Marx for Beginners

This book is great for sociology majors who need to learn beginning materials of Karl Marx!

"Marx for Beginners" by Rius is an entertaining introduction to the life and philosophy of Karl Marx. Deftly using the graphic novel format to make the subject matter accessible to a general audience, Rius wittily and intelligently demonstrates how Marx can help us gain a better understanding of the world we live in today.If you are new to the 'Beginners' series, you are in for a treat. Rius playfully uses a number of nicknames for Marx including 'Charlie', 'Charles', 'Herr Marx' and so on. The illustrations frequently make use of side characters who pose the sort of humble questions that the average person might think about asking the autor, if s/he could. The intent is to personalize the subject matter and make us feel a bit less intimidated by the prospect of analyzing one of the most influenctial philosophers of the past 150 years. In my view, Rius succeeds brilliantly on this level, producing a very enjoyable, informative and interesting read.On the subject matter itself, Rius spends a good amount of time writing about Marx the man, whose poverty and suffering was a symptom of his uncompromising commitment to the cause of human emancipation. Rius examines at length the development of Western philosophy from the ancient Greeks to Marx, with emphasis on the divide between materialism and spiritualism (although oddly, Rius omits Epicurus, who was the subject of Marx's PhD dissertation, from the discussion). Finally, Rius briefly discusses Marx's major works including  Capital (Das Kapital) , The Holy Family  and of course,  The Communist Manifesto - and in the case of the latter, Rius includes actual snippets of text taken from the book in order for us to ponder Marx from his own hand.Regrettably, if ever one of the books in the excellent 'Beginners' series could benefit from updating, it is most certainly this one. Written in the mid 1970s, Rius does not anticipate the end of really existing communism in the USSR nor the rise of post-Marxism as inspiration to the anti- globalization and Occupy Wall Street movements that have risen up against neoliberalism. Yes, Marx is very much alive and well today but this particular 'Beginners' book remains stuck many decades in the past. This is too bad because on the one hand, a great deal has been learned about how much mischief is possible when good ideas are appropriated for all the wrong reasons; while on the other hand, Marx's thoughts about social and economic justice could not be more relevant and timely to us today.On that point, an update might well include Charles Darwin's profound influence on Marx, who is another great intellectual who is absent from Rius' work. In fairness to Rius however, the Darwin/Marx connection and the implications for the environmental movement has been a more recent discovery popularized by the excellent work of John Bellamy Foster (see  Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature ) among others. With environmental issues such as climate change posing ever great challenges, a 'green' Marx who is able to connect capitalism with the explotation of nature has never been more important.Still, for anyone looking for a brief introduction to (most of) the Western thinkers and philosophers who influenced Marx; a look into the private life of Marx; as well as an overview of Marx's central ideas; then this book is a great place to start. I highly recommend it to everyone.

I bought "Marx for Beginners", a cartoon introduction to Marx written by Mexican political cartoonist Eduardo del Rio ("Rius"), not so much because I needed an introduction to Marxism but to see how the theory can be summarized as pithily and shortly as possible. And indeed, Del Rio has done an admirable job on this. The reader is guided through all aspects of Marx' work as well as biography, even including an extraordinarily rapid overview of the history of philosophy and of the early socialists. Of the economic theories of Marx only the basics are explained, but nevertheless sufficient to get the point of what Marx tried to show in "Capital", if not how he proved it.As far as the political side goes, Del Rio usefully emphasizes the limitations of social-democracy and its inability to get beyond the exploitation of capitalism, as well as many quotations from Marx showing how he opposed this tendency. As criticisms, one could remark that Engels gets short shrift in this book - admittedly it is titled "Marx for beginners", but one wonders why not "Marx & Engels for beginners"? Also, Del Rio seems to take the connection between Marx and Lenin as a natural progression for granted, even including in the (otherwise very handy) vocabulary of terms under Marxism-Leninism: "theory of the proletarian liberation movement". Hardly something uncontested.The drawings are clear and funny, if a bit on the juvenile side compared to the content that he is trying to convey. This might have a good effect on younger people reading it though, making it possibly useful as a high school text on Marx, if there ever is a capitalist country brave enough to allow it. Due to the requirements of Del Rio's purpose, some of the summaries of earlier thinkers are so simple as to be simplistic, but this can't be helped. Overall, a practical and well-done introduction to Marx for the complete novice.

Nowadays, a lot of the versions of Marx's "Manifesto of the Communist Party" come with about 100 pages of analysis and attempts to decode Karl's thinking. What they should come with is this book. "Marx for Beginners" is a wonderful way for anyone who wishes to study Marx's writing to get their feet wet, and for the experienced Marxist reader, it provides a bit of humor to the writings and gives ways to explain Marx to other people. Even though it is a cartoon book, the illustrations are not pivotal to the writing. They seem to serve mostly as filler, just brackets to attach speech balloons to. But what is in the speech balloons is where the brilliance of the book comes through. Rius gives a brief history of Marx's life, a rundown of philosophy that helped form Marxist thought and then an analysis of the Manifesto. The best feature is when a complex item is discussed, Rius will state the "academic" definition, but then give a practical real-world example of that concept. He also includes a useful glossary of many common terms that come up in discussions of Marxism. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone studying Marx. The only downside is that Rius's writing is very pro-Marxist which may repel non-Marxists from seeing the book's utility. However, most people who purchase this are probably already pretty pro Marx .

The first half isn’t about Marx at all, it’s about the philosophers that Marx probably built his theories in response or opposition to. The second half gets into Marxist theory but it’s very light touch. The dictionary / glossary of Marxist terms at the back is really useful.

I read this many years ago as a student and loved it. Glad to say it is still the most amusing (and informative) book on the subject, assuming, of course, that you don’t want to risk blowing your cerebral cortex by reading the actual volumes (of Das Kapital) by Karl himself.

Excellent introduction to Herr Marx's philosophy and history.

A brilliant idea and well executed.l never understood Marx when it formed part of my degree course. Still don't, but enjoyable read trying to!

Great book, especially if you find it hard to read marx original writings, this helps a lot and tells u everything u need to know about marc