Customer Reviews

The Meaning of Marxism

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This is a wonderful summary of Marx and Marxist thought.

With great regularity, Marxism is dismissed as (a) passe, (b) false, (c) ridiculous, (d) evil, and much else. Invariably, the people who do this dismissing either have no idea what Marxism is, and/or have a gilt-edged interest in maintaining the (oppressive) status quo.

D'Amato does a wonderful job of putting Marxist thinking into contemporary terms--and of translating difficult jargon into accessible explanations.

He is also great at explaining the economic mechanisms that Marx saw and described.

We are now entering one of the late phases of capitalism--intense concentration and monopolization, along with imperialist conquest or squeezing of resource-rich and cheap-labor-rich areas. This brings back into focus all of Marx's dire warnings and predictions.

Naturally, opponents of Marxist ideas have been vehement to denounce or deride; but once again, the dynamics of capitalism have proved him right and them wrong. (Remember Fukuyama's "End of History"????? Now it's on the scrap-heap of that very history.)

A clear, detailed, and inspiring book.

Paul d'Amato has done a great service to Marxists and radicals everywhere by giving a concise, thorough, and up to date exposition of the thought of Marx and Engels, and their followers to the present day. The book makes short work of Marxist political economy, which is a rare accomplishment in and of itself, and also provides an engaging case for why Marx's thought is still relevant today. In the Marxist spirit, it does not stop at explaining a theory in mid-air; it never fails to make the ideas practical and concrete. The Meaning of Marxism is essential for anyone who wants to understand this never-more-relevant philosophy, and then use it to change the world.

Since Marx and Engels first developed their ideas about capitalism, class struggle, and workers' revolution, those ideas have been systematically slandered, distorted, and perverted. After reading D'amato's book, it is easy to see why. Marxist ideas and analysis of capitalism and its built-in flaws and contradictions are dangerous for the capitalist order because they actually explain the roots of war, the massive inequalities between workers and the poor and CEOs, the birth (or rather, creation) of racism, why women are oppressed, environmental destruction, why people starve in a world of food surpluses, and the booms and slumps of the economic cycle.

More importantly, Marxism explains how we can get out of the mess that capitalism has put us in: international working class revolution led by revolutionary workers' parties modeled on the Russian Bolsheviks and the early Communist International. D'amato does not simply assert that this is the answer, he explains why and how it is possible in a convincing and accessible way.

D'amato takes up common objections to socialism: "it's against human nature," "abolishing capitalist competition would mean crappy products and conformity" etc. He lays out why Marx argued that the working class would inevitably come into conflict with capitalism and why it and it alone has the potential to overthrow the system and create an egalitarian, classless, stateless society, provided a revolutionary party with strong roots and influence in the working class at a time of revolution exists and makes the right moves. He also explains how the Russian revolution of 1917, the first time the working class overthrew capitalism, degenerated and turned into state capitalism, where party bureaucrats set up Gulags to extract huge amounts of surplus value from workers in order to build up heavy industry to compete militarily with western capitalism. The last chapters focus on why socialism can happen in the U.S. and what a future socialist society would be like.

This is the only short, well-rounded introduction to Marxism out there. Activists fighting racism, sexism, Islamophobia, environmental destruction, the Iraq/Afghan wars, the attacks on free speech and civil liberties, and corporate greed will find it indispensible as a source of analysis and strategy. This is especially true in the U.S. where a principled and militant left is sorely needed and has to be rebuilt almost from scratch.

You can't fight the system if you don't understand it, and you can't win unless you understand the contradictions and weaknesses that make it vulnerable. If you believe that another world is possible and you want to win it, read this book.

Overall, the book was an excellent general introduction to Marxism. My only complaint would be that they spent portions of the book focusing on Lenin and to some extent Trotsky. I suppose if you were a Trotskyist (Paul D'Amato is) then you wouldn't mind, but I personally find great fault with Leninism and its derivatives. I would recommend this book to any readers wishing to learn about Marxism, though you can safely skip the party-building sections as they pertain to Lenin's theories, not Marx's.

Every so often we hear pundits declare Marxism is dead and that he was proved wrong because capitalism is flourishing. However, the poverty, the growing gap between the have and have nots, the ongoing wars, the growing number of working people without health coverage, tuition rising for students, and the environmental degradation portray that this is not so for the majority of the people in society.

This book is the most liveliest and detailed introduction to the ideas of Karl Marx and Frederick Engel's. Essential for any activist who wants to see change who without a doubt needs to understand how the world works.

"The Meaning of Marxism" by Paul D'Amato provides an accessible introduction to Marxist thought for general readers. Mr. D'Amato is an accomplished editor and writer of socialist publications who displays both a thorough knowledge of the Marxist ouevre and a knack for connecting Marxist theory to contemporary world events. The book fills a void by helping us understand the importance and relevancy of Marxism towards helping us remedy the failures of an increasingly dysfunctional and unstable capitalist system.

At a time when the word 'socialism' is casually but erroneously thrown about to describe public bailouts for reckless private bankers and short-sighted businesses whose excesses have driven the economy to financial crisis, Mr. D'Amato reminds us that socialism is actually about empowering the people to democratically manage their own affairs. According to Mr. D'Amato, this definition explains why the Soviet Union and Cuba have failed the socialist test and undeservedly tarnished the Marxist brand. Yet, to the extent that inequality and injustice persist, Marxism has inspired new generations of activists to struggle for political and revolutionary change in our time. As promising as this might be, Mr. D'Amato cautions that the kind of socialism envisioned by Marx can not merely be championed by individual leaders but must be supported by mass bottom-up movements whose ultimate objective must be the withering away of the state, which is the mechanism by which the rich and powerful have institutionalized their dominion over the poor.

Mr. D'Amato goes on to briefly discuss the major themes analyzed by Marx, including materialism, profits, working class politics, human nature, racism, imperialism and war, the environment, and much more. The numerous insights gained are enormously helpful to the reader who wishes to understand the various forces that have shaped the postmodern experience. As Mr. D'Amato makes abundantly clear, Marx' compelling arguments remain essential reading to anyone seeking to develop a coherent and critical worldview. With laissez-faire ideology currently in ill repute, there can be no doubt that the markeplace of ideas is in dire need of the enrichment that can be provided by thought-provoking books such as this.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Much like the idea of the Loch Ness Monster, I have always believed the idea of an American Marxist to be a mythical creature found exclusively in the paranoid imaginings of Senator McCarthy. Consequently, it was to my surprise to discover that Paul D'Amato is a) an American, and b) a Marxist.

The Meaning of Marxism is designed as a user friendly introduction to Marxism and its relevance to contemporary politics. I have read some Marx (but not much) and none of the other early communist thinkers (Lenin, Trotsky, etc.) so cannot really comment how accurate D'Amato's commentary is but generally speaking it seems to be pretty good.

Far and away the major strength of The Meaning of Marxism is its contextualisation of marxist theory in modern political issues ranging from slavery, global capitalism and the war on terror (although strangely not there's not much on religion which given the American context does strike me as odd). I can't say I'm in any way convinced by the argument but an interesting and provocative book nonetheless. Recommended.

Several years back I took a class in Marxism in the context of Marxist literary theory. In this class, the talented and able professor used several texts from the beginning of Marx's career to contemporary applications of Marxism to literature and culture. I enjoyed the class, but I liked it better in the first half of the class when we were learning about the historical and sociological implications of Marx's worldview.

I bring that up because after reading Paul D'Amato's _The Meaning of Marxism_, I wish that this text was available when I was taking that earlier class. D'Amato pulls together many strands of history and theory and make them come to life in what is both a compelling history and a call to action for anyone who has seen modern capitalist society and feels something is wrong in Denmark. I heartily recommend this text to anyone who is interested in the real course of history over the last couple hundred years.

The Meaning of Marxism by D'Amato is a good start for any person wishing to learn about the ideologies of the great Karl Marx. The book is up-to-date and has many references on how Marx's ideas provide the answers to the problems we face today in society. It touches upon other great Marxist thinkers like Vladimir Lenin. It is a good introduction and will help you understand the work of Karl Marx. But I recommend after this to read the Communist Manifesto, which shows the mind set and the thoughts of Karl Marx.

A straight forward and clear explanation of the essentials. Great for someone who needs a "refresher", and ideal for someone approaching Marxism for the first time.