The Life and Teaching of Karl Marx

"So clear a summary of Marx's economic theories…. As an example of stern compression and yet lucid exposition of Marx's teachings, this little book deserves high praise….There is given a sketch of the life of Marx, his development in knowledge and thought, his work in the various movements of the Working Class, his theories of history and class struggles, and his economic discoveries. In addition, a brief account of the Hegelian Philosophy, so far as it deals with the Dialectic, is placed in 19 pages of the Introduction. Marx's connection and debt to this school of philosophy is well shown." -J. Fitzgerald, The Socialist Standard, No. 208 December 1921
Karl Marx belongs to the ranks of those philosophical and sociological thinkers who throw potent thought-ferment into the world, and set in motion the masses of mankind. They awaken slumbering doubts and contradictions. They proclaim new modes of thought, new social forms. Their systems may sooner or later become obsolete, and the ruthless march of time may finally overthrow their intellectual edifice; meanwhile, however, they stimulate into activity the minds of countless men, inflame countless human hearts, imprinting on them characteristics which are transmitted to coming generations. This is the grandest and finest work to which any human being can be called. Because these thinkers have lived and worked, their contemporaries and successors think more clearly, feel more intensely, and are richer in knowledge and self-consciousness.
The history of philosophy and of social science is comprised in such systems and generalisations. They are the index to the annals of mankind. None of these systems is complete, none comprehends all human motives and capacities, none exhausts all the forces and currents of human society. They all express only fragmentary truths, which, however, become effective and achieve success because they are shining lights amidst the intellectual confusion of the generation which gives them birth, bringing it to a consciousness of the questions of the time, rendering its further development less difficult, and enabling its strongest spirits to stand erect, with fixity of purpose, in critical periods.
CONTENTS:
Introduction:
I. The Significance of Marx
II. The Work of Hegel
I. Parents and Friends:
I. Marx's Apprenticeship
II. Student
III. Beginnings of Public Life
II. The Formative Period of Marxism:
I. The Franco-German Year Books
II. Friendship with Friedrich Engels
III. Controversy with Bauer and Ruge
IV. Controversy with Proudhon
III. Years of Agitation and Varying Fortunes:
I. The Revolutionary Spirit of the Forties
II. The Communist Manifesto
III. The Revolution of 1848
IV. Days of Cloud and Sunshine in London
V. The International
VI. The Paris Commune
VII. The Evening of Life
IV. The Marxian System:
I. The Materialist Conception of History
II. Classes, Class Struggles and Class-Consciousness
III. The Role of the Labour Movement and the Proletarian Dictatorship
IV. Outlines of the Economic Doctrines
V. Conclusion