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Karl Marx, whose influence on modern times has been compared to that of Jesus Christ, spent most of his lifetime in obscurity. Penniless, exiled in London, estranged from relations, and on the run from most of the police forces of Europe, his ambitions as a revolutionary were frequently thwarted, and his major writings on politics and economics remained unpublished (in some cases until after the Second World War). He has not lacked biographers, but even the most distinguished have been more interested in the evolution of his ideas than any other aspect of his life. Francis Wheen's fresh, lively, and moving biography of Marx considers the whole man--brain, beard, and the rest of his body. Unencumbered by ideological point scoring, this is a very readable, humorous, and sympathetic account. Wheen has an ear for juicy gossip and an eye for original detail. Marx comes across as a hell-raising bohemian, an intellectual bully, and a perceptive critic of capitalist chaos, but also a family man of Victorian conformity (personally vetting his daughters' suitors), Victorian ailments (carbuncles above all), and Victorian weaknesses (notably alcohol, tobacco, and, on occasion, his housekeeper). But there is great pathos, too, as Marx witnessed the deaths of four of his six children. For those readers who feel Marxism has given Marx a bad name, this is a rewarding and enlightening book. --Miles Taylor, Amazon.co.uk ... Read more

Reviews (18)

The political genius interpreted as a pariah
This book is pretty good but I was disapointed because there was not enough on Marx's youth; there was probably about a half chapter on how he acted as a child and as a student. Robert Service's biography on Lenin covered the subject of youth in a grandoise matter; tracing Lenin's roots back a few generations. From what I have heard, Isaah Berlin's biography is the best on Marx; the strong points in this biogrpahy are as follows: Marx's adult social life, the scene in the 19th Century, Engels influence, and MArx's ideas. When I picked this book up I did not think there would be anything to do with Marx's ideas but only details about his life; If you have never read anything on Marx I would say that this book is good b/c Wheen has many excerpts from MArx's life.

Anecdotes and humor -- but a melancholy tale...
This book is chilling reading. It is difficult to put one's finger on the reason why. Perhaps because Karl Marx (1818-1883) was always a distant person - even while he lived As Marxism flickers out, Wheen takes us back in time to find the "historical Marx". A solid grounding in 19th century European history will make reading this work a lot more interesting. Wheen's book is whimsical, eclectic, comprehensive, and humorous, but it presupposes a knowledge of the 19th and 20th century European revolutionary and political history which is rapidly fading from our 21st century minds. This book dwells as much on Marx's family life as on his political life. ----Wheen's work is filled with fascinating anecdotes. It does not explain Karl Marx, but this man was so complicated that no one (including himself) may have ever understood his motivations. He was a family man, deeply devoted to his wife and six children, four of whom died before he did. (The other two who took their own lives!) On the other hand he quarreled with and was hated by scores - if not hundreds - of former friends. Karl Marx was not a likeable man. This book uncovers hundreds of gems about his life that most persons who studied "Marxism" or "Communism" would never stumble on: for example, the moves in a chess game he played in 1867 (he lost!). That he was precocious, to the point of being expelled from Prussia, France, and Belgium - each time by royal order - before he reached 30 years of age. While many are vaguely aware of Marx's friendship with Friedrich Engels, how many know that it began when Marx was 26 and Engels was 23? Or that Engels was one of only 11 persons present at Marx's funeral 37 years later! Wheen has done an excellent job on a very difficult topic!

Let us now praise famous ragamuffins!
As the reader below observed, this book was a chilling read. Marx was a very strange fellow and this reading this book felt like surveying the scene of a car accident. It hurts to continue but one finds themselves so intrigued that they can hardly stop. For my part, I disagree thoroughly with just about every idea Marx had. Still, I thought it refreshing to read a biography of the man that objectively treated Marx as human first, ragamuffin later; Unlike the brief essay on him in Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals," which is meant only to slam Marx and infuriate the reader.

I took half a star away for the a-little-less-than-constant humor (or so the author thought.) At first it was mildly amusing, probably do to its gauche inapropriateness. After the first few chapters though, it became a nuisance. How about this one? "Like another Marx, Karl did not want to belong to any club that would have him as a member." PUKE!!

The other half star is deducted for a suggestion the author makes about three-quarters through, when discussing Das Kapital. He suggests that Marx did not mean Kapital to be a work of science, but a work of ART (he means this literally, not figuratively.) His evidence? Marx refered to Kapital as his "work of art" (my guess, this is metaphor). Also, the author argues, if Marx had already summed up the themes of Kapital in a speech a few years earlier (he did), then why did he write a 1000 page tome espousing the same ideas (he did). Honestly, with flimsy evidence like that, this claim looks utterly ridiculous - not to mention likely insulting to any Marxist or person who takes Marx seriously as a thinker. Enough to cost half a star.

Otherwise, this book is an unbiased, humanistic read that plays just like a novel. Marx, of course, is a far superior character than any author could ever devise and in the end, my bet is that whether you love or hate him, you will find yourselves modifying your opinion to ambivalence as Marx (the person, not the manifesto) is much too complicated to love or hate.

Top Marx
I would not have imagined that a biography of Karl Marx could be such an entertaining and interesting read. This was. Much more has been written about the 'ism' than the man. This is a fascinating insight into his life, his poverty, his exile, his contradictions as well as his thinking.

What was most noticeable was the remarkable loyalty of Engels - friend, ghost-writer and benefactor - who even became a stranger in a strange land (Capitalism) to help finance publication of Marx's ideas, often in the face of staggering procrastination by the latter.

This is a very readable account of the life and carbunkles of one of the last century's most influential figures.

Disappointing, and deeply so
Let's write a book about Karl Marx which wants to talk about the Man, rather than simply about the Ideas. Sounds great, right? Except that in Wheen's hands, the relationship of the life to the ideas and the ideas to the life are brutally banalized.

The opportunity to write a good biography obviously presented itself, but what we have instead is some charming personal biography by a man who does not grasp the smallest part of Marx's ideas nor any meaningful engagement with Marx's political activity.

This book is so lame on the theoretical level that one would think that Wheen spent too much time reading old Stalinist schoolbooks on Marx, avoiding any actual scholarly work, such as Debord, C.J. Arthur, the journals Common Sense and Capital and Class, the work of Lukacs, Korsch, Adorno, Horkheimer, Rubin, etc. Wheen's treatment of the politics is less than worthless and mars his obviously generous sentiment towards Marx the man because Wheen simply cannot grapple with Marx as a whole human being.

Instead, we are treated to tawdry discussions of Marx's 'psychologically induced illnesses' every time deadlines came due. And these are tawdry not for being uninteresting, but because we never get a sense of the juxtaposition between Marx the researcher (who happily spent a great deal of time in the London Library system) and Marx the writer who did not simply hate deadlines, but who struggled with the content and style of each line he wrote. We never get any sense of why Marx might be the single most influential thinker of the last 150 years.

I gave it two stars because I do not see Wheen as intentionally malicious, but as merely incompetent. In a world where malicious intent and lack of scholarly scruple towards Marx seems welcome, this is not the worst book ever written on the man, but certainly not one worth reading. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A man for the times? The experience of defeat
This is one of the most useful and interesting of the Marx biographies and shows us another Marx, behind the man of fiction who was a later invention. Christopher Hill in _The Experience of Defeat_ details a host of figures in the English Civil War, from the Levellers to the Fifth Monarchists, who were written out of history, and who had to live with failed revolutionary lifetimes. We forget the actual experience of Marx, the experience of defeat after 1848, and his persistence nonetheless without illusions documenting the capitalism of his time and era. After the grotesquerie of the twentieth century Communists it is significant to remember this other Marx.
This is surely the experience of the current left, and one might expect it to end as forgotten as the defeated figures from Munzer onward--save that the right will not rest, and will reinvent slavery or worse if left to their devices, while the current left fantasies a series of leftist fictions, among them about Marx.
It might help to look at the failure of Marxist theory, the experience of defeat, behind the unique brilliance of Marx, and at least know the history, starting with Marx's challenge to Hegel's philosophy of right. This work shows the problems that Marx experienced in his theoretical struggles, and shows, for example, the inability of Marx to complete his life's project, Capital. This aspect of the book is compelling, and often quietly filtered out. Marxists have rarely known what they are talking about, but, like the Levellers, will always accompany the definition of modernism.
Very acute biography. ... Read more

Book Description

First published over fifty years ago, Isaiah Berlin's compelling portrait of the father of modern Communism has long been considered a classic of modern scholarship and the best short account written of Marx's life and thought. It provides a penetrating, lucid, and comprehensive introduction to Marx as theorist of the socialist revolution, illuminating his personality and ideas, and concentrating on those which have historically formed the central core of Marxism as a theory and practice. In turn, Berlin presents an account of Marx's life as one of the most influential and incendiary social philosophers of the nineteenth century and depicts the social and political atmosphere in which Marx wrote.

This edition includes a new introduction by Alan Ryan which traces the place of Berlin's Marx from its pre-World War II publication to the present, and elucidates why Berlin's portrait, in the midst of voluminous writings about Marx, remains a classic account of the personal and political side of this monumental figure. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS
Isaiah Berlin's biography of Karl Marx is as erudite as it is compelling. Taking one of the more controversial and laborious men of the twentieth century as his subject matter, Berlin weaves the intricate and sometimes confounding thoughts of his subject into a patterned and complex whole.

Karl Marx is treated fairly in this book--neither with sycophantic adulation nor with profound cynicism typical of other treatments of Marx and his philosophy. Perhaps because of the political consequences of Marx's ideas, the negative overview's of his life have emphasized his tempermental side, the irony of being funded by an aristocratic Engels, or the silliness of his labour theory of value premise (shared by David Ricardo). Meanwhile, on the other side, there are writings on the life of Marx that stick to his genius, his profound impact on the world, and further entrench his cult status.

It is this latter part that I found most interesting in Berlin's work--the exploration of Marx's temper tantrums with anyone who should deviate from Marx's conception of how things must be. Proudhon, for instance, is castigated by Marx. So, too, is Feuerbach and the Young Hegelians (Berlin muses about whether or not this has to do with the mighty influence these have had on Marx's own thought and Marx's desire to be seen as a wholly original thinker). Bakunin does not escape public ridicule when they differ on the value of the State as a mechanism to be used by the proletariat. Bakunin, of course, did not believe in hierarchical orderings of any kind--whether in capitalist industry, or in the socialist state--and issued proclamations and gave speeches to that effect, explicitly cautioning people about the possibility of the government violating the freedom it was supposed to secure. Marx was not impressed, and consequently mocked him openly. Engels was perhaps the only man to escape the eventual polemical wrath of Marx, saving himself from such a fate possibly because he simply agreed with whatever Marx said, and indulged him in most everything else.

Still, what comes across most forcefully is the life of a man steeped in ideas, and interested in the fundamental, radical underpinnings of society as a whole. Marx is often enough considered a genius of the highest calibre, with impeccable literary credentials to back it up. It is this attention to minute detail, and his incredible analysis of society (or rather, the historical 'movement', if you will, of human relationships which reciprocally interact with the concrete, material conditions of their existence) that makes this praise seem a bit understated.

This singular fact--Marx as a man of ideas, and the fact of the practical consequences of his ideas--is touched upon in a self-conscious bit of irony by Berlin. For Marx explained that it isn't ideas that do anything, really, but are, instead, the consequences of material conditions, these conditions being fundamental. And yet it was the writings of Marx that sparked several revolutions and formed the primary cause of the one in Russia which stuck around for a while (no one is here implying a monistic view of history... the lessons Marx tried to teach are not entirely lost on me).

What we're left with is an incredibly vivid picture of Marx, the man (not the myth, or the legend; although a little bit of both is tossed in for spice). Berlin does a masterful job, so anyone picking this book up should find it entirely enjoyable.

PURE AND PROPER INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
Let me say that if you are looking for a biography of Marx's life you had better look elsewhere. There are no long chapters about his school days, his relations with his Sisters, Mother or Father. You will not find detailed references to every argument Marx had or every aspect of his squallid and, at times, extremely personally irresponsible lifestyle. You must look elsewhere for those details.

This book is about ideas and the struggle between ideas. It is about Marx emersed in the ideas of his time and how those ideas shaped his thinking, whether changing his ideas, borrowing or regjecting them outright Berlin has a wonderful, at times unique grasp of the issues and the ideas of the times that Marx lived.

Starting with a broad description of the Rational-Empiricist debate and the Hegelian reaction to empiricism, Berlin describes Marx as a unique German Hybrid of British Empiricism married to a searching German Hegelian spirit, dissatisified with the traditional historical interpertations offered by Hegel and his German offshoots, the Young Hegelians.

Along the way Marx comes across a uniques set of millenarian and social theorists of his time; Proudhom, Bakunin, Engels, Lasalle, Feuerbach and others, whom all, even though perhaps disliking Marx personally, respected his argument style, his learning, and his deep insight into the problems of the time.

I would not classify this as a beginning book on Marx. There is a lot of ground covered here and if one does not have at least a thumbnail sketch understanding of the times, the social and political issues, then there will be a chance that the author will loose some of his readership. Berlin's prose has been described variously as dense and hard to understand. It may be for some readers. But Berlin is not excessively wordy (it is a slender volume), but he does have the ability to cover a lot of ideas and currents in a single sentence. It is this juggling and keeping in mind of a lot of ideas and concepts in a single sentence that may necessitate one to reread certain sentences, or at least know the concepts to which he is referring.

If you do have general outline of the ideas of the age then you will love this book. I sat down thinking that this was my "serious reading." I fully expected it to be a labourious process to get through this book. Instead I was profoundly surprised by the breath and depth Berlin covers in his lucid prose.

I found it hard to put the book down.

There is no analysis of whether Marx was right or wrong. Of how his ideas become to become the bible of the oppressed on the earth or how it eventually was transmogrified in some cases to justify the mass killing of those who stood in the way of historical materialism. This is a book of ideas, and as such the ideas discussed of Marx, his contemporaries, and his intellectual primogeniteurs are a ripping good read.

Shows how capable philosophers can be.
The philosophical side of this book might be a strong support for the idea that philosophy was in bad shape when Nietzsche found it. The political side of the book ought to establish that it was no wonder. Before I bought this book, I had a copy of THE POVERTY OF PHILOSOPHY by Karl Marx, which was written when Nietzsche was quite young. It was an attack on the thoroughly political view of economics which had been adopted by Proudhon. According to Berlin, "Marx was convinced that Proudhon was constitutionally incapable of grasping the truth; that, despite an undoubted gift for telling phrases, he was a fundamentally stupid man; the fact that he was brave and fanatically honest, and attracted a growing body of devoted followers, only made him and his fantasies more dangerous;" (Berlin, p. 87). In a move that is sure to remind historians of how often Communists turned against others who thought that they were on the same side, Marx's book attacked the roots of Proudhon's system in Chapter 2, The Metaphysics of Political Economy, with his usual summary of Hegel. "As to those who are not acquainted with Hegelian language, we would say to them in the sacramental formula, affirmation, negation, and negation of the negation. . . . Instead of the ordinary individual, with his ordinary manner of speaking and thinking, we have nothing but this ordinary manner, pure and simple, minus the individual." (Marx, p. 115).

Berlin is capable of providing summaries of the issues, even admitting that "Marx took immense trouble to demonstrate that Proudhon was totally incapable of abstract thought, a fact which he vainly attempted to conceal by a use of pseudo-Hegelian terminology. Marx accused Proudhon of radically misunderstanding the Hegelian categories by naively interpreting the dialectical conflict as a simple struggle between good and evil, which leads to the fallacy that all that is needed is to remove the evil, and the good will remain. This is the very height of superficiality: to call this or that side of the dialectical conflict good or bad is a sign of unhistorical subjectivism out of place in serious social analysis." (Berlin, pp. 85-86).

The current clash of civilizations might be considered as stupid as anything that Marx analyzed in Proudhon's system, by those who are sure that philosophy is a style adopted by the good side, while anyone who has adopted the politics of mounting destructiveness has all the faults which the free world has always attributed to communism. Plenty of poisons have entered this contest in the last 155 years, since Karl Marx tried to side with the rising class while arguing against their unexamined notions of good and evil, but philosophies have been as powerless on this kind of question as Nietzsche might be considered absurd for attempting to encompass powerful ideas. People who can't relate to this book must lack an appreciation for something that philosophers always wanted, even in the days of the pre-Platonics. It might be considered tough to read, having been revised little since it was Isaiah Berlin's first great book in 1939. I thought it was better than a lot of what I have tried to read about Hegel, and I wasn't trying very hard.

Interesting But Difficult Work
Isaiah Berlin, in his work "Karl Marx," concentrates on the philosophical development of one of the most influential social thinkers in modern history. Through an examination on Marx's critical analyses of the ideas of his intellectual contemporaries (including Feurbach, Fourier, Saint-Simon, and Proudhon), Berlin explores the many influences that helped shape Marxian thought. Although Marx's immediate successors minimized the impact of Hegel upon Marx's ideas, Berlin maintains that Hegel's influence was essential for the formation of Marx's socio-economic philosophy.

I read this book for a college course and found it very challenging. Often I would have to read over passages several times to even begin to understand the gist of it (and maybe not even then). Of course, the subject matter is very complex. One just beginning to study Marx may want to seek out a more simplified overview of Marxian thought first before tackling this one.

Best intro out there
This is simply the best Marx biography out there bar none. It isn't really in the 'biography' genre because Berlin focusses on Marx's ideas more than on the details of his life. Berlin shines in that he's very familiar with the now rare and unavailable writings of dissident English economists and French and German Socialists that Marx based his thought on, as well as the standard philosophical influences like Hegel. As a philosopher he's able to comprehend Marx and his thought as existing within the philosophic tradition, not somehow disconnected from it, and because of this Berlin is able to give a fresh, relatively unbiased, exposition of Marx himself-no dogma required. Beyond tracing Marx's philosophy the book is great because Berlin has reconstructed a sort of timeline of Marx's life itself, which was full of moves, changes in careers and changes in affiliation with different political groups. Through this, from discussing the intellectual environment Marx grew up in to cataloging the ups and downs of his philosophy, the real Marx comes through. It would be invaluable just for the historical material alone. Marx emerges not as the Soviet Union would want him to be, or as sympathetic hard line Marxists might, but as he really was philosophically and historically for his time. Buy it now! ... Read more

Book Description

Reissued in the year of the 150th anniversary of "The Communist Manifesto," this classic biography of Karl Marx is unlike any other account of its subject. Focusing as much on Marx's private life as on his public persona and work, it looks in detail at his relationships with his mother and father, wife and friends, and includes generous quotations from a wide range of correspondence. Blumenberg examines Marx's early writing as a schoolboy and his romantic poetry whilst a student, as well as his exchanges with close friend and collaborator Frederick Engels. In these pages are moving accounts of the privations of Marx's poverty-stricken life in London and the tragedies which struck his family, as well as discussions of his intellectual development and political activity. The book includes virtually every photograph in existence of Marx and his closest associates. A friend wrote of Marx when he was just twenty-four years old: 'Imagine Rousseau, Voltaire, Holbach, Lessing, Heine and Hegel all united in one person, and I say united, not just thrown together--then you've got Dr Marx.' Werner Blumenberg's biography provides an intimate portrait of the making of a complex intellectual whose work was to shape history for the century and a half that followed. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Karl Marx: An Illustrated History
Werner Blumenberg's "Karl Marx: An Illustrated History" tells the story of the man behind some of the most radical social and political theories in contemporary history. Typically negatively associated only with Communism, this book offers insight into the reasons for Marx's beliefs through various letters, memoirs and photographs. We meet his family and contemporaries and many of the influencing aspects of his life. Though fairly dry at some points, Blumenberg presents Karl Marx as a scholar, a writer, a husband, a son, a polititian, a philosopher, and most importantly, a man, in "Karl Marx: An Illustrated History".

Focus on the man, not the philosophy
From the opening lines, to the powerful conclusion, Blumenburg paints Marx in a light realistic and human light. He stresses that one gains a greater respect for a man's ideas through understanding the man himself. If you are looking for an explanation of Marxism or even some clarification, look elsewhere. But if you seek a portrait of one of the greatest political and socioeconomic thinkers in the last few hundred years, I would highly recommend this book.

I've rarely read a historian that can be both poignant and convincing as a writer, but I must say that Blumenburg writes quite well, and the accompanying photos inserted in the text break up the monotony typically associated with a biography (the book is said to contain "nearly every photo of Marx"). As a reader, one experiences the conflicts Marx had with his father and contemporaries, the excitement of his education and the formation of his ideals, and the utter hopelessness of his economic situation.

The book has been praised for its wide collection of sources and pictures, and on these two points, I would whole-heartedly agree. Actual photocopies of letters from his father, pages of his notebooks, and covers to his works accent the text surrounding these events and a wide range of personal pictures graphically illustrate convincing passages. The most powerful, perhaps, was the final photo of his massive grave site and the tombstone that reads: "Workers of all land, Unite!"

Reading the book fueled my interest in his philosophies, and I'll admit, the book is written for an audience fairly familiar with Marxism itself. Having little working knowledge of Marxism, I'm sure that I was able to fully grasp the workings of Marx's life as well as someone who is learned in this area, but I fully intend to further my reading on this subject. My advice: learn about the philosophy and the man. You will be astounded even more at the individual behind the idea!

The book closes with a detailed chronology, opinions of Marx's work from several prominent figures (i.e. Max Weber, Sigmund Freud, etc.) and a thorough bibliography. Whether it be used as a resource, entertainment, or an in-depth study, "Karl Marx: An Illustrated History" works well. An enjoyable read on all fronts.

Understanding a genius
Doesn't matter what ideology you like, follow or accept. Marx is a genius on sociology that made some of the most important works in this matter. This book is a good one but is not the great biography that I was expecting. I didn't see any need for the illustrations too... but is very nice written ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A wise book by a truly productive and wonderful human being.
Get a copy of this book. It can change your life. A must read before you leave the face of this earth. An insightful and wise view of life, other people and the world you live in. Fromm is the best. Thank God he lived and wrote everything down for us, and all we have to do is learn from it. After Fromm, you have no excuses for not "getting it".

A wise book by a truly productive and wonderful human being.
Get a copy of this book. It will change your life. A must read before you leave the face of this earth. A refreshing look at yourself, other people and the world you live in. Fromm is the best! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Marx's political thought as its best
Many consider this work as Marx's best effort towards political philosophy. While the Communist Manifesto and the Critique os the Gotha Programme are also classics in marxian political thought, this bookspresents the best and most profound theoretical analysis. Just as the twopanphlets above mentioned, this one came up as an "writing ofoccasion", but more than a pamphlet this is a book, and a classicalone. If the Manifesto should be the gateway to marxian political thought,the Brumaire is the book for those who wish to deepen their knowledge onmarxian political conceptions. A must for anyone concerned with politics ingeneral. ... Read more

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The Most Accessible of Marx's Work
This fascinating extended essay was originally prepared as a series of newspaper articles. It is Marx's careful analysis of the hijacking of the 1848 revolution in France by Louis Bonaparte, the nephew and self styled successor of the great Napoleon. Many readers are dimly aware of this work because it is the source of two of Marx's most quoted remarks; "history occurs as tragedy and recurs as farce," and "man makes his future, only not as he chooses." Marx discusses why the 18th Brumaire occurred, how it occurred, and why it succeeded. Marx deployed all his considerable intellectual tools to produce this analysis and the quality of writing is much more accessible than much of his more scholarly work, proof that he could write well. What is most impressive is Marx's use of class based social analysis combined with an incisive understanding of the intersections of class interests, ideology, and even personality. Individuals, both on the right and left, who have reduced Marx's thinking to sterile economic determinism have never encountered this brilliant work. A model of what can be done when Marxist concepts are used as a point of departure rather than a form of theology. ... Read more

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Strathern At His Best
I have made a point of reading each book in Paul Strathern's "--in 90 Minutes" series on philosphers and thinkers as they have been published. His slender volume on Karl Marx represents Strathern at his ironically informed best. Solid information presented with insight and humor. I cannot imagine a better starting point for an introduction to Marx and Marxism. Highly readable. ... Read more

Book Description

First published in 1936 ... Read more

Book Description

Karl Lowith's study of Max Weber and Karl Marx is a key interpretation of both the theme of alienation in Marxist theory as well as the subject of rationalization in Weber's sociology. Lowith's philosophical approach, a product of Heidegger's existentialism, shows how both Marx and Weber work toward a common ``life-philosophy.'' Lowith's analysis of the philosophical anthropology of Marxist theory and sociology also demonstrates that much of the ideological dispute between these two branches of thought is the result of a mutual misunderstanding. Lowith's book remains the best short introduction to the differences and similarities between Weber and Marx. This edition also includes a preface from Professor Bryan S. Turner, who demonstrates the book's relevance to contemporary sociology. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Lowith's Argument Remains Important
Lowith's 1932 essay on Marx and Weber remains the definitive statement of the deep commonalities between these two thinkers. That is, it argues that Weber's central concern is to develop a fundamental theory of capitalism, as with Marx. For decades, it was "necessary" to attempt to parry Marx with Weber. Lowith's stood as an accusation of "bad faith" with regard to all such attempts, especially those who would evacuate Weber of all critique, even if only existential. Derek Sayer's "Capitalism and Modernity" is perhaps most in the spirit of this minor masterpiece. ... Read more

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Solidly sentimental intellectual's family life
Karl Marx was once a child, and Jenny was a friend who was four years older. They were secretly engaged for seven years, until Jenny was 29, before Karl Marx had a position with a newspaper that promised to pay him enough that he could afford to marry. A single sentence in the first paragraph of the Introduction provides the information that the rest of the book confirms in great detail: "She shared the misery of his refugee existence, copied his illegible manuscripts, fought off his creditors, prepared his meals and bore him seven children." (p. xiii). The book furnishes many examples of her devotion to Karl Marx. She wrote letters, many of which are quoted in the text, and the ten pages of notes following the Bibliography do little more than provide page numbers in works that are mostly in German. Even the citations for reviews by Jenny of Shakespeare's plays, published anonymously in the Frankfurter Zeitung in February 1877, are to a German source.

Newspapers had an odd appeal to Karl Marx as a source of income, as a medium for spreading democratic ideals, and he was often frustrated by authorities who would not allow them to be used as a rallying cry for communism and uniting workers in revolution. While Jenny and the shareholders who might provide money for a newspaper could agree with Marx getting money for writing articles that supported freedom of speech, Karl's interest in overthrowing the capitalists in general was often enough reason for the Prussian authorities to shut down his newspapers and force him into exile. Even his job as a foreign correspondent, writing articles for an American newspaper, could not be depended upon, "because Karl lost half his income in 1857 as a result of the American economic crisis." (p. 119). After spending some early years in Paris, Chapter 6, Exile in Brussels, and Chapter 8, The Hells of London, emphasize how tough the situation at home was for Jenny, who was usually stuck at home or visiting her mother.

The situation of the rest of Jenny's family tends to show that Karl Marx was not the only person who had trouble finding a steady source of income. Jenny's father was a Prussian civil servant who was transferred to Trier when Jenny was two. He enjoyed the culture that a town of 12,000 could provide, but he hardly offered any solutions to their problems. "In his reports to Berlin her father frequently pointed out that there was `great and growing poverty among the lowest classes' of Trier and the surrounding countryside, but when Berlin asked him what caused it, he failed to provide an answer." (p. 11). Though Karl Marx was younger than Jenny, he impressed her as being more interested in such serious matters than the other young men she had contact with. Karl dedicated "his first publication, his PhD thesis" (p. 15) to Jenny's father. Jenny had a brother, Edgar, who pondered the same problems. Unable to find a position in Germany that coincided with his views, Edgar went to Texas and failed in a typical fashion. Later Jenny wrote, "He has taken part in the war in Texas for three years and has suffered beyond description; he lost everything, everything, including his health. He is now here to recover a bit; he will then go to Berlin to my brother and his relatives and try his luck there." (p. 142). He seemed to have a great need for food. Marx wrote about his expensive guest to Engels, "this Edgar, who never exploited anyone except himself, and who was always a workman in the strictest sense of the word, endured a war of, and with starvation for the slaveholders. Ditto that we two brothers-in-law are being ruined momentarily by the American War." (p. 143). The American Civil War and its aftermath had become the sole interest of newspaper readers in the United States, and Marx could no longer get anything by writing for Americans.

Even for the great masterpiece on Capital, when a publisher was found, "The manuscript had to be written up, of course, then copied into legible hand by Jenny and that always took longer than planned." (p. 122). Marx was still complaining about his situation in a letter to Engels. "'Since my wife cannot make Christmas preparations for the children herself, but is bothered instead with unpaid bills from all sides, has to copy my manuscript and in between run downtown to the pawnshops, the mood is extremely gloomy'. Engels answer was 5 pounds sterling and a Christmas basket, filled with bottles of port, sherry and champagne." (p. 122). Money from the textile business of the firm Ermen & Engels, originally owned by Engels's father, was often used to rescue the Marx family, until Engels sold his shares and retired. Other family matters discussed in this book are typical for politically active people who suddenly achieve fame, as Karl Marx did as the defender of the workers of Paris who formed the Commune in March 1871, after Napoleon III had been taken prisoner in the battle of Sedan on 2 September 1870. (pp. 154-155). One of his daughters lost her job as a tutor for the Monroes, an English family, and the International was condemned in France, but Jenny struck back by writing an obituary for Gustave Florens. (pp. 156-157). After three Marx daughters were arrested in France, Jenny wrote, "I am afraid that we, we older ones, won't live to see many good things." (p. 158). ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Canadian Dimension, published by Canadian Dimension Publication, Ltd. on November 1, 2000. The length of the article is 867 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Rae on Marx.(critique of Bob Rae's commentary on Karl Marx biography)(Brief Article)
Author: DOUG SMITH
Publication: Canadian Dimension (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2000
Publisher: Canadian Dimension Publication, Ltd.
Volume: 34Issue: 6Page: 46

Article Type: Brief Article

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