Singer looks at Marx, the Philosopher, and relegates Marx, the Economist to the background. This allows Singer to put aside all the 'refuted' aspects of Marx and focus on the key and relevant ideas. Singer discusses alienation and historical materialism in some detail and tracks their evolution in Marx's thought, but the most interesting segment is when he tries to pin down marx's own conceptions of what a communist utopia should be like. Turns out Marx was extremely pragmatic about it and let s...

It's a very good introduction to Marx and Marxism, but very short, as the title says. I thought his explanation of Hegel was really clear and I will read Singer's short introduction to Hegel as well, as I never understood it before and Singer, as always, writes very easy to understand. My main criticism is that I found Singer's arguments against Marx at the end of the book very lacking and a bit too harsh.

This is a highly readable introduction to Marx written by a philosopher who generally writes highly readable philosophical tracts. As others have noted Singer too easily dismisses Marx contribution to economic theory. Classical economists appalling lack of success as "scientists" have once again been aired out in our most recent "crisis of capitalism." On the other hand, critics of classical economics such as Steve Keen, whose economic models accurately predicted the financial crisis, acknowledg...

This was pretty good, except that Singer's treatment of Hegel seemed to me superficial and wrong-headed. Anyway, of the Very Short Introduction series that I've read so far, this is the one most like a satisfying work in its own right.

A book about Marx and Marxism, more about Marx than Marxism. OK, OK, you got that from the title, I just wanted to underscore the point that the book is a cross between a short biography and an introduction to Marxism, which I think is the winning-point for this book; it doesn’t bore you with awful lot personal life details or overwhelm you with too much political and economic stuff. Rather it starts with a brief account of Marx’s life and impact of his ideas, and goes on to trace genesis of Mar...

"A very short introduction" yeah. It's that, and just that.

A short and succinct introduction to Marx that would benefit from some previous familiarity with philosophy, if not history. However, still relatively approachable for a beginner reader and well structured. Singer tells the story of Marx, as a philosopher, rather than a scientist and economist. He struck a nice balance between retelling his life and delving into theory. A bit unbalanced on the early years and the Hegel interpretation, which may be arguably more relevant to a historian - but felt...

Hard to judge an introductory book when you know nothing about the subject, but I feel throughly introduced. This book feels like your favourite professor giving a great lecture, occasionally Singer notes his own thoughts but in a helpful, removed way. Would reread, probably in audio format.

I guess I was expecting an introduction to Marxism, this is definitely no such book. The author spends almost as much time on his own opinions of Marxism as he does on Marx's philosophy. The book is a short crappy biography of Karl Marx that touches on his ideas only long enough to dismiss them as out of date and irrelevant. I expect better from this series. This book will give neither the curious reader, the anti-Marxist or pro-Marxist anything to chew on. Don't waste your time.

Marx: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions #28), Peter SingerFrom 1818 to 1883, Marx was the founder of material commentary on history, and the prime of class warfare, Marx's influence on economics, philosophy, and all branches of social and political thought was undoubtedly very profound. From Singer's point of view, Marx's main concern was human freedom. The eye looks for a communist society that has to transform human nature.عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «مارکس»؛ «اندیشه مارکس»؛ «...

A great book. A lucid introduction to Marx. Easy to read and well structured.Here are my reading notes.# To Remember- A lot of Marx's rhetoric comes from Hegel (a dialectic leading to historical progress)- Marx was mostly wrong on his economic predictions- He is to be treated as a philosopher more than an economist if we are to get value out of his thought- For him, the really real was the economic powers that shape our societies# Concepts## Surplus ValueIn classical economics, the capitalist hi...

This is rather a misleading guide to Marx. The author's opinion is not only heavily loaded against Marxist school of Economics but also misguide the reader on the truthfulness of several important assertion of Marx on the basic contradiction of Capitalism .The Author claims that the rate of profit has not fallen , as was predicted by Marx, and wage rate in Advanced Capitalist countries has rather gone northwards. Only after the great recession has struck us do we find that the this assertion is

A 2018 post on the Leiter Report, “the world's most popular philosophy blog, since 2003,” bears the amusingly aggressive title “Peter Singer's Understanding of Marx is Incompetent But Certainly Reveals Him To Be a Right-Wing Apologist For Capitalism.” I adore Brian Leiter. I really do. He is one of the few voices of reason in a profoundly unreasonable Internet landscape. However, his reaction to Singer’s book on Marx is outrageously hyperbolic. To call Singer—who calls himself a Leftist and who

A readable, clear, concise overview of the development of Marx's thought. Singer discusses the many ways it is no longer relevant, but also includes a few fascinating and specific ideas about how it's still relevant today.

Short introduction, but a good representation of Marx's ideas in summary. I found it useful to find a general understanding of Marx's philosophical thesis based on alienation and his theory of history. The only point to mention, however, is that the critics on Marx's predictions could be more compelling if numbers and statistics were provided.

Four stars because this does provide a short and easily-graspable summary of Marx's biography, intellectual development, major works, and key ideas, exactly as advertised. Singer gives welcome context to most of the common terms and concepts I've come across in leftist discussions about Marx online, most notably—for me—the relationship between his ideas and Hegel's, as well as some of the intimidating economics stuff. (Though I am starting to fear that I'll never get my head around what "dialect...

A Very Short Summary- Marx was a philosopher not an economist. So far, Marx has been wrong in most of his predictions. Marx is still very influential.

Peter Singer does it again!! This is the second book from the Very Short Introduction series by Peter Singer I read, the first one was on Hegel, and both of them live up to the challenge of summarizing these giants without losing the essence of their ideas. It's a very short book, you can complete it in one sitting, so highly recommended for anyone and everyone.

"Marx did not just predict that capitalism would be overthrown and replaced by communism. He judged the change is desirable."The prophetic nature of the aforesaid brief statement is evidently dangerous, furthermore, Marx claimed that his philosophy is 'scientific' as Hegel who claimed his philosophy 'scientific' before him. Which led Lenin among others to claim that "Marxism is a scientific system, free from any ethical judgements or postulates." Whereas Marx's favorite motto was 'De omnibus dub...

Kind of dense, but still very readable and fairly easy to understand. I didn't know much about Marx prior to reading this so I found this to be super interesting. Marxism (at least, the original kind) is very different than I thought! I definitely want to read more books in this series on different topics.