In 1935 the British Communist, Emile Burns, published A Handbook of Marxism that included just over one thousand pages of excerpts from key works by Marx, Engels, Lenin and (yes) Stalin. Reading assignments in the Burns volume can be found in four of the course syllabi from the Harvard economics department thus far included among the transcribed artifacts in Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. In the table below I note which chapters were assigned for the four courses.
That table is followed by the Table of Contents of the Burns Handbook along with links to available versions (not always the same translation however) of some of the works from which excerpts have been included. There is still work to do in putting links to most of the Lenin pieces and all those of Stalin, but at least all the Marx-Engels chapters have links to the complete works for now.
Chapter XXI consists of excerpts from chapters from the three volumes of Capital. I find it handy to have this short-list of chapters chosen by a practicing Communist of the 1930s. The Handbook is about 50:50 Marx & Engels (ca 500 pages) vs. Lenin & Stalin.
Cf. the 1918 “Outline for the Study of Marxism” by Karl Dannenberg.
_______________________________________
A HANDBOOK OF MARXISM
being
a collection of extracts from the writings of
Marx, Engels and the greatest of their followers
selected
so as to give the reader
the most comprehensive account of Marxism
possible within the limits of a single volume:
the passages
being chosen by Emile Burns, who has added
in each case a bibliographical note, & an
explanation of the circumstances in which the
work was written & its special significance in
the development of Marxism : as well as the
necessary glossaries and index.
LONDON
VICTOR GOLLANCZ LTC
1934
_______________________________________
Harvard Economics Courses with Assigned Readings
in A Handbook of Marxism
|
Chapter |
Mason and Sweezy 1938 | Sweezy 1940 | Taylor 1948 | Taylor 1950 |
|
I. |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
|
II. |
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|
III. |
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|
IV. |
✓ | |||
|
V. |
✓ | |||
|
VI. |
||||
| VII. | ✓ | |||
| VIII. | ||||
| IX. | ||||
| X. | ||||
| XI. | ||||
| XII. | ||||
|
XIII. |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
|
XIV. |
✓ | |||
| XV. | ||||
|
XVI. |
||||
| XVII. | ||||
|
XVIII. |
||||
| XIX. | ||||
|
XX. |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| XXI. | ✓ | |||
|
XXII. |
✓ | |||
| XXIII. | ||||
|
XXIV. |
||||
| XXV. | ||||
|
XXVI. |
||||
| XXVII. | ||||
|
XXVIII. |
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| XXIX. |
✓ |
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| XXX. | ✓ |
Table of Contents
Emile Burns, A Handbook of Marxism (1935)
| Introduction | |
| Chap. | |
| I. | K. Marx and F. Engels. The Communist Manifesto |
| II. | K. Marx. Address to the Communist League (1850) |
| III. | F. Engels. Introduction to the Class Struggles in France (1848-50) |
| IV. | K. Marx. The Class Struggles in France (1848-50) |
| V. | K. Marx. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte |
| VI. | F. Engels. Germany: Revolution and Counter-Revolution |
| VII. | K. Marx. The Civil War in France |
| VIII. | F. Engels. Introduction to the Civil War in France |
| IX. | K. Marx. The Crimean War [New York Tribune, 24 October 1854] |
| X. | K. Marx. The British Rule in India [New York Tribune, June 25, 1853, p. 6]; The Future Results of British Rule in India [New York Tribune, August 8, 1853, p. 5.] |
| XI. | K. Marx. Relations Between the Irish and English Working Classes [5. The Question of the General Council’s Resolution on the Irish Amnesty] |
| XII. |
F. Engels. The British Labour Movement [A Fair Day’s Wages for a Fair Day’s Work; The French Commercial Treaty ; Social Classes—Necessary and Superfluous] |
| XIII. |
K. Marx and F. Engels. German Ideology |
| XIV. |
F. Engels. Ludwig Feuerbach |
| XV. |
K. Marx. Theses on Feuerbach |
| XVI. |
F. Engels. Herr Eugen Dühring’s Revolution in Science (Anti-Dühring) |
| XVII. |
F. Engels. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. |
| XVIII. |
F. Engels. The Housing Question [Parts I and II] |
| XIX. |
K. Marx. The Poverty of Philosophy [Chapter 2: The Metaphysics of Political Economy. Section 1: The Method] |
| XX. |
K. Marx. A Contribution to “the Critique of Political Economy” |
| XXI. |
K. Marx. Capital (164 pages of excerpts from the following chapters of the Charles H. Kerr & Co., Chicago edition of the three volumes of English translation. Note the recommended order for volume I) Vol. I, Ch. XXVI. The Secret of Primitive Accumulation; |
| XXII. | V. I. Lenin. The Teachings of Karl Marx |
| XXIII. | V. I. Lenin. Our Programme |
| XXIV. | V. I. Lenin. What is to be done? |
| XXV. | V. I. Lenin. The Revolution of 1905 |
| XXVI. | V. I. Lenin. Materialism and Empirio-Criticism |
| XXVII. | V. I. Lenin. The Historical Fate of the Teaching of Karl Marx |
| XXVIII. | V. I. Lenin. Socialism and War |
| XXIX. |
V. I. Lenin. Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism [Ch. VII. Imperialism as a Special Stage of Capitalism;
|
| XXX. |
V. I. Lenin. The State and Revolution [Ch. I. Class Society and the State; |
| XXXI. | V. I. Lenin. Letters from Afar |
| XXXII. | V. I. Lenin. The Tasks of the Proletariat in our Revolution |
| XXXIII. | J. Stalin. Report on the Political Situation, August 1917 |
| XXXIV. | V. I. Lenin. On the Eve of October |
| XXXV. | J. Stalin. The October Revolution |
| XXXVI. | V. I. Lenin. The Proletarian Revolution and Kautsky the Renegade |
| XXXVII. | J. Stalin. Foundations of Leninism |
| XXXVIII. | V. I. Lenin. “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder |
| XXXIX. | J. Stalin. The International Situation, August 1927 |
| XL. | J. Stalin. Report at Seventeenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1934 |
| XLI. | J. Stalin. Address to the Graduates from the Red Army Academy |
| XLII. | The Programme of the Communist International |
| Appendices | |
| Index |
Image Source: Graham Stephenson website, Communist Biogs: Emile Burns.