r/communism101 • u/c_enjoyer • 11d ago

Marxism textbooks?

I feel like I've been stuck at an "intermediate" level of understanding for some time now. I read and reread classic works but but still I feel like I am missing some context or not understanding things fully due to the older language.

I was wondering if there were any good modern textbooks that can really solidify my understanding. I assume there are plenty of canonical textbooks used for teaching in China, but I can't really find any suggestions other than Fundamentals of Political Economy

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u/C-Quill 11d ago

Possibly "Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism" from Vietnam

It says it's "The Worldview and Philosophical Methodology of Marxism-Leninism For University and College Students Not Specializing in Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought"

Available free from Banyan House publishing as Ebook

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u/Autrevml1936 Stal-Mao-enkoist 🌱 11d ago

I was wondering if there were any good modern textbooks that can really solidify my understanding. I assume there are plenty of canonical textbooks used for teaching in China, but I can't really find any suggestions other than Fundamentals of Political Economy

I don't think you're going to find any "Marxism Textbooks" for Marxism generally(maybe some stuff from the Revisionist era of the USSR count) only Textbooks on Political Economy. You already mentioned the "Fundamentals of Political Economy" but there's also the Soviet Political Economy Text.

Though the Basic Maoism course by the CPI(Maoist) might be something like what your looking for.

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u/PsychedeliaPoet Marxist-Leninist-Maoist 11d ago

When you talk about “textbooks” the only things I can recommend are:

Stalin’s Foundations to Leninism

The Communist Party of India(Maoist)’s MLM Basic Course

I always recommend Lenin’s State and Revolution

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u/GonzaloThought 11d ago

Have you read Fundamentals of Political Economy? If you haven't I highly recommend it, Foreign Languages Press just re-published it in paperback so you can get a physical copy for cheap and after so many copies get sold they'll put the PDF up for free.

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u/c_enjoyer 8d ago

I'm about half-way through now, its definitely very helpful!

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u/Blasphemous_Sheep 5d ago

Obviously Das Kapital and the other foundational texts chronologically ranging from Marxism to Maoism. Other than that, unless you’re studying to be a Marxian or communist economist, my typical advice is to branch out from reading ideologically coherent economic theory toward alternatives so we can better understand them, how to disassemble their talking points, or (a rare occurrence) how to take aspects of their ideology that have both worked and could theoretically coexist in a communist state and determine how to incorporate those rare aspects into communist ideology. In regards to this specific task, my reading list would be Hoppe’s (yuck) From Aristocracy To Monarchy To Democracy or Gaddafi’s The Green Book.

Administrational theory such as Hobbes’ Leviathan or Charles Hull’s Grand Strategies, I would also highly recommend.

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u/Fight_the_Landlords 11d ago

If you're interested in the economics of Capital, along with a lot of historical context and contemporary framing, I recommend The Logic of Capital by Deepankar Basu, who is an excellent Marxian economist and just a great guy in general.

(Also available on Amazon.)

It's a lot easier to read than Capital and I think you'll appreciate the more modern language.