Karl Marx: Early Writings

The astonishingly rich body of works produced in 1833-4, when Marx was hardly twenty-five, formed the basis for his subsequent development. Commentators had long assumed that Marx’s own solutions to the underlying philosophical problems of Marxism could be found in the late works of Engels; it was only when the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts was published in 1932 that they discovered a radically different young Marx.

In these writings you can see Marx’s first presentation of such ideas as historical materialism and his theories on alienation as he moves towards developing a clear analysis of capitalism and its alternative.

Table of contents

Introduction by Lucio Colletti
Critique of Hegel’s Doctrine of the State (1843)
Letters from the Francon-German Yearbooks (1843)
On the Jewish Question (1843)
A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. Introduction (1843-4)
Excerpts from James Mill’s Elements of Political Economy (1844)
Economic and Political Manuscripts (1844)
Critical Notes on the Article “The King of Prussia and Social Reform. By a Prussian” (1844)

Appendix
A. Concerning Feuerbach
B. Preface (to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy)

Glossary of Key Terms
Chronology of Marx’s Life 1818 to August 1844
Note on Previous Editions of the Works of Marx and Engels
Chronology of Works by Marx and Engels
Index