The Life and Teaching of Karl Marx

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"So clear a summary of Marx's economic theories.... As an example of stern compression and yet lucid exposition of Marx's teachings, this little book deserves high praise....There is given a sketch of the life of Marx, his development in knowledge and thought, his work in the various movements of the Working Class, his theories of history and class struggles, and his economic discoveries. In addition, a brief account of the Hegelian Philosophy, so far as it deals with the Dialectic, is placed in 19 pages of the Introduction. Marx's connection and debt to this school of philosophy is well shown." -J. Fitzgerald, The Socialist Standard, No. 208 December 1921 Karl Marx belongs to the ranks of those philosophical and sociological thinkers who throw potent thought-ferment into the world, and set in motion the masses of mankind. They awaken slumbering doubts and contradictions. They proclaim new modes of thought, new social forms. Their systems may sooner or later become obsolete, and the ruthless march of time may finally overthrow their intellectual edifice; meanwhile, however, they stimulate into activity the minds of countless men, inflame countless human hearts, imprinting on them characteristics which are transmitted to coming generations. This is the grandest and finest work to which any human being can be called. Because these thinkers have lived and worked, their contemporaries and successors think more clearly, feel more intensely, and are richer in knowledge and self-consciousness. The history of philosophy and of social science is comprised in such systems and generalisations. They are the index to the annals of mankind. None of these systems is complete, none comprehends all human motives and capacities, none exhausts all the forces and currents of human society. They all express only fragmentary truths, which, however, become effective and achieve success because they are shining lights amidst the intellectual confusion of the generation which gives them birth, bringing it to a consciousness of the questions of the time, rendering its further development less difficult, and enabling its strongest spirits to stand erect, with fixity of purpose, in critical periods. I. The Significance of Marx II. The Work of Hegel I. Parents and I. Marx's Apprenticeship II. Student III. Beginnings of Public Life II. The Formative Period of I. The Franco-German Year Books II. Friendship with Friedrich Engels III. Controversy with Bauer and Ruge IV. Controversy with Proudhon III. Years of Agitation and Varying I. The Revolutionary Spirit of the Forties II. The Communist Manifesto III. The Revolution of 1848 IV. Days of Cloud and Sunshine in London V. The International VI. The Paris Commune VII. The Evening of Life IV. The Marxian I. The Materialist Conception of History II. Classes, Class Struggles and Class-Consciousness III. The Role of the Labour Movement and the Proletarian Dictatorship IV. Outlines of the Economic Doctrines V. Conclusion