Near perfect introduction/primer to classical Marxism. Theoretically concise and clear, historically riveting and heartbreaking. A love letter to socialism through and through.

You know the writer's good when they can explain dense concepts like alienation, exploitation, labour power, use and exchange value, money as a general equivalent, commodity fetishism, the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, imperialism, primitive accumulation, proletarianisation, the reserve army of labour, and parliamentarianism in only a sentence, a paragraph, or a page. I might come back to this review at a later date and explain these concepts, but you're probably better off just tracking down a copy of this book from your local library. It's a breeze to read.

Also, I'd never known Rosa Luxemburg was, on top of being a theoretical powerhouse, a thirsty mf and an ally to animals. We need more life-affirming socialists to look up to. Feral and caring beings who sublate the dreary dialectic between tragedy and farce.