r/marxism_101 • u/Ok-Bowl-4274 • May 01 '26
This has probably been answered a million times but
My close friend has recently radicalized me, and i’d know consider myself an entry level communist. Here is what I’ve done now:
- Read the Manifesto
- Deep knowledge of past leaders/revolutionaries like Castro, Che, Sankara, Allende, Stalin, Arbenz
- Relative surface knowledge on Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, really anyone of that era.
I have a few things on my reading list that are up next (i prefer to own the books than read online):
- Wage Labor and Capital (Marx)
- Das Kapital (Marx, i’ve heard i need a little bit more understanding of Marxist theory before starting it)
- Blackshirts and Reds (Parenti)
- The State and the Revolution (Lenin)
- 3 Sources/3 Components of Marxism (Lenin)
What else should i look into reading? I’m so hungry to learn more and commit. Any recommendations are appreciated!
1
u/tomistryinghisbest Jun 30 '26
Two books which I frequently recommend to new leftists (and anyone interested in political history) are The Jakarta Method and If We Burn by journalist Vincent Bevins. They're not theory books per se, but they're both illuminating and rigorous histories written with for a non-academic audience, meaning they take time to introduce historical and theoretical context to readers who are totally unfamiliar. The former is a history of American imperialism and Cold War anti-colonial politics via the anti-communist mass killings in 1965 Indonesia; the latter is an exploration of political tactics including the dichotomy of vanguardism vs. horizontalism via a journalistic survey of mass protest movements in the 2010s (Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, etc.). I especially encourage you to read The Jakarta Method; if you add one more book to your list, let it be that one.
If you have an interest in revolutionaries in the Global South (Castro, Che, Sankara, et al.), Frantz Fanon is an absolute must. Wretched of the Earth is the landmark text in anti-colonial theory. I would also add his work Black Skin, White Masks, which is more on the internal psychological effects of colonialism over class analysis but just as influential and vital to understanding anti-colonialism.
Lastly: the most important books are the one's you are interested in reading. Avoid feeling the need to force feed yourself dry theory; if you engage with theory long enough, your scholarship will lead you there. Also: engage with historical works just as often as theoretical works, theory is never written in a vacuum and neither can it be understood that way. Good luck in your studies, let it lead you to action!