Karl Marx: His Life and Work

by Otto Rühle, M. Eden Paul (Translator)

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: Politics

428 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2005

About the author

German socialdemocrat turned council communist.

Rühle was active in the SPD, KPD and the KAPD.

When the Nazi party came into power, Rühle fled to Mexico

Reviews

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like many of the older biographies, this is worth reading for acquiring a sense of the standing of Marx in the early(ish) socialist movement. Written in the 1920s, before the mass rise of Nazism, Ruhle offers an interesting view that is Communist, but not Bolshevik. In the narrative this shows as his defense of Lassalle, who after all was the source of organised labour in Germany--whatever happened to it since. Much of the book is long quotes from Marx and Engels, which works as an initiatory text, but is a bit boring if you've read it all elsewhere. Although Ruhle's editorial voice is quite good throughout most of the book, the final section, 'appraisal', can be only characterised as bizarre. Here Ruhle basically ends up explaining Marx's character and work as an outcome of his digestive problems! Not bad for an absolute beginner, but only OK as a whole.

[Thomas Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

1928 by Otto Ruhle. Biography, History, Philosophy, Economics, Politics. Karl Marx, the great isogesist. Capitalists have more power than the workers they hire. Somehow this is wrong and evil. Marx will never allow for a capitalist to make a profit on his investment. He can never answer the question whether a capitalist should take the time, trouble and risk for nothing. Or should he be compensated by the return of his capital investment plus be paid an average wage for his labor. I don't know how Marx addresses the question as to whether some laborers are more skilled than others or whether a doctor who has spent ten more years in school than the average wage laborer should be paid the same wage. And who decides? The practical reality of Marxism is that only an elite can interpret it accurately and apply it appropriately. There is no room for democracy in Marxism. It leads inevitably to dictatorship