Navigating Historical Context for Marx Anonymous 2022-01-14 (Fri) 12:55:23 No. 9411
I feel like one of the biggest obstacles to understanding Marx's most crucial works is that he writes for an audience that he assumes already knows a ton of context, which makes sense considering his own context as a journalist for revolutionary workers on the streets themselves. It still makes those writings confusing to anyone that isn't an academic that has the privilege of having absorbed context. So, what are some good history books that can fill in that gap?
Some specific topics:
—English political economy from Adam Smith to the repeal of the Corn Laws
—Early communist party (Cabet, Blanqui, League of the Just, Communist Correspondence Committee, etc.)
—1848 Revolutions and aftermath
—Napoleon III's coup
—Paris Commune
—First International activities and drama
—General 19th century European history
I found this on the Paris Commune a while ago, pretty decent:
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/mitchell-abidor-voices-of-the-paris-commune Anonymous 2022-01-14 (Fri) 13:29:51 No. 9414
>>9411 There are tons of introductions, summaries, etc. No reason to 'dumb it down' so to speak.
Anonymous 2022-01-19 (Wed) 17:13:30 No. 9444
I know that feel
Anonymous 2022-01-19 (Wed) 17:51:32 No. 9446
If only political theorists would all write with broad future audiences in mind. We really need better communicators for this material to improve the mainstream understanding.
Anonymous 2022-01-19 (Wed) 17:54:15 No. 9447
>>9444 Just go to the primary sources and study Marx and Engels directly
Anonymous 2022-01-19 (Wed) 18:07:55 No. 9449
>>9447 the Marx/Engels Reader (I assume by WW Norton) is a compilation of their own texts
Anonymous 2022-01-19 (Wed) 18:10:56 No. 9450
>>9449 also, this thread was prompted in the first place by me being a bit confused by the primary texts themselves
also, stalin LMAO
Anonymous 2022-01-19 (Wed) 18:22:17 No. 9451
>>9431 I've been looking for this pdf everywhere thx
Anonymous 2022-01-21 (Fri) 04:58:49 No. 9466
Marx did "dumb" things down but not in a condescending way, he expected his readers to use their common sense to keep up because he often repeated things multiple times in a chapter to make his point because he didn't like being misread.
Anonymous 2022-01-21 (Fri) 23:20:12 No. 9469
>>9415 >>9411 Why not just read Marx's own work on the Paris Commune?
http://www.slp.org/pdf/marx/paris_com.pdf Anonymous 2022-01-22 (Sat) 18:08:02 No. 9474
>>9469 like implied, i'd already have read the civil war in france since that's marx's main work on the commune. i'm talking about a more general history
the IWA did have some members on the committees but it was by and large controlled by petty bourgeois socialists unfortunately. big cause of their downfall
Anonymous 2022-01-27 (Thu) 02:56:14 No. 9535
To be fair, the First International can largely be ignored since it fell apart mostly because of personal hatred, rather than any clear political or theoretical issues.
Anonymous 2022-02-01 (Tue) 02:33:24 No. 9599
Every Marxist/Communist should study Frédéric Bastiat closely. He was one of the foremost intellectuals of the bourgeois democrats of the July Monarchy and the 1848 Revolution. La Loi (The Law) especially was written in reaction to the worker's uprisings of 1848-49, and it's probably one of the most upfront and honest expositions of bourgeois political philosophy alongside maybe Hegel's Elements of the Philosophy of Right.
Anonymous 2022-02-01 (Tue) 07:00:46 No. 9603
>>9411 Is that really Marx? If so, that's a rare one.
Anonymous 2022-02-01 (Tue) 16:44:09 No. 9613
>>9603 Reverse image searched it on every site I could but haven't found shit, where the hell is that pic actually from lmao
Anonymous 2022-02-01 (Tue) 17:01:54 No. 9614
A version of Capital with explaining notes at the margins (like with Moby Dick) would be much better than the countless dubious guides to Capital.
>>9599 >Every Marxist/Communist should study Frédéric Bastiat closely. He was one of the foremost intellectuals of the bourgeois democrats "the most superficial and therefore the most adequate representative of the apologetic of vulgar economy" t. Marx
Anonymous 2022-02-04 (Fri) 08:57:32 No. 9640
>>9603 >>9613 probably a cropped version of some obscure archival photo
Anonymous 2022-02-04 (Fri) 19:00:18 No. 9643
>>9614 How would adding notes to the side of the page suddenly make them more trustworthy than any other book? It would probably just create controversy as to the "right" interpretations, at least separate guides give you the notion that there are different readings of Marx.
>>9603 >>9613 >>9640 It's on marxists.org:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/photo/marx/pages/83km1.htm I've never seen this pic anywhere else (no books or biographies that I've read) and MIA doesn't list a source or provide any more info on it either, so it is a bit strange to me. That said, despite the man's dark complexion, some of his features, mainly the brow/forehead, do in fact resemble Marx, so I wouldn't disconsider it.
Anonymous 2022-02-04 (Fri) 19:12:35 No. 9644
>>9643 >How would adding notes to the side of the page suddenly make them more trustworthy than any other book? You would have the original right there besides the notes. What sort of question is that even. Just get a modern copy of Moby Dick to see what I mean.
Anonymous 2022-02-04 (Fri) 22:22:44 No. 9648
>>9647 Most of his portraits have the contrast turned up so high that his complexion seems to be blindingly white. Not sure if it’s intentional.
Anonymous 2022-02-24 (Thu) 02:35:23 No. 9888
>>9647 >>9648 Marx was black, whitey doesn't want you to know.
Anonymous 2022-02-24 (Thu) 02:36:37 No. 9890
>>9888 Um yeah? When Marx called Lasalle a "jewish nigger" he was heavily projecting.
Anonymous 2022-02-24 (Thu) 04:54:41 No. 9891
>>9888 trips confirm
unironically, a lot of self-described "marxists" would be lowkey disturbed by this fact, like that marx flag anon
Anonymous 2022-02-24 (Thu) 12:17:06 No. 9893
>>9888 Marx was an illegal immigrant, snowflakes do not want you to know :xD :xD :xD
Anonymous 2022-02-24 (Thu) 14:34:35 No. 9894
>>9893 For your information I was joking :xD
Anonymous 2022-05-07 (Sat) 03:26:22 No. 10539
bump
Anonymous 2023-08-28 (Mon) 00:56:00 No. 20389
>>9444 >I asked for advice once to see if there was some common reading guide and I got called a retard and told the book was the reading guide yeah these stinky NEET anons think everyone is jobless and childless like them. Like these motherfuckers don't understand that the only chance I have to read Marx is on a treadmill thursday night
Anonymous 2023-08-28 (Mon) 03:38:17 No. 20390
>>9444 2 years too late but what do you mean by "common reading guide"? If you mean an order of reading, the Marx/Engels reader is already that. Using this
https://thecharnelhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Marx-Engels-Reader.pdf as a reference, there also seem to be some annotations giving context.
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