Making Marx Marx

The Political Thought of Karl Marx

In this course, Professor Terrell Carver (University of Bristol) introduces the political thought of Karl Marx. In the first module, we think about the way in which Marx has been re-interpreted over the last century and make some attempt to get away from Marx the philosopher, and think about Marx the journalist and activist. After that, we explore several key concepts in Marxist philosophy through two of his major works. In the second and third modules, we explore the concepts of class struggle and historical progress in the Communist Manifesto (co-authored by Friedrich Engels), before turning to the concepts of revolution, alienation and exploitation in Das Kapital in the fifth and sixth modules.

Making Marx Marx

Marx constructed himself as a ‘brand’ in 1847, ‘autobiographized’ himself in 1859, and was then the subject of reconstructions – in quite contrasting terms – by politicians and scholars up to the present. The gravestone and greybeard image that we are familiar with isn’t really him!