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rgusolosurfav's review against another edition
I wanted to read this since I am interested in learning more abt socialism and Marxism and there were pictures so it would be made easier for someone like me who mostly consumes visual media. But then I looked at the back page and there were points that set off alarm bells like the dismissal of class and saying that anti imperialism is bad?????? Like here's a difference between having nuance in the way that imperialism has harmed ppl and then there's that.... I'm really glad I didn't waste any time on this book and neither should you.one look at the goodreads review should tell you all you need to know. Also the really insidious thing abt this is that it is obviously targeted towards teenagers and simplifying and injecting your own opinions in a supposedly informative book in order to drive anyone from Marxism is weird to say the least
chelseamartinez's review against another edition
5.0
I went to Oberlin but I didn't take any super-Oberlin-y classes (except for the ExCo classes I was a student or a teacher of); anything I know about Marxism was pretty much absorbed through diffusion from friends at parties. Um, so I found this extremely useful, as it actually starts with Marx and then proceeds to track its political and theoretical uses by others over time, ending in critical theory. It is a graphic (as the name says) rather than comic guide; for the most part the graphics are most useful to help break up what is a short, but dense text.
lucasmiller's review against another edition
5.0
It's a cliche that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Between Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize in Literature and the decision in the early months of my 30th year to "understand Marxism," I am on my way to being completely insufferable by year's end.
I've read this whole little box set (Romanticism, Capitalism, and Marxism) in the past two weeks and being suddenly reintroduced to ideas that I have grappled with and largely set aside is an invigorating and embarrassing feeling.
I've learned how little I know besides the names of thinkers. Sometimes I can put them in a rough chronological order.
The faith of Marxism is appealing to me. The belief and creativity it has inspired. These were very human ideas created by a brilliant but flawed man that has led to more death and destruction than most other ideas outside of major monotheistic religions. Of course I feel an affinity for it, it's changed the world and in response the world has dramatically changed.
Nothing means much of anything anymore and like most of my intellectual/personal pursuits I am seeking others nostalgia in the hope that it proves to mean more than the girls I didn't kiss or boys I didn't fight.
I've already bought the Marx Engels Reader (second edition). It shipped this morning.
Between Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize in Literature and the decision in the early months of my 30th year to "understand Marxism," I am on my way to being completely insufferable by year's end.
I've read this whole little box set (Romanticism, Capitalism, and Marxism) in the past two weeks and being suddenly reintroduced to ideas that I have grappled with and largely set aside is an invigorating and embarrassing feeling.
I've learned how little I know besides the names of thinkers. Sometimes I can put them in a rough chronological order.
The faith of Marxism is appealing to me. The belief and creativity it has inspired. These were very human ideas created by a brilliant but flawed man that has led to more death and destruction than most other ideas outside of major monotheistic religions. Of course I feel an affinity for it, it's changed the world and in response the world has dramatically changed.
Nothing means much of anything anymore and like most of my intellectual/personal pursuits I am seeking others nostalgia in the hope that it proves to mean more than the girls I didn't kiss or boys I didn't fight.
I've already bought the Marx Engels Reader (second edition). It shipped this morning.
literallytara's review against another edition
2.0
A dense slog. I expected the dense, but didn’t expect the slog. I’m not quite sure why this is a graphic novel — it’s more like an illustrated essay? The images felt like they didn’t add much except to break up the density of the ideas.
Also the conclusion here seems to be that Marxism = bad/wrong, which seems strange?
I did enjoy putting some of my fav critical theorists in the greater context of their philosophical genealogies, though. This would have been helpful before grad school
Also the conclusion here seems to be that Marxism = bad/wrong, which seems strange?
I did enjoy putting some of my fav critical theorists in the greater context of their philosophical genealogies, though. This would have been helpful before grad school
kosr's review against another edition
1.0
2021 Edit: having started to actually read Marx and try to understand his ideas, revisiting this has really brought to light that this book is borderline propaganda for discrediting Marxism. As someone who doesn't even identify as a Marxist - merely interested in understanding Marxism itself - I still found myself almost shocked at the falsities the 10 points stipulated at the beginning of this book, let alone the 10 at the end. I cannot recommend this in the slightest. Its practically asinine in its concoction.
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A reader of this will enjoy the concise and interesting history that this book delivers. However, through its pages, I found myself at times, questioning the narrative the authors were pushing. Without a larger knowledge of Marx, I couldn't form a critisicm, as such I would warn readers of how much is omitted from these pages, especially with reference to later post-Marxism introductions. However, the authors decide to pen a 10 point criticism of Marxism in this Post-Modern world (already the post-modern is a subjective opinion) and this I DID find slightly repulsive and sweepingly dismissive of revolutionary rhetoric and action. The blatant dismissal of class as a remotely unifying force for revolutionary change had alarm bells ringing in my mind particularly. By mentioning that some later critics of Marx noticed that we should be more detailed about oppression (a black woman has different grivences compared to a white factory working male for example) is absolutely not a reason to dismiss working for a society that better accommodates all these oppressions; and yet that's exactly what this book does.
Not only this, but the fact that the books narrative decides to end with a good chunck of space devoted to post-Marxists who, upon reading about their ideas in this very book , I found to be borderline flirting with free market fundamentalism. How on earth such people can be given such conclusive space at the end of the book is beyond me. I won't list the rest here, but if you pick this up, feel free to have a look at the back to make your own mind up.
This is mainly why I choose to try and read Marx myself, I am simply too untrusting of others telling me, or summerise for me, whether his ideas are still relevant or not. In many cases it feels that although Marxism is tolerated as an idea to learn about, certain intellectuals will do what they can - consciously or unconsciously - to de-fang and obfuscate the tradition. I feel this book is no different in trying to present Marxism as a dustbin concept that's better left to be read as an old idea worth studying for purely historical interest. The fact the authors make the claim "socialism does not work and neither does any other grand narrative..." is enough to have me suspicious. Not because I'm a diehard Marxist, so much as because I can sense when an agenda is present.
My current feeling is postmodernist thinkers tend to do a good job of making certain unifying ideas absolutely incomprehensible.
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A reader of this will enjoy the concise and interesting history that this book delivers. However, through its pages, I found myself at times, questioning the narrative the authors were pushing. Without a larger knowledge of Marx, I couldn't form a critisicm, as such I would warn readers of how much is omitted from these pages, especially with reference to later post-Marxism introductions. However, the authors decide to pen a 10 point criticism of Marxism in this Post-Modern world (already the post-modern is a subjective opinion) and this I DID find slightly repulsive and sweepingly dismissive of revolutionary rhetoric and action. The blatant dismissal of class as a remotely unifying force for revolutionary change had alarm bells ringing in my mind particularly. By mentioning that some later critics of Marx noticed that we should be more detailed about oppression (a black woman has different grivences compared to a white factory working male for example) is absolutely not a reason to dismiss working for a society that better accommodates all these oppressions; and yet that's exactly what this book does.
Not only this, but the fact that the books narrative decides to end with a good chunck of space devoted to post-Marxists who, upon reading about their ideas in this very book , I found to be borderline flirting with free market fundamentalism. How on earth such people can be given such conclusive space at the end of the book is beyond me. I won't list the rest here, but if you pick this up, feel free to have a look at the back to make your own mind up.
This is mainly why I choose to try and read Marx myself, I am simply too untrusting of others telling me, or summerise for me, whether his ideas are still relevant or not. In many cases it feels that although Marxism is tolerated as an idea to learn about, certain intellectuals will do what they can - consciously or unconsciously - to de-fang and obfuscate the tradition. I feel this book is no different in trying to present Marxism as a dustbin concept that's better left to be read as an old idea worth studying for purely historical interest. The fact the authors make the claim "socialism does not work and neither does any other grand narrative..." is enough to have me suspicious. Not because I'm a diehard Marxist, so much as because I can sense when an agenda is present.
My current feeling is postmodernist thinkers tend to do a good job of making certain unifying ideas absolutely incomprehensible.