Marx' Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy is rather dense, but it has some rather hilarious footnotes. When reading Marx, keep in mind Marx is not just writing, he is also reading TO you -- out loud -- and adding commentary as he does. Read Engels' Preface to Vol II of Capital, where Engles decribes how Marx took the conclusions of classical British Political economy and turned them on their heads. It is brilliant stuff.I've decided to read a little Karl Marx, or at least snippets of his thought in The Portable Karl Marx edited by Eugene Kamenka. Right now reading a section of "On the Jewish Question". I'm reading through the selection a second time now, as the first time I was completely lost. But I take it the selection presented is ultimately more or less a critique individualism or what Marx seems to term "egoism" and how it relates to "political emancipation". I remember reading part of "On the Jewish Question" many years ago in my first semester as a philosophy major. Can't remember the first thing about it though so this is a bit of a refresher.
I hope to eventually work my way through a decent bit of the compilation, (at least the part concerning Marx's professional writings which includes some selections from Capital Vol. 1) . I do remember a few scant bits of Marx's conclusions in Capital, most notably the famous bit about the capitalist's profit being the unpaid wage of the worker. I have to say I'm looking forward to reading the featured bits of Das Kapital if I can get through "On the Jewish Question" without pulling my hair out. lol
I beat you to it two years ago. :3Hey Masada, you're reading Fanshen! I hope that was based on my suggestion.
ReindeerThistle said:Hey Masada, you're reading Fanshen! I hope that was based on my suggestion. Btw, look up the Hinton obit from the NYT, save for the wikipedia-like dumb errors, it's a good background on the book.
Hey Masada, you're reading Fanshen! I hope that was based on my suggestion.
Wow, Dachs. Impressive book for a twenty year-old to read. I read it the first time in 1995 -- with only 3 years as a practicing Communist. Then I re-read it in 2003, I think close to when Hinton died and shivered when the obit writer called the village "Fanshen" instead of Long Bow. Oy!I beat you to it two years ago. :3
The CPC at least admits its litany of tragic mistakes without downplaying the tremendous accomplishments of the Chinese Revolution.You are the latest voices to have urged me to read it. It also seems to gel really well with my massive man-crush on Subaltern Studies and peasants generally. (I think I would have made a really good Maoist back in the day).
@Smellincoffee: Have you ever read de Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy? I thought that was a pretty good read. Also made a great Christmas gift to a couple "non philosopher" friends of mine.
Annotated as in 'written over by all the previous readers' or as in 'commentaries from the author and/or editor'?I decided to reread the best children's book ever: The Phantom Tollbooth. Found an annotated version at a local library and immediately got lost in it for several hours.
Just started with Fyodor Dostoyevski's Crime & Punishment.
I've noticed that I have shifted over to reading a lot of biographies recently. My most recent pickup is on Earl Warren, but looking back at my reading list in the other thread I had books on Kennedy, Nixon, Teddy Roosevelt, Garfield, McKinley, Aaron Burr, and several other books that tended to focus more on individual characters than broader historical topics.
There are a few exceptions, granted, but I think there is enough evidence to call it a shift in reading habits.