READING ABOUT MARX: SOME SUGGESTIONS

compiled by Allan Megill, in connection with HIEU 381 Marxism, over the years 1976-89, with minor subsequent updates. An asterisk (*) indicates that a book has been available in paperback at some time.

I have not seriously updated this bibliography since August 1989. I should note that it misses the literature in "analytical Marxism" that followed the publication of G. A. Cohen's *Karl Marx's Theory of History. To some extent I do address this literature in my current book manuscript. But I am not interested in engaging in a serious update of this bibliography--let it remain to some extent a historical artifact.

I want to mention Kevin Anderson's surprisingly interesting Lenin, Hegel, and Western Marxism: A Critical Study (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995), especially Part 1, "Lenin on Hegel and Dialectics," 3-119, because it connects with some of my concerns in HIEU 381 Marxism. Also, people should be aware of Francis Wheen, Karl Marx (London: Fourth Estate, 1999), a very readable biography. Wheen is not a specialist, and he makes some mistakes. Nor does he deal in any real way with the content of Marx's theory. But as a biography it seems to me to be quite insightful in many ways.

I also want to underscore the importance of the scholarly edition of the Marx-Engels corpus, far superior to all precursors: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) (71+ Bde.; Berlin: Dietz, 1972- ). This edition should not be confused with the old Marx/Engels Gesamtausgabe, initially published in 13 volumes at Frankfurt a. M., Berlin, and Moscow, 1927-35, and thereafter broken off. The "Old MEGA" has been reprinted on a number of occasions; don't mistake reprints for the "New MEGA." The "New MEGA" does a particularly impressive job with Marx's manuscripts. Its only defect is that it is as yet incomplete.

Another important research aid, not sufficiently well known and only slightly outdated by new material and commentary in the "New MEGA," is The Marx-Engels Cyclopedia, ed. Hal Draper with the assistance of the Center for Socialist History [3 vols.: New York: Schocken, 1985], which brings together in a convenient, condensed form a vast amount of factual information concerning bibliographical and other, related matters in Marx and Engels. Unfortunately, it is out of print.

Nota bene: For purposes of this course, I would advise you to read none of this literature. Your course reading is quite enough. I give you this handout only so you will have some idea of the literature that is out there. Read the handout; don't read the literature.

Allan Megill

November 1997/minor revisions September 2000

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The Writings of Marx and Engels

There are a number of one-volume selections of Marx's (and usually also Engels's) writings. Each compilation reflects the compiler's perspective on Marx. Perhaps the most useful single-volume selection is *The Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd ed., ed. Robert C. Tucker (New York: Norton, 1972, 1978: HX39.5.A224 1978 res; required course book). The Marx of a somewhat earlier generation makes his appearance in *Marx and Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy, ed. Lewis S. Feuer (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1959), which has some nice things in it that are usually omitted from more recent anthologies (e.g., Engels's "parallelogram of forces"). *Karl Marx: Selected Writings, ed. David McLellan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977: HX39.5.A224 1977) does a good job on the economic writings and includes some things not usually found in anthologies, such as selections from The Holy Family. *The Portable Karl Marx, ed. Eugene Kamenka (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1983: HX39.5.A224 1983) is strong on Marx's writings on politics and current events. A useful one-volume selection that focusses on the young Marx only (and contains some interesting material not to be found in Marx, *Early Writings, cited below) is Loyd D. Easton and Kurt H. Guddat, ed., *Writings of the Young Marx on Philosophy and Society (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967: HX39.5.A223 1967). There is also a *Selected Works edited in Moscow and put out in the USA by International Publishers, which is weak on the early writings but is nonetheless interesting as a marker of so-called "orthodox" Marxism, now dead, but of considerable historical interest.

If you want a more comprehensive selection, the best place to turn is the ten-volume "Vintage Marx Library" (published in England by Penguin). It includes *Early Writings, in one volume (HX39.5.A223 1975 res; required course book); *Political Writings, in three volumes (vol. I, *The Revolutions of 1848 [D363.M3713 1974 v. 1]; vol. II, *Surveys from Exile [D363.M3713 1974 v. 2]; and vol. III, *The First International and After [D363.M3713 1973 v. 3]); and *Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy (HB97.5.M3313 1973 res), which is a preliminary version of Capital that helps make clear the philosophical underpinnings of Marx's political economy. The series is completed by *Capital, volumes I, II, and III (HB501.M36 1977, vol. I on res).

The complete works have not yet appeared in English, although International Publishers is putting out a Collected Works of Marx and Engels (HX39.5.A16 1975 v. 1+) that will eventually fill the gap with a projected fifty volumes. So far, some 38 of a projected 50 volumes are available. Serious academic work on Marx and Engels requires use of the new Marx Engels Gesamtausgabe, which began publication in Berlin in the 1970s, and which embodies editorial labors of a truly Herculean scope (including decipherment of previously unpublished notebooks). This edition--known as the "new MEGA"--should not be confused with the "old MEGA," which came out in the early 1930s and was then halted by the Nazi seizure of power and by Stalin's suspicion (which extended to the executing of the chief editor, Riasanov). Nor should it be confused with the more recent photographic reprinting of the "old MEGA." There is also an edition known as the Marx Engels Werke, which began publication in Berlin in the late 1950s. The "new MEGA" is far superior, but is still far from finished. The English Collected Works is based on the Werke.

Engels, *Selected Writings, ed. W. O. Henderson (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1967: HX273.E56A25 1967a) has unfortunately been out of print for many years. Among other things, this selection contains Engels's 1843 essay, "Outline of a Critique of Political Economy," which had an important influence on Marx's "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts" of 1844. Currently in print in paperback is an edition of Engels's *The Condition of the Working Class in England, with an introduction by Eric Hobsbawm (London: Granada, 1969). Another interesting work by Engels, *The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, is available with an introduction by Michèle Barrett (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1985); Barrett considers the relevance of Engels's conclusions for feminism.

The Marx Literature

For most people confronting the immense mountain of writing on Marx, the main difficulty is how to find those works likely to give them the specific illumination they need. One useful tool is Tom Bottomore, ed., *A Dictionary of Marxist Thought (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983: HX17.D5 1983 res). In fact, it would be possible to become remarkably well informed about Marx simply by wending one's way through its entries. I suggest that you consult it regularly on points of puzzlement that you encounter in this course.

In addition, there are useful bibliographies and hints for reading in three of David McLellan's books on Marx: *Karl Marx (New York: Viking, 1975: HX39.5.M257); *Karl Marx: His Life and Thought (New York: Harper & Row, 1973: HX39.5.M26 res); and *The Thought of Karl Marx: An Introduction (New York: Harper & Row, 1971). It is unfortunate that his Karl Marx: His Life and Thought is out of print, at least in the United States. For an article sorting out some of the main strands in the Marx literature up to the early seventies, see Louis Dupré, "Recent Literature on Marx and Marxism," Journal of the History of Ideas 35 (1974): 703-714.

The most useful general scholarly treatment of Marx's thought is probably Shlomo Avineri, *The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx (London: Cambridge University Press, 1968: HX39.5.A8513 res; required course book), although it needs some revision in the light of more recent research. Also useful, from a point of view quite hostile to Marx, is Eugene Kamenka, The Ethical Foundations of Marxism (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962: B3305.M74K3). Of course, it, too, is somewhat out of date. Neither book is likely to be fully comprehensible to the beginner at first reading, nor can either serve as a substitute for your own confrontation with Marx's writings. But toward the end of the semester, after that confrontation has been allowed its chance, the Avineri volume in particular should help you tie things together.

The present course focusses on the writings of Marx himself rather than on the subsequent development of Marxism. Nonetheless, the latter subject is interesting and important. On it, Leszek Kolakowski's *Main Currents of Marxism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978: HX36.K61813 res) is indispensable. Its three volumes, The Founders, The Golden Age, and The Breakdown, cover the main contributions to European Marxism. Its perspective is extremely hostile to Marxism; Kolakowski is a formerly Marxist Polish philosopher who left Poland in the late 1960s. A simpler but less angular and memorable treatment is Warren Lerner. *A History of Socialism and Communism in Modern Times (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1982: HX36.L434), which includes a discussion of Chinese communism. Lerner focusses as much on social and political events as he does on ideas, and is not especially sophisticated about the latter. But the book will be of interest to students of political science and of twentieth-century social and political history. Martin Jay's *Marxism and Totality: The Adventures of a Concept from Lukacs to Habermas (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press: HX533.J39 1984 res) gives a valuable synoptic overview of the "Western Marxist" tradition. You should dip into individual chapters rather than trying to read it from cover to cover.

For Marx's life, Werner Blumenburg, *Portrait of Marx: An Illustrated Biography (New York: Herder & Herder, 1972: HX39.5.B5813) is an interesting and not terribly difficult starting point. More detailed is David McLellan's *Karl Marx: His Life and Thought, mentioned above, which alternates accounts of what Marx was doing with summaries of what he wrote. For a more economical attempt to get at the interplay between personal and public events on the one hand and the construction of the system on the other, see McLellan's *The Thought of Karl Marx: An Introduction (New York: Harper & Row, 1971: HX39.5.M28 1971), which gives both a chronological commentary on Marx and a thematic commentary (on such themes as alienation, historical materialism, class, the party). Jerrold Seigel's Marx's Fate: The Shape of a Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978: HX39.5.S36 res) is an account of Marx's life informed by psychoanalysis, although Harold Mah, in The End of Philosophy, noted below, takes issue with Seigel's contention that the young Marx was alienated from his family and society.

On the young Marx, McLellan's *Marx Before Marxism (New York: Harper & Row, 1970) is useful for beginners. So is John Maguire's Marx's Paris Writings (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973: HX39.5.M3314), which provides a thorough commentary on the 1844 manuscripts.

For the "Theses on Feuerbach," Nathan Rotenstreich's *Basic Problems of Marx's Philosophy (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965: B3305.M74R64) is interesting, since the book is essentially a commentary on the theses.

On the Hegel-Marx connection, there is a substantial literature. For a brief account, see Kolakowski's *Main Currents, vol. I, chap. II, "The Hegelian Left," 81-95. In more detail, see David McLellan, The Young Hegelians and Karl Marx (London: Macmillan, 1969: B3305.M74M3 1969). But the book to read on this subject is now John E. Toews, *Hegelianism: The Path toward Dialectical Humanism, 1805-1841 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980: B2948.T63 res), which amplifies and corrects many previous treatments. Especially relevant to this course is Toews's Epilogue, "Beyond 'Man'--the Rise and Fall of Left Hegelian Humanism," 356-69, where he emphasizes the ephemeral nature of the Left Hegelian moment. Also useful is Harold Mah, The End of Philosophy, the Origin of "Ideology": Karl Marx and the Crisis of the Young Hegelians (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987: B3305.M74M326 1987), which provides a slightly different perspective than does Toews's book. Indeed, a good (and manageable) paper topic might well be a comparison of Toews and Mah on the Hegelians of the 1830s and early 1840s. For a selection of "Young Hegelian" texts, see Lawrence Stepelevich, The Young Hegelians: An Anthology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983: B2741.Y68).

For Feuerbach, see *The Fiery Brook: Selected Writings of Ludwig Feuerbach (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972: B2970.E5H35 res), and the specialized studies by Eugene Kamenka, The Philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach (New York: Praeger, 1970: B2973.K28 1970) and Marx W. Wartofsky, Feuerbach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977: B2973.W37). The Hanfi volume is now out of print; in print is Feuerbach, Principles of the Philosophy of the Future, trans. Manfred H. Vogel, with an introduction by Thomas E. Wartenberg (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1986: B2971.G72E5 1986).

For Bauer, see Zwi Rosen, Bruno Bauer and Karl Marx (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1977: B2957.B384R6).

For Fichte, see Tom Rockmore, Fichte, Marx, and the German Philosophical Tradition (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1980: B2848.R63).

Robert C. Tucker's Philosophy and Myth in Karl Marx (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961: B3305.M7T8) argues a bit too single-mindedly that Marxism is structurally a religious system, but still contains a good deal of useful material on the early Marx.

In the 1960s, Louis Althusser attained prominence as an interpreter of Marx, arguing for a radical "break" between the young and the old Marx. See especially his *For Marx (New York: Vintage, 1970: B3305.74.A533). See also Leszek Kolakowski, "Althusser's Marx," The Socialist Register 8 (1971), 11-28. John O'Neill's For Marx, Against Althusser and Other Essays (Washington, D.C.: Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology and University Press of America, 1982: HX39.5 058 1982) is an unpretentious but illuminating collection of essays on Althusser and other matters. Martin Nicolaus, "The Unknown Marx," New Left Review 48 (March-April 1968); 41-61 is an early attempt to point our the difficulties that the Grundrisse raises for Althusser's thesis of a "break."

On the theme of alienation, two books ought to be mentioned: Istvan Meszaros, *Marx's Theory of Alienation (New York: Harper & Row, 1972: HM131.M46 1970), and Bertell Ollman, *Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971: HM291.058). Each is in its own way less critical than it might be, and Ollman is clearly wrong in his imputation to Marx of a belief in ontological holism, but both are interesting. In the second edition of his book (1976), Ollman attempts to respond to his critics. For a succinct critique of Marx on alienation, see Eugene Kamenka, *Marxism and Ethics (New York: St. Martin's, 1969: BJ1388.K3 res), chap. 3. John Plamenatz's Marx's Philosophy of Man gives some of the historical background to the alienation idea.

On Marx and politics, there is some useful discussion in John Sanderson, An Interpretation of the Political Ideas of Marx and Engels (Harlow: Longmans, 1969: HX39.5.S18). Ralph Miliband has dealt with Marxism and politics in Marxism and Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977: HX56.M5). On Marx's view of history, William Shaw, *Marx's Theory of History (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1978: D16.9.S346 19783), and G.A. Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978: (D16.9.C66) are both interesting. The latter book approaches Marx from the perspective of analytical philosophy and thereby manges to generate an occasional unexpected insight. But beginners will probably find John McMurtry's *Structure of Marx's World View (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978: HX39.5.M29 res) the most accessible treatment of Marx's historical materialism.

On Engels, Steven Marcus's *Engels, Manchester, and the Working Class (New York: Vintage, 1975) provides a literary-critical analysis of Engels's Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844. For one treatment of the Marx-Engels relationship, see Terrell Carver, *Marx and Engels: The Intellectual Relationship (Brighton, Sussex: Wheatsheaf [Harvester], 1983: HX39.5.C379 1983).

There are many commentaries on Marxian economics. Paul M. Sweezy, the Theory of Capitalist Development: Principles of Marxian Political Economy (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1942: HB501.M5S9 1942) is a useful, if rather uncritical, attempt to unravel the complexities of Capital. The classic critique is by Ritter Eugen Böhm von Bawerk, one-time Austrian finance minister: Karl Marx and the Close of His System: A Critique, trans. Alice M. Macdonald (London: Unwin, 1898: HB501.M5B713). Murray Wolfson's *A Reappraisal of Marxian Economics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1966: HB97.5.W6 res) is a critique by a recent economist. Roman Rozdolski, The Making of Marx's Capital, trans. Peter Burgess (London: Pluto, 1977: HB97.5.R6613) unravels the emergence of Capital from out of the Grundrisse. See also Robert Paul Wolff, *Understanding Marx: A Reconstruction and Critique of Capital (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984: HB501.M37W65 1984). Duncan K. Foley, Understanding Capital: Marx's Economic Theory (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986: HB501.F644 1986) does a good job of explicating some of the technicalities of Marx's economic argument.

Some philosophers schooled in the analytic tradition have written on Marx. See, for example, G.A. Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978: (D16.9.C66), and Richard W. Miller, *Analyzing Marx: Morality, Power and History (Princeton University Press, 1984: B3305.M74M55 1984). Note also Timothy Shiell, "On Marx's Holism," History of Philosophy Quarterly 4 (1987): 235-246, which deals with the question of whether and in what ways Marx was a holist.

Jon Elster has written rather extensively on Marx. I find his Making Sense of Marx (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985: HX39.5.E44 1985) a bit unsurprising: the book had its origins in studies Elster did under Raymond Aron in the late 1960s. I find more interesting the implications for Marx of a couple of Elster's more recent books, namely, Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989: H61.E434 1989) and Political Psychology (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993: JA74.5.E47 1993).

David W. Lovell, From Marx to Lenin: An Evaluation of Marx's Responsibility for Soviet Authoritarianism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984: HX39.5.L64 1984) deals with an important topic, emphasizing in particular Lenin's reworking of Marx.

Norman Levine, in "The German Historical School of Law and the Origins of Historical Materialism," Journal of the History of Ideas 48 (1987): 431-451, deals with some little-regarded sources for Marx's account of the succession of "forms of ownership" (or "modes of production") in The German Ideology and in the 1859 Preface.