Marxism and Smart Life is a compelling and thought-provoking examination of different aspects of human society. Comprised of two impressive volumes of philosophical, political, and economic thought—“Is Karl Marx Right?” and “Modern Human Smart Life”—author Nima Mazhari begins by exploring Marx’s theory of capital and analyzing its validity, especially in terms of modern society. Although once a Marxist himself, Mazhari does not shy away from examining some fatal flaws in Marx’s theory. These include Marx’s denial of the use-value of commodity for the capitalist, his insistence that a capitalist society is made up of only two classes, and most importantly, his assertion that a capitalist society cannot be made to work. In his second volume, “Modern Human Smart Life,” Mazhari assesses the components of modern society and the importance of having a realistic and genuine philosophical school of thought to guide human evolution. Even more importantly, Mazhari puts forward some implementable ideas on changes that can be made to executive, legislative, judicial, and treasurial structures and powers that will vastly improve modern society.b No matter what your philosophical background or political beliefs are, Marxism and Smart Life will challenge you to see Marxism in a new light, and leave you feeling invigorated about the possibilities for improving our modern capitalist society.

Marxism and Smart Life is a compelling and thought-provoking examination of different aspects of human society. Comprised of two impressive volumes of philosophical, political, and economic thought—“Is Karl Marx Right?” and “Modern Human Smart Life”—author Nima Mazhari begins by exploring Marx’s theory of capital and analyzing its validity, especially in terms of modern society. Although once a Marxist himself, Mazhari does not shy away from examining some fatal flaws in Marx’s theory. These include Marx’s denial of the use-value of commodity for the capitalist, his insistence that a capitalist society is made up of only two classes, and most importantly, his assertion that a capitalist society cannot be made to work. In his second volume, “Modern Human Smart Life,” Mazhari assesses the components of modern society and the importance of having a realistic and genuine philosophical school of thought to guide human evolution. Even more importantly, Mazhari puts forward some implementable ideas on changes that can be made to executive, legislative, judicial, and treasurial structures and powers that will vastly improve modern society.b No matter what your philosophical background or political beliefs are, Marxism and Smart Life will challenge you to see Marxism in a new light, and leave you feeling invigorated about the possibilities for improving our modern capitalist society.

In Windows into the Soul, Gary T. Marx sums up a lifetime of work on issues of surveillance and social control by disentangling and parsing the empirical richness of watching and being watched. Ultimately, Marx argues, recognizing complexity and asking the right questions is essential to bringing light and accountability to the darker, more iniquitous corners of our emerging surveillance society.

'All too often, Karl Marx has been regarded as a demon or a deity - or a busted flush. This fresh, provocative, and hugely enjoyable book explains why, for all his shortcomings, his critique of modern society remains forcefully relevant even in the twenty-first century.' Francis Wheen, author of Karl Marx In recent years we could be forgiven for assuming that Marx has nothing left to say to us. Marxist regimes have failed miserably, and with them, it seemed, all reason to take Marx seriously. The fall of the Berlin Wall had enormous symbolic resonance: it was taken to be the fall of Marx as well as of Marxist politics and economics. This timely book argues that we can detach Marx the critic of current society from Marx the prophet of future society, and that he remains the most impressive critic we have of liberal, capitalist, bourgeois society. It also shows that the value of the 'great thinkers' does not depend on their views being true, but on other features such as their originality, insight, and systematic vision. On this account too Marx still richly deserves to be read.

At its most basic, philosophy is about learning how to think about the world around us. It should come as no surprise, then, that children make excellent philosophers! Naturally inquisitive, pint-size scholars need little prompting before being willing to consider life's "big questions," however strange or impractical. Plato & Co. introduces children-and curious grown-ups-to the lives and work of famous philosophers, from Descartes to Socrates, Einstein, Marx, and Wittgenstein. Each book in the series features an engaging-and often funny-story that presents basic tenets of philosophical though.

Winner of The Deutscher Memorial Prize 2004. In a completely reworked edition of his classic (1991) volume, Michael A. Lebowitz explores the implications of the book on wage-labour that Marx originally intended to write. Focusing upon critical assumptions in Capital that were to be removed in Wage-Labour and upon Marx's methodology, Lebowitz stresses the one-sidedness of Marx's Capital and argues that the side of the workers, their goals and their struggles in capitalism have been ignored by a monolithic Marxism characterized by determinism, reductionism and a silence on human experience.

Includes the complete Communist Manifesto and substantial extracts from On the Jewish Question, the German Ideology, Grundrisse, and Capital, a broad representation of his letters, and lesser-known works, especially his long-unavailable, early works.

The rise and successes, the travails, and the eventual demise of the German Democratic Republic told in personal detail by activist and writer Victor Grossman The circumstances that impelled Victor Grossman, a U.S. Army draftee stationed in Europe, to flee a military prison sentence were the icy pressures of the McCarthy Era. Grossman – a.k.a. Steve Wechsler, a committed leftist since his years at Harvard and, briefly, as a factory worker – left his barracks in Bavaria one August day in 1952, and, in a panic, swam across the Danube River from the Austrian U.S. Zone to the Soviet Zone. Fate – i.e., the Soviets – landed him in East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic. There he remained, observer and participant, husband and father, as he watched the rise and successes, the travails, and the eventual demise of the GDR socialist experiment. A Socialist Defector is the story, told in rare, personal detail, of an activist and writer who grew up in the U.S. free-market economy; spent thirty-eight years in the GDR’s nationally owned, centrally administered economy; and continues to survive, given whatever the market can bear in today’s united Germany. Having been a freelance journalist and traveling lecturer – and the only person in the world to hold diplomas from both Harvard and the Karl Marx University – Grossman is able to offer insightful, often ironic, reflections and reminiscences, comparing the good and bad sides of life in all three of the societies he has known. His account focuses especially on the socialism he saw and lived – the GDR’s goals and achievements, its repressive measures and stupidities – which, he argues, offers lessons now in our search for solutions to the grave problems facing our world. This is a fascinating and unique historical narrative; political analysis told with jokes, personal anecdotes, and without bombast.