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What are the "introductory" or "survey" books on Marxism/politics/etc. for an outsider trying to get a better idea ?

Okay so this isnt the easiest question to answer because a lot of marxists disagree with each other and some books are just frankly colossal - i never solved the 'intro to marxist political economy' problem. but here we go. Ill work to be sure to only recommend short-ish works, for the most part. firstly, i always suggest you actually read the communist manifesto first. think of it as your first lecture in a class. it lays out the landscape to come and manages to be lay some solid groundwork on which to build. Many core concepts are laid out quite simply and clearly therein.

the next thing is to understand that marxism is usually divided into three portions. Philosophy: which is itself divided into dialectical materialism and historical materialism, so you might say philosophy and history. Dialectical materialism is the foundation of all marxist thinking, and so it's important to have a primer on this before proceeding too far into understanding what anyone is talking about. Scientific Socialism: as opposed to utopian socialism, you might think of this as 'the methods of actually implementing socialism forreal in real life'. 9 times out of 10, it is disagreements on this subject which leftists/marxists/socialists are yelling at each other about. Political economy: The study of not just the means of production, but the relations of production. Marxist economics which emphasizes the relations of production and the political implications thereof, if you want to be brief.

And so i will try to indicate which work is for what purpose from hereon out. I would suggest not reading all of political economics and then scientific socialism and so on, i would strongly suggest reading the basics of each before you move on to the more complicated ideas in any one, because otherwise you will be a bit lost. Most Marxists write assuming you're already understanding certain basics.

For political economics: This one is hard because you tend to ramp pretty quickly from "pamphlet for workers" to "textbooks that are infamously dense". Ill stick to the short end because you just want to see the shape of it and not end up like edwad (no offense to the man, hes just illustrative of how much time one can devote to studying even the most orthodox of texts here)

I would start with either 'wage labour and capital' or 'value price and profit' and then read the other. both by marx, both with introductions that explain their place in the development of marxist economic theory. should give you an idea of concepts like labour power and surplus value. very short.

The next step up would be, again by Marx, 'A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy' which is, well, exactly what it says on the tin. Next you'll be wanting to study the political economies of socialist states like the USSR and China. But since we are only looking for an overview... There are two works by Mao which address Soviet Political Economics as they existed at the time of writing, with criticisms and analysis of how they do or do not apply to Chinese problems and experiences.

Firstly we have "Critique of Stalin's 'Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR" This is barely an essay in length, and the book "Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR" by Stalin himself is hardly longer. These were written before the sino-soviet split and reflect the general relationship between the two countries before the antagonisms to follow. "A Critique of Soviet Economics" is written after the Great Leap Forward, and is more substantial and will give you a strong insight, imho, into the growing differences in the camps.

These will give you a decent enough window into both, and frankly if you want to go deeper than that you are going to be looking at dozens to hundreds of hours of reading and figures and wondering how much you can trust the figures and how you feel about the conclusions... people build careers on this shit. its economics.

For scientific socialism, a classic go to beginner text is "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific" by Engels, which also explains the origins of Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism, while expounding on the differences between scientific and utopian socialism. It is worth knowing that this isnt, well, hypothetical for Engels. The Utopian socialists were the original socialists, out of france, and iirc at this point he would have been combating what he saw as a resurgence of utopian socialism among continental marxists.

A very early work here by Marx which lays out some basics like the dictatorship of the proletariat is "The Critique of the Gothe Program". It also puts more into explaining marxist political economics and philosophy, and so makes a good early read before going deeper on such subjects. I don't personally think it's vital but it is very brief.

Another classic is of course "What is to be Done" by Lenin. Lenin's chief contribution to scientific socialism, among others, is the idea of the Vanguard Party. That is; professional and clandestine revolutionaries organizing the broad masses into revolution. What is to be done is about this, and about 'spontaneity' - a key concept in leninist and anti-anarchist thought, and about trade unionism. Probably the most widely recommended 'read this' for newbie socialists, alongside the manifest itself, and for good reason. I need to add a few notes though. the translation uses terms, marxist and otherwise, which have drifted in meaning. for clarity, lenin will often say 'identity' and 'identify' - you can typically read this as "unity". He also refers a lot to social-democrats: this should be understood as reading as basically "socialist" or "communist", for simplicity's sake. It's what the Bolsheviks use to refer to themselves, so you can just substitute it for Bolshevik in your mind and be set.

I would also suggest Rosa Luxembourg's "Reform or Revolution" which, while less consequential than what is to be done, very clearly lays out the disagreements between the revolutionary socialists and what we might call democratic socialists today. People are still essentially relitigating this work, lol. If you want to understand why different leftists yell at each other, these three provide a great explanation.

Lets move on to Mao's writings on the subject, which tend to be shorter (he always tends to be short). "Oppose Book Worship" is deceptively named: it is a primer on how communist cadres - the professional revolutionaries lenin discusses - should carry out their assignments in practice. in his typical style, mao lays out a list of do/don't do. This is written in the revolutionary period, but this attitude towards how party members on assignment are to proceed is maintained through at least the cultural revolution (after which the idea of specialists became more palatable).

"Serve the People" and "Combat Liberalism" are both very short and very illustrative again on the attitudes towards how these professional revolutionaries should proceed. Theyre short enough its hard not to recommend them.

One idea developed by Mao is what is called the Mass Line. It can be hard to get a grip on the idea in detail, because, frankly, it was a shifting idea. However, "Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership" is generally considered the ur-text for the Mass Line. It is also a transitional text, in that it applies both to making revolution and to the post-power tasks of building socialism and administering areas under party control. it can be summed up by the mao-typical simplicity of the first line: "There are two methods which we Communists must employ in whatever work we do. One is to combine the general with the particular; the other is to combine the leadership with the masses" of course, the difficulty is in actually doing that.

Finally, "On The Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People" is a work i would recommend reading AFTER one has read "on contradiction" which we will get to in philosophy, as well as the previous works, as it directly invokes dialectics to make its point, and if you dont grasp what theyre pointing to its a bit pointless to read. This text is actually about how to lead a party post revolution as you build socialism and administer the state, and so it's fairly unique among the texts I'm suggesting. Its also long for mao, which is to say it will actually take more than 5-15 minutes to read.

There's also the more specialist texts on the National Question, which is essential to understanding marxist politics. We turn here to Stalin, surprisingly, who first wrote the short essay "The social democratic view on the national question" which lays out the importance of understanding the two aspects of nationalism, its progressive and its reactionary aspects. Second we have "Marxism and the National Question" which is more fully formed and of course longer, and which lays out the marxist definition of a nation in its first 'chapter' which is really quite vital to understanding the actions and policies of marxists and states like the USSR and CCP. If you just read that part, you'll likely walk away with most of what you want from the outside.

Now onto Philosophy: Here i will actually recommend very little, as i think if you've read Critique of the Gothe problem, the manifesto and/or socialism utopian and scientific, you'll have already encountered the subject. While these arent necessary for understanding the philosophy itself, they do cover its development and history. I want to avoid confusion, and keep things simple and at their best.

The two best things to read to understand dialectical materialism are both by mao and quite short and direct, and pretty much everyone* will recommend them. 'On Contradiction' is about what a contradiction is and how dialectics 'works'. It is written in fairly simple language, and if you are ever confused about dialectics you can probably return to it and get something clarified. 'On Practice' is often referred to as 'the marxist theory of knowledge', and is about the marxist conception of materialism, and the dialectic between the material and the ideal, and where knowledge comes from.

You can read both of these in minutes but its worth rereading, because mao doesn't really waste words here and despite their brevity and simple language, they are dense conceptually. To be honest, I think this is Mao at his best writing (whereas lenin shines in polemics and critiques, mao shines when he is explaining things simply). You should read these before most non-introductory works herein, imho. The dialectical worldview is foundational to marxist analysis.

Historical Materialism, however, is harder for me, personally, to make easy introductory recommendations on. beyond, at least, the bits already present in previously suggested works. Part of the issue is that the ideas historical materialism fought against are, well, mostly dead. I dont think many take seriously the idea of a Hegelian World Spirit driving history. Another part is that most of the introductory texts are quite long, and another is that few are even principally about historical materialism. The German Ideology and Anti Duhring both contain sections about Historical Materialism, and you're free to read them, but neither are short by any means.

So then I will recommend instead, and I cant believe im saying this, but mainly that firstly, if one hasn't gotten a handle on it from the manifesto etc, to unironically read the wikipedia page for historical materialism, which i think does a reasonably snappy job of summarizing the ideas contained therein. I would also recommend perhaps reading specific essays upon events as a way of seeing the historical materialist method for understanding history, if you dont quite see the shape of it. 'The 18th Brumarie of Louis Bonaparte' is a great example of exactly that, and i hope this will be satisfactory, but my final recommendation will also cover this concept.

This last recommendation, then, doesn't necessarily fit neatly in anywhere, but is a vital reading and does use historical materialism. Engels' "On the Family, Private Property, and the State" lays out two vital cores of marxist theory. The first is that it is the principle text for understanding 'the woman question', the oppression of women and how it functions and from whence it emerges historically. Secondly, it lays out the origin of the state and of classes in history. The problem with the work, particularly the parts making prehistoric analysis, are that they rely on what is now frankly hilariously outdated anthropology and archeology. Many things stated are now know to simply not be true. Particularly on ideas of pre-agricultural society, the emergence of agriculture, and of course the growing debate around the very concept of feudalism. The core marxist idea of the development of society through stages is here, and its one of the core ideas, but it has crumbled rather horribly with time. The broad concept of economic development has not gone out of fashion, and his ideas on marriage and the family also haven't, but the stages themselves have been obliterated more or less. particularly the idea of primitive communism is fairly untenable, unless we move the date much farther back and make a more robust conception of this primitive communism. In short: dont take the data the analysis rests on for granted, some has born out and some hasn't. But you simply cant avoid the work.

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