Dear Educator:
Monthly Review Press has a new title that we think you will find
of interest. Exam copies are available. Please contact Renee
Pendergrass at mreview@igc.apc.org, Monthly Review Press, 122
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(212) 727-3676.
HOW TO READ KARL MARX
by Ernst Fischer
with Franz Marek
translated by Anna Bostock
Historical Notes by John Bellamy Foster
Has any major thinker been more poorly understood than Karl Marx?
Over the last 150 years, his name has been invoked in connection
with everything from unemployment insurance to guerrillas wars.
Although critics continue to proclaim the death of Marx's
theories, new and old audiences continue to draw vital insights
from the works of the most important philosopher and economist of
the industrial era.
To introduce new readers to Marx's contributions, Monthly Review
Press presents How to Read Karl Marx. The noted Austrian critic
Ernst Fischer has crafted a brief, clear, and faithful exposition
of Marx's major premises, with particular attention to historical
context. This new edition of the English translation of Was Marx
wirklich sagte (1968) includes new commentary by John Bellamy
Foster that sharpens Fischer's focus for 1990s readers. Also
included are a biographical chronology, extracts from major works
of Marx, and "Marx's Method," an early and valuable essay by the
preeminent political economist Paul M. Sweezy.
Ernst Fischer (1889-1972) was a philosopher, editor, literary
critic, and author of many books and plays, including The
Necessity of Art (1963) and Art Against Ideology (1969).
John Bellamy Foster is associate professor of sociology at the
University of Oregon. He is the author of The Theory of Monopoly
Capital and The Vulnerable Planet, both published by Monthly
Review Press.
0-85345-974-6 paper/$12.00
0-85345-973-8 cloth/$26.00
Sociology/political Science
224 pp.
Contents:
INTRODUCTION/John Bellamy Foster
BIOGRAPHICAL DATA
AUTHOR'S FOREWORD
1. THE DREAM OF THE WHOLE MAN
2. CREATIVE LABOR
3. DIVISION OF LABOR AND ALIENATION
4. THE FETISH CHARACTER OF THE COMMODITY
5. CLASSES AND THE CLASS STRUGGLE
6. HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
7. VALUE AND SURPLUS VALUE
8. PROFIT AND CAPITAL
9. THE PROBLEM OF INCREASING MISERY
10. THE THEORY OF REVOLUTION
11. DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT, SOCIALISM, COMMUNISM
12. LABOR MOVEMENT AND INTERNATIONAL
13. THE PHILOSOPHY OF PRACTICE
14. MARXISM TODAY
APPENDIX
MARX'S METHOD/Paul M. Sweezy
MARX'S STARTING POINT: THESES ON FEUERBACH
THE BASE-SUPERSTRUCTURE METAPHOR:
FROM PREFACE TO A CONTRIBUTION TO THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: FROM THE EIGHTEENTH BRUMAIRE OF LOUIS BONAPARTE
NOTES
INDEX