Marx and Marxism
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Narrated by:
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Michael Gould
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By:
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Gregory Claeys
About this listen
A new biography of Karl Marx, tracing the life of this titanic figure and the legacy of his work Karl Marx remains the most influential and controversial political thinker in history. He died quietly in 1883 and a mere 11 mourners attended his funeral, but a year later he was being hailed as "the Prophet himself" whose name and writings would "endure through the ages."
He has been viewed as a philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, even a literary craftsman. But who was Marx? What informed his critiques of modern society? And how are we to understand his legacy? In Marx and Marxism, Gregory Claeys, a leading historian of socialism, offers a wide-ranging, accessible account of Marx's ideas and their development, from the 19th century through the Russian Revolution to the present.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union his reputation seemed utterly eclipsed, but now a new generation is reading and discovering Marx in the wake of the recurrent financial crises, growing social inequality, and an increasing sense of the injustice and destructiveness of capitalism. Both his critique of capitalism and his vision of the future speak across the centuries to our times, even if the questions he poses are more difficult to answer than ever.
©2018 Gregory Claeys (P)2018 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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The Lost History of Liberalism challenges our most basic assumptions about a political creed that has become a rallying cry - and a term of derision - in today's increasingly divided public square. Taking listeners from ancient Rome to today, Helena Rosenblatt traces the evolution of the words "liberal" and "liberalism", revealing the heated debates that have taken place over their meaning. In this timely and provocative book, Rosenblatt debunks the popular myth of liberalism as a uniquely Anglo-American tradition centered on individual rights.
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Educative and informative
- By Amazon Customer on 06-05-19
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Fascism: The Career of a Concept
- By: Paul Gottfried
- Narrated by: Kevin Moriarty
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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What does it mean to label someone a fascist? Today, it is equated with denouncing him or her as a Nazi. But as intellectual historian Paul E. Gottfried writes in this provocative yet even-handed study, the term's meaning has evolved over the years. Gottfried examines the semantic twists and turns the term has endured since the 1930s and traces the word's polemical function within the context of present ideological struggles.
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Refreshing scholarly treatment of a widely misused concept
- By Minister of the Posterior on 01-15-24
By: Paul Gottfried
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The Anatomy of Fascism
- By: Robert O. Paxton
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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What is fascism? By focusing on the concrete, what the fascists did rather than what they said, the esteemed historian Robert O. Paxton answers this question for the first time. From the first violent uniformed bands beating up "enemies of the state", through Mussolini's rise to power, to Germany's fascist radicalization in World War II, Paxton shows clearly why fascists came to power in some countries and not others.
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Great book for getting a clearer idea of fascism
- By Amazon Customer on 11-02-17
By: Robert O. Paxton
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Age of Anger
- A History of the Present
- By: Pankaj Mishra
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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How can we explain the origins of the great wave of paranoid hatreds that seem inescapable in our close-knit world - from American shooters and ISIS to Donald Trump, from a rise in vengeful nationalism to racism and misogyny on social media? In Age of Anger, Pankaj Mishra answers our bewilderment by casting his gaze back to the 18th century before leading us to the present.
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Disappointing
- By AR on 04-28-17
By: Pankaj Mishra
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The Idea of America
- Reflections on the Birth of the United States
- By: Gordon S Wood
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The preeminent historian of the American Revolution explains why it remains the most significant event in our history
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Sophisticated analyses
- By Roger on 01-25-12
By: Gordon S Wood
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Capitalism
- The Unknown Ideal
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This was the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constituted a major philosophic revolution. In this series of essays, she presented her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.
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Ashame this is not taught in our
- By Karen on 08-18-07
By: Ayn Rand
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World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction
- A John Hope Franklin Center Book
- By: Immanuel Wallerstein
- Narrated by: Fred Filbrich
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In World-Systems Analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein provides a concise and accessible introduction to the comprehensive approach that he pioneered 30 years ago to understanding the history and development of the modern world. Since Wallerstein first developed world-systems analysis, it has become a widely utilized methodology within the historical social sciences and a common point of reference in discussions of globalization.
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Uneven, but Ambitious
- By Logical Paradox on 08-27-14
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Democracy Incorporated
- Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
- By: Sheldon S. Wolin
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms "inverted totalitarianism"? Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive - and where elites are eager to keep them that way.
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Essential listening....
- By M. Levine on 02-25-11
By: Sheldon S. Wolin
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Culture and Imperialism
- By: Edward Said
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 19 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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A landmark work from the intellectually auspicious author of Orientalism, this book explores the long-overlooked connections between the Western imperial endeavor and the culture that both reflected and reinforced it. This classic study, the direct successor to Said's main work, is read by Peter Ganim ( Orientalism).
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BRAVO, AUDIBLE!! WE NEED MORE SAID!! REAL BOOKS!!
- By AnthonyStevens on 02-27-11
By: Edward Said
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Adam Smith
- Father of Economics
- By: Jesse Norman
- Narrated by: Jesse Norman
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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A dazzlingly original account of the life and thought of Adam Smith, the greatest economist of all time. In Adam Smith, political philosopher Jesse Norman dispels the myths and caricatures, and provides a far more complex portrait of the man. Offering a highly engaging account of Smith's life and times, Norman explores his work as a whole and traces his influence over two centuries to the present day. Finally, he shows how a proper understanding of Smith can help us address the problems of modern capitalism.
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Most excellent book!
- By Harish G. Naik on 03-02-19
By: Jesse Norman
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Russia in Revolution
- An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928
- By: S. A. Smith
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The Russian Revolution of 1917 transformed the face of the Russian empire, politically, economically, socially, and culturally and also profoundly affected the course of world history for the rest of the 20th century. Historian S. A. Smith presents a panoramic account of the history of the Russian empire, from the last years of the 19th century, through the First World War and the revolutions of 1917 and the establishment of the Bolshevik regime, to the end of the 1920s.
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Excellent centenary look at the complete revolutio
- By Privet on 09-13-18
By: S. A. Smith
What listeners say about Marx and Marxism
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Buretto
- 03-04-23
Who is the target audience for this book?
The book itself is massively informative and thought provoking. But I couldn't escape the feeling that, much like the author's depiction of Marxism, it's going to struggle to find a comfortable, effective landing spot. Was it written for social progressives, or conservatives, or for those sitting on the fence looking for answers in a world increasingly under the thumb of capitalistic inequity? If it's the first, then there's nothing particularly new here, though it does make clear distinctions in allied and/or rival philosophies. For the second group, already disinclined to humor the idea of Marxism possessing value much less read a book about it, the overwrought verbiage would be a convenient excuse to ignore it. Similarly, to those who probably would most benefit, those lacking a deeper understanding of the subject, the book would drown them in the treacle of philosophical doublespeak.
Case in point, "the world revolution began to sink into ossified self-caricature as its notional ends became detached, obscure, and dystopian" with "teetering Soviet geronticrats symbolizing the schlerosis which had long invaded the model they crudely imposed on their satellites". Surely there is a more elegant (not to mention less pompous) way of expressing that idea. Similarly, "As its soared into the ethereal realms of Neo-Hegelian existentialist and structuralist speculation, Marxism grew increasingly alienated..." Seriously? As a student of political science from ages ago, I flatter myself that I have more than a passing knowledge of the jargon used, and can roughly identify the themes of Blanqism and Frontism, but what hope does a newcomer have to sort through this word salad?
Simply, this book has a look going for it. But it needed a writer who could connect with the people who need to read it, more than one who could lay out philosophy in all its numbing verbosity. In that way, it is a tight analog to Marxism itself.
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- Privet
- 07-21-19
Intriguing, Complete (Intellectual), and Important
in order to learn what I really want to learn from this audiobook, I will need to listen to it again. That is anything but a negative comment. I was hoping for an intellectually complete discussion of Marx, Marxism as put forward by Marx (a task, as I found in this book, that is more difficult than I realized), and the modern history of movements that called themselves Marxist / Communist / Leninist / whatever.
The book definitely leans to the left. As someone who considers himself right-leaning on many regard, I found this a very positive characteristic. I've already heard the Fox News let's-stop-an-unwanted-debate-by-using-the- words-Class-Warfare approach (Straw-Man, anyone?) and its accompanying refusal to go further in any discussion of the taboo word, socialism. I don't think these Fox-Need-type people have a view of socialism anywhere near what a self-proclaimed socialist would. This type of "exposition" of Marxism sickens me. I think it completely idiotic.
I wanted to find the good and bad things that were included in Marxism. This book was satisfying in its amount of historical completeness without going too deep. I felt like I got a much better handle on Marxist ideas, though I will need a second reading / listening in order to gain a satisfying handle.
I almost didn't include this next paragraph, because I fear that some might discount all of my other comments due to this comment; I feel like I might as well say what I believe - something I wish were discussed in this and other books on Marxism. I believe that a crucial weakness of Marxism/Leninism/Communism is the fact that it springs from atheism. I am not atheist but neither am I suggesting here that belief is necessary. In this discussion, my point is not the logically precarious idea that one must include God in one's revolutions or political stances. I simply want to put forward the following idea that I would like to see discussed in commentaries on Communism: Taking the rejection of people's belief as at least a precursor to if not a vital part of your world view has crucial flaws. These flaws make it unsurprising that Marxism/Leninism/Communism - as they have been practiced in the modern and postmodern era - seem to have intolerance as one of their main characteristics. Patronizing the beliefs of others existing as one of the main steps towards a theory seems, to me, an obvious path towards an intolerant worldview.
I don't want to end with that, so I will once again say that I think this is an extremely well-written book, the performance by the narrator was superb, and I especially appreciate the unbiased discussion of post-Soviet Communism. These discussions taught me much of what I wished to learn.
I would encourage any and all I know to read this book or a book like it. I think knowing such things will be critical in avoiding mass repression, mass terror, and mass murder. I hope that the youth, the elderly - and everyone in between - learn about these ideas, about these events, etc. This is especially true given our world in which there seems to be more and more condonement and even outright support of authoritarianism.
The return to authoritarianism, bigotry, and the self-imposed ignorance of echo-chamber societal discourse are my biggest causes for worry as I continue my life and look forward to my continued life with my wife as well as to my childrens' lives. This book can help.
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23 people found this helpful