Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society: The Life of Marx and the Development of His Work
A new, comprehensive biography of the life and work of Karl Marx

For over a century, Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism has been a crucial resource for social movements. Now, recent economic crises have made it imperative for us to comprehend and actualize Marx’s ideas. But without a knowledge of Karl Marx’s life as he lived it, neither Marx nor his works can be fully understood. There are more than twenty-five comprehensive biographies of Marx, but none of them consider his life and work in equal, corresponding measure. This biography, planned for three volumes, aims to include what most biographies have reduced to mere background: the contemporary conflicts, struggles, and disputes that engaged Marx at the time of his writings, alongside his complex relationships with a varied assortment of friends and opponents.

This first volume will deal extensively with Marx’s youth in Trier and his studies in Bonn and Berlin. It will also examine the function of poetry in his intellectual development and his first occupation with Hegelian philosophy and with the so-called “young Hegelians” in his 1841 Dissertation. Already during this period, there were crises as well as breaks in Marx’s intellectual development that prompted Marx to give up projects and re-conceptualize his critical enterprise. This volume is the beginning of an astoundingly dimensional look at Karl Marx – a study of a complex life and body of work through the neglected issues, events, and people that helped comprise both. It is destined to become a classic.

1131603176
Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society: The Life of Marx and the Development of His Work
A new, comprehensive biography of the life and work of Karl Marx

For over a century, Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism has been a crucial resource for social movements. Now, recent economic crises have made it imperative for us to comprehend and actualize Marx’s ideas. But without a knowledge of Karl Marx’s life as he lived it, neither Marx nor his works can be fully understood. There are more than twenty-five comprehensive biographies of Marx, but none of them consider his life and work in equal, corresponding measure. This biography, planned for three volumes, aims to include what most biographies have reduced to mere background: the contemporary conflicts, struggles, and disputes that engaged Marx at the time of his writings, alongside his complex relationships with a varied assortment of friends and opponents.

This first volume will deal extensively with Marx’s youth in Trier and his studies in Bonn and Berlin. It will also examine the function of poetry in his intellectual development and his first occupation with Hegelian philosophy and with the so-called “young Hegelians” in his 1841 Dissertation. Already during this period, there were crises as well as breaks in Marx’s intellectual development that prompted Marx to give up projects and re-conceptualize his critical enterprise. This volume is the beginning of an astoundingly dimensional look at Karl Marx – a study of a complex life and body of work through the neglected issues, events, and people that helped comprise both. It is destined to become a classic.

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Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society: The Life of Marx and the Development of His Work

Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society: The Life of Marx and the Development of His Work

Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society: The Life of Marx and the Development of His Work

Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society: The Life of Marx and the Development of His Work

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Overview

A new, comprehensive biography of the life and work of Karl Marx

For over a century, Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism has been a crucial resource for social movements. Now, recent economic crises have made it imperative for us to comprehend and actualize Marx’s ideas. But without a knowledge of Karl Marx’s life as he lived it, neither Marx nor his works can be fully understood. There are more than twenty-five comprehensive biographies of Marx, but none of them consider his life and work in equal, corresponding measure. This biography, planned for three volumes, aims to include what most biographies have reduced to mere background: the contemporary conflicts, struggles, and disputes that engaged Marx at the time of his writings, alongside his complex relationships with a varied assortment of friends and opponents.

This first volume will deal extensively with Marx’s youth in Trier and his studies in Bonn and Berlin. It will also examine the function of poetry in his intellectual development and his first occupation with Hegelian philosophy and with the so-called “young Hegelians” in his 1841 Dissertation. Already during this period, there were crises as well as breaks in Marx’s intellectual development that prompted Marx to give up projects and re-conceptualize his critical enterprise. This volume is the beginning of an astoundingly dimensional look at Karl Marx – a study of a complex life and body of work through the neglected issues, events, and people that helped comprise both. It is destined to become a classic.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781583677353
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
Publication date: 07/02/2019
Pages: 464
Product dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Michael Heinrich taught economics for many years at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin and was managing editor of PROKLA: Journal for Critical Social Science. He has written in depth on Marx’s critique of political economy in his book, The Science of Value. His An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital is probably the most popular introduction to Marx’s economic works in Germany.

Alexander Locascio, translator of this biography from German to English, has been active in the U.S. labor movement. His other translations include An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital and Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century: An Introduction. He lives in Berlin with his family.

Table of Contents

Preface 9

Introduction: Why Marx? 13

Chapter 1 Forgotten Youth 1818-1835 33

What We Know for Sure 34

Trier between Idyll and Pauperism 37

Karl Marx's Parents 46

From the Promise of a Constitution through the July Revolution to the Storming of the Main Police Station in Frankfurt: Political Conditions in Germany 68

The Trier Casino Affair of 1834 and Heinrich Marx's Political Views 76

The Fatherly Friend, Johann Ludwig von Westphalen 83

Karl Marx at Gymnasium 91

Bonds and Impetuses 109

Chapter 2 Awakening and First Crisis 1835-1838 121

Interlude in Bonn 122

Jenny von Westphalen 136

The First Year in Berlin 144

The First Intellectual Crisis: The Turn Away from Poetry and Transition to Hegel's Philosophy 184

Conflicts with Jenny and Marx's Father 196

Chapter 3 The Philosophy of Religion, the Beginnings of Young Hegelianism, and Marx's Dissertation Projects 1838-1841 207

Marx's Life in Berlin, 1838-41 209

The Critique of Religion in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century 228

Hegel's Philosophy of Religion and the Debates of the 1830s 241

The Beginnings of Young Hegelianism 251

Bauer and Marx 273

Marx's Dissertation Projects 292

Appendix: How Is Biographical Writing Possible Today? On the Methodology of a Marx Biography 323

Glossary of Names 341

Marx Family Tree 351

Bibliography 355

Index 385

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