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joecam79's review against another edition
4.0
This useful introduction to Marxism provides a concise but quite comprehensive overview of the subject, explaining both its historical development and the main tenets of Marxist (and post-Marxist) thought.
kellyd's review
2.0
I liked the idea of a graphic guide to a topic as complex as Marxism, but the narrative was clearly biased in favor of democratic capitalism.
meganium's review
5.0
A very detailed and engaging overview of Marxism, including Marx's inspiration, his works, his effect on the world and newer interpretations of his theory. It doesn't skim over the details, and gives lots of further reading for each idea and figure mentioned. I was interested to learn that modern critical theory was created to highlight ideologies in society, and that as a result, my English Lit. degree is in a small way a Marxist revolt. Strongly recommend to all levels of familiarity with Marx.
joecam79's review
4.0
This useful introduction to Marxism provides a concise but quite comprehensive overview of the subject, explaining both its historical development and the main tenets of Marxist (and post-Marxist) thought.
nicolemillo's review
4.0
This was a really informative read and I learned a lot about new interesting ideas and people I didn't know about before and it helped to clarify other things I had only a very vague understanding of before.
I was a little disappointed that, after all the weaving in and out of the history of Marxism leading through ways that it was developed over time to form something else, it seems to end peculiarly with 10 criticisms of Marxism that seem to mix fair criticism with unsubstantiated or biased assertions a little too forcefully–especially after seeing how each new decisive approach in Marxism's history seemed to be improved upon once its shortcomings were exposed. For example, one of the points at the end says "In an interdependent, globalised world, anti-imperialism has had its day", which–to my mind–seems patently ridiculous when we look at some of the disputes happening around our globalised world today and it seems like asserting that point as a counter to Marxism is a little weak when there seemed to be far stronger oppositions one could make. I also wish it hadn't been so solely focused on the Western more-developed world.
Still, it's a fair introduction despite moving rather swiftly (sometimes too much so) through the ideas. The text in the cartoons generally helps to condense the material of the non-illustrated passages and the glossary at the end is useful in case any terms had been introduced too quickly and, more importantly, for clarification on how the terms were being used. "Hegemony", for example, is used in the text to mean specifically "cultural hegemony" and not the contemporary political usage which just talks generally about dominance of any one social group or state over others. The further reading section was also a welcome resource to find out more about ideas and people mentioned along the way.
I read the ebook of this and I wouldn't be averse to picking up the hardcopy. My ebook reader couldn't seem to handle the images and it was sometimes difficult to read the tinier text in them. When it said a "graphic guide" I suppose I was expecting either a comic or for the illustrations to lead the text a bit more and clarify the text, but this often felt more like handsome decoration to me. The text within the illustrations did help to explain the text in the paragraphs, but it didn't necessarily need to be illustrated to do this so the artwork didn't seem to be used as well as it maybe could have been... Though I think illustrating something as intangible as a political idea is a tall order, so I don't want to fault it for that either.
I am curious to pick up the book that covers Capitalism. That said, with the skew this took at the end with a somewhat resigned and not entirely well supported (in my opinion) idea that Marxist ideology is simply impossible and too corruptible because of the common–though admittedly adulterated–examples we have of "Communism" which is often more accurately considered "state capitalism" , I wonder if the Capitalism book might be too biased in the same way to give a fair assessment, though it is written by a different author... In any case, these are just introductions to the topics and should only be seen in that way. Further reading is definitely required to have a fuller grasp of these weighty and sometimes complex ideas.
I was a little disappointed that, after all the weaving in and out of the history of Marxism leading through ways that it was developed over time to form something else, it seems to end peculiarly with 10 criticisms of Marxism that seem to mix fair criticism with unsubstantiated or biased assertions a little too forcefully–especially after seeing how each new decisive approach in Marxism's history seemed to be improved upon once its shortcomings were exposed. For example, one of the points at the end says "In an interdependent, globalised world, anti-imperialism has had its day", which–to my mind–seems patently ridiculous when we look at some of the disputes happening around our globalised world today and it seems like asserting that point as a counter to Marxism is a little weak when there seemed to be far stronger oppositions one could make. I also wish it hadn't been so solely focused on the Western more-developed world.
Still, it's a fair introduction despite moving rather swiftly (sometimes too much so) through the ideas. The text in the cartoons generally helps to condense the material of the non-illustrated passages and the glossary at the end is useful in case any terms had been introduced too quickly and, more importantly, for clarification on how the terms were being used. "Hegemony", for example, is used in the text to mean specifically "cultural hegemony" and not the contemporary political usage which just talks generally about dominance of any one social group or state over others. The further reading section was also a welcome resource to find out more about ideas and people mentioned along the way.
I read the ebook of this and I wouldn't be averse to picking up the hardcopy. My ebook reader couldn't seem to handle the images and it was sometimes difficult to read the tinier text in them. When it said a "graphic guide" I suppose I was expecting either a comic or for the illustrations to lead the text a bit more and clarify the text, but this often felt more like handsome decoration to me. The text within the illustrations did help to explain the text in the paragraphs, but it didn't necessarily need to be illustrated to do this so the artwork didn't seem to be used as well as it maybe could have been... Though I think illustrating something as intangible as a political idea is a tall order, so I don't want to fault it for that either.
I am curious to pick up the book that covers Capitalism. That said, with the skew this took at the end
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