Rev. Dr. Wagenfuhr
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Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life
- By: Jonathan Sperber
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 22 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 192
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 164
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 164
Returning Marx to the Victorian confines of the 19th century, Jonathan Sperber, one of the United States' leading European historians, challenges many of our misconceptions of this political firebrand turned London journalist. In this deeply humanizing portrait, Marx no longer is the Olympian soothsayer, divining the dialectical imperatives of human history, but a scholar-activist whose revolutionary Weltanschauung was closer to Robespierre's than to those of 20th-century Marxists.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Informative intellectual biography, poor reading
- By anonymous on 10-25-13
- Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life
- By: Jonathan Sperber
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
Eh
Reviewed: 09-08-13
Is there anything you would change about this book?
I tend to listen to audiobooks whilst doing other activities, e.g. driving, manual labour, shopping, etc. This one is difficult to follow, not because the Marxian ideas are themselves so difficult, but the biography is a bit flat. It lacks the colour and depth that has kept my attention in other books and biographies. Sometimes it feels like a listing of chronological facts.
What didn’t you like about Kevin Stillwell’s performance?
He frequently accents the wrong syllable in foreign or philosophical terminology. For example, he says for the philosopher Hegel: "heGel" rather than Hāgel, or for émigré: "eMIgrā" rather than emigrĀ, as the French accenting makes plain. These are not minor annoyances because of their frequency, and it feels like listening to a lecture by someone who does not know the subject matter. Also, his style of American cadence is grating, at least to me. He tends to raise his voice at commas almost in the fashion of a question mark.
Was Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life worth the listening time?
Yes, but only for an interest in Marx.
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