Karl Marx Life of a Revolutionary

Karl Marx Life of a Revolutionary book by Alex Callinicos

Alex Callinicos is a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party. He teaches Politics at York University and is the author of, among other things, Marxism and Philosophy (1983), Making History (1987), Against Postmodernism (1989), The Revenge of History (1991), Theories and Narratives (1995) and An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto (2003).

Extracts from “Karl Marx: Life of A Revolutionary”

“Like his fellow students, he got drunk, ran up debts, fought duels, and even spent a night in jail for brawling……“Bacon says that really important men have so many relations with nature and the world that they recover easily from every loss. I do not belong to these important men. The death of my child has deeeply shaken my heart and mind and I still feel the loss as freshly as on the first day”..… The International had little influence over the Commune, and Marx himself was doubtful whether the rising had any hope of success. But he sprang to its defence……According to Engels, after 1870 Marx studied ‘agronomics, rural relations in America and, especially, Russia, the money market and banking, and finally natural sciences such as geology and physiology.”