Theory read

Got some downtime? Read some theory: Marxist writings sorted by reading time

It’s hard enough finding time to read a light-hearted novel, let alone works in economics & philosophy, but as the contradictions in the prevailing mode of production continue to make themselves apparent, study is more important than ever.

In that spirit, we’ve taken a few dozen or so of the most important Marxist texts and organized them by their approximate read time. When you find yourself with a few minutes to kill waiting in line or a whole half-hour free before a doctor’s visit, consult this list:

Under 5 minute reads

Guidelines for Myself
Zhou Enlai

Women’s Day
Alexandra Kollontai

Where Do Correct Ideas Come From?
Mao Zedong

Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties: Chapter 4 of the Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx & Frederick Engels

Preface to the German Ideology
Karl Marx

On the Question of Dialectics
V.I. Lenin

Wage Labour & Capital: What are wages?
Karl Marx

Twelve Recommendations
Hồ Chí Minh

Combat Liberalism
Mao Zedong

The Materialist Basis of Education
Lena Morrow Lewis

Theses on Feuerbach
Karl Marx

The Foundations of Leninism: Style in Work
J. V. Stalin

5 – 15 minute reads

Karl Marx: A Brief Biographical Sketch With an Exposition of Marxism – Marx, Karl, was born…
V.I. Lenin

The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism
V.I. Lenin

On Authority
Frederick Engels

How to be a Good Leader
Zhou Enlai

Wage Labour & Capital: By what is the price of a commodity determined?
Karl Marx

Proletarians and Communists: Chapter 2 of the Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx & Frederick Engels

Socialist and Communist Literature: Chapter 3 of the Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx & Frederick Engels

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific • Chapter 2: Dialectics
Frederick Engels

Dialectical Materialism
Mao Zedong

The Vocabulary of Neoliberal Diplomacy in Today’s New Cold War
Michael Hudson

Origins of the Family, Private Property & the State: The Family
Frederick Engels

15 – 30 minute reads

The Preamble to the Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx & Frederick Engels

Bourgeois and Proletarians: Chapter 1 of the Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx & Frederick Engels

Karl Marx: A Brief Biographical Sketch With an Exposition of Marxism – The Marxist Doctrine
V.I. Lenin

On Practice
Mao Zedong

Condition of the Working Class in England, Introduction
Frederick Engels

The Principles of Communism
Frederick Engels

The State and Revolution: Class Society and the State
V.I. Lenin

The State and Revolution: The Economic Basis of the Withering Away of the State
V.I. Lenin

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific • Chapter 1: Utopian Socialism
Frederic Engels

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific • Chapter 3: Historical Materialism
Frederic Engels

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: Concentration of production & monopolies
V.I. Lenin

30 – 45 minute reads

Dialectical and Historical Materialism
J. V. Stalin

The German Ideology • Idealism and Materialism
Karl Marx

Dialectical Logic • Part 1: From the History of Dialectics, Spinoza –Thought as an Attribute of Substance
Evald Ilyenkov

The Negro Nation
Harry Haywood

Dialectics of Nature, Introduction
Frederick Engels

What is to be done? • Dogmatism and “freedom of criticism”
V.I. Lenin

History & Class Consciousness: Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat
Georg Lukacs

1 hour and up reads

On Contradiction
Mao Zedong

On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People​​​
Mao Zedong

Capital, Vol I • Chapter 1: The two factors of a commodity: use-value and value
Karl Marx

Capital, Vol II • Chapter 1: The Circuit of Money Capital
Karl Marx

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