Marx Study Guides

[Red Storm]

I'm trying to find good Marx study guides. I've tried to look on Urban but couldn't see anything. Links to previous threads?

I've googled it but I can't see the cut the wheat from the chaff (an annoyingly more common occurrence when trying to google more than 3 words)

I did find the marxists.org study guide:

I want to read some original texts from Marx and Engels for now. I've never actually read that much stuff by the two, and the stuff I have read I don't think I've really considered what I was reading that deeply.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I only got a couple of chapters in, but this series of lectures about Capital is blimmin great: http://davidharvey.org/reading-capital/

ETA - Start with the Communist Manifesto though? I don't think you need a study guide for that?

 

[xslavearcx]

Yeah the david harvey lecture series is great, it got me through capital volume 1, after many failed attempts.

Henrichs Introduction to the three volumes of Capital is a good book that covers all the concepts and arguments from the three volumes of capital. It's pretty easy to read, and its also not too long.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Three-Volumes-Marxs-Capital/dp/1583672885

 

[Red Storm]

I was going to try the David Harvey lectures.

I think I'm going to follow the guide set by Marxists.org but they've just gone for chronological. I don't know if that's best or anything

 

[xslavearcx]

Depends what you want to get out of this project. If your intention is to get a rough sampling of marxs writings from the beginnings to the end to get the different flavours of marx as it were id recommend you get this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Marx-Engels-Reader-Robert-Tucker/dp/039309040X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369835853&sr=8-1&keywords=marx engels reader

As this has extracts of all the main texts so you can get a rough feel for marx from his hegelian days to his political economy days, and probably means you can avoid the danger of reading all of his texts which is probably like a lifetimes work, not to mention the infinite regress that comes with trying to understand him i.e going like: 'if marx is critiquing feurbach, i better get reading feurbach, oh i need to read hegel to get that, oh shit i need to read kant to understand hegel, now im going to have to read the empiricists and leibinz, shit..' ...and before you know it your at the presocratics!!! Yeah so if your trying to get a rough grip id say dont go beyond that compedium of his writings and maybe an introductorary book or two!!

But if it is to get a basic grip of his analysis and critique of capitalism then id say reading capital volume 1 in conjunction with the David Harvey lectures and/or introduction books to capital are the way to go..

 

[butchersapron]

Also depends on how much effort you're prepared to put in. To do even basic justice to the breadth of it should mean at the very least a couple of years work. To start i would just do the more well known pieces chronologically alongside something like Marx Without Myth by Maximellien Rubel and Margaret Manale which puts them into wider context. Then you can return afterwards to ideas/period that interested you in more depth. I wouldn't start with capital unless you are really prepared to out the work in - and i think the best way to convince yourself to do that is to read along the lines i suggested above - lest capital puts you off all that as well.

 

[Red Storm]

Thanks for the recommendations xslavearcx and butchersapron.

I think maybe a rough investigation before an in depth one might be the way I'll go about it. I'll looking into the books you've both mentioned. Maybe starting with the Marx-Engels Reader and then reading pieces chronologically with Butchers' suggestions.

In terms of time: I wasn't really thinking of a time scale. I don't want to devote huge amounts of time per week. Maybe just an hour a day. I was just thinking I could work my way through for the next year or so, I have until September 2014 without any commitments apart from my 30 hours a week at work.

I did study some extracts from volumes one and three of Capital at uni. I was alright with the parts we read; although, I was totally out of my depth with the Transformation Problem and Bortkiewicz's critique. I knew what was being said but I didn't truly understand what was going on. I tried to read Bortkiewicz's essay but didn't understand much past the 4th equation.

Here is the reading list copied verbatim:

Value/Surplus Value

Capital vol I Chapters 1 (possibly omitting sub-sections 3a-3c), 2, 4-9, 12, 16, 19.
Capital vol III Chapter 48.

Accumulation, Crises and the Falling Rate of Profit

Capital vol I Chapter 25.
Capital vol III Part III and Chapter 30.

Transformation of Values into Prices of Production

Capital vol III Chapters 1,2, 8-12.

 

[xslavearcx]

That sound perfect. I've never got as far as transformation problem and such like so i suspect the harvey stuff you'll probably breeze as i think its aimed at a more introductorary level than stuff you've already put the work into.

 

[Red Storm]

Just found that the Marx-Engels Reader is available in pfd here

 

[xslavearcx]

second hand paperbacks are for sale on amazon for 4 quid if you are like me and can't stand reading things on a computer screen

 

[Red Storm]

second hand paperbacks are for sale on amazon for 4 quid if you are like me and can't stand reading things on a computer screen

Delivery to my part of the world is a bit pricey but I can stick it on my Kindle

 

[butchersapron]

I've just uploaded a small collection of capital readings and stuff here - gives a sample of the main approaches, and contains Ben Fine's and Alfredo
Saad-Filho's recommended Marx's Capital.

 

[Red Storm]

Nice one!

 

[butchersapron]

Just put up the three best english language editions of Capital 1-3 and a version of vol 4. All in epub and mobi format.

 

[Red Storm]

Just put up the three best english language editions of Capital 1-3 and a version of vol 4. All in epub and mobi format.

Do you have a website where you upload all your stuff to?