Week One: At Marx’s Grave

Primary: (1) Engles, F. Karl Marx’s Funeral and On the Death of Karl Marx in MECW 24. New York: International’s Publishers, 1989: 467-481. (2) Engles, F. Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1883) in MECW 24. New York: International’s Publishers, 1989: 281-325. 

Secondary: Stedman Jones, G. Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016: 559 – 588. Bottomore, T. “Historical Materialism & Historicism” in A Dictionary of Marxist Thought. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1983: 234-239.

Further Reading: Boulter, M. “Two Funerals, 1882–3” in Bloomsbury Scientists: Science and Art in the Wake of Darwin. London: UCL Press, 2017: 1-18.

Week Two: The Early Life of Marx

Primary: (1) Marx, K. “Letter from Marx to his Father” (1837) in MECW 1. New York: International’s Publishers, 1975: 10-21. (2) Marx, K. “The philosophical manifesto of the historical school of law” (1842) in MECW 1. New York: International’s Publishers, 1975: 203-10.

Secondary: Levine, N. “The German Historical School of Law and the Origins of Historical Materialism,” Journal of the History of Ideas 48 (3) (1987): 431-451. McLellan, D. Karl Marx: His Life and Thought. London: Macmillan Press, 1973: 1-40. 

Further Reading: Beiser, F. “Savigny and the Historical School of Law” in The German Historicist Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011: 214-252. 

Week Three: The Use (and Abuse?) of Hegel 

Primary: Marx, K. Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law (1843) in MECW 3. New York: International’s Publishers, 1975: 3-130.

Secondary: O’Malley. J. Introduction to Marx’s Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970. Bottomore, T. “Alienation” in A Dictionary of Marxist Thought. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1983: 11-16.

Further Reading: Hegel, G.W.F. Lectures on the Philosophy of World History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975. 

Week Four: Marx in Paris (From Religion to Economics)

Primary: (1) Marx, K. On the Jewish Question. MECW 3. New York: International’s Publishers, 1975: 146-174. (2) Marx, K. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. New York: International’s Publishers, 1975: 229-348. 

Secondary: Mandel, E. The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx: 1843 to Capital. New York: Verso, 2015: 27-51. 

Further Reading: Beiser, F. “Ranke’s Romantic Philosophy” in The German Historicist Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011: 253-288. On Friendship with Mikhail Bakunin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Use biography. 

Week Four: Women and the Working Class

Primary: (1) Tristan, F. The Workers Union. University of Illinois Press, 2007. (2) Engles, F. The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845) in

Secondary: Arruzza, C. Dangerous Liaisons: The Marriage and Divorces of Marxism and Feminism. Wales: Merlin Press, 2013: 23-34. McLellan, D. Karl Marx: His Life and Thought. London: Macmillan Press, 1973: 62-128.

Further Reading:

Week Five: Marx’s Method 

Primary: (1) Marx, K. Theses on Feuerbach (1845) in MECW 5. New York: International’s Publishers, ?:  ? (2) Marx, K. The German Ideology (1846) in MECW 5. New York: International’s Publishers, ?:  ?

Secondary: Ollman, B. “The Philosophy of Internal Relations” in The Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx’s Methods. Chicago: The University of Illinois Press, 2003. 

Further Reading: McLellan, D. Karl Marx: His Life and Thought. London: Macmillan Press, 1973: 137-188.

Week Six: The Revolutions of 1848

Primary: Marx, K. The Communist Manifesto

Week Seven: London and Life after Failed Revolution 

Primary: Marx, K. The 18th Brumaire. 

Secondary: McLellan, D. Karl Marx: His Life and Thought. London: Macmillan Press, 1973: 226-284. 

Week Eight: Journalism and the American Civil War 

Primary: MECW 12-19. 

Secondary: McLellan, D. Karl Marx: His Life and Thought. London: Macmillan Press, 1973: 284 – 290. 

Week Nine: A New Political Economy 

Primary: (1) Grundrisse [Fundamentals of a Critique of Political Economy] (1857) (2) A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859) 

Secondary: Mandel, E. The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx: 1843 to Capital. New York: Verso, 2015: 79-115. McLellan, D. Karl Marx: His Life and Thought. London: Macmillan Press, 1973: 290-359.

Week 10: Das Kapital 

Primary: 

Week 11: Das Kapital 

Primary: 

Week 12: Historical Materialism and the Study of Antiquity?

Primary: Godelier’s Guide to Passages on Pre Capitalist Societies. 

Secondary: Ollman, B. “Putting Dialectics to Work: The Process of Abstraction in Marx’s Method” in The Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx’s Methods. Chicago: The University of Illinois Press, 2003: 59-114.