Karl Marx

The republication of Karl Korsch's Karl Marx (1936) makes available to a new generation of readers the most concise account of Karl Marx's thought by one of the major figures of twentieth-century Western Marxism. Originally written for publication in a series on 'Modern Sociologists', Korsch's book sought to bring Marx's work to life for an audience of non-specialist readers. As Michael Buckmiller writes in his new introduction to the work, Korsch wanted his book to serve as a passport into the non-dogmatic sections of the American labour movement. The result is a bracing, concise, and accessible overview of the entirety of Marx's thought, and a pungent history of 'Marxism' itself.

Contents

Foreword by Michael Buckmiller
Introduction

Part One
Society

1. Marxism and Sociology
2. The Principle of Historical Specification
3. Specification (continued)
4. The Principle of Change
5. The Principle of Criticism
6. A New Type of Generalisation
7. Practical Implications

Part Two
Political Economy

1. Marxism and Political Economy
2. From Political Economy to ‘Economics’
3. From Political Economy to the Marxian Critique of Political Economy
4. Scientific versus Philosophical Criticism of Political Economy
5. Two Aspects of Revolutionary Materialism in Marx’s Economic Theory
6. The Economic Theory of Capital
7. The Fetishism of Commodities
8. The ‘Social Contract’
9. The Law of Value
10. Common Misunderstandings of the Marxian Doctrine of Value and Surplus-Value
11. Ultimate Aims of Marx’s Critique of Political Economy

Part Three
History

1.The Materialist Conception of History
2. The Genesis of Historical Materialism
3. The Materialist Scheme of Society
4. Nature and Society
5. Productive Forces and Production-Relations
6. Base and Superstructure
7. Conclusions

Bibliography

Index of Names