The history of all hitherto existing society* is the history of class struggles.
* That is, all written history.
+++
We read the same written history and The history of all hitherto existing society* is the history of class struggles.
* That is, all written history.
+++
We read the same written history and read it as progress, as stories, etc. The real history, on the other hand, is something else. Played out differently. Yeah, that is the catch.
This was a reading of only the bare text (along with the many prefaces!). It was very powerful and I am now reading the Penguin edition with the really long introduction next. Will write more about this important book there.
In the mean time, it is hardly 40 pages - why haven't you read this yet? It is not often that you get the summary of one of the most influential thought-structures in history in under 40 pages! It was a rhetorical masterpiece too, by the way. ...more
Quite comprehensive - and with a more approachable presentation than most modern text books. Surprising. Should read more of the Economists and less o Quite comprehensive - and with a more approachable presentation than most modern text books. Surprising. Should read more of the Economists and less of the Textbooks (and even less of Commentaries)....more
An introduction to a historical work (or any work for that matter) should not be a thorough deconstruction, undertaken from an ideologically opposite An introduction to a historical work (or any work for that matter) should not be a thorough deconstruction, undertaken from an ideologically opposite standpoint. The reader should be given an introduction and in fact (as much as possible) a defense of the work. This introduction sets out to do the opposite.
I don't have a problem with Marx being critiqued but it should have been done in an independent book. This is like making a reader buy something for the value he attributes to the main work and then forcing a criticism of it down his throat, when all he wanted was a commentary on the main text.
3 stars for this edition, only because I bought it for the intro and it did not serve its purpose: of introducing me to the work and helping me understand it better. It only tries to prejudice me even before I read!...more
Loading...
