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Karl Marx His Life and Environment by Isaiah Berlin 1963 Paperback ... Read more

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Excellent Read
Isaiah Berlin's brief biography of the life and work of Marx is an all-together excellent portrait of one of the truly fertile minds of modernity. With elegant prose and a fine attention to historical detail, Berlin manages to construct a living presentation of the life of work in terms of his intellectual project and its relationship to his interlocutors. Berlin discusses the significance of Engels, Stirner and the Young Hegelians, Bakunin, Proudon, and all the usual suspects to give an accurate sense of Marx's intellectual environment. Yet this book does not get waterlogged in endless details as is the custom with biography; Berlin has managed to give an accurate assessment of the life and work of this immense genius without losing himself in the details. Although obviously inflected by Berlin's own liberalism, this portrait remains an excellent place to reach an approximation of Marx' life and his devotion to the project of changing the world. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

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The philosopher, social scientist, historian and revolutionary, Karl Marx, is without a doubt the most influential socialist thinker to emerge in the 19th century. Although he was largely ignored by scholars in his own lifetime, his social, economic and political ideas gained rapid acceptance in the socialist movement after his death in 1883. Until quite recently almost half the population of the world lived under regimes that claim to be Marxist. This very success, however, has meant that the original ideas of Marx have often been modified and his meanings adapted to a great variety of political circumstances. In addition, the fact that Marx delayed publication of many of his writings meant that is been only recently that scholars had the opportunity to appreciate Marx's intellectual stature. ... Read more

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The Big Three in Economics reveals the battle of ideas among the three most influential economists in world history: Adam Smith, representing laissez faire; Karl Marx, reflecting the radical socialist model; and John Maynard Keynes, symbolizing big government and the welfare state. History comes alive in this fascinating story of opposing views that continue to play a fundamental role in today's politics and economics. In the twenty-first century, Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' model has gained the upper hand, and capitalism has ultimately won the ideological battle over socialism and interventionism. But even in the era of globalization and privatization, Keynesian and Marxist ideas continue to play a significant role in economic policy in the public and private sectors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Misleading
This book is well written, easy to follow and presents the ideas of many economists with simplicity. Yet I only gave it two stars, and this is due to several reasons. First, the content of the book is not faithful to its title. This book should have been called "The Big One in Economics (Adam Smith)". I bought the book hoping to read about the main economic principles put forth by each of Smith, Marx and Keynes. Instead, the book turned out to be a description of how Smith's ideas triumphed over all others despite the numerous attacks that were launched on them. My problem is not the fact that the author thinks that Smith's ideas have triumphed, although I don't agree with that. Smith after all is the father of modern economics and he was an excellent thinker. His book should be read by all. My problem is with the author using such a misleading title. Second, I was amazed at the ease with which the author wrote off Marx as an economic thinker. The author actually goes as far as to wonder how anyone can believe in Marx's economic theory. The answer, again according to the author, was that Marx was more of a prophet and hence the effect that he had on his followers need not be rational. The author mentions Paul Sweezy's book "The theory of Capital Development" in a small paragraph and does not even bother himself to address any of the issues raised by it. Instead, like many authors before him he spends a considerable amount of time talking about Marx's life. I would have rather read a critique of some of the Marxian ideas put forth by Sweezy than read how Marx had an illegitimate child. When it came to discussing the ideas of Keynes, the author manages to give Keynes credit for being a great economist, yet makes his ideas seem as good enough for specific circumstances, and not good enough to be an all-encompassing theory. Keynes, according to the author was right in a specific circumstance, nothing more. All in all, the book started out as being very promising and ended as a narrow version of the history of economic theory.

Reads like a college essay.
I didn't make it very far into this book before putting it down. It was not what I expected. I did not care for the writing style at all. It was too dry and academic for me to continue reading. I am interested in learning more about these three figures, but this read like a thesis paper.

An excellent book
The book takes an open-minded and balanced view of the philisophies and economics of those titled.If you're looking for an explanation of how the modern economy evolved, this book by Dr. Skousen, a brilliant author and speaker, is an excellent choice.

Opinionated
The author's predilection for Smith is obvious from the early chapters.It would be a more satisfying book if he substantiated this with real-world examples.His sniping at fellow academics is trying at best.

excellent history of economics
For a while I have been wanting to delve into economics. With the current crisis, I thought it imperative to start learning what was going on so I could at least understand the news if nothing else. This book is fantastic for the novice who wants to understand economics. Though it is a history, learning the history may be the best way to learn the subject.

Those sympathetic to free-market economics will probably enjoy more than others since Skousen is critical of Marx and Keynes. But he also submits evidence as to why Marx and Keynes have been wrong much of the time. While it is called The Big Three (Smith, Marx, and Keynes), I'd say that they take up only about half of the book.A fair amount of space is given to the background and influences of these big players.A brief biographical sketch is given of the Big Three. Then he covers their economic beliefs. He discusses their successes and shortcomings. Skousen does an excellent job of painting a coherent image of economic history.

In case you are wondering, I would guess that Skousen is most sympathetic to the Austrian School (and rightly so!).
Unfortunately this book came out just a bit before the current economic crisis took off so it isn't covered. But Skousen does correctly point out that much of what you see in the news media (and the governing politic) is Keynesian ecomonics (consume, consume, consume your way out of the recession). And this is very evident watching the TV today. Too bad they're wrong. ... Read more

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Ever since the discovery of Marx's Early Writings, most of the literature concerned with Marx's intellectual development has centred around the so-called gap between the 'young' Marx, who was considered to be a humanist thinker, and the 'older' Marx, who was held to be a determinist with little concern for anything outside his narrow theory of historical materialism. Dr Avineri claims that such a gap between the 'young' and 'older' Marx did not exist. He supports his claim by a detailed study of the whole corpus of Marx's writing on social and political thought. ... Read more

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From Hegel to Marx
There are endless perspetives and their commentaries on Marx, but the extraordinary fact is that Marx is a moving target very difficult to understand. This classic text, also a handy companion and continuation to the author's work on Hegel, claims to rescue Marx from his friends and enemies, and is brave attempt at that, whatever a more radical view of the result might be. The author's doubloon of books, tracing the Hegelian sources of Marx, one on Hegel's theory of the modern state, and Marx's dialectical continuation, makes a useful exercise in reorienting one thinking on this forever important emergent critique of political economy and the basic 'crisis of 1848', which has never gone away. ... Read more

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In Marx in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Marx's life and ideas, and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from Marx's writings; a brief list of suggested reading for those who wish to push further; and chronologies that place Marx within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy. ... Read more

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Best introduction to Marx I've seen
Loved this book. It gives a concise, unbiased view of Marx and Marxism, including details about Karl Marx's life, the times he lived in, and what shaped his beliefs. Includes a timeline and various quotations. I highly recommend this book as an introduction to Marxism. It's actually a fun read, and under 80 pages.

A good primer on the life and ideas of Karl Marx
In American society, the ideas of Karl Marx are generally dismissed with prejudice, although the vast majority of people that do so really have no idea what he believed. In so many ways he was right, the industrial workers of the world were being exploited by the capitalist overseers and existed in a form of wage slavery. However, Marx could not have foreseen the changing social structure that led to the universal education of children, abolition of child labor, social security and welfare programs. Ironically, some of these programs were the consequences of intelligent capitalism at work, for example the universal education of children was needed to provide the work force the skills needed to function in the modern factories. Even more ironic is the current call by modern capitalists for more universal education, as most believe that the working class is currently woefully uneducated.
This book is an excellent resource to provide an outline of the life of Karl Marx and his views on capitalism as he experienced it. Marx was a visionary for his times, fortunately they did change and while the revolutions in the Western countries he envisioned were bloody, they were not as destructive as he thought. While that cannot be said for the revolutions in other countries that were horrific, it is most unlikely that Marx would have recognized his ideas when put forward as the justification for what was done in his name.

Well written, but lacking...
Overall this work is extremely well written and entertaining stylistically. The author gives a brief but thorough overview of the influences that shaped the young Karl Marx as well as some amusing, if somewhat irrelevant, biographical information on Marx and his companion Engels. The tidbits, for example, about Marx's hygenic habits and his pawning his only pair of pants to buy cigars are especially amusing.

Beyond a basic biographical understanding of Marx and an extremely simplified view of the world he lived and wrote in, this book is useless. The author is an obviously intelligent fellow with a gift for writing both clearly and humorously, so one if left wondering why he leaves glaring omissions and obvious logical fallacies in his work. While he avoids any outright perversions of truth, he is at least dishonest by omission with the reader. For example, he claims that Marxism has been a horrendous failure in almost every place it has been tried and points out that, ironically, Marx's ideas never took root where they were born, i.e. in western Europe. Every major state in western Europe, with the possible exception of Switzerland, has to some degree or other embraced Marx's basic tenets as laid out in Capital. Sweden, for example, is a modern state with a vibrant industrial economy that democratically elected Olaf Palmerson, an avowed Communist, as Prime Minister in the late 1960s. Germany has likewise produced one of the most powerful economies on Earth while also adhering to important demands first laid out in detail by Marx (it was the first state to develop a comprehensive social security system and has universal health care). England and France are large states that have had similar successes with socialist principles in practice, and various smaller states (e.g. Belgium, the Netherlands) have enjoyed even greater prosperity per capita than these. Granted each of these states still relies a great deal on capitalist spirit for their economic growth, but it is no criticism of Marx that the modern West has been built by capitalist enterprise, for he himself did not hesitate to marvel at and point out the achievements of bourgeois society. Yet the author conveniently forgets that his prosperous native England has, for the last half century, been ruled on and off by the Labor Party, a political entity which embraces socialism and consequently a great many Marxist theories on economics.

Stathern also oversimplifies important points about Marx's philosophy, such as his theory of surplus value and the state withering away. He glosses over these points, giving little explanation on them and saving his writing talent and words for critiques of the ideas that stop short of full logical conclusions. A reader who is not already familiar with Marx may not pick out these critical curtailings and omissions yet the purpose of this work is to inform the lay reader who is unfamiliar with subject. A scholar, whether a student of philosophy, history, or economics, would probably rightly dismiss most of Strathern's oversimplified opinings outright. If a work could not rightly be accepted as appropriately fair and thorough by scholars, it is probably not a good introduction to a field for lay readers.

In conclusion, this book provides a good outline of Marx and the philosophers that influenced him, but while Strathern is a talented writer he seems to also have his own biases which he lets color his work but does not openly disclose. A good historian of philosophy, but downright unscholarly in his portrayal of economic and political history in this case. You should probably do more investigating of Marx and his influence on world affairs rather than be lazy and allow this book to be your sole source of information on Marxism.

Excellent for a basic understanding of Marx
This is an excellent book to read if you want to get a basic understanding of Marx; how he lived and his ideas.Even though Marxism is a failure, a certain percentage of the population will always believe in his idea of a Utopian society.One that would not need a central government, money, etc.Marx believed you could reach such a state in three stages, but Marxism couldn't make it past stage one.Strathern does an excellent job in giving you an overview of Karl Marx life.Highly recommened.

One important omission
This small excellently written study of Marx makes one major omission. It forgets to point out the tremendously disastrous effect of Marx's ideas upon mankind. It is here of course possible to say that Marx is not responsible for what the Soviet Union did in his name, or how Lenin and Stalin misused his ideas to enslave and murder millions of people. But as Strathern points out Marx was the philosopher who first said that the' purpose of the world is not to understand it, but to change it." And the way he changed it is what William James would call the ' cash value' of his ideas. And these ideas helped produce untold suffering to Mankind.
Strathern also says nothing about Marx's anti- Semitism, and other detestable anti- human elements in his thought.
He too writes of Marx's family life in a way which is far more sympathetic than properly deserved. While he was saving the world and living off his friend Engels' remittances his children were often hungry for bread.
Thus the familiar story Strathern tells about the evils of the Industrial Age as witnessed by Engels and Marx, the writing of the masterly work, 'The Communist Manifesto' the production of the unreadable economic masterpiece 'Capitol' , the life devoted to the class struggle, the overthrowing of Capitalism, the bringing into beingof ' the dictatorship of the proletariat' as part of the Utopian vision of ' from each according to his ability and to each according to his needs' does not cancel the bottom line conclusion of the ' value ' of Marx's work.
A disaster for Mankind is the result of the work of this particular 'genius'. ... Read more

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Marx's study of the events leading to the coup d'etat of "Napolean the Little" on December 2, 1851, written within a few weeks of the coup, is one of the first works by Marx in which he states his theory of history. [Facsimile reprint edition.] ... Read more

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Read This Essay!
Many general readers don't know that Marx's paid employment most of his life was as a journalist writing on current events of his day. His "Eighteenth Brumaire" was originally a series of newspaper articles for a New York based left-wing paper for the German immigrant community there. Its chapters are thus short, pithy and very readable. Marx's witty, sparkling and fast-paced literary style here makes the events examined, how and why President Louis Bonaparte of France was able to pull off a coup in 1851, hasn't lost any of its freshness after more than a 150 years. Its worth reading for it literary qualities alone.

But this is also an excellent introduction to Marx's social theories: how the interplay of economic developments, class interests and conflicts, high politics and ideological cleavages produced the circumstances in which Louis Bonaparte, nephew of the famous General/Emperor, became the democratically elected President of France in 1848, then moved in 1851 to suppress democratic politics with the backing of the petty and upper bourgeoisie when these classes concluded that democracy could not secure their control over the state. There is no better demonstration of Marxian social analysis in action.

This essay is also worth reading for what it can suggest about more recent history. From the advent of Mussolini in Italy 1922 to Pinochet in Chile in 1973 to the failed coup against Chavez in Venezuela in 2002 and beyond, bourgeoisies and allied classes have repeatedly acted to suppress democratic regimes if and when these regimes spin out of their control. This essay will help you understand why.

The Most Accessible of Marx's Work
This fascinating extended essay was originally prepared as a series of newspaper articles.It is Marx's careful analysis of the hijacking of the 1848 revolution in France by Louis Bonaparte, the nephew and self styled successor of the great Napoleon.Many readers are dimly aware of this work because it is the source of two of Marx's most quoted remarks; "history occurs as tragedy and recurs as farce," and "man makes his future, only not as he chooses."Marx discusses why the 18th Brumaire occurred, how it occurred, and why it succeeded.Marx deployed all his considerable intellectual tools to produce this analysis and the quality of writing is much more accessible than much of his more scholarly work, proof that he could write well.What is most impressive is Marx's use of class based social analysis combined with an incisive understanding of the intersections of class interests, ideology, and even personality.Individuals, both on the right and left, who have reduced Marx's thinking to sterile economic determinism have never encountered this brilliant work.A model of what can be done when Marxist concepts are used as a point of departure rather than a form of theology. ... Read more

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Karl Marx's Das Kapital was first published in German in 1876 and is considered the most important contribution of Marx to the world of political economy. In it Marx gives a critical analysis of capitalism and its practical economic application and also a critique of other related theories. Today it is considered one of the most influential books ever written. Here, Marx's text is interpreted for the modern-day world of business and economics. Steve Shipside's interpretation is not a substitute for the original; its purpose is simply to illustrate the timeless nature of Marx's insights by bringing them to life through twenty first century examples. ... Read more

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The Young Karl Marx is an innovative and important study of Marx's early writings. These writings provide the fascinating spectacle of a powerful and imaginative intellect wrestling with complex and significant issues, but they also present formidable interpretative obstacles to modern readers. David Leopold shows how an understanding of their intellectual and cultural context can illuminate the political dimension of these works. An erudite yet accessible discussion of Marx's influences and targets frames the author's critical engagement with Marx's account of the emergence, character, and (future) replacement of the modern state. This combination of historical and analytical approaches results in a sympathetic, but not uncritical, exploration of such fundamental themes as alienation, citizenship, community, anti-semitism, and utopianism. The Young Karl Marx is a scholarly and original work which provides a radical and persuasive reinterpretation of Marx's complex and often misunderstood views of German philosophy, modern politics, and human flourishing. ... Read more

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The premis of this study is that Marx's world view was very much a product of its time, and as such, it can only be understood in relation to the intellectual climate in which it was conceived. In this text, the author examines the influential force of the Young Hegelian movement, and discusses the work of the leading Young Hegelians, including Bruno Bauer, Feuerbach, Stirner and Hess - and their influence on Marx. ... Read more

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This book presents an account and technical assessment of Marx's economic analysis in Capital, with particular reference to the transformation and the surplus-value doctrine, the reproduction schemes, the falling real-wage and profit rates, and the trade cycle. The focus is on criticisms that Marx himself might have been expected to face in his day and age. In addition, it offers a chronological study of the evolution of that analysis from the early 1840s through three "drafts": documents of the late 1840s, the Grundrisse of 1857-1858, and the Economic Manuscripts of 1861-1863. It also provides three studies in application, focusing on Marx's "evolutionary" orientation in his evaluation of the transition to communism and his rejection of "egalitarianism" under both capitalist and communist regimes; his evolving perspective on the role of the industrial "entrepreneur"; and his evolving appreciation of the prospects for welfare reform within capitalism. Throughout, Hollander emphasizes Marx's relation with orthodox canonical classicism. ... Read more

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Part of a definitive English-language edition, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, which contains all the works of Marx and Engels, whether published in their lifetimes or since. The series includes their complete correspondence and newly discovered works. ... Read more

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For the true bibliophile and design-savvy book lover, here is the next set of Penguin's celebrated Great Ideas series by some of history's most innovative thinkers. Acclaimed for their striking and elegant package, each volume features a unique type-driven design that highlights the bookmaker's art. Offering great literature and great design at great prices, this series is ideal for readers who want to explore and savor the Great Ideas that have shaped our world.

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Critical introduction by Irban Habib, then all documents with extensive notes. major publication ... Read more

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This text provides the basic elements necessary for a grasp of the range and complexity of Marx's ideas. The first half of the book is a chronological account of Marx's ideas with a miniumum of biographical and historical detail. The second half is thematic and provides a concise summary of Marx's position, and extracts from his key texts on alienation, historical materialism, labour, class, the party, the state, revolution and future Communist society. David McLellan is the author of "The Young Hegelians and Karl Marx", "Karl Marx: The Early Texts", and "Marx Before Marxism". ... Read more

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Wonderful Introduction To Marx's Thought And Theories!
It would be a far easier task to understand Karl Marx's thought and theories were there not so many millions of Marxists in the world, people whose own take on Marx and his ideas are colored by the politics of those supposedly Marxist states such as the former Soviet Union or The Republic of China. The problem with this is that there are as many interpretations and variations on what supposedly constitutes Marxist thought as there are believers. Thus, one must take great care to stick to the original tests and concentrate on what Marx himself had to say (and he indeed had a quite prolific pen with which he quite liberally expressed himself over a fifty or sixty year period of active deliberation.

Thankfully, it is this treasure trove of original text that David McLellan employs so impressively in this wonderful introductory text relating to the broad sweep of Marx's thought. The author uses first hand quotes in context to pencil out both the broad outlines of Marx's impressively complex and comprehensive system of thought, on the one hand, and many important insights into the details that are so important in making this system of thought coherent. Using materials he has used in other texts quite successfully, the author shows how the various social, political and economic texts Marx wrote all tie together in a stunning system of critical; thought, and how they spell out the essentials of Marxism.

Thus, whether outlining how the antagonisms between opposing social classes provides the motive force of history, showing how surplus value is expropriated from the workers through exploitations and turned into profit for the business owner, or showing how alienation originated in the selling of one's time and energies in enterprises in which one is essentially a forced laborer, McLellan breathes life into Marxian thought. This is an excellent introductory text, and one I recommend for the beginning student of Marxist thought. Enjoy! ... Read more