I figure this is a common ask but I haven’t seen a post anywhere in the recent past, so…What is the VERY first book on theory that I need to read?
I haven’t read any theory yet, besides a short excerpt from the Communist Manifesto a long time ago. I have read some Parenti and Blackshirts & Reds is definitely on my list. I’m also interested in history books, biographies, autobiographies, anything socialist/marxist really.
I am also very interested in recommendations from non-white folks, as well as any literature about non-white socialist movements/people/history/theory etc.
I like to recommend Wage, Labor, and Capital by Marx (my physical copy also contains Value, Price, and Profit). It’s short, written to be understood by 19th century working class Germans, and is sort of like Capital volume 0.1.
Otherwise, State and Revolution or What is to be Done? by Lenin are bangers, and I like to recommend them to ML-curious people (usually people who have just taken the first steps away from just being a radlib faux-anarchist). Lenin was a great writer, engaging and passionate, but his works build on a large background of Marx and Engels (and others, of course), and you might not get all of the references.
EDIT: In case you didn’t know yet, basically everything written by Marx, Engels, Lenin, and a lot of others are available for free on Marxists.org
State and Revolution just sort of abruptly ends with a “brb gonna go do the Russian revolution” it slaps
I like that half of it is Lenin dunking on his haters
Awesome thank you. Wage, Labor & Capital definitely sounds like a good starting off point, I can definitely do 25 pages. I’ve gotten pretty bad at reading over the years so it’s intimidating figuring out where to start and not jump into something that’s super super dense. I have heard Lenin is a good read too so maybe that’s where I’ll get my feet wet.