Ruis wasn’t kidding when he said that it was hard to understand and even harder to summarize Marx, this book was definitely difficult to get through. The first half went on to explain the history of philosophy which was something I could follow especially after taking a morals class. I recognized some of the names like Kant, Hume, and Locke and of course the big names of Plato and Socrates. It was really interesting to read about the continual battle between the Idealists and the Materialists. As different versions of philosophy came out I recognized how it follows a similar pattern to the history of art. It’s fascinating how radical art plays off the radical ideas of the thinkers. As far as art that can use these ideas I can only think of political art, but I know for a fact that it is not limited to this. All art reflects the ideas of the society.
Then the book went into Marx’s actual ideas and I began to get overwhelmed. The small amount that I could understand definitely was interesting. Marx is a figure I was never familiar with and did not know he helped form the idea of Unions, one of which I work in. As for the actual layout of the book I do not believe it is well thought through. Most of the time it hurts more than it helps. Because of the pictures in some areas very small cramped text had to be supplemented, which made it very hard to want to read it. The handwritten text at times was even worse. The style of it made things rather unreadable at times. The images were useful in depicting people and events but for the most part were unnecessary. Overall I appreciate the author’s vast task that he set himself to do and I believe it was a valiant effort. For the most part I found this book more difficult to read than some textbooks.
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