The Marx Reader

This is the first major collection of Karl Marx's writings since the fall of Communism in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. That event notwithstanding, Marx remains one of the towering figures of modern intellectual culture. His work is still the most systematic, comprehensive and sustained assault upon the central tenets of capitalism. Many ideas in political life at the end of the twentieth century, heard often enough from the mouths of the most trenchantly anti-Marxist politicians, can be straightforwardly traced to the writings in this volume. The extensive readings collected here cover all the main areas of Marx's work, stretching from the early 1840s to the early 1880s. Longer selections from the major texts, such as Capital, The Communist Manifesto and The German Ideology, are complemented with shorter but crucial passages from his less familiar works. Pierson's extensive introduction guides the novice reader through the most important and exciting elements in Marx's work. He offers not just a concise and lucid guide to Marx's thought but also shows us why we still need to read Marx after the collapse of Communism. Whatever has been the fate of Marxism, Marx remains, as this book shows, a key figure for our own times.