note: the section labeled other things I want to read is just things I find interesting and want to learn about, not necessarily an endorsement of the ideologies or authors on there (and also not necessarily not an endorsement)
I think “Class Struggle” by Domenico Losurdo is an essential read at this point.
Added this to my list, thanks.
You should add:
- “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder- The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky
- Materialism and Empirio-Criticism
These are also important writing by Lenin I recommended.
Edit: Didn’t see Infantile Disorder was already there
That is a good New Year’s Resolution to have, as it’s always better to know more theory. Personally I always recommend to anyone that is planing to do a deep dive in Marxist theory to start with the philosophy on which the theory itself is based, that means reading books on Dialectical Materialism as the first step.
You already have a couple of them in your list, so my recommendation is to prioritize them over their application in the more advanced books. On that note the only book I would add to your list is M. Cornforth’s “Materialism and the Dialectical Method” which is arguably the book to describe Diamat in the most understandable way for modern readers.
Other than that, I would say after finishing that list it’d be time to tackle the two most important works of Marx and Engels in Engels’ “Anti-Dühring” and Marx’s “Capital”.
Good reading, Comrade.
gonna keep it real with you comrade, I can’t do capital
too long for my ADHD zoomer brainI definitely get that. I was somehow able to get through it because it was what I was focused on at the time, and it still took me a while.
It really is worth reading. To make it easier, I suggest a reading group, or a reading companion podcast, or the audio version.
Even tough I’m neither a zoomer or have ADHD I can relate with not being able to read Marx’s “Capital”, years ago I also jumped straight into it after only having read the manifesto and as consequence could not make past the 2º chapter.
But that is the “Capital”'s contradiction. It’s such a complete and elaborated description of capitalist economy that you theoretically wouldn’t need any other complementary text to understand capitalism, but as a consequence of that the book is extremely dense, complex and long, so much that if you never read a Marxist book prior you will be encountering new terms and logics in almost every paragraph, making it a very hard and slow read while also likely leading to misunderstandings.
The solution to that is to do exactly what your doing now, which is reading other simpler and shorter Marxists books and increasing your understanding of Marxism in general, before tackling the behemoth that is Marx’s “Capital”. So just remember that you can’t do capital yet, but after finishing your list, if you give it another try maybe you will find out that you actually can do it.
That’s an ambitious list for a year, depending of course on your reading speed and free time. Otherwise that is a nice selection. My only critiques would be that you are missing Capital, unless you’ve already read it, and that some of the others should be in the essentials(namely Lenin’s what is to be done and left wing). That being said they are on your list so it is just a very minor thing
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yes I know it’s a lot, but the second half is just stuff that I want to read eventually/things I have a vague interest in reading and that’s why it’s separate from the “essentials”
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I have a physical copy of Capital and I tried to read it years ago, it’s just long, dense, and frankly boring
Edit: I didn’t see that you said what is to be done, I meant to add that so thank you for reminding me
Length aside it is a good list, I more meant it as a don’t get discouraged if you don’t finish it all in a year
I definitely understand where you are coming from with Capital. It really isn’t one of the more enjoyable reads out there, but it is essential. For that one it might be worth joining a reading group to make it more digestible
Oh definitely, though I am making good progress. All of the checkmarks are things that I read entirely within the space of my spare time in school yesterday, and I’m nearly done with Utopian and Scientific which I also started yesterday. also, what is to be done was already on the list lol
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Could be quite good in theory!
If you are not already up to date with the latest works, I think it is absolutely critical to read things by authors like Hudson and Varoufakis. Xi counts as modern too. Paul Cockshott has done good work on modern socialism too even if he said TERF things (I don’t remember the specifics but iirc he did - doesn’t invalidate his work though). There are more great authors today I’m sure others can recommend.
The classics are always good, but the modern works tell you how capitalism is operating in the specific environment of today. The classics were written for specific material conditions of their times. Some things are good but some things simply don’t apply today. If we only focus on the classics we run the risk of becoming Maoists and even worse we end up lacking current knowledge.
The modern works also still teach you historical materialism/dialectics because thats what they’re built on.
The Jakarta Method
Manufacturing Consent (and/or the follow up Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent)
