Marx/Engels Collected Works

Last updated
MECW volumes on a bookshelf Collected works of Marx and Engles (15941449894).jpg
MECW volumes on a bookshelf

Marx/Engels Collected Works (also known as MECW) is the largest existing collection of English translations of many of the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Its 50 volumes contain publications by Marx and Engels released during their lifetimes, many unpublished manuscripts of Marx's economic writings, and extensive correspondence. The Collected Works, for the most part compiled by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CC CPSU, was issued from 1975 to 2004 by Progress Publishers (1931, Moscow) in collaboration with Lawrence and Wishart (1936, London) and International Publishers (1924, New York City).

Contents

History and overview

MECW volumes, most of them without their typical white book jackets, in a library. MECW.png
MECW volumes, most of them without their typical white book jackets, in a library.

Although about a third of Marx and Engels' works were originally written in English and partly published in the British or American press, [1] the vast majority of their literary legacy was not collected, translated (where necessary) and made available in an extensive English edition for decades after their death.

In the Soviet Union, comprehensive collections of the works of Marx and Engels were already compiled in the 1920s and 1930s (an aborted complete edition, MEGA1 , as well as a first Russian edition in 28 volumes, Sochineniya1). But only following the publication of new editions in Russian and German in the 1950s and 1960s (Sochineniya2 and Marx-Engels-Werke with 39 basic volumes and a few more supplementary ones later on), an English edition begun being prepared by Soviet editors with the help of the publishing houses of the Communist Parties in Great Britain and the USA and translators from these countries. [2]

After general editing principles had been agreed upon by the representatives of all three sides (Institute of Marxism-Leninism and Progress Publishers, Moscow, the Central Committees of the CPs in Great Britain and the US and their publishers Lawrence and Wishart, London, and International Publishers, New York) at a conference in Moscow in December 1969, [3] the first volume of the new edition was published in 1975.

More than forty volumes were published before the fall of the USSR; the few remaining ones were completed and issued by 2004 (V. 50).

Especially large parts of both authors' early writings, many of their newspaper articles (e.g. from the Neue Rheinische Zeitung 1848-49) and most of their letters as well as a lot of Marx's economic manuscripts were published in English for the first time in the Collected Works. [4] In total, the 50 volumes comprise 1,968 works and other documents (of which 805 were published in English for the first time) and 3,957 letters (of which 2,283 had never been published in English before). [5]

The Collected Works consists of writings by Marx between 1835 and his death in 1883, and by Engels between 1838 and his death in 1895. Early volumes (V. 1-2) include juvenilia, such as correspondence between Marx and his father, Marx's poetry, and letters from Engels to his sister. The edition also contains several major, well-known works by Marx and Engels, such as The Condition of the Working Class in England (V. 4), The Communist Manifesto (V. 6), The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (V. 11), and Anti-Dühring (V. 25).

The collection is divided into three parts. Volumes 1-27 collect the political, philosophical, historical and journalistic writings of the authors, in chronological order. Volumes 28-37 specifically collect Marx's writings on political economy, including a large amount of draft material and manuscripts which culminated in the three volumes of Capital (V. 35-37). Finally, volumes 38-50 collect the letters and personal correspondence of the authors. [6]

Contents by volume

Although most of MECW's volumes include material written by Marx and Engels (whether separately or as co-authors), a large minority of volumes are devoted to material written by only one author. Red check marks indicate the author's presence in a volume, while black X marks indicate that the author's work is absent. Although the volumes typically contain large varieties of material, only major selected items are listed below, for illustration.

VolumeMarxEngelsPeriodPub. DateMajor Contents
1Red check.svgBlack x.svg1835-18431975Early writings of Marx, including doctoral dissertation The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature [7]
2Black x.svgRed check.svg1838-18421975Early writings of Engels [8]
3Red check.svgRed check.svg1843-18441975Early writings of both, including the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 , Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right [9]
4Red check.svgRed check.svg1844-18451975 The Holy Family , The Condition of the Working Class in England [10]
5Red check.svgRed check.svg1845-18471976 The German Ideology , Theses on Feuerbach [11]
6Red check.svgRed check.svg1845-18481976 The Communist Manifesto , The Poverty of Philosophy , Principles of Communism [12]
7Red check.svgRed check.svg18481977Articles for Neue Rheinische Zeitung [13] [14] [15]
8Red check.svgRed check.svg1848-18491977
9Red check.svgRed check.svg18491977
10Red check.svgRed check.svg1849-18511978 The Class Struggles in France 1848–1850 , The Peasant War in Germany [16]
11Red check.svgRed check.svg1851-18531979 The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon , Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany [17]
12Red check.svgRed check.svg1853-18541979Newspaper articles concerning global politics and other writings, including The Civil War in the United States [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25]
13Red check.svgRed check.svg1854-18551980
14Red check.svgRed check.svg1855-18561980
15Red check.svgRed check.svg1856-18581986
16Red check.svgRed check.svg1858-18601980
17Red check.svgRed check.svg1859-18601981
18Red check.svgRed check.svg1857-18621982
19Red check.svgRed check.svg1861-18641984
20Red check.svgRed check.svg1864-18681985Articles and writings concerning the First International, Value, Price and Profit (V. 20) [26] [27] [28] [29]
21Red check.svgRed check.svg1867-18701985
22Red check.svgRed check.svg1870-18711986
23Red check.svgRed check.svg1871-18741988
24Red check.svgRed check.svg1874-18831989 Critique of the Gotha Program , Socialism: Utopian and Scientific [30]
25Black x.svgRed check.svg1987 Anti-Dühring , Dialectics of Nature [31]
26Black x.svgRed check.svg1882-18891990 Origin of the Family , Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy [32]
27Black x.svgRed check.svg1890-18951990Late political writings of Engels [33]
28Red check.svgBlack x.svg1857-18611986 Grundrisse , A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy [34] [35]
29Red check.svgBlack x.svg1857-18611987
30Red check.svgBlack x.svg1861-18631988Economic Manuscripts of 1861–1863, which includes Theories of Surplus Value [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]
31Red check.svgBlack x.svg1861-18631989
32Red check.svgBlack x.svg1861-18631989
33Red check.svgBlack x.svg1861-18631991
34Red check.svgBlack x.svg1861-18641994
35Red check.svgBlack x.svg1996 Capital, Volume I [41]
36Red check.svgBlack x.svg1997 Capital, Volume II [42]
37Red check.svgBlack x.svg1998 Capital, Volume III [43]
38Red check.svgRed check.svg1844-18511982Letters [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56]
39Red check.svgRed check.svg1852-18551983
40Red check.svgRed check.svg1856-18591983
41Red check.svgRed check.svg1860-18641985
42Red check.svgRed check.svg1864-18681987
43Red check.svgRed check.svg1868-18701988
44Red check.svgRed check.svg1870-18731989
45Red check.svgRed check.svg1874-18791991
46Red check.svgRed check.svg1880-18831992
47Black x.svgRed check.svg1883-18861995
48Black x.svgRed check.svg1887-18902001
49Black x.svgRed check.svg1890-18922001
50Black x.svgRed check.svg1892-18952004

Differences with other Marx/Engels collections

Although the Collected Works is the most comprehensive English translation of Marx and Engels' work, it is not their complete work. An ongoing project to publish the pair's complete works in their original language ( Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe ) is expected to require 114 volumes. [57] However, as MEGA differs from MECW particularly in content in that it presents numerous excerpts and notes in its fourth section, publishes the letters to Marx and Engels from third persons, and prints various editions of the same works (e.g. Capital ), the overwhelming majority of the published writings, manuscripts, and letters of Marx and Engels are in any case included in MECW. [58]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Marx</span> German philosopher (1818–1883)

Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 pamphlet The Communist Manifesto and the four-volume Das Kapital (1867–1883). Marx's political and philosophical thought had enormous influence on subsequent intellectual, economic, and political history. His name has been used as an adjective, a noun, and a school of social theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friedrich Engels</span> German political philosopher and revolutionary socialist (1820–1895)

Friedrich Engels, sometimes anglicised as Frederick Engels, was a German philosopher, critic of political economy, historian, political theorist and revolutionary socialist. He was also a businessman, journalist and political activist, whose father was an owner of large textile factories in Salford and Barmen, Prussia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Charles Jones</span> English poet, novelist, and activist

Ernest Charles Jones was an English poet, novelist and Chartist. Dorothy Thompson points out that Jones was born into the landed gentry, became a barrister, and left a large documentary record. "He is the best-remembered of the Chartist leaders, among the pioneers of the modern Labour movement, and a friend of both Marx and Engels."

<i>Neue Rheinische Zeitung</i> German newspaper

The Neue Rheinische Zeitung: Organ der Demokratie was a German daily newspaper, published by Karl Marx in Cologne between 1 June 1848 and 19 May 1849. It is recognised by historians as one of the most important dailies of the Revolutions of 1848 in Germany. The paper was regarded by its editors and readers as the successor of an earlier Cologne newspaper, the Rheinische Zeitung, also edited for a time by Karl Marx, which had been suppressed by state censorship over five years earlier.

<i>Socialism: Utopian and Scientific</i>

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific is a short book first published in 1880 by German-born socialist Friedrich Engels. The work was primarily extracted from a longer polemic work published in 1878, Anti-Dühring. It first appeared in the French language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Progress Publishers</span>

Progress Publishers was a Moscow-based Soviet publisher founded in 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Riazanov</span> Russian-Soviet political revolutionary, Marxist theoretician, and archivist

David Riazanov, born David Borisovich Goldendakh, was a Russian revolutionary, historian, bibliographer and archivist. Riazanov founded the Marx–Engels Institute and edited the first large-scale effort to publish the collected works of these two founders of the modern socialist movement. Riazanov was a prominent victim of the Great Terror of the late 1930s.

<i>The Civil War in France</i> 1871 political pamphlet by Karl Marx

"The Civil War in France" was a pamphlet written by Karl Marx, as an official statement of the General Council of the International on the character and significance of the struggle of the Communards in the Paris Commune.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wage Labour and Capital</span>

"Wage Labour and Capital" was an 1847 lecture by the critic of political economy and philosopher Karl Marx, first published as articles in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in April 1849. It is widely considered the precursor to Marx’s influential treatise Das Kapital. It is commonly paired with Marx's 1865 speech Value, Price and Profit. In 1883, a Russian translation was published as a book and included an excerpt from Capital volume 1 in the appendix, chapter 23 on Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation. In 1885, a pamphlet version was first published as an English translation. An 1885 pamphlet based on the newspaper articles was published in Hottingen-Zürich without Marx's knowledge and with a brief introduction by Engels. The German edition was revised by Friedrich Engels in 1891 and published by Vorwärts after the Anti-Socialist Laws had lapsed the previous year. In 1893, an updated English translation from the 1891 German edition was published in London.

Lawrence & Wishart is a British publishing company formerly associated with the Communist Party of Great Britain. It was formed in 1936, through the merger of Martin Lawrence, the Communist Party's press, and Wishart Ltd, a family-owned Left-wing and anti-fascist publisher founded by Ernest Wishart, father of the painter Michael Wishart.

Collected works may refer to:

Karl Marx wrote a number of notebooks on the history of technology which so far remain unpublished in English. Their whereabouts were for a long time unknown but in the past they were read and discussed by Marxist researchers.

<i>Theories of Surplus Value</i> Literary work by Karl Marx

Theories of Surplus Value is a draft manuscript written by Karl Marx between January 1862 and July 1863. It is mainly concerned with the Western European theorizing about Mehrwert from about 1750, critically examining the ideas of British, French and German political economists about wealth creation and the profitability of industries. At issue are the source, forms and determinants of the magnitude of surplus-value and Marx tries to explain how after failing to solve basic contradictions in its labour theories of value the classical school of political economy eventually broke up, leaving only "vulgar political economy" which no longer tried to provide a consistent, integral theory of capitalism, but instead offered only an eclectic amalgam of theories which seemed pragmatically useful or which justified the rationality of the market economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Young Marx</span>

The correct place of Karl Marx's early writings within his system as a whole has been a matter of great controversy. Some believe there is a break in Marx's development that divides his thought into two periods: the "Young Marx" is said to be a thinker who deals with the problem of alienation, while the "Mature Marx" is said to aspire to a scientific socialism.

<i>The Poverty of Philosophy</i> 1847 French-language book by Karl Marx

The Poverty of Philosophy is a book by Karl Marx published in Paris and Brussels in 1847, where he lived in exile from 1843 until 1849. It was originally written in French as a critique of the economic and philosophical arguments of French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon set forth in his 1846 book The System of Economic Contradictions, or The Philosophy of Poverty.

<i>The German Ideology</i> Manuscripts written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1846

The German Ideology is a set of manuscripts originally written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels around April or early May 1846. Marx and Engels did not find a publisher, but the work was later retrieved and published for the first time in 1932 by David Riazanov through the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow. The first part of the book is an exposition of Marx's "materialist conception of history", though recent research for the new Marx Engels Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) indicates that much of the 'system' in this part was created afterwards by the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow in the 1930s, from the set of manuscripts written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Much of the rest of the book consists of many satirical polemics against Bruno Bauer, other Young Hegelians, and Max Stirner's The Ego and Its Own (1844).

<i>Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe</i>

Die Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) is the largest collection of the writing of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in any language. It is an ongoing project intended to produce a critical edition of the complete works of Marx and Engels that reproduces the extant writings of both authors in books of high-quality paper and library binding.

<i>Das Kapital</i> Foundational theoretical text of Karl Marx

Das Kapital, also known as Capital: A Critique of Political Economy or sometimes simply Capital, is a foundational theoretical text in materialist philosophy, critique of political economy and politics by Karl Marx. Marx aimed to reveal the economic patterns underpinning the capitalist mode of production in contrast to classical political economists such as Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill. While Marx did not live to publish the planned second, third and fourth parts, the second and third volumes were completed from his notes and published after his death by his colleague Friedrich Engels; the fourth volume was completed and published after Engels's death by Marxist philosoper Karl Kautsky. Das Kapital is the most cited book published before 1950 in the social sciences.

<i>Karl Marx Library</i>

The Karl Marx Library is a topically-organized series of original translations and biographical commentaries edited by historian and Karl Marx scholar Saul K. Padover (1905-1981) and published by academic publisher McGraw-Hill Books. Originally projected as a 13 volume series at the time of its launch in 1971, ultimately only 7 volumes found print prior to Padover's death, supplemented by a biography and an unnumbered volume of selected correspondence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute</span> Soviet Union library and archive

The Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute, established in Moscow in 1919 as the Marx–Engels Institute, was a Soviet library and archive attached to the Communist Academy. The institute was later attached to the governing Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and served as a research center and publishing house for officially published works of Marxist thought.

References

  1. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1975). "General Introduction". Collected Works. Vol. 1. London. pp. XVIII–XIX.
  2. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1975). "General Introduction". Collected Works. Vol. 1. London. p. XVIII.
  3. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1975). "General Introduction". Collected Works. Vol. 1. London. p. XXIV.
  4. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1975). "General Introduction". Collected Works. Vol. 1. London. p. XIX.
  5. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (2004). "Preface". Collected Works. Vol. 50. London. p. XXVIII.
  6. "Marx & Engels Collected Works". Lawrence and Wishart.
  7. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1975). Collected Works. Vol. 1. London. ISBN   9780853152842.
  8. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1975). Collected Works. Vol. 2. London. ISBN   9780853152927.
  9. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1975). Collected Works. Vol. 3. London. ISBN   9780853152934.
  10. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1975). Collected Works. Vol. 4. London. ISBN   9780853152941.
  11. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1976). Collected Works. Vol. 5. London. ISBN   9780853153115.
  12. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1976). Collected Works. Vol. 6. London. ISBN   9780853153122.
  13. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1977). Collected Works. Vol. 7. London. ISBN   9780853153528.
  14. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1977). Collected Works. Vol. 8. London. ISBN   9780853153535.
  15. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1977). Collected Works. Vol. 9. London. ISBN   9780853153542.
  16. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1978). Collected Works. Vol. 10. London. ISBN   9780853153559.
  17. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1979). Collected Works. Vol. 11. London. ISBN   9780853153566.
  18. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1979). Collected Works. Vol. 12. London. ISBN   9780853153573.
  19. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1980). Collected Works. Vol. 13. London. ISBN   9780853153580.
  20. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1980). Collected Works. Vol. 14. London. ISBN   9780853154358.
  21. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1986). Collected Works. Vol. 15. London. ISBN   9780853154365.
  22. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1980). Collected Works. Vol. 16. London. ISBN   9780853154372.
  23. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1981). Collected Works. Vol. 17. London. ISBN   9780853154389.
  24. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1982). Collected Works. Vol. 18. London. ISBN   9780853154396.
  25. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1984). Collected Works. Vol. 19. London. ISBN   9780853154402.
  26. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1985). Collected Works. Vol. 20. London. ISBN   9780853154419.
  27. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1985). Collected Works. Vol. 21. London. ISBN   9780853154426.
  28. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1986). Collected Works. Vol. 22. London. ISBN   9780853154433.
  29. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1988). Collected Works. Vol. 23. London. ISBN   9780853154440.
  30. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1989). Collected Works. Vol. 24. London. ISBN   9780853154457.
  31. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1987). Collected Works. Vol. 25. London. ISBN   9780853154464.
  32. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1990). Collected Works. Vol. 26. London. ISBN   9780853154471.
  33. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1990). Collected Works. Vol. 27. London. ISBN   9780853154488.
  34. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1986). Collected Works. Vol. 28. London. ISBN   9780853154495.
  35. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1987). Collected Works. Vol. 29. London. ISBN   9780853154501.
  36. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1988). Collected Works. Vol. 30. London. ISBN   9780853154518.
  37. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1989). Collected Works. Vol. 31. London. ISBN   9780853154525.
  38. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1989). Collected Works. Vol. 32. London. ISBN   9780853154532.
  39. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1991). Collected Works. Vol. 33. London. ISBN   9780853154549.
  40. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1994). Collected Works. Vol. 34. London. ISBN   9780853154556.
  41. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1996). Collected Works. Vol. 35. London. ISBN   9780853158523.
  42. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1997). Collected Works. Vol. 36. London. ISBN   9780853154570.
  43. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1998). Collected Works. Vol. 37. London. ISBN   9780853154587.
  44. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1982). Collected Works. Vol. 38. London. ISBN   9780853154594.
  45. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1983). Collected Works. Vol. 39. London. ISBN   9780853154600.
  46. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1983). Collected Works. Vol. 40. London. ISBN   9780853154617.
  47. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1985). Collected Works. Vol. 41. London. ISBN   9780853156178.
  48. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1987). Collected Works. Vol. 42. London. ISBN   9780853156185.
  49. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1988). Collected Works. Vol. 43. London. ISBN   9780853156192.
  50. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1989). Collected Works. Vol. 44. London. ISBN   9780853156208.
  51. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1991). Collected Works. Vol. 45. London. ISBN   9780853156215.
  52. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1992). Collected Works. Vol. 46. London. ISBN   9780853156222.
  53. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1995). Collected Works. Vol. 47. London. ISBN   9780853156239.
  54. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (2001). Collected Works. Vol. 48. London. ISBN   9780853156246.
  55. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (2001). Collected Works. Vol. 49. London. ISBN   9780853156253.
  56. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (2001). Collected Works. Vol. 50. London. ISBN   9780853156260.
  57. marxforschung.de: Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA²) (German).
  58. Wendling, Amy E. (March 2005). "Comparing Two Editions of Marx-Engels Collected Works". Socialism and Democracy. 19: 181–189. doi:10.1080/0885430042000338499. S2CID   144273105.