ophielian
April 3, 2026 at 12:40:48 PM
alright, here are my recommendations:
1:Value, Price and Profit
- you can skip the first 5 chapters as it's a terrible intro to Marx.
-chapters 6-14, Marx distills his critique of political economy and because so, it is relatively easy to grasp in comparison to his more difficult works. This is a simplified exposition of the economic categories he uses in further detail later, from the basic „value,“ all the way into class struggle.
2: Introduction to Gundrisse
-This text is a beautiful intersection between Marx’s critique of political economy, his use of the dialectical method and historical materialism. It is quite wordy and the paragraphs are long, but it is very rewarding
3: 18th Brumaire
Mid-19th century France was in a very precarious situation which Marx was alive to see. His conclusions of such situation are in this text. He analyzes the class character of various social forces, figures, organizations and events that made up the material basis of the political struggle in France, which now for our purposes, serves as an exemplary text for potential current and future applications of historical materialism
4: Critique of Gotha Program
It was made in response to the formation of a new socialist „United Workers‘ Party“ in Germany, which Marx reportedly wanted nothing to do with. It is also incredibly funny to watch Marx at his most hateful.
5: The Civil War in France
- This one's my fav cos it can be read next "What is to Be Done?" by Lenin and does offer both praise and criticism towards the Paris commune
6: Anti-Duhring
-This is the explanation of communism and its various phases at its most lucid. Like the Gotha Critique, Engels here is critiquing a now obscure and sham thinker, who this time claims to have created a social theory of everything, Eugen Duhring. This is what Engels has to say specifically about communism in response to Duhring’s politics. It begins with lambasting the „Duhringian Commune“ to explain socialist production and distribution.
That's all I have for now!
Replied on: April 3, 2026 at 4:20:55 PM
Thank you so much!! (✿◕‿◕✿) I'll definitely look into these later 🩷