The Communist Manifesto (Signet Classics)

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"A spectre is haunting Europe," Karl Marx and Frederic Engels wrote in 1848, "the spectre of Communism." This new edition of The Communist Manifesto, commemorating the 150th anniversary of its publication, includes an introduction by renowned historian Eric Hobsbawm which reminds us of the document's continued relevance. Marx and Engels's critique of capitalism and its deleterious effect on all aspects of life, from the increasing rift between the classes to the destruction of the nuclear family, has proven remarkably prescient. Their spectre, manifested in the Manifesto's vivid prose, continues to haunt the capitalist world, lingering as a ghostly apparition even after the collapse of those governments which claimed to be enacting its principles.

Book Description

Critically and textually up-to-date, this new edition of the classic translation (Samuel Moore, 1888) features an introduction and notes by the eminent Marx scholar David McLellan, prefaces written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels subsequent to the original 1848 publication, and corrections
of errors made in earlier versions. Regarded as one of the most influential political tracts ever written, The Communist Manifesto serves as the foundation document of the Marxist movement. This summary of the Marxist vision is an incisive account of the world-view Marx and Engels had evolved during
their hectic intellectual and political collaboration of the previous few years.

Download Description

Still relevant today both as a historical document and as a stirring call for social democracy, this New Albion edition includes Engel's extensive footnotes from the various editions, plus the changing Prefaces written first by Marx and Engels, and later by Engels alone, plus notes on the Manifesto and the various translations of it.

Customer Reviews:

The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-14

Well, if you are a student of Philosophy or economics you must make this a part of your reading whether you want to or not. It is not long. It is not difficult. It is quite explicit. And after you read it you should have a better understanding of where you personally stand politically. I am not going to comment on what it says or advocates. Read it and find out for yourself. You won't need an interpreter.

Must have for any wannabe idealist.......2007-09-10

Well, obviously I havent read this fascinating piece of litrerature, but thats because a read book just looks so scruffy on my beautiful capitalist shelves.
This book makes me look a lot more sympathetic to all those wannabe commies, so why not dish out on a copy too?
Nah just joking, just read it and decide for yourself.

Political Classic...read for historical insight.......2007-06-27

My son required a copy of "The Communist Manifesto" for a philosophy class. After he was done with it, I decided to read it since this was one of the founding documents for Communism.

I found it difficult to decide how to rate this book. The presentation of Manifesto by Penguin in this book is excellent. The central ideas of the Manifesto itself are disturbing.

Should you read the Communist Manifesto? Yes. Is this a good presentation? Yes. Was Communism envisioned by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels a good idea? No. So I have compromised between the excellent presentation and the ideas espoused by the Manifesto in selecting an average rating.

Some reviewers feel that the Manifesto's critique of capitalism is right on; I have grave doubts. Marx and Engels were critiquing capitalism from an ivory tower. Their remedies for capitalism show that they had no real experience or contact with the workers in the trenches.

Some reviewers have mentioned the changing of labor laws due to the Manifesto, such as child labor laws (a generally agreed good thing). I believe those laws would have changed if the Manifesto had never been written. I believe those reviewers are seeing cause and effect relationships where there is none. I believe labor leaders in non-Communist states, pushing for change in labor laws, did not need belief in Communism behind them to push for change. Even without Communism, they would have done what they did anyways because the labor leaders came up from the laboring trenches. They knew first hand the abuses going on. The writers of the Manifesto did not; their ideas were theoretical. I know my ideas, in this area, are conjectures of what would have happened without the Manifesto, without Communism; there is no way they can be proven, history cannot be rewritten.

The remedy proposed by Marx and Engels is frightening. It foreshadows exactly how Communism gave birth to totalitarian states, to Communist dictatorships. Their remedy for capitalism requires a select group of leaders (Communist elitists) to force Communism onto the populace for the good of the people. We should all be suspicious of anyone who professes an idea that is for the good of the people because it invariably is not good for the people. To paraphase Lord Acton, "power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely," and the states envisioned by the writers of the Manifesto set up perfect conditions of absolute power (for the good of the people) which in practice led to absolutely corrupt power. History has shown there has been extreme abuse by Communist leaders, who became power meglomanics, of the masses of workers in their states.

Indeed, history has repeatedly shown that the concentration of power in the hands of a select few led to abuse of power. The smaller the select, the greater the abuse. This has been true regardless of the political theories espoused by the leaders. Let this be a cautionary tale to all of us.

A Must Read.......2007-06-23

It amazes me that the effects of cold war propaganda drivel still permeates the minds of most Americans. This is easily one of the most influential works since it's publication in the 19th century. To say something along the lines that the pages should be torn out and used as paper airplanes is like saying the literary masterpieces Dickens should be used as toilet paper. Disagree with it all you want but at least acknowledge it's influence and respect it, as several reviewers have. Don't simply pigeonhole a great work due to the ignorance or American cold war dogma. If you are going to rant about this work at least get your facts straight. Hitler is not a communist..never was. As a matter of fact he hated communism just as much as most Americans do. Second, recognize communism is an ideal, just a capitalism is may I add, and there never has been a purely communistic state. If you are going to give this work a bad rating at least pretend you have read it. Most of the bad reviews are complete drivel and it is obvious the work has not been read. Give a reason why you do not like the book. Simply saying it sucks is not very insightful. Finally, do not give this a bad review simply because you cannot understand what is being said. If the merit of literary works were based upon how something is being said rather than what is being said Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Milton would not be considered literary geniuses.

A Misleading Edition.......2007-06-14

The following is the composure of the book:
pg. 1-170 Introduction by Translator
pg. 170-240 Various Prefaces of Other Editions by the Authors
pg. 240-280 The Manifesto

For those not familiar with Marx, who want to read the introduction and gain new insights--this is a brilliant setup.

For those who would rather just pay $2 for the Manifesto itself--this is disappointing.

Recommended for the student of philosophy, not the professor.

A Technique for Producing Ideas (Advertising Age Classics Library)

Average customer rating:

Just FIVE simple steps.....
Don't let this little book fool you!
Good one.
Practical, Insightful, and Worth Each of the Six-Hundred Ninety Five Pennies that it Costs
Two good quick reads!

A Technique for Producing Ideas (Advertising Age Classics Library)
James Young
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
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ASIN: 0071410945

Book Description

A McGraw-Hill Advertising Classic

A Technique for Producing Ideas reveals a simple, sensible idea-generation methodology that has stood the test of time.

First presented to students in 1939, published in 1965, and now reissued for a new generation of advertising professionals and others looking to jump-start their creative juices, this powerful guide details a five-step process for gathering information, stimulating imagination, and recombining old elements into dramatic new ideas.

Customer Reviews:

Just FIVE simple steps............2007-10-04

......that's all it takes to learn how to come up with new & creative ideas, time after time. As Young says, the idea & the technique itself are so plain & logically simple that you may even miss it; despite the fact that the book is only some 48 pages long. It's easy to read & in your haste to learn "the secret" you may finish the book too quickly. Some thoughtful reading is required, so please don't dismiss the book because of its apparent brevity.

The fact that the book has survived successfully for over 40 years in print is testament to Young unique (but not new) teaching.

Although Young does not refer to it, I am reminded of many writers & books that go into great detail explaining the "science of the mind" & the wonderful way the brain [or mind] works & how it can be used to spawn new ideas & create solutions to problems. Sometimes referred to Mental Science, its philosophy & teachings go back thousands of years & weren't fully recognised until around the time of the 1900's.

If after reading this you wish to develop & research this technique further, I would highly recommend Emmet Fox's "Power Through Constructive Thinking".

Don't let this little book fool you!.......2007-10-02

Don't let this little book fool you. Although it has only 48 pages, the brisk contents are packed with powerful stuff.

According to the publisher, the ideas in the book were first presented to advertising students in 1939 & then published in 1965 - thus having stood the test of time. More importantly, the author, James Webb Young, was a driving force behind the creation of the modern advertising industry, and is one of advertising's most honored educators & practitioners.

As the title suggests, the author outlines a simple, easy-to-use five-step approach to idea generation. He also explores the importance of making idea generation a vital part of everything you do.

What I really like about this book is the author's principal premise: Ideas are just novel combinations of old elements, & we must keep thinking about them, which give order to new experiences!

I strongly recommend you to buy & read it. It will definitely, despite its brevity, coach you to become a better problem solver & a more creative thinker. Best of all, you will also gain a valuable perspective that will enable you to jump start your team's creative juices at work!

Good one........2006-11-21

I run an ad agency. This book was handed to me. I read it in an hour. I'm handing it to my creative director in the morning so he can spend an hour with it and hand it to every one in our creative department. It's that kind of book.

Practical, Insightful, and Worth Each of the Six-Hundred Ninety Five Pennies that it Costs.......2006-11-10

I am not an advertising professional but in the profession of scientific research. Yet this book (which was written in the 1940s for advertising people) is just as relevant to my work as it is to anyone else who is a knowledge worker. This little book is one of the simplest summaries of commonsense---and articulating common sense is this book's greatest virtue. The book lays out a five step process for generating novel and not-so-novel ideas, articulating them, and giving them a life of their own. There are no examples, no case studies, just crisply articulated common-sense that you can put to immediate use. Everything that he says is stuff that you likely already know, so this is not one of those books that talks the lofty talk about "retraining your mind" and such obscure, undoable things. The idea in this book that most resonated with me was his comment that novel ideas are simply unusual connections among things that already exist and you might already know. The book takes about an hour to read from cover to cover (and I'm not even a fast reader).

Although Mr. Bernbach probably never intended this book for consumers like me in the scientific research profession, I'd bet my money that this little gem might be just as "duh" or "aha"-evoking to people in any other knowledge-intensive line of white-collar work. The only note of caution: This book was originally written in the 1940s and the gender bias ("the creative man," "he") is pervasive throughout its 48 pages.

If you are in a profession where your "wealth" is measured in intellectual output, this is some of the best seven dollars you can invest in your education. Highly recommended for anyone whose profession requires novelty, new ideas, and creativity. Buy---don't borrow--read, reread, and dog ear this little gem!

Two good quick reads!.......2006-06-07

Young's idea producing technique is easy to learn and most importantly - effective. Creative ideas are key to winning new biz and retaining current accounts.

As a Senior Account Exec I live by creatively meeting my customer's needs and the technique in Young's book has added real value.

Another book I enjoyed is - The Sales Adventure Guide.

I picked up a copy at the San Jose, CA Airport and read it on my 1-hour flight. The Sales Adventure Guide is full or real world business experience that will guide the reader/professional through all types of business situations - and there's no rah-rah to it.

Read these two and thrive!

Capital: Volume 1: A Critique of Political Economy (Penguin Classics)

Average customer rating:

Doors of Perception
Fascinating, Intelligent, and Obsolete.
please read the book before reviewing it!
Seeing in the Fifth Dimension
How Many Stars Do You Give to a Discredited Classic?

Capital: Volume 1: A Critique of Political Economy (Penguin Classics)
Karl Marx
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140445684

Book Description

Capital, one of Marx's major and most influential works, was the product of thirty years close study of the capitalist mode of production in England, the most advanced industrial society of his day. This new translation of Volume One, the only volume to be completed and edited by Marx himself, avoids some of the mistakes that have marred earlier versions and seeks to do justice to the literary qualities of the work. The introduction is by Ernest Mandel, author of Late Capitalism, one of the only comprehensive attempts to develop the theoretical legacy of Capital.

Customer Reviews:

Doors of Perception.......2007-01-24

If :
- Your mum has taught you lots of valuable things (eat your vegetables, be nice to old people and little dogs, don't be late to school, keep a clean nose) but she was never really able to explain why you had to WORK for a living - instead of, you know, just living;
- Your teachers packed your head full with all kinds of useful knowledge (about prepositions and adverbs, mineralogy and astrophysics, the reproductive organs of plants, x+2-y=0) but they never told you how exactly PROFITS are made - and why anybody would want to make them anyway;
- Your friends and lovers can spend hours yakking about various interesting topics (the latest music machine, videogames, designer shoes, imitation leather sofas, blockbuster movies, pink underwear and cherry flavoured bubble-gum) but they call you a bore and a nitpick whenever you wonder why you're all surrounded by so many COMMODITIES and publicity ads promising you bigger, better and faster useless things.
- You often have the impression that some greater truth is lacking in your life (and you've tried all the legal/illegal drugs, exciting TV shows, gurus and psychoanalysts, help-yourself books and bestsellers about kid sorcerers)...

...Then the time may have come to have a long talk with good old Uncle Karl - the black sheep of the social sciences, the guy nobody likes to mention at social occasions (except in the form of a joke: "have you heard the one about Karl Marx in Las Vegas?"), the most misquoted and misinterpreted modern thinker.
In "Capital", he kindly invites you to break on through to the other side (that's how countercultural he was) and check out what's really happening behind the glitzy appearances of everyday life. You don't even have to be a genius to understand him (it will be enough if you can count to ten without choking). And you might be surprised about how obvious some things will seem after he explains to you about the cage you're sitting in.

Of course, mum will probably be broken-hearted and fear that you'll join the next anarcho-pinko-terrorist organization down the block. Your teachers might refer to a vast list of successful anti-Marx books and charity organizations. And your friends and lovers will find you an even greater bore than before.

Fascinating, Intelligent, and Obsolete........2005-11-23

"When Volume 1 of Capital was first published, capitalist industry, though predominant in a few Western European countries, still appeared as an isolated island circled by a sea of independent farmers and handicraftsmen which covered the whole world, including the greater part even of Europe," writes Ernest Mandel in his introduction to 'Capital'.

How did we advance to the present day?

An *economic* text, this book is considerably distinct from much of Marx's preceding output. Capital stands a work of theoretical economics similar to the output of David Ricardo in many ways -- calls for action, the nature of the state, and philosophical concepts are given little treatment throughout the 2,500 pages. Marx *did* write about ideas like commodity production, use-values and exchange-values, theories of surplus-value, crisis theory, organic and technical compositions of capital, the transformation problem, changes in the rates of profit, and much more. It is an analysis of *capital*, and hence, *capitalism.* There is little information about the mechanics of a post-capitalist society. After investing the time to read it, readers will be baffled when critics argue "50 bujillion people DIED as a result of 'Capital!!!'" (Marx died in 1883) -- "therefore Marx is wrong!" To be objective, a thinker can imagine the absurdity of blaming World War One, slavery in America, and imperialism on 'The Wealth of Nations'.

The volumes of this massive economic text were published successively in 1867, 1885, and 1894. Most economists feel marginalism has rendered it obsolete. At the end of the 19th century, Bohm-Bawerk argued since production occurs in a roundabout way, part of the product Marx attributed to workers needs to be employed to finance the roundaboutness. Workers would obtain the whole of what the produced only if production was instantaneous; as a result, interest must be paid no matter who owned the capital.

This is a brilliant work. The tough part is understanding the meaning of Marx's terms, which was especially difficult for me, learning the neo-classical viewpoint first. The first chapters took a few days to understand with confidence. After that, the sheer length of the text is formidable, though rewarding and absolutely fascinating.

please read the book before reviewing it!.......2005-06-29

Reading the "reviews" of Capital here on Amazon.com, a person who has read the book can see that most "reviewers" have not even troubled themselves read the book! Instead of taking the time and energy to plow through this work, many would rather get on a soap box and ramble on about their own views thereby "reviewing" the work.
I read the entire book from cover to cover. Not an easy task. It took me more than a year with persistence! But I did it.
Socialism is not mentioned once the the actual work itself. (Of course it is mentioned in the 87 page Introduction which some of the "reviewers" might have bothered to skim through!)
What is the name of the book? Capital! Not Communism or Socialism! One who has bothered to read this long book knows that the book has nothing to do with Communism. The book was supposed to form a scientific explanation of what the Capitalist mode of production was and how it formed and its' inner workings. Marx felt that after writing the pamphlet Manifesto of 1848, he owed it to the world tho explain what Capitalism was. It is a microscopic examination of the capitalist mode of production in mid-nineteenth century England. Granted that things have changed since 1850 England, the basic core of Capitalism hasn't changed.
The man was brilliant, he obviously spent a lot of time formulating an understanding of what Capitalism is. It was an eye opener for me into what Capitalism really is. It was stimulating to see how Marx in the work slowly but surely synthesizes his successive points one by one thereby building a model of the Capitalist mode of production for one to examine.
My only complaint was that it was too long. He could have said what he had to say in 200 pages rather than 800.

Seeing in the Fifth Dimension.......2004-06-18

I think it was the poor French philosopher Althusser who claimed that Marx had discovered a new continent of thought called "history" equivalent to the continents of thought discovered by Pythagoras (geometry) and Aristotle (science). I would use a different metaphor. It is as if Marx invented a pair of x-ray glasses that allows you the viewer to see the exploitation hidden in every commodity, no matter how beautifully it is packaged. I guess the only book it is really comparable to would be the Bible, edited and created in the year 207 by the North African Roman citizen Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus. On the narrative level the books are quite opposite. The one starts with a single savior who comes to save the world, but ends up being exploited, abused and killed, thus needing saving, the other starts with a class that is exploited, abused and killed, but ends up saving the world. Of the two, Marx is definitely the more optimistic view. But if we could resurrect Marx as we resurrected Jesus, would he still have his optimism?

How Many Stars Do You Give to a Discredited Classic?.......2004-04-12

To tell the truth, I haven't read too much of Capital since I was assigned sections of it in a college course years ago. However, the opportunity to once again match wits with Amazon reviewer Mr. Walt Bryars, an Austro-feminist-scholastic studying economics in Tampa, Florida, was just too tempting to resist. His recent "review" of Capital can be found below (I've put the word in quotes since it isn't clear whether or not Mr. Bryars has actually read Capital, though he certainly hates it). Mr. Bryars' views are clearly stated therein but his suggestion that Marx lived in the 18th century is a bit off. News flash, Mr. Bryars: the 1800s were the 19th century, not the 18th century.

Regarding Capital, it was a towering achievement of 19th century thought. However, like the Wealth of Nations (written in the 18th century -- i.e., the 1700s) and other economics classics, Capital is mostly of historical interest today. The book can be thought of, at least in part, as an unintentional reductio ad absurdum of the labor theory of value which was bequeathed to Marx by Classical economists such as Adam Smith. Marx's tireless working out of the ramifications of this theory led him to embrace now-discredited conclusions about the declining rate of profit and the immiseration of the proletariat. Marx was wrong, in other words, about some of the central parts of his economic system.

On the other hand, there's no doubt that he was a genius of the first rank. To my knowledge, Marx was the first economist to seriously take up issues like underconsumption, boom-and-bust cycles, and the technology-driven growth of large business firms -- issues that only entered mainstream economic discussion decades later in the 20th century. (I'll defer to Mr. Bryars on the history here, since it's possible that Spanish Dominicans wrote about the growth of large corporations in the 17th century -- i.e., the 1600s.)

Book Description

In Money, Language, and Thought, Marc Shell explores the interactions between linguistic and economic production as they inform discourse from Chretien de Troyes to Heidegger. Close readings of works such as the medieval grail legends, The Merchant of Venice, Goethe's Faust, and Poe's "The Gold Bug" reveal how discourse has responded to the dissociation of symbol from thing characteristic of money, and how the development of increasingly symbolic currencies has involved changes in the meaning of meaning.

Pursuing his investigations into the modern era, Shell points out significant internalization of economic form in Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger. He demonstrates how literature and philosophy have been driven to account self-critically for a "money of the mind" that pervades all discourse, and concludes the book with a discomforting thesis about the cultural and political limits of literature and philosophy in the modern world.

The Theory of the Leisure Class (Modern Library Classics)

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America's first great economic treatise
A classic analysis of how the West sees money
Intresting and applicable
The leisure class is working harder than ever
Viva Veblen!!!

The Theory of the Leisure Class (Modern Library Classics)
Thorstein Veblen
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375757872
Release Date: 2001-11-13

Book Description

Almost a century after its original publication, Thorstein Veblen's work is as fresh and relevant as ever. Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class is in the tradition of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, yet it provides a surprisingly contemporary look at American economics and society. Establishing such terms as "conspicuous consumption" and "pecuniary emulation," Veblen's most famous work has become an archetype not only of economic theory, but of historical and sociological thought as well. As sociologist Alan Wolfe writes in his Introduction, Veblen "skillfully . . . wrote a book that will be read so long as the rich are different from the rest of us; which, if the future is anything like the past, they always will be."

Customer Reviews:

America's first great economic treatise.......2007-06-07

Boring sciences often require insightful, imaginative writers to make mainstream. So it was with Einstien and theoretical physics, and so it is with economics and Thorstein Veblen as described in this book. Mr. Veblen descended from Norwegian immigrants to the US, and lived in the Midwest from the late 1800s to early 1900s. With a keen eye and insightful mind, he took in the huge economic growth of the US and the beginnings of mass consumerism and corporate advertising in the American population. What he saw was the formation of a middle and upper class that had both idle time and money to spare. Together, this created a leisure class that defined respect, social standing, and self-worth in terms of "pecuniary emulation", i.e. spending money on stuff and entertainment just because one could. Like a zoologist examining wild animals, Veblen picks apart the rituals, clothing, speech, and consumption habits of this newly rich. All of this is recorded and explained in extraordinary and sometimes comical detail in this book. Upon publication, this book became the first great work of economics by an American author, and made Veblen famous. Along with the Great Gatsby, this book provides one of the best description of the American upper class at the beginning of the 20th century.

A classic analysis of how the West sees money.......2006-09-25

This may not be a book to read for recreation, unless you like 1890s verbal locutions, but there are other reasons to read it. The emergence of the economic analysis of Western society might intrigue you. You might discover the origins of such still useful terms as 'leisure class' and 'conspicuous consumption,' among others. You might be curious about author Thorstein Veblen's status-conscious, anachronistic world of working men and idle wives, which reflects upper-class society in his day. Published in 1899, this is a classic in sociology and economic literature, although it is a veritable dreadnought of density. It discusses property, ownership, status and leisure in a turn-of-the-last-century American context. Though scholars call it a 'satire,' the book is neither witty nor ironic. Instead, it is a stolid analytical daguerreotype of a world long gone. We suggest that if you tackle Veblen's old-fashioned, slow-flowing prose, you should do it for the background you may glean and the scholarly satisfaction you may feel when you are done. Instead of Alexander Pope's, 'What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed,' this book presents what oft was said and usually better, but not as early.

Intresting and applicable.......2006-03-01

This book, although written over 100 years ago is still valid. Even though Veblen attempts to press the application of his thesis a bit too far, the thesis istself still has merit for the 21st century. His thesis, although not stated as such is biblically rooted in Ecclesiastes 4:4, "And I saw that all labor and all achievement springs from man's envy of his neighbor." Interesting perspective on society... worth the read!

The leisure class is working harder than ever .......2005-01-30

I have no idea whatsoever of how true Veblen's analysis of American social reality was one - hundred years ago, or how true it is today. No doubt he did see ' social phenomenom' that were emerging and succeeded in finding the 'name ' for them. 'Leisure class' and ' conspicuous consumption' are part of the everyday vocabulary of the description and analysis of 'social life'. I know that Veblen was particularly hard upon the nouveau riche, those trying to prove by buying and having more that they were as good or better than ' old money'. However I wonder if in ' work ethic' America there is not also another kind of phenomenom, of people of great wealth feeling a special social obligation, as multibillionaires Gates and whether for good purposes or not, Ted Turner have displayed in recent years. I also have a problem with making the concept of ' leisure' an entirely pejorative one. What about those ' surpluses' at the state of the agricultural age which Lewis Mumford said were so key in creating civilization? Isn't it true that in many societies those who do not have to do productive work were freed for higher work of mind and spirit? I wonder then that is whether Veblen's condemnation of the 'leisure class ' is too ' blanket' a one in many ways. And this without denying the truths that great wealth often corrupts, leads to arrogance, and indolence, folly and waste. For years the conception of the US was of a society in which the middle class element was predominant, a society reflecting an equality of opportunity and the fact that the majority of people had been able to in time and through work raise themselves to a good level of life. The decline of the middle class in the sense of the growing gap between very rich and very poor is a fact of life in America. Perhaps this makes Veblen's analysis of a certain part of American society more pertinent. But again I think that there is a counter- tradition emerging in which many of the very wealthy assume that the way to real respect in the eyes of the public is in doing good for others.

Viva Veblen!!!.......2004-05-21

This is one of the most thought provoking books I have read in a long time. Veblen leaves no stone unturned in his dissection of America's upper class and the unconscious traditions that lead them, and us. It is not hard to understand the volcano that erupted with this books publication. The Penguin edition is also set in an elegant Caslon typeface that reads beautifully.

Capital: An Abridged Edition (Oxford World's Classics)

Average customer rating:

Fascinating and frightening

Capital: An Abridged Edition (Oxford World's Classics)
Karl Marx
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192838725

Book Description

A classic of early modernism, Capital combines vivid historical detail with economic analysis to produce a bitter denunciation of mid-Victorian capitalist society. It has also proved to be the most influential work in social science in the twentieth century; Marx did for social science what Darwin had done for biology. Millions of readers this century have treated Capital as a sacred text, subjecting it to as many different interpretations as the bible itself. No mere work of dry economics, Marx's great work depicts the unfolding of industrial capitalism as a tragic drama - with a message which has lost none of its relevance today. This is the only abridged edition to take account of the whole of Capital. It offers virtually all of Volume 1, which Marx himself published in 1867, excerpts from a new translation of `The Result of the Immediate Process of Production', and a selection of key chapters from Volume 3, which Engels published in 1895.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating and frightening.......2001-11-13

The book is fascinating because it has exerted so much influence. It is frightening because very few that acted on the theories presented in the book can have properly understood them. When they had understood them they would have found them to be useless. In order to arrive at this conclusion I have read the book thoroughly, which is hard work. The influence of the book derives from the dramatic but accurate description of the way capitalism functioned at the time Marx lived. Apart from a few responsible capitalists such as the Quakers, capitalists were only chasing profit without any consideration of the health of their employees and their families. Acts of parliament to reduce labour hours from 15 hours during six days as well as the extensive use of child labour were fiercely opposed by the capitalists referring to their certain ruin if these laws were passed. Marx writes: "capital never becomes reconciled to such changes". Marx does not point out that the exploitation of farm labourers was just as bad or even worse. Exploitation is as old as civilisation. That is however not a justification for the absence of moral standards.
The economic theory is presented as if it is scientific and that the laws will lead to a replacement of the capitalist system by a superior one. Unfortunately there is no science and the description of the superior system is extremely limited.
What Marx refers to, as laws are hypotheses and effects that are the result of the hypotheses. All examples are based on the idea that a worker works for six hours for a capitalist to earn enough to pay for his subsistence and works another six hours without being paid for by he capitalist. A typical example of a "law" derived from this hypothesis is that when the labour costs of a product declines profits decline. This strange idea is based on the idea that if the total cost of raw materials and machinery depreciation and labour costs are 100 and the labour cost thereof declines from 40 to 20 that the profit also declines from 40 to 20 as paid labour time is equal to unpaid labour time. This leads to the next "law". As the profit declines with increasing investment in equipment the capitalist increases sales more rapidly than the profit percentage declines so that his absolute profit increases. It is obvious that if the volume increases more in percentage than the price declines as a percentage that the absolute profit increases. Marx devotes many pages to explaining this "law". The sentences are however very cumbersome and loaded with emotions that make it very hard work to discover that the laws are mathematical necessities. Marx does not recognise any work having value other than that of manual labour, " only the labourer is productive". He does not consider selling, product development, accounting, figuring out in what to invest, analysing risk taking as work. He therefore considers that all "profit" made is theft from the worker. Marx specifically excludes competition from his theories "actual movement of competition belongs beyond our scope". He nevertheless makes some negative comments like referring to it as " capitalism begets by its anarchical system of competition, the most outrageous squandering of labour power".
As far as the new superior system Marx only writes: "But capitalist production begets, with the inexorability of a law of Nature, its own negation". "This does not re-establish private property for the worker but will be based on co-operation and the possession in common of land and of the means of production".
The conclusion "Marxist" countries logically drew from Marxists theories were, (1) the only owner of the means of production can be the state (2) there is no needs for marketing and sales (3) profit can never be justified (4) there is something wrong with competition and that can be avoided by central state planning and (5) our success is assured as our actions are based on scientific laws. In that way they did accept his hypothesis with disastrous effect.
Some examples of emotional language, that makes the book fascinating to read. "Capital pumps the surplus-labour (unpaid working hours) directly out of the labourers", on supervision, " The place of the slave-driver's lash is taken by the overlooker's book of penalties, on profit "the profit made in selling depends on cheating, deceit and inside knowledge" and finally "If money comes into the world with a congenital blood-stain on one cheek, capital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt".

It is fascinating that a book that describes real problems with powerful emotional language can make many intelligent people with good intentions believers without critically analysing the proposed theories. It is frightening that many powerful political leaders applied these theories (with or without good intentions).

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CATHOLICISM ISN'T CUTE BUT REQUIRES RADICAL ACTION IN COMPASSION FOR THE POOR

Building on Rerum Novarum

Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage

Manufacturer: Orbis Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Catholic Social Teaching and Movements

Catholic Social Teaching: Our Best Kept Secret

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the

Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries And Interpretations

Catholic Social Teaching 1891-Present: A Historical, Theological, and Ethical Analysis (Moral Traditions Series)

ASIN: 0883447878

Customer Reviews:

CATHOLICISM ISN'T CUTE BUT REQUIRES RADICAL ACTION IN COMPASSION FOR THE POOR.......2007-05-25

After you have read Triglio's Catholicism for Dummies and similar superficial atrocities, come here to read what over one hundred years of Popes have commanded us Catholics to become and to do for our weary world.

Catholicism isn't cute but requires a full commitment to peace and to justice and to Christ in constant conversion. This collection of Papal documents serves as guide. Here within this thick tome cheap we find gathered all of the documents you could purchase individually at greater price, conveniently gathered into one book. Similar collections have been compiled but little so comprehensively nor now so cheaply.

Published in 1992 by the great Catholic publishing house Orbis Books in the wake of Pope John Paul II's historic encyclical Centesimus Annus: On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum, this generous yet now inexpensive collection presents several Vatican documents speaking to this theme in accurate and easily understand translation into modern American English with generous footnotes and commentary. Each of the over one dozen papal encyclicals and episcopal documents comes with introductory notes and endnotes.

This collection therefore opens, after a summative introduction, with RERUM NOVARUM: ON THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES., the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII promulgated in 1891, followed by Pope Pius XI's fortieth anniversary examination of that historic document, entitled QUADRAGESIMO ANNO: THE RECONSTRUCTION SOCIAL ORDER., published in 1931. Later in this thick collection comes Pope PAul VI's Octogesima Adveniens: A Call to Action on the Eightieth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum, published in 1971. Finally, as mentioned above, Pope John Paul II's then brand new encyclical Centesimus Annus closes the collection from Rome, followed by Part V with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop's The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response, and Economic justice for all: Pastoral letter on Catholic social teaching and the U.S. economy (Publication / Office of Publishing and Promotion Services, United States Catholic Conference).

Also included in this monumental collection are Pope John XXIII's Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris, on social progress and peace on earth. We may also consider carefully the Conciliar document Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World: Gaudium et Spes, and the 1971 Synod of Bishop's statement on Justice in the World. From Pope Paul VI's other encyclicals we encounter On The Development Of Peoples: Populorum Progressio and Evangelii Nuntiandi / On Evangelization in the Modern World.

Part IV is dedicated to the encyclicals of Pope John Paul II, including the aforementioned but also On Human Work: Laborem Exercens and On Social Concern / Sollicitudo Rei Socialis: Encyclical Letter of the Supreme Pontiff John Paull II...for the Twentieth Anniversary of Populorum Progresso.

It is incumbent upon every true Catholic to study these documents carefully and deeply to become one body, of one mind, one heart and one spirit with them and to act in their light courageously, with the commitment of our Baptism in the Faith. I had the great grace of hearing a great Jesuit preach in contemplation of the mysteries within a few of these holy documents; I pray that every Catholic may encounter them as profoundly and may act upon their holy Word, compelled by their Holy Spirit, to be that light within our darkened, greedy, immoral and unjust world at war.

Take and read. This is our Body. Work for world Peace and equitable economic opportunity and equal access to resources. And Love Thy Enemy.

Building on Rerum Novarum.......2002-01-06

This publication gives anyone interested in the Catholic Church's social teaching a one stop tour of all the essential encyclicals and other writings that break open and build on the foundation of "Rerum Novarum".The translation of the encyclicals is well done and makes reading and understanding the message a lot easier than some previous translations. Over all a much needed and well done volumne.

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Routledge Classics)

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Great theory, but not always an easy read
Value edition for the budget minded
A Very Standard Economic Postulate
Don't buy the Dover edition of this book.
great idea, little proof

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Routledge Classics)
Max Weber , Talcott Parsons , and Anthony Giddens
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0415255597

Book Description

Max Weber's best-known and most controversial work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, first published in 1904, remains to this day a powerful and fascinating read. Weber's highly accessible style is just one of many reasons for his continuing popularity. The book contends that the Protestant ethic made possible and encouraged the development of capitalism in the West. Widely considered as the most informed work ever written on the social effects of advanced capitalism, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism holds its own as one of the most significant books of the twentieth century. The book is one of those rare works of scholarship which no informed citizen can afford to ignore.

Customer Reviews:

Great theory, but not always an easy read.......2007-07-30

Max Weber's thesis that the Protestant work-ethic helped give rise to the spirit of modern capitalism is well known, but how true is it? Weber goes into an impressive review of historical details on how Luther's concept of the calling became the Calvinist concept of labor to glorify God, and finally the Puritan concept that is applied to business as well as anything else. In short, the Protestant hard-work ethic, intended to be a sign of election and to glorify god, inadvertently (at least in part) gave birth to the spirit of capitalism, of sustained, planned, methodical profit-making. Though capitalism is no longer dependent upon religion for maintaining its ethos (we are all caught in the rat race), it is fascinating how Weber makes a compelling case that a once anti-materialist Protestant Christianity came to affirm the capitalist spirit by way of a hard-working ethic. Many of Weber's themes are persuasive, if also controversial. Weber has by no means isolated the final or full cause of the take-off of capitalism in modern times, but he has made a good case for one contributing factor. Would that his style of writing had been a bit more direct - Weber's insights are at least worth careful reading.

Value edition for the budget minded.......2007-06-06

The "reviews" about Weber's thesis could fill libraries. Ooops! They actually have!

So let's ignore that.

The focus here is on value, and this Dover value edition is perfectly fine for the thrifty college student on a limited budget who needs to read this work for an assignment but doesn't want to be at the mercy of the University Library.

This is a seminal work that reaches far into other fields of inquiry, so it is likely you will need it no matter what your field.

The binding is an el-cheap-o slab of glue, so it won't lie flat on your desk when you are transcribing a quote for a citation.....but since you've downloaded the text file you'll just cut and paste anyway.

Academic citations to this edition are perfectly acceptable in scholarly papers and under MLA, ASA, APA, ACS, APSA, "Turabian" and MHRA style guidelines (and perhaps others).

A Very Standard Economic Postulate.......2007-04-15

Assuming Max Weber's thesis to be true proves useful. By assuming it as a postulate, one gains a potential way of understanding the beliefs of the western-world's upper pareto boundary and the typical ressentiments / bad faith (bad-tempered, difficult mental traps everyone who tries to create something can't help but fall into from time to time, mea culpa!) of the lower.

Max Scheler (who advised Karol Wojtyla as a Ph.D. student) seems to have done something similar to what Max Weber describes the upper pareto boundary (somewhere over the rainbow as the song goes) as having done. Max Scheler "attempted to reconcile Nietzsche's ideas of master-slave morality and ressentiment with the Christian ideals of love and humility."

Anyway, just projecting a few of my other readings onto this one a bit. L8R.

Don't buy the Dover edition of this book........2006-10-26

The Dover edition of the book has been bound so tightly that it's difficult to turn the pages--and to read the words, which are nearly swallowed up by the binding. It feels like if you force it at all, the whole binding will come unglued.

It may be cheap, but it *feels* so extremely cheap that it's just not worth the money saved. Buy yourself another edition--or for that matter, just get the text free online. Anything's better than trying to read this edition.

great idea, little proof.......2006-09-26

As part of my enquiry into the forces that the Reformation unleased, I decided to at last read this classic.

Alas, it was disappointing in that Weber makes the assertion - that reformation-spawned ideologies were the foundation of the capitalist revolution - and then offers little historical explanation as proof of his thesis. Instead, what he does is to painstakingly describe the ideologies in question, to show that they are compatible conceptually with his definition of capitalism (the rise of an urban bourgeoisie that created wealth by investing in industry as a major new economic actor, eventaully leading to the eclipse of the old land-based aristocracy). As Hannah Ardnt said, so long as you are far enough from reality, you can make almost any ideas appear compatible. As such, I was unconvinced that a) the feeling of being among the elect made people work harder to prove it by material success and b) that a heightened sense of individuality that arose with separation from the papist ideologies augmented this pursuit of self-development via the massing of personal capital. While the protestant ideologies may conform vaguely to these notions, that does not in the slightest prove a direct causal connection. Indeed, one might argue that it was the repression by the Inquisition - against the bourgoise's challenge to traditional aristocrats - that may have delayed the development of capitalism in Catholic countries for a few centuries. (That capitalism did develop in many Catholic countries also undermines the book's prinicpal thesis.)

This essay is interesting as a pioneering attempt at sociological determinism from a rather existentialist perspective, but reading the whole thing was a bit much for me. Weber was a great and innovative thinker, however out of date his modes of reasoning have become - they are strictly qualitative. Not recommended except asof historical interest.

Warriors into Traders: The Power of the Market in Early Greece (Classics and Contemporary Thought)

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Simultaneously Impressive and Disappointing
Speculative, but interesting
Book is trainted by anti-capitalist political bias.

Warriors into Traders: The Power of the Market in Early Greece (Classics and Contemporary Thought)
David W. Tandy
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520226917

Book Description

The eighth century dawned on a Greek world that had remained substantially unchanged during the centuries of stagnation known as the Dark Age. This book is a study of the economic and cultural upheaval that shook mainland Greece and the Aegean area in the eighth century, and the role that poetry played in this upheaval. Using tools from political and economic anthropology, David Tandy argues that between about 800 and 700 B.C., a great transformation of dominant economic institutions took place involving wrenching adjustments in the way status and wealth were distributed within the Greek communities.
Tandy explores the economic organization of preindustrial societies, both ancient and contemporary, to shed light on the Greek experience. He argues that the sudden shift in Greek economic formations led to new social behaviors and to new social structures such as the polis, itself a by-product of economic change. Unraveling the dialectic between the material record and epic poetry, Tandy shows that the epic tradition mirrored these new social behaviors and that it portrayed the stresses that economic change brought to the ancient Aegean world.
Tandy brings in comparative evidence from other small-scale communities beset by changes, spotlighting the specific plight of one community, Ascra in Boeotia, on whose behalf Hesiod sang his Works and Days. The result is a lively, moving account of a human dilemma that, many centuries later, is all too familiar.

Customer Reviews:

Simultaneously Impressive and Disappointing.......2007-01-08

Tandy's first three chapters get the book off to a great start. After a brief introductory chapter tracing the overall line of argument, he gets down to business with an excellent study of population growth in Dark Age Greece, presenting a broad picture buttressed by specifics from archaeological studies. In Chapter Three, he describes the establishment and growth of the Greek colonies, which were later to play such an important part of Greek society.

But from there it's all downhill. Chapter Four presents an extended theoretical discussion of social organizations, with applications to early Greek society. Tandy is attempting to establish that Greek society made a transition from a patronage-based system (in which material wealth flows down from the leader in return for loyalty flowing up) to a market-based system (in which the creators of wealth exercise direct control over its distribution). However, this subject has been handled in great detail in the anthropological literature, and I think that Tandy's treatment of it is weak. He's trying to fit existing theory onto the Greek experience, and while the fit isn't bad, he has to stretch it in a few places to make it work.

In Chapter Five he directly addresses the transition from the patronage-based system to the market-based system, and here his discussion descends into a hopeless muddle. Part of his problem is that he has completely missed one of the most important elements of the Greek transformation: the shift from a subsistence economy (relying exclusively on cereal production) to a market economy in which processed foodstuffs (wine and olive oil) are exchanged for cereals. This market-based approach is what enabled the Greeks to continue rapid population growth long after they had exceeded the cereal-based carrying capacity of their lands. There is no question that by the Classical period, many Greek cities were dependent upon grain imports paid for with wine, olive oil, and manufactures -- but Tandy fails to address this development.

The remainder of the book is a sad effort to justify his misinformed thesis. Tandy claims that the central driving force in Greek society during the eighth and seventh centuries was the conflict between the old aristocracy and the new market-based egalitarians. He claims that the Iliad and the Odyssey were promulgated by the aristocracy as a kind of propaganda to justify their elevated status, while Hesiod's Works and Days represents the growing power and resentment of the producing classes. Tandy seems to see the development of Greek Classical society as a class revolt by the proletariat against the aristocracy. But this conflict was not resolved in the eighth and seventh centuries -- they were still fighting this well into the fourth century! How can this class warfare have been the driving force of Greek development when it was never resolved?

The conclusion of the book betrays all the good work done in its early portions. Having presented Greek development as a battle between royalty and proletariat, Tandy concludes that the winner was nasty old capitalism!

I think that Tandy's analysis is weakened by over-reliance on close analysis of Homer and Hesiod. While these two are certainly the most extensive testimony we have on Greek society at the time, they cannot be relied upon as rigorous sources of fact. Homer's representation is a melange of Bronze Age and Iron Age cultures, mixing bits and pieces spread over several centuries. Using Homer to draw conclusions about eighth century Greece is rather like using Christmas carols to draw conclusions about the significance of partridges in pear trees in twentieth-century America. And while Hesiod does provide us with many specifics of his time, we must remember that he is in no wise typical of Greek farmers. Really, how many Greek farmers do you think could read and write at that time, much less compose verse for the ages?

Lastly, I especially resent Tandy's failure to deliver on the promise of his title. I expected an explanation of how Greek culture shifted from a warrior-led society to a trader-led society. Yet Tandy's treatment of the development of Greek commerce seems peripheral to his main argument. There are a few good bits and pieces, but he doesn't bring to bear the wealth of information we've been developing over the last few decades. The crucial element of ship construction and handling merits only a few lines and a footnote.

I still recommend this book for anybody interested in the forces that led to "the glory that was Greece". However, I'd suggest that you read only the first five chapters. The remainder of the book will only disappoint you.

Speculative, but interesting.......2001-10-31

In this book, Tandy tells the story of the rise of the market economy in the Greek world. His version of this story is that Greece in the Archaic period (776-490 b.c.e.) underwent a transformation from a redistributive/reciprocal economy based on exchange obligations between neighbors and between chiefs and subordinates to one based on market exchange. Tandy makes a Marxist argument (though not particularly "half-baked," I think) that the rise of the market economy in cities in Greece allowed the upper classes (those who had surplus wealth) to enrich themselves in overseas trade while the poorer classes became indebted to them through a kind of economic attrition. Tandy also argues, contrary to many scholars, that Greek overseas colonization in this period was the result of economic/commecial expansion rather than population pressure. Tandy's third major argument is that epic poetry is a "tool of exclusion," in that elites used epic poetry as a kind of propaganda to disguise the fact that their society no longer conformed to the more "egalitarian" redistributive economy.

There are some flaws to Tandy's method: 1) the basis for arguing that there was a redistributive/reciprocal economy in the early Archaic period and Greek Dark Ages is mostly comparative evidence -- this is because there really isn't any good indigenous evidence for this kind of economy; 2) Tandy uses Hesiod's "Works and Days" as a model for a peasant perspective, which is a controversial move (Hesiod was probably not a peasant, but a gentleman farmer), and his general indictment of epic as a tool of exclusion is speculative (at least the kind of exclusion he's talking about; epic certainly excludes in other ways in that it advertises an aristocratic ethos).

I found his arguments for Greek colonization as commercial expansion rather than population export to be convincing; he analyzes patterns and sites of colonization, showing that colonies were generally founded on defensive, non-productive (agriculturally) sites first, and, in many cases, follow-up colonies would be founded in areas more amenable to farming. All told, there is much that is useful and interesting in this book, but the book's main arguments are ill-founded and agenda-driven.

Book is trainted by anti-capitalist political bias........1998-02-06

This book deals with a very important issue: how classical Greece became a commerical culture under the influence of the Phoenicians. "Warriors into Traders" is the key point. However, Tandy spoils his treatment of this with the kind of sour, half-baked Marxism that is all too typical of American academics in the humanities today. He compares the "evils" of Greek commericalism, which was only responsible for all the glory of places like Athens, to the "evils" of the introduction of market ecnomies into Third World countries today. Unfortunately, most of the problems of Third World countries, if we mean by that poverty and tyranny, are due to the lack of market economies, not to their introduction. Tandy, on the other hand, inadverently draws attention to what was unique about the Greeks: that commericalization revolutionized Greek culture, which was something that did not happen to the Phoenicians, who were old hands at the business--unless we count the philosophers Thales and Zeno of Citium, reportedly ethnic Phoenicians themselves.

Economists and the Public (Classics in Economics Series)

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Economists and the Public (Classics in Economics Series)
William Harold Hutt
Manufacturer: Transaction Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0887388418

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