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Book summaries and chapter-by-chapter reading guides for 58 titles from the Wellred Books back-catalogue. Pick a book for its core argument, overview, and complete chapter list.
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Anti-Dühring Friedrich Engels Anti-Dühring is Friedrich Engels's comprehensive defence of Marxism against the eclectic and pretentious system of Eugen Dühring, a figure whose influence threatened to introduce… Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution Alan Woods This book argues that the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 was not a conspiratorial coup by a tiny minority, as bourgeois historiography claims, but the greatest mass democrat… China: From Permanent Revolution to Counter-Revolution Roberts, John Peter This book argues that the Chinese Revolution of 1949, while establishing a deformed workers' state through the nationalisation of industry and introduction of state planning, was… Class Struggle in the Roman Republic Alan Woods Alan Woods' Class Struggle in the Roman Republic sets out to demonstrate that the rise, transformation, and eventual collapse of the Roman Republic can only be understood through… Class Struggles in France Karl Marx The Class Struggles in France is Karl Marx's first sustained attempt to apply the materialist conception of history to contemporary political events, tracing the surface conflicts… Democracy, Bonapartism and Fascism: Class Struggle in the 1930s Leon Trotsky and Ted Grant This collection of writings by Leon Trotsky and Ted Grant, drawn from the crucible of the 1930s, sets out to prove that the political forms of bourgeois rule—whether parliamentary… Dialectics of Nature Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels' Dialectics of Nature represents an ambitious but unfinished attempt to demonstrate that dialectical laws are not, as Hegel maintained, laws of thought imposed up… Germany 1918-1933: Socialism or Barbarism Rob Sewell Rob Sewell’s Germany 1918–1933: Socialism or Barbarism sets out to prove that the defeat of the German Revolution was not an inevitable historical tragedy but a political catastro… Germany: From Revolution to Counter-Revolution Rob Sewell Rob Sewell's Germany: From Revolution to Counter-Revolution argues that the catastrophe of Nazi Germany was not the product of some inherent national pathology or the irresistible… History of British Trotskyism History of British Trotskyism sets out to demonstrate that the authentic Marxist tradition in Britain was preserved and developed by a specific current of Trotskyism — the tendenc… History of the Paris Commune of 1871 Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray Lissagaray's History of the Paris Commune of 1871 sets out to provide the definitive, evidence-based account of the greatest proletarian uprising of the nineteenth century, wresti… Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism V.I. Lenin Lenin's Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism sets out to prove that imperialism is not merely a policy or a passing tendency of capitalism but constitutes a distinct and h… In Defence of Marxism Leon Trotsky In Defence of Marxism is Leon Trotsky's comprehensive polemical defence of dialectical materialism as the indispensable theoretical foundation of revolutionary Marxism, written du… In the Cause of Labour – A History of British Trade Unionism Rob Sewell This book argues that the history of British trade unionism is fundamentally a history of class struggle between capital and labour, a conflict rooted not in individual bad manage… Ireland: Republicanism and Revolution Alan Woods Alan Woods argues that the Irish national question can only be resolved through socialist revolution led by the working class, not through constitutional agreements or bourgeois n… Lenin and Trotsky – What they really stood for Alan Woods This book argues that the struggle between Trotsky and Stalin was not a personal feud but the central ideological battle of the twentieth century: a fight to defend genuine revolu… Lenin, Trotsky and the Theory of the Permanent Revolution John Roberts John Roberts argues that Lenin underwent a fundamental strategic transformation in 1917, abandoning his pre-war conception of the Russian Revolution as a bourgeois-democratic stag… Marxism and Anarchism Frederick Engels This collection of writings, drawn from the Marxist theoretical tradition, sets out to demonstrate that anarchism is not a revolutionary alternative to Marxism but a fundamentally… Marxism and the USA Alan Woods Marxism and the USA sets out to demolish the pervasive myth of American exceptionalism — the claim that the United States is uniquely immune to class struggle, socialist ideas, or… Materialism and Empirio-Criticism V.I. Lenin Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-Criticism sets out to defend the philosophical foundations of Marxism — dialectical materialism — against a wave of revisionism that emerged among… My Life Leon Trotsky My Life is Leon Trotsky's sustained polemical autobiography, written in exile on Prinkipo island in 1929, which argues that the bureaucratic degeneration of the Soviet state under… On Imperialist War. Selected Writings: 1 VI Lenin This collection of Lenin's writings from 1907 to 1917 establishes that modern imperialist war is not an aberration or a relic of feudal barbarism, but a necessary and inevitable e… On the National Question. Selected Writings: 3 VI Lenin Lenin's collected writings on the national question establish a rigorous Marxist framework for understanding nationalism as a product of concrete material conditions rather than a… Permanent Revolution in Latin America John Peter Roberts This book argues that the Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan revolutions each confirmed Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution against the Stalinist theory of stages, yet all thr… Reason in Revolt Alan Woods Reason in Revolt sets out to demonstrate that dialectical materialism—the philosophical foundation of Marxism—has been confirmed, not superseded, by the most advanced scientific d… Reform or Revolution Rosa Luxemburg Reform or Revolution is a systematic polemical defence of revolutionary Marxism against the revisionist challenge posed by Eduard Bernstein at the turn of the twentieth century. Reformism or Revolution Alan Woods Reformism or Revolution is a sustained Marxist polemic against Heinz Dieterich, the German-Mexican academic who claims to have invented "Socialism of the 21st Century". Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Spain Felix Morrow Felix Morrow's Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Spain argues that the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 was not primarily a military conflict between democracy and fascism, but a… Russia: From Revolution To Counter-Revolution Ted Grant Ted Grant's Russia: From Revolution to Counter-Revolution sets out to defend the October Revolution against its bourgeois and Stalinist critics while providing a rigorous Marxist… Spain’s revolution against Franco: The great betrayal Alan Woods Alan Woods’s Spain’s Revolution Against Franco: The Great Betrayal sets out to demolish the official narrative of Spain’s ‘Democratic Transition’ as a peaceful, consensual achieve… Ted Grant Collected Writings Vol. 3: The Aftermath (1945-46) Ted Grant This volume collects Ted Grant's writings from the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, a period he identified as a watershed in world history and within the Trotskyist mo… Ted Grant Selected Works, Vol. 1: Stalinism and the Class Nature of the Soviet Union Ted Grant Ted Grant's central thesis is that the post-revolutionary regimes of the Soviet Union and its satellites were not a new form of capitalism, as the state capitalist school claimed,… Ted Grant Writings: Volume One Ted Grant Ted Grant Writings: Volume One presents the political and theoretical development of the Workers' International League (WIL) as the most significant Trotskyist formation in wartim… Ted Grant Writings: Volume Two Ted Grant This volume collects Ted Grant's writings from the critical period of the Second World War and its immediate aftermath, spanning 1943 to 1945. Ted Grant: The Permanent Revolutionary Alan Woods This biography argues that Ted Grant was the most important figure in the unbroken tradition of revolutionary Marxism in Britain, embodying a theoretical rigour and strategic pati… Thawra hatta’l nasr! Revolution until victory! A Marxist analysis of the Arab revolution Alan Woods This volume argues that the Arab revolutions of 2011 were not spontaneous or inexplicable outbursts but the direct product of deep-seated contradictions within the capitalist mode… The Civil War in France Karl Marx The Civil War in France is Karl Marx's definitive analysis of the Paris Commune of 1871, written as a series of addresses to the International Workingmen's Association in the mids… The Classics of Marxism: Volume One Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Leon Trotsky This volume presents four foundational Marxist texts—The Communist Manifesto, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, The State and Revolution, and The Transitional Programme—to establ… The Classics of Marxism: Volume Two Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, V I Lenin and Leon Trotsky This second volume of Marxist classics assembles five foundational texts that collectively argue for the materialist conception of history as the only scientific basis for underst… The First Five Years of the Communist International Leon Trotsky This collection of speeches, reports, letters, and resolutions from Leon Trotsky's leadership years in the Communist International (Comintern) argues that the first four congresse… The First World War: A Marxist Analysis of the Great Slaughter Alan Woods Alan Woods' The First World War: A Marxist Analysis of the Great Slaughter sets out to demonstrate that the First World War was not the result of diplomatic blunders, individual p… The History of Philosophy: A Marxist Perspective Alan Woods Alan Woods’ The History of Philosophy: A Marxist Perspective sets out to demonstrate that the entire history of philosophy can only be properly understood when grounded in the mat… The History of the Russian Revolution to Brest-Litovsk Leon Trotsky This pamphlet, written by Trotsky during the Brest-Litovsk peace negotiations in early 1918, sets out to demonstrate that the Bolshevik seizure of power in November 1917 was not a… The Ideas of Karl Marx Alan Woods This book argues that the ideas of Karl Marx remain the indispensable scientific guide to understanding and transforming the contemporary world. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State Friedrich Engels Engels's The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State sets out to demonstrate that the three institutions named in its title are not eternal features of human society… The Permanent Revolution & Results and prospects Leon Trotsky Leon Trotsky's The Permanent Revolution & Results and Prospects presents the definitive theoretical exposition of the theory of permanent revolution, first formulated in the cruci… The Revolution Betrayed Leon Trotsky The Revolution Betrayed sets out to prove that the Soviet Union under Stalin is not a socialist society but a contradictory transitional formation caught between capitalism and so… The Revolutionary Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg Marie Frederiksen This book sets out to reclaim Rosa Luxemburg as a consistent revolutionary Marxist, systematically dismantling the distortions that have misrepresented her legacy since her murder… The Revolutionary Philosophy of Marxism Alan Woods The Revolutionary Philosophy of Marxism argues that dialectical materialism is not an abstract academic pursuit but the indispensable theoretical weapon of the working class in it… The Revolutions of 1917. Selected Writings: 2 VI Lenin Lenin’s The Revolutions of 1917. The State and Revolution V.I. Lenin Lenin's The State and Revolution sets out to restore the revolutionary core of the Marxist theory of the state, which he argues has been systematically distorted and betrayed by t… The Venezuelan Revolution - a Marxist perspective Alan Woods Alan Woods' collection of writings on the Venezuelan Revolution, spanning 2002 to 2005, argues that the Bolivarian process under Hugo Chávez represents a genuine revolutionary uph… Understanding Marx’s Capital: A reader’s guide Adam Booth and Rob Sewell Understanding Marx’s Capital: A reader’s guide by Adam Booth and Rob Sewell sets out to demonstrate that Karl Marx’s Capital is not a historical relic but a living theoretical wea… What is Marxism? Alan Woods, Rob Sewell, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Leon Trotsky What is Marxism? What is to be done? V.I. Lenin What is to be Done? Women Family and the Russian Revolution John Peter Roberts & Fred Weston This book sets out to demonstrate that the oppression of women is not a transhistorical or biological given but a product of class society, specifically the emergence of private p… Writings on Britain Leon Trotsky Writings on Britain assembles Leon Trotsky's sustained analysis of British capitalism's terminal decline and the revolutionary possibilities it generates. ‘Left-Wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder VI Lenin Lenin's pamphlet, written on the eve of the Second Congress of the Communist International in 1920, is a polemical intervention aimed at correcting the sectarian and ultra-revolut…
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