is a core concept in Marx's analysis of political economy. This book is an essential, a foundation to understanding the development of Marxist theory. "Price. Value and Profit" was written in 1865.

26

Reform or Revolution

Rosa Luxemburg

4.3

Why capitalism cannot overcome its internal contradictions and the working class cannot "reform" away exploitation and economic crises.

27

Capital, Vol. 2: The Process of Circulation of Capital

Karl Marx

4.3

The "forgotten" second volume of Capital, Marx's world-shaking analysis of economics, politics, and history, contains the vital discussion of commodity, the cornerstone to Marx's theories.

28

Capital, Vol. 3: The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole

Karl Marx

4.3

Capital, Vol 3, subtitled The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, was prepared by Friedrich Engels from notes left by Marx & published in 1894. It's in seven parts:
1.The conversion of Surplus Value into Profit & the rate of Surplus Value into the rate of Profit
2.Conversion of Profit into Average Profit
3.The Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall
4.Conversion of Commodity Capital

29

What Is to Be Done? [Burning Questions of Our Movement]

Vladimir Il’ich Lenin

4.3

2013 Reprint of 1929 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. In "What Is to Be Done?," Lenin argues that the working class will not spontaneously become political simply by fighting economic battles with employers over wages, working hours and the like. To convert the working class to Marxism, Lenin insists that Marxists should form a poli

30

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Paulo Freire

4.3

First published in Portuguese in 1968, Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. Paulo Freire's work has helped to empower countless people throughout the world and has taken on special urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is ongoing.

This 5

Recommended by Alexis Isabel.

Alexis Isabel

@dontkauf i’ve read it! great book, def worth a re-read [source]

31

The Accumulation of Capital

Rosa Luxemburg

4.3

Rosa Luxemburg was a revolutionary socialist who fought and died for her beliefs. In January 1919, after being arrested for her involvement in a workers' uprising in Berlin, she was brutally murdered by a group of right-wing soldiers. Her body was recovered days later from a canal. Six years earlier she had published what was undoubtedly her finest achievement, The Accumulation of Capital - a book

32

Why Marx Was Right

Terry Eagleton

4.3

In this combative, controversial book, Terry Eagleton takes issue with the prejudice that Marxism is dead and done with. Taking ten of the most common objections to Marxism—that it leads to political tyranny, that it reduces everything to the economic, that it is a form of historical determinism, and so on—he demonstrates in each case what a woeful travesty of Marx's own thought these assumptions

33

Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?

Mark Fisher

4.3

After 1989, capitalism has successfully presented itself as the only realistic political-economic system - a situation that the bank crisis of 2008, far from ending, actually compounded. The book analyses the development and principal features of this capitalist realism as a lived ideological framework. Using examples from politics, films, fiction, work and education, it argues that capitalist rea

34

Main Currents of Marxism: The Founders, the Golden Age, the Breakdown

Leszek Kołakowski

4.3

From philosopher Leszek Kolakowski, one of the giants of twentieth-century intellectual history, comes this highly infuential study of Marxism. Written in exile, this 'prophetic work' presents, according to the Library of Congress, 'the most lucid and comprehensive history of the origins, structure, and posthumous development of the system of thought that had the greatest impact on the twentieth c

35

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

Karl Marx, D. D. L.

4.3

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" is one of Karl Marx' most profound and most brilliant monographs. It may be considered the best work extant on the philosophy of history. On the 18th Brumaire (Nov. 9th), the post-revolutionary development of affairs in France enabled the first Napoleon to take a step that led with inevitable certainty to the imperial throne. The circumstance that fifty

36

A Brief History of Neoliberalism

David Harvey

4.3

Neoliberalism - the doctrine that market exchange is an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action - has become dominant in both thought and practice throughout much of the world since 1970 or so. Writing for a wide audience, David Harvey, author of The New Imperialism and The Condition of Postmodernity, here tells the political-economic story of where neoliberalization cam

37

One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society

Herbert Marcuse, Douglas Kellner

4.3

Originally published in 1964, One-Dimensional Man quickly became one of the most important texts in the ensuing decade of radical political change. This second edition, newly introduced by Marcuse scholar Douglas Kellner, presents Marcuse's best-selling work to another generation of readers in the context of contemporary events.

38

Marxism and Literature

Raymond Williams

4.3

This book extends the theme of Raymond Williams's earlier work in literary and cultural analysis. He analyzes previous contributions to a Marxist theory of literature from Marx himself to Lukacs, Althusser, and Goldmann, and develops his own approach by outlining a theory of cultural materialism' which integrates Marxist theories of language with Marxist theories of literature.
Williams moves from

39

The Revolution Betrayed

Leon Trotsky, Max Eastman

4.3

One of Marxism's most important texts, The Revolution Betrayed explores the fate of the Russian Revolution after Lenin's death. Written in 1936 and published the following year, this brilliant and profound evaluation of Stalinism from the Marxist standpoint prophesied the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent related events.
The effects of the October Revolution led to the establishment of a

40

The Limits to Capital

David Harvey

4.3

The Limits to Capital provides one of the best theoretical guides to the history and geography of capitalist development. In this new edition, Harvey updates his classic text with a substantial discussion of the turmoil in world markets today.

In his analyses of ‘fictitious capital’ and ‘uneven geographical development’ Harvey takes the reader step by step through layers of crisis formation, beginn

41

Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses

Louis Althusser, G. M. Goshgarian, et al.

4.3

Louis Althusser’s renowned short text ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses’ radically transformed the concept of the subject, the understanding of the state and even the very frameworks of cultural, political and literary theory. The text has influenced thinkers such as Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Žižek.

The piece is, in fact, an extract from a much longer book, On the Reproduct

42

Black Skin, White Masks

Frantz Fanon

4.2

Few modern voices have had as profound an impact on the black identity and critical race theory as Frantz Fanon, and Black Skin, White Masks represents some of his most important work. Fanon’s masterwork is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers.

A major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and black consciousness movements around the worl

Recommended by Jonathan Webber and Kurt Barling.

Jonathan Webber

Fanon was particularly interested in the psychiatric problems you could face if you were a victim of racism, particularly of anti-black racism in France. [source]

Kurt Barling

Fanon was saying that black people are re-burdened by skin colour in a white-dominated society. [source]

43

For Marx

Louis Althusser, Ben Brewster

4.2

A milestone in the development of post-war Marxist thought.

This is the work in which Louis Althusser formulated some of his most influential ideas. For Marx, first published in France in 1968, has come to be regarded as the founding text of the school of “structuralist Marxism” which was presided over by the fascinating and enigmatic figure of Louis Althusser. Structuralism constituted an intellec

44

Left-Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder: A Popular Essay in Marxian Strategy and Tactics

Vladimir Il'ich Lenin

4.2

Few figures from the revolutionary struggles of the early twentieth century continue to be more polarizing than Vladimir Lenin. Caricatured by both the defenders of the market and those remaining political apologists for state socialism as an inflexible and impatient insurrectionist, in this pamphlet—perhaps his most important and relevant work—Lenin makes a clear argument that for radicals, strug

45

How to Change the World: Marx and Marxism 1840-2011

Eric Hobsbawm

4.2

In the 144 years since Karl Marx's Das Kapital was published, the doctrine that bears his name has been embraced by millions in the name of equality, and just as dramatically has fallen from grace with the retreat of communism from the western world. But as the free market reaches its extreme limits in the economic and environmental fallout, a reassessment of capitalism's most vigorous and eloquen

46

Ten Days that Shook the World

John Reed, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, A. J. P. Taylor

4.2

Ten Days That Shook the World is John Reed’s eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution. A contemporary journalist writing in the first flush of revolutionary enthusiasm, he gives a gripping record of the events in Petrograd in November 1917, when Lenin and the Bolsheviks finally seized power. Containing verbatim reports both of speeches by leaders and the chance comments of bystanders, set agai

Recommended by Martin Sixsmith.

Martin Sixsmith

I like John Reed because he’s a journalist like myself, like yourself, and he was on hand to paint this fantastic, vivid picture of 1917. As you know, Warren Beatty turned it into that movie Reds in the 1980s that made revolution fun, sexy and exciting. John Reed debunks the great Soviet myth that October was a huge heroic struggle by the masses. He said: No, it wasn’t like that. The Winter Palace had been abandoned, we just walked in, went into the wine cellar, tried the wines, people started looting things, we wandered around looking for regiments of defending soldiers but nobody was there. [source]

47

The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism

David Harvey

4.2

For over forty years, David Harvey has been one of the world's most trenchant and critical analysts of capitalist development. In The Enigma of Capital, he delivers an impassioned account of how unchecked neoliberalism produced the system-wide crisis that now engulfs the world.
Beginning in the 1970s, profitability pressures led the capitalist class in advanced countries to shift away from investm

48

Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays

Louis Althusser

4.2

No figure among the western Marxist theoreticians has loomed larger in the postwar period than Louis Althusser. A rebel against the Catholic tradition in which he was raised, Althusser studied philosophy and later joined both the faculty of the Ecole normal superieure and the French Communist Party in 1948. Viewed as a "structuralist Marxist," Althusser was as much admired for his independence of

49

Specters of Marx

Jacques Derrida

4.2

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 proceedi

50

Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism

David Harvey

4.2

"What I am seeking here is a better understanding of the contradictions of capital, not of capitalism. I want to know how the economic engine of capitalism works the way it does, and why it might stutter and stall and sometimes appear to be on the verge of collapse. I also want to show why this economic engine should be replaced, and with what." --from the Introduction
To modern Western society, c

51

An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital

Michael Heinrich, Alex Locascio

4.2

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 t

52

Anti-Dühring: Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science

Friedrich Engels

4.2

Excerpt from the original book:
"It was not my fault that I had to follow Herr Duhring into realms where at best I can only claim to be a dilettante. In such cases I have for the most part limited myself to putting forward the correct, uncontested facts in Opposition to my adversary's false or distorted assertions. This applies to jurisprudence and in many instances also to natural science. In othe

53

Considerations on Western Marxism

Perry Anderson

4.2

This influential Marxist text by the longtime editor of the radical New Left Review studies the development of 20th Century Marxist theory. Anderson defends the political and economic "Classical" tradition of Lenin and Trotsky against the aesthetic and cultural "Western" Marxist tradition of Lukacs and the Frankfurt School.

The Economist labeled the book "by far the best guide to modern Marxism," t

54

The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View

Ellen Meiksins Wood

4.1

Capitalism is not a natural and inevitable consequence of human nature, nor is it simply an extension of age-old practices of trade and commerce.

In this original and provocative book Ellen Meiksins Wood reminds us that capitalism is not a natural and inevitable consequence of human nature, nor is it simply an extension of age-old practices of trade and commerce. Rather, it is a late and localized

55

The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848

Eric Hobsbawm

4.1

This magisterial volume follows the death of ancient traditions, the triumph of new classes, and the emergence of new technologies, sciences, and ideologies, with vast intellectual daring and aphoristic elegance. Part of Eric Hobsbawm's epic four-volume history of the modern world, along with The Age of Capitalism, The Age of Empire, and The Age of Extremes.

56

Understanding Marxism

Richard D. Wolff

4.1

Why should we pay attention to the great social critics like Marx? American, especially now, confront serious questions and evidences that our capitalist system is in trouble. It clearly serves the 1% far, far better than what it is doing to the vast mass of the people.

Marx was a social critic for whom capitalism was not the end of human history. It was just the latest phase and badly needed the t

Cover unavailable

57

The Making of the English Working Class

E. P. Thompson

4.1

This account of artisan & working-class society in its formative years, 1780-1832, adds an important dimension to our understanding of the 19th century. E.P. Thompson shows how the working class took part in its own making & recreates the whole life experience of people who suffered loss of status & freedom, who underwent degradation & who yet created a culture & political consciousness of great v

58

Dialectical and Historical Materialism

Joseph Stalin

4.1

59

An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory

Ernest Mandel

4.1

A concise presentation of the basic principles of political economy.

60

Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism

Michael Parenti

4.1

Blackshirts & Reds explores some of the big issues of our time: fascism, capitalism, communism, revolution, democracy, and ecology—terms often bandied about but seldom explored in the original and exciting way that has become Michael Parenti’s trademark.

Parenti shows how “rational fascism” renders service to capitalism, how corporate power undermines democracy, and how revolutions are a mass empow

61

Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It

Leon Trotsky

4.1

Why fascism was able to conquer only in those countries where social democratic or Stalinist parties blocked the workers and their allies from utilizing a revolutionary situation to remove the capitalists from power.

62

Marx for Beginners

RIUS

4.1

A cartoon book about Marx? Are you sure it's Karl, not Groucho? How can you summarize the work of Karl Marx in cartoons? It took Rius to do it. He's put it all in: the origins of Marxist philosophy, history, economics; of capital, labor, the class struggle, socialism. And there's a biography of "Charlie" Marx besides.

Like the companion volumes in the series, Marx for Beginners is accurate, underst

63

Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

Theodor Adorno

4.1

Adorno's literary and philosophical masterpiece, built from aphorisms and reflections.

A reflection on everyday existence in the 'sphere of consumption of late Capitalism', this work is Adorno's literary and philosophical masterpiece. Built from aphorisms and reflections, he shifts in register from personal experience to the most general theoretical problems.

Cover unavailable

64

Wages, Price and Profit

Karl Marx

4.1

65

Late Capitalism

Ernest Mandel

4.1

Late Capitalism is the first major synthesis to have been produced by the contemporary revival of Marxist economics. It represents, in fact, the only systematic attempt so far ever made to combine the general theory of the “laws of motion” of the capitalist mode of production developed by Marx, with the concrete history of capitalism in the twentieth century.

Mandel’s book starts with a challenging

66

Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism

Fredric Jameson

4.1

Now in paperback, Fredric Jameson’s most wide-ranging work seeks to crystalize a definition of ”postmodernism”. Jameson’s inquiry looks at the postmodern across a wide landscape, from “high” art to “low” from market ideology to architecture, from painting to “punk” film, from video art to literature.

67

Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung: The Little Red Book

Mao Tse-Tung

4.1

Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung is a book of statements from speeches and writings by Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), the former Chairman of the Communist Party of China, published from 1964 to about 1976 and widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution.The most popular versions were printed in small sizes that could be easily carried and were bound in bright red covers, becoming commonly kn

68

The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916-1935

Antonio Gramsci, David Forgacs, Eric J. Hobsbawm

4.1

with a new introduction by ERIC J. HOBSBAWM

"Very usefully pulls the key passages from Gramsci's writings into one volume, which allows English-language readers an overall view of his work. Particularly valuable are the connections it draws across his work and the insights which the introduction and glossary provide into the origin and development of some key Gramscian concepts."
--Stuart Hall, Prof

69

Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature

John Bellamy Foster

4.1

70

Their Morals and Ours: The Class Foundations of Moral Practice

Leon Trotsky

4.1

Explains how morality is rooted in the interests of contending social classes. With a reply by the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey and a Marxist answer to Dewey by George Novack.

71

Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century

Harry Braverman

4.1

This widely acclaimed book, first published in 1974, was a classic from its first day in print. Written in a direct, inviting way by Harry Braverman, whose years as an industrial worker gave him rich personal insight into work, Labor and Monopoly Capital overturned the reigning ideologies of academic sociology.

This new edition features an introduction by John Bellamy Foster that sets the work in h

72

The Age of Capital, 1848-1875

Eric Hobsbawm

4.1

In the wake of the French Revolution & the Industrial Revolution, Europe underwent another revolution--this time a revolution of values. The author examines the rise of industrial capitalism and the consolidation of bourgeois culture, exploring the effects of mounting concentration of wealth, population migrations, and the domination of European culture. Integrating economics with political and in

73

The Civil War in France

Karl Marx

4.1

A reprint of the 1934 'enlarged edition', a volume that added newly translated material to the title essay. It includes an introduction by Engels [Do you want to know that this dictatorship of the proletariat looks like? Then look at the Paris Commune. That was the dictatorship of the proletariat], Marx's first and second 'Manifesto On The Franco-Prussian War', the correspondence of Marx & Engels

74

33 Lessons on Capital: Reading Marx Politically

Harry Cleaver

4.1

This book provides an up-to-date reading of Capital Volume I, emphasizing the relevance of Marx's analysis to everyday twenty-first century struggles. Harry Cleaver's treatise outlines and critiques Marx's analysis chapter by chapter. His unique interpretation of Marx's labour theory of value reveals how every theoretical category of Capital designates aspects of class struggle in ways that help u

75

A Companion to Marx's Capital, Volume 2

David Harvey

4.1

The biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression shows no sign of coming to a close and Marx’s work remains key in understanding the cycles that lead to recession. For nearly forty years, David Harvey has written and lectured on Capital, becoming one of the world’s most foremost Marx scholars.

Based on his recent lectures, and following the success of his companion to the first volume of Cap

76

The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries

Kathi Weeks

4.1

In The Problem with Work, Kathi Weeks boldly challenges the presupposition that work, or waged labor, is inherently a social and political good. While progressive political movements, including the Marxist and feminist movements, have fought for equal pay, better work conditions, and the recognition of unpaid work as a valued form of labor, even they have tended to accept work as a naturalized or

77

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity

Marshall Berman

4.1

All That Is Solid Melts into Air is a dazzling exploration of modern consciousness. In this unparalleled book, Marshall Berman takes account of the social changes that swept millions of people into the capitalist world and the impact of modernism on art, literature and architecture. This new edition contains an updated preface addressing the critical role the onset of modernism played in popular d

78

Aesthetics and Politics

Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht, Georg Lukacs

4.0

No other country and no other period has produced a tradition of major aesthetic debate to compare with that which unfolded in German culture from the 1930s to the 1950s. In Aesthetics and Politics the key texts of the great Marxist controversies over literature and art during these years are assembled in a single volume. They do not form a disparate collection but a continuous, interlinked debate

79

Marx's Concept of Man

Erich Fromm

4.0

A provocative new view of Marx stressing his humanist philosophy and challenging both Soviet distortion and Western ignorance of his basic thinking.

80

Marx: A Very Short Introduction

Peter Singer

4.0

Karl Marx is one of the most influential philosophers of all time, whose theories have shaped and directed political, economic, and social thought for 150 years. Considering Marx's life and impact, renowned philosopher Peter Singer identifies the central vision that unifies Marx's thought, enabling us to grasp Marx's views as a whole. Presenting Marx as a philosopher primarily concerned with human

81

Illuminations: Essays and Reflections

Walter Benjamin

4.0

Studies on contemporary art and culture by one of the most original, critical and analytical minds of this century. Illuminations includes Benjamin's views on Kafka, with whom he felt the closest personal affinity, his studies on Baudelaire and Proust (both of whom he translated), his essays on Leskov and on Brecht's Epic Theater.

Also included are his penetrating study on "The Work of Art in the

Recommended by Edmund de Waal.

Edmund de Waal

It’s a meditation on history, a meditation on philosophy, a meditation on collecting and an autobiography as well. [source]

82

مبادئ الشيوعية

عباس محمود العقا

4.0

Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820 - August 5, 1895) was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, working in close collaboration alongside Karl Marx. In 1845, he published "The Condition of the Working Class in England," based on personal observations and research. In 1848, he produced with Marx "The Communist Manifesto" and

83

Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics

Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe

4.0

Since its original publication in 1985, this hugely influential book has been at the centre of much debate. The arguments and controversies it has aroused are, furthermore, far from abating: the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, the emergence of new social and political identities linked to the transformation of late capitalism, and the crisis of a left-wing project whose essentialist underpinnin

84

Essential Works of Lenin: "What Is to Be Done?" and Other Writings

Vladimir Il’ich Lenin

4.0

Among the most influential political and social forces of the 20th century, modern communism rests firmly on philosophical, political and economic underpinnings developed by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, later known as Lenin. In this volume, comprising the four works generally considered his most important publications, Lenin presents the goals and tactics of communism with remarkable directness and fo

85

Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism

Perry Anderson

4.0

The rise of the modern absolutist monarchies in Europe constitutes in many ways the birth of the modern historical epoch. Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism, the companion volume to Perry Anderson’s highly acclaimed and influential Lineages of the Absolutist State, is a sustained exercise in historical sociology to root the development of absolutism in the diverse routes taken from the slave-bas

86

The Class Struggles in France, 1848-1850

Karl Marx

4.0

87

Empire

Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri

4.0

Imperialism as we knew it may be no more, but Empire is alive and well. It is, as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri demonstrate in this bold work, the new political order of globalization. It is easy to recognize the contemporary economic, cultural, and legal transformations taking place across the globe but difficult to understand them. Hardt and Negri contend that they should be seen in line with

88

The Poverty of Philosophy

Karl Marx

4.0

The Poverty of Philosophy criticizes the economic and philosophical arguments of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon set forth in The System of Economic Contradictions, or The Philosophy of Poverty. Marx specifically accuses Proudhon of wanting to rise above the bourgeoisie. In the history of Marx's thought and Marxism, this work is pivotal in the distinction between the Marxist concepts of utopian socialism a

89

The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey

Ernesto Che Guevara

4.0

The young Che Guevara’s lively and highly entertaining travel diary, now a popular movie and a New York Times bestseller.

This new, expanded edition features exclusive, unpublished photos taken by the 23-year-old Ernesto on his journey across a continent, and a tender preface by Aleida Guevara, offering an insightful perspective on the man and the icon.

Features of this edition include:

A preface by

90

Marxism and Literary Criticism

Terry Eagleton

4.0

Is Marx relevant any more? Why should we care what he wrote? What difference could it make to our reading of literature? Terry Eagleton, one of the foremost critics of our generation, has some answers in this wonderfully clear and readable analysis. Sharp and concise, it is, without doubt, the most important work on literary criticism that has emerged out of the tradition of Marxist philosophy and

91

October: The Story of the Russian Revolution

China Miéville

4.0

In February 1917, in the midst of bloody war, Russia was still an autocratic monarchy: nine months later, it became the first socialist state in world history. How did this unimaginable transformation take place? How was a ravaged and backward country, swept up in a desperately unpopular war, rocked by not one but two revolutions?

This is the story of the extraordinary months between those upheaval

Cover unavailable

92

The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West

Michael Walsh

4.0

In the aftermath of World War II, America stood alone as the world’s premier military power. Yet its martial confidence contrasted vividly with its sense of cultural inferiority. Still looking to a defeated and dispirited Europe for intellectual and artistic guidance, the burgeoning transnational elite in New York and Washington embraced not only the war’s refugees, but many of their ideas as well

Recommended by Denise Mcallister.

Denise Mcallister

False. It’s straight out of the Frankfurt School and has deeply influenced higher education and our culture. @dkahanerules has an amazing book on this. I challenge you to read it. https://t.co/BC9KmNOJhU https://t.co/WzYmv7kVcs [source]

93

The Foundations of Leninism

J.V. Stalin and Marx Engels Lenin Institut

4.0

94

Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle

Silvia Federici

4.0

Written between 1975 and the present, the essays collected in this volume represent years of research and theorizing on questions of social reproduction and the consequences of globalization. Originally inspired by Federici's organizational work in the Wages for Housework movement, the topics discussed include the international restructuring of reproductive work and its effects on the sexual divis

95

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Revised Edition)

Benedict Anderson

4.0

Preview Summary

What makes people love and die for nations, as well as hate and kill in their name? While many studies have been written on nationalist political movements, the sense of nationality--the personal and cultural feeling of belonging to a nation--has not received proportionate attention. In this widely acclaimed work, Benedict Anderson examines the creation and global spread of the 'imagined communiti

Recommended by Jon Calame.

Jon Calame

We looked into divided cities not because we had a morbid fascination with these traumatised cities, but because they seemed to be a keyhole through which you could glimpse this larger phenomenon relatively clearly. [source]

96

Time, Labor, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory

Postone

4.0

In this ambitious book, Moishe Postone undertakes a fundamental reinterpretation of Marx's mature critical theory. He calls into question many of the presuppositions of traditional Marxist analyses and offers new interpretations of Marx's central arguments. These interpretations lead him to a very different analysis of the nature and problems of capitalism and provide the basis for a critique of "

97

The Mass Strike

Rosa Luxemburg

4.0

98

My Life

Leon Trotsky

4.0

This priceless historical document by the Bolshevik leader features firsthand accounts from the top levels of the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Trotsky chronicles the struggle to consolidate a government run by workers and peasants, along with the rift between Lenin and Stalin and its political consequences.

Recommended by Robert Service.

Robert Service

This is one of the books I read when I was starting to move into historical study. It’s a wonderful memoir of a childhood and young adulthood. Trotsky is a wonderful writer. I think he is one of the two great political writers of the 20th century, the other being Winston Churchill. But, as you move through the book, you get a very strong sense of a man who is justifying his own politics and his own career choices. He gets less and less attractive and less and less plausible as the first half of the book gives way to the second half. In that sense it was a very influential work for me because I started thinking that he was a very attractive man and I ended up thinking that he was a very unattractive politician whose self-justification for the terror and the dictatorship and the ultra centralist discipline that he imposed didn’t have much merit. [source]

99

Discourse on Colonialism

Aimé Césaire, Joan Pinkham

4.0

"Césaire's essay stands as an important document in the development of third world consciousness--a process in which [he] played a prominent role."
--Library Journal

This classic work, first published in France in 1955, profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Nearly twenty years later, when p

100

Reading Capital

Louis Althusser, Etienne Balibar, Ben Brewster

4.0

Together with Louis Althusser’s book For Marx, Reading Capital represents one of the foundational texts of the school of “structuralist Marxism” which transformed the face of modern philosophy and social theory. Presided over by the magnetic and intellectually coruscating figure of Althusser, the structuralist Marxists attempted no less than an intellectual revolution against dominant interpretati