★★★★★ 5
Excellent, succinct, intro to Marxism...
Format: Paperback
Richard Wolff’s Understanding Marxism is an excellent and highly accessible populist work that introduces Marx’s critique of the inherent contradictions and inevitable problems that plague – and will continue to plague – capitalism. So, he sets out to show how the contemporary experience and understanding of the relationship between employer-employee emerge from because it is the modern manifestation of the historical distinction, which is hierarchical, oppressive and ultimately “exploitative, between master-slave and Lord-serf - Zizek, in his small text The Relevance of the Communist Manifesto, offers a unique response to this line of critique and reasoning.
Above I mention the accessibility of the writing – in fact, there is a crystalline clarity to it - and if you have watched Wolff’s show or listened to his interviews, it’s as if Wolff is speaking in his usual manner that avoids academic jargon and communicates his ideas directly. This is an extremely helpful and useful guide to understanding Marx, and I am hoping many young intelligent politically-minded university students will read it – e.g., those who might be unfamiliar with Marx - because it offers a sensible corrective to the ill-informed Marxist critics on the so-called “intellectual dark web” (IDW) who repeatedly, without properly understanding Marx, scapegoat him and employ him as a bogeyman to enhance the arousal of fear and alarm with their rhetoric.
Ultimately, and here I agree with Wolff, Marx might be said – bound intimately with Marx’s notion of “species being” (a term Wolff avoids) – to show why “ending exploitation [is] necessary to actualize social commitments to liberty, equality, brotherhood, and democracy” (36-37). So, instead of a utopian (end-of-history) communist or socialist model for society, Wolff, through his reading of Marx, offers what might be termed a philosophical or even commonsensical (and achievable!) model of what a more socially aware and humanly grounded workplace might look like – one that is Marxist in nature and instantiates people coming together in more “democratic, egalitarian ways.” (71).
Wolff also directs readers to primary source material for further study - so, all the quotations included are traced to Marx's original writings, which readers are encouraged to seek out.
To conclude, readers must be aware that this pamphlet – indeed, this is what Wolff calls it – does not attempt to serve as a broad or sprawling introduction to Marx and his writings. Thus, when ordering it, be aware that it is not akin to academic introductions and critiques of Marx such as Peter Singer’s Marx: a Very Short Introduction (OUP) or Allen Wood’s Karl Marx (Routledge).
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Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2019
