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Understanding Marxism
96 pages, Paperback
Published December 9, 2025
71 people want to read
About the author
Richard D. Wolff
46 books864 followersRichard D. Wolff is an American economist, well-known for his work on Marxian economics, economic methodology, and class analysis. He is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York. Wolff has also taught economics at Yale University, City University of New York, University of Paris I (Sorbonne), and The Brecht Forum in New York City. In 2010, Wolff published Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It, also released as a DVD. He will release three new books in 2012: Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism, with David Barsamian (San Francisco: City Lights Books), Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian, with Stephen Resnick (Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT University Press), and Democracy at Work (Chicago: Haymarket Books).
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 28, 2026
In this review I’m looking at three books in a series. I am posting the same review for all three books. I think most readers who pick up any one of these books are probably looking to get a better grasp on what we currently have as well as what any possible alternatives are, so reading all three will be a big step toward that goal.
I am now more of a socialist than a Marxist, though I still hold many ideas people think of as Marxist. There isn’t a clean line demarcating the various groups on either side of the division, just as there is a lot of overlap among groups that fall under either blanket term. Richard Wolff is a Marxian economics scholar and as such is coming from that perspective. He does a good job, I think, of being fair in his assessments of capitalism throughout these books. That said, if you want to gain more insight you might also consider reading a legitimate attempt to explain capitalism in a more positive light, just try to find someone who actually wants to be fair rather than promoting it as the best thing since sliced bread, we all know better no matter where we stand.
Each volume (Understanding Marxism, Understanding Socialism, and Understanding Capitalism) discusses its subject with reference to the others, so there are some points repeated, understandably, between books. They are, however, given different emphasis in each. Wolff covers the problems with capitalism quite well, and they are largely well-known to most readers coming to these books. His emphasis, as an economist, is on the economic solutions socialism and/or Marxism can offer. He largely ignores the political or philosophical concepts (mostly from early Marx).
I don’t think pointing out my areas of agreement or disagreement serve much purpose here, it would simply be expressing my version of socialism. I will mention that Wolff’s focus on democracy and workers having democratic control over their respective areas of production has a lot of positive things going for it but stops short, as far as I can tell, of offering a path toward making these micro-democracies into a functional macro-democracy that would then distribute those goods and, more importantly, govern (I assume also democratically) society at-large.
I would recommend these to readers with little to no knowledge of Marxism or socialism beyond the scare tactics that dominated most of the past 70 or so years. I wouldn’t suggest making this your only foray into alternatives to capitalism or into Marxism or socialism. As with ideas about large, complex problems, and capitalism absolutely qualifies, take what you find useful and use it, question what you aren’t sure about, and, after serious consideration, discard what doesn’t seem to work for you.
Reviewed from copies made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.
I am now more of a socialist than a Marxist, though I still hold many ideas people think of as Marxist. There isn’t a clean line demarcating the various groups on either side of the division, just as there is a lot of overlap among groups that fall under either blanket term. Richard Wolff is a Marxian economics scholar and as such is coming from that perspective. He does a good job, I think, of being fair in his assessments of capitalism throughout these books. That said, if you want to gain more insight you might also consider reading a legitimate attempt to explain capitalism in a more positive light, just try to find someone who actually wants to be fair rather than promoting it as the best thing since sliced bread, we all know better no matter where we stand.
Each volume (Understanding Marxism, Understanding Socialism, and Understanding Capitalism) discusses its subject with reference to the others, so there are some points repeated, understandably, between books. They are, however, given different emphasis in each. Wolff covers the problems with capitalism quite well, and they are largely well-known to most readers coming to these books. His emphasis, as an economist, is on the economic solutions socialism and/or Marxism can offer. He largely ignores the political or philosophical concepts (mostly from early Marx).
I don’t think pointing out my areas of agreement or disagreement serve much purpose here, it would simply be expressing my version of socialism. I will mention that Wolff’s focus on democracy and workers having democratic control over their respective areas of production has a lot of positive things going for it but stops short, as far as I can tell, of offering a path toward making these micro-democracies into a functional macro-democracy that would then distribute those goods and, more importantly, govern (I assume also democratically) society at-large.
I would recommend these to readers with little to no knowledge of Marxism or socialism beyond the scare tactics that dominated most of the past 70 or so years. I wouldn’t suggest making this your only foray into alternatives to capitalism or into Marxism or socialism. As with ideas about large, complex problems, and capitalism absolutely qualifies, take what you find useful and use it, question what you aren’t sure about, and, after serious consideration, discard what doesn’t seem to work for you.
Reviewed from copies made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.
Displaying 1 of 1 review