Hey guys.
I’ve spent most of my life as a moderate lib, until about 6 months ago when I became full-on leftist. However, I know very little Marxist theory.
Assuming I know nothing, what books would recommend to some like me? Obviously Marx, but what else? And in what order? Would anyone be willing to curate a list of books that would give me the basics on Marxist theory and history from the perspective of Marxism? Any advice would be helpful.
Thanks!
Socialism: Utopian & Scientific - A great introduction into socialist theory, and the difference between the utopian socialisms and scientific socialisms. Most importantly, details and explains dialectical materialism. This text is incredibly important as it sets up the program of a large majority of the following texts.
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State - Really does well to show just how deeply our productive social relations define our personal social relations and the norms that we abide by.
Communist Manifesto - A timeless short pamphlet that still does well to outline Marxist thought to this day.
State and Rev - The seminal text for any Marxist Leninist. Opinions on this text will likely determine which branch of leftist thought that you fall into.
Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism - A thorough analysis of capitalism’s evolution with regards to imperialism and the condensing of operations into monopolies. Capitalism has since evolved, but this will give you a very good understanding of Marxist philosophy with regards to capitalism and its many forms.
Wretched of the Earth - An analysis of revolutionary potential of settler colonial societies, really hammers home the fact that class is merely a portion of the current hegemony, and that settler colonialism and race are just as important to the contradictions as they stand
Settlers - A detailed history of settler colonialism and the unbelievable crimes Europe has committed upon the rest of the world (much like Wretched of the Earth)
Blackshirts & Reds - Looking at the 20th century from a Marxist-Leninist perspective, revisiting American anti-communism
EDIT: Currently reading The Long 20th Century as well as The Dawning of The Apocalypse (Gerald Horne).
spoiler
Folks, settler colonialism, its very bad!
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire is all about revolutionary thought in education, but he may be a great third or fourth read. This is the single most important book in my praxis.
The others likely mentioned are State and Revolution by Lenin, Settlers by Sakai, and Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti. Chapo are (rightly) obsessed with those three.
One I’d add that doesn’t seem to come up often here is Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg. It’s a short pamphlet, but a great read, and takes a dialectical approach to what we here would deem electoral vs revolutionary politics. Rosa is good, and distills theory/ideology down pretty concisely.
I thought people recommended The Wretched of the Earth by Fanon instead of Settlers by Sakai?
This is honestly my favorite socialist text in general. It’s reasonably short, uses relatively simple language, very clearly addresses the question of, “Why should I, a random person, care about this?” and it was written by fucking Einstein so very few people will outright say “i dont give a shit what he thought”
A lot of good suggestions here. I’ve found that listening to Richard Wolff as well as Revolutionary Left Radio has helped a lot. Red Library is also very good. Why Theory gets into Hegel and Lacan and others but is occasionally way over my head. I’ve also found some of Bertell Ollman’s online writings pretty helpful. But definitely read the classics mentioned elsewhere in this thread first.
Do you mind my asking how you were radicalized?
