The Marx Reader

Marx anthology commented by his great Brazilian biographer.

The Marx Reader , organized by José Paulo Netto – one of the greatest experts on Marx today – brings together a set of texts, faithful to the chronological order of Marx's production, which rescues the essential milestones of his elaboration, in the complex process in which his philosophical starting points converge towards his main theoretical objective: the critique of political economy.

Karl Marx's work, due to its theoretical significance, is a reference in Western culture and, due to its historical and social impact, has acquired relevance throughout the globe. Marx laid the foundations for a theory of bourgeois society that, centered on a social ontology founded on labor, concerns the nature, structure, and dynamics of the society in which we live. The research to which he dedicated his entire life was guided by the aim of supporting the revolutionary action of workers, whose objective—for Marx, human emancipation—presupposes overcoming the societal order commanded by capital.

A theorist and man of action, researcher and activist, Marx has been invoked for over a century by most of those engaged in radical critique of bourgeois society, practical-political processes of national liberation, and socialist construction projects. Intellectuals of various generations have based their reflections on him, and men and women from the most diverse backgrounds have led battles and experiments in the name of his ideas—or ideas attributed to him, since his legacy has been subject to multiple interpretations, vulgarizations, and distortions.

The Marx Reader allows a visualization of Karl Marx's reflections, thus offering non-specialist readers a roadmap for an initial approach to the theorist Marx's thought and a compendium of the German thinker's anthological texts. This expanded edition presents new bibliographical information on the philosopher.

The volume is part of the Readers Collection, which aims to create a gateway to the work of fundamental theorists of social thought. Each volume consists of a selection of anthological texts by leading figures in global thought, organized by a Brazilian specialist. It also features an introductory text that includes a chronology, bibliography published in Brazil, selected fragments, and more.