part one:
part two:
When I was a kid I hated following arbitrary rules when writing a bibliography. Now that I’m an adult I can do whatever I want. This bibliography follows brendanmcooney format.
“Das Kapital” by Karl Marx. 1867 (first volume)
if you are reading Kapital for the first time (or second) I highly recommend listening to David Harvey’s lectures on Kapital. You can find them on his website: http://davidharvey.org
“Limits To Capital” by David Harvey. Verso 2006. first published in 1982
“Marxist Economic Theory” by Ernest Mandel. Monthly Review Press. 1968
“Introduction to Marx and Engels: a critical reconstruction” by Richard Schmitt. Westview Press. 1987
“Marx for Beginners” by Rius. Pantheon Books. 1976
“The Marx Engels Reader” edited by Robert Tucker. WW Norton and Co. 1978
“Kapital for Beginners”
“Marx on Money” by Suzanne De Brunhoff. Urizen Books. 1973
“Studies in the Labor Theory of Value” by Ronald L Meek. Monthly Review Press. 1956
“Reclaiming Marx’s Capital; refuting the myth of inconsistency” by Andrew Kliman
For a great perspective on how the labor theory of value is integrated between the three volumes of Kapital, and especially for a killer explanation of commodity fetishism and markets you must read I.I. Rubin’s “Essays on Marx’s Theory of Value.” It’s on the Marxist Internet Archive.
on crisis:
“An Introduction to the History of Crisis Theories” by Anwar Shaihk. You can find this excellent introduction to marxist and bourgeois crisis theory on Shaihk’s website http://homepage.newschool.edu/~AShaikh/
“Class, Crisis and the State” by Erik Olin Wright; Verso 1978. The last section of the book offer a good synopsis of crisis marxist theories.
“The New Imperialism” by David Harvey.Oxford University Press. 2003; Harvey’s explanation of how the crisis of “overaccumulation” intersects with the logic of state powers to produce modern forms of imperialism. There is much discussion of the Bush regime, the context of the Iraq war, and the rise of China as an economic power.
“A Brief History of Neoliberalism” by David Harvey. Oxford University Press. 2005; Here Harvey discusses the rise of Neoliberal policy and ideology and changes in capitalism over the last 30 years. This is a really important book!
“The Condition of Postmodernity,” by David Harvey. Basil Blackwell Inc. 1989; Harvey discusses the way changes in capitalism, brought on by the crisis of fordism and Keynesianism in the 70’s have created new cultural conceptions of space and time.
“Who Built America?”
“The Triumph of Conservatism” by Gabriel Kolko. Quadrangle Books. 1963
“The Origins of the Federal Reserve System: Money, Class and Corporate Capitalism, 1890-1913″ by James Linvingston. Cornell University Press, 1986
On bourgeois economics:
“Economics; traditional and radical perspectives” by EK Hunt
“A Critique of Economic Theory” edited by Jesse Schwartz
“The Subtle Anatomy of Capitalism” edited by Jesse Schwartz
On the labor process:
“Labor And Monopoly Capital” by Harry Braverman
“Manufacturing Consent” by Michael Burawoy
on technology:
“Cutting Edge; Technology, Information, Capitalism and Social Revolution” edited by Jim Davis, Thomas Hirshl and Michael Stack
other sources:
louisproyect.wordpress.com/category/introduction-to-marxism-class/
www.countdownnet.info/
“Class” “Class Counts” etc. written over and over by Erik Olin Wright. Verso or Cambridge University Press
Hey Brendan,
I enjoyed your video bibliography and I’ve also impressed with the various pieces you’ve put together; a great way to interpret and change the world. It occurred to me that maybe you have or have not heard about Harvey’s online lectures on Capital Vol. 1 at http://davidharvey.org/
They are fantastic as you might already know, but I’d urge you to check them out if you haven’t already and to recommend the lectures to your bibliography viewers. They are as authoritative as Limits to Capital (also one of my favorites) and as a supplement/guide to the text I think they enable anyone to take on Vol. 1.
Also, you might be interested in a few works of Perry Anderson, editor of the New Left Review (a great publication), namely Considerations on Western Marxisms as well as In the Tracks of Historical Materialism. They are a few decades old now but having just read them myself, and having a similar backround bibliography as yourself, I found them extremely relevant.
Lastly, you mentioned Mandel. He’s great. You might recommend to your viewers that he authored a very distilled version of the two-volume book you’ve got called An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory. It’s small, like a pamphlet, but has the Mandel-flare for pulling the reader right in and laying out the argument in easily digestible historical examples. I’d really recommend it for anyone launching into the subject. Perhaps to be read along side the Marx-Engels Reader…
Comment by Adam — September 28, 2008 @ 5:46 pm |
I’d recommend Ben Fine’s and Alfredo Saad-Filho’s “Marx’s Capital” (Pluto Press) 4th edition 2004. A very short but concise summary and introduction to all three volumes of Capital (plus some bits of “theories of surplus value”)
I haven’t as yet read much Harvey but am critical of his reference to the former USSR as “actually existing socialism” in the preface to a new edition of the Manifesto.
Comment by Darren P — February 7, 2009 @ 7:31 pm |
man you are doing are great job!! keep going Did you read some Antonio Negri’s books, he is a Marxist writer very famous for his Empire but he have a lot of material on Marx. again congrats for your excellent job
Comment by carlos — March 14, 2009 @ 4:10 am |
Yeah, that’s a good selection of books. I disagree a bit with you about reading Marx himself. I found him to be extremely readable. He’s clever and funny and savage, one of the nineteenth century’s great writers – and that’s saying something! The first three chapters are pretty tough – particularly the third – but the rewards to be had later on are great. Marx is also one of the great labour historians. Well, he have to be, wouldn’t he? And I am always impressed at his chapters on the stuggles of the Englsh working class over the working day, or the “bloody legislation” which drove thousands upon thousands of people from the land and into the factories. Marx is still one of the most sensitive and astute theorists of technology and machinery. As the logical structure of the book unfolds, Marx fleshes out the initial abstract concepts with concrete historical detail so that by the end of the book – where he finishes seemingly paradoxically with the origins of capitalist society in England – we understand that capitalist society is about commodity exchange maintained through the forced imposition of work, but that this itself is merely a passing phase of human history. The whole lot is thoroughly “de-fetishised”.
I think knowledge of these past (and present) struggles is important too. The historian EP Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class is the ultimate history from below, an exhausive account of the industrial revolution from the viewpoint of labour. Thompson also did pioneering work on time and rioting as a form of protest. There’s also Peter Linebaugh’s The London Hanged and Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker’s The Many Headed Hydra, an account of the slaves, pirates and sailors who made up the Anglo-American maritime proletariat in and around the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Midnight Oil: Work, Energy, War 1973-1992 by the Midnight Notes collective contains stuff on more recent struggles and Beverly Silver’s Forces of Labour is good on the contemporary global working class.
In terms of general introductions to Marx, Reading Capital Politically by Harry Cleaver is useful, as is Ivan Ilich Rubin’s Essays on Marx’s Theory of Value and Fredy Perlman’s The Reproduction of Daily Life, which is widely available on the internet. In addition, on money, I’d recommend a getting hold of a book edited by Werner Bonefeld and John Holloway called Global Capital, National State and the Politics of Money.
Well, that’s quite a list … great blog, keep it up!
Comment by Barry — April 9, 2009 @ 5:00 pm |
Yeah I have since regretted making that comment about Kapital in this video. I still think that it is useful to have a guide when tackling Kapital for the first time, especially in the daunting opening chapters. Since I made this video I discovered David Harvey’s online lectures on Kapital and these inspired me to reread Kapital It really is a great book…. I almost dare say a page turner. On the other hand, at this point in my readings I am beginning to lose my perspective on what is accessible and what isn’t to the lay reader… I remember as an 18 year-old barely being able to understand the Communist Manifesto. Since many of my viewers are young and they often ask what is a good book to start on I am hesitant to say Kapital. I would not have gotten through Kapital at 18!
Thanks for adding your book suggestions to the list. I have enjoyed seeing all the different suggestions folks have posted here, many books which I have yet to read myself. I think I will eventually trash this video and replace it with an updated reading list.
Comment by kapitalism101 — April 9, 2009 @ 9:02 pm |
Funnily enough, it seems our mate David Harvey has an “Introduction to Marx’s Capital” out soon from Verso: http://tinyurl.com/da8krb
I am myself about two-thirds through his online lecture course. It’s very good and something that I wish had been around when I first read Marx when I was at school. It would have saved me a lot of trouble!
Comment by Barry — April 10, 2009 @ 6:04 am |
Very useful. But I guess things like race, (which “Detroit, I Do Mind Dying” is a good exploration of)– Or the woman question are things yet to be tackled. You’re welcome to find me on facebook.
Comment by Stacey Barber — July 1, 2009 @ 3:28 pm |
I would like to add the works of three authors that in my opinion help to understand (in an easy way) a very difficult problem: the relation of economy to culture/subjectivity in general and the possibilities of emancipation.
Bertell Ollmans Alienation (among others)
Moishe Postones Time, Labor and Social Domination
and Andre Gorz (he has lots of books)
Comment by J — November 13, 2009 @ 8:23 pm |
I’m also in the process of reading Marx’s Capital and I would recommend Michael Heinrich introduction to Marx as a very good starting point. It’s only edited in german and spanish (http://tinyurl.com/yd9×6uh). His website has some texts in english: http://www.oekonomiekritik.de/
I would recommend to anyone interested in Marx, labour history, etc… to visit libcom.org which is an excelent resource.
A friend recommended Reading Capital Politically by Harry Cleaver as a good book to help with the understanding Capital’s first chapter. Anyone read this? (it’s also on libcom: http://libcom.org/library/reading-capital-politically-cleaver)
Comment by joseghast — November 22, 2009 @ 4:07 pm |