Readings for today:
- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "The Ruling Class and the Ruling Ideas."
- Louis Althusser, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses"
- Raoul Vaneigem, "Introduction," The Revolution of Everyday Life (Rebel Press, 2001).
- Hegemony (definition from Cultural Theory: The Key Concepts)
Reading Questions & Guides:
- Guide: More on Althusser - ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (click here for the print version)
- Guide: Lecture notes on Marxism and Ideology
- Guide: 'Hegemony' entry in The Dictionary of Marxist Thought
- Guide: Marx's "Real Basis of Ideology" (you can download a print copy here).
- Guide: Marx's take on 'commodity fetishism'
Soundtrack (just for fun):
- Billy Bragg, "The World Turned Upside Down"
- The Broadways, "15 Minutes"
- Dillinger Four, "Minimum Wage is a Gateway Drug"
- The Strike, "Kicking Ass (For the Working Class)"
- "The Internationale" (Spanish version)
For further reading/research:
- Karl Marx, excerpts from The German Ideology (written in 1845-1846). First Premises of the Materialist Method; History: Fundamental Conditions; Private Property and Communism, from The German Ideology.
- C.L.R James, "They Showed the Way to Labor Emancipation: On Karl Marx and the 75th Anniversary of the Paris Commune," Labor Action, March 18, 1946.
- Raymond Williams, "Hegemony," in Marxism and Literature (Oxford: 1977) pp 108-114.
- David Harvey's online course on Marx's Capital (video lectures).
- Paul Smith, "A Memory of Marxism" (1993).
- Georg Lukacs, "What is Orthodox Marxism?," History & Class Consciousness.
- Stuart Hall, "Gramsci's Relevance for the Study of Race and Ethnicity."
- Professor Ron Strickland's lecture on 'commodity fetishism', from his online course in Cultural Theory (YouTube video).
- Income inequality in the United States (a pictorial), Salon.com
