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Top 100 Communism Books

World Library Foundation Communism Collection

Art Young His Life and Times (by John Nicholas Beffel)
Inscription for an Old Bed (by Morris, William)
The Class Struggle (Erfürt Program) (by Karl Kautsky)
Communism in the United States (by Browder, Earl Russell)
The Mark (by Engels, Friedrich)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint)
The Kymry : Their Origin, History, And I... (by Robert Owen)
The Days That Shook the World (by John Reed)
Through Russia (by Gorky, Maxim)
The Psychology of Political Violence (by Goldman, Emma)
Emma Goldman (by Goldman, Emma)
Facts on Communism : I- the Communist Id... Volume I- the Communist Ideology (by United States. Congress. House. Committee On Un-Am...)
What Is Property (by Proudhon, Pierre Joseph)
Zeitschrift Für Politische Psychologie U... (by Reich, Wilhelm (Hg.))
Patriotism : A Menace to Liberty (by Goldman, Emma)

Communism is the ideology and socioeconomic structure of common ownership of the means of production and the absence of state, money, and social classes. The umbrella of communism covers various schools of thought--including Marxism, Christian Communism, and Trotskyism to name a few--but they all share the same idea that the root of all of society’s problems is the conflict between the working class proletariat and the capitalist bourgeoisie.

The World Public Library has a 100-book collection of some of the most influential Communist and Communist-related works of the past couple of centuries, with works that range from political theory to autobiography to fiction. Below are some of the features.

The Poverty to Philosophy by Karl Marx is a critique on French socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Marx criticises Proudhon’s attempt to unite economic competition and monopoly, declaring it impossible. It laid the foundation for Marx’s later work, Das Capital, and established him as a leading intellectual figure of his time.

Patriotism, A Menace to Liberty by Emma Goldman is an essay on the idea of patriotism and how it is used to manipulate citizens. In it, Goldman writes,

… conceit, arrogance, and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot, consider themselves better, nobler, grander, more intelligent than the living beings inhabiting any other spot. (p. 5)

The Cry for Justice, edited by writer Upton Sinclair, is a collection of thought-provoking writings on social injustices and humanity’s struggle against them. It includes work from Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Dante, Euripides, and many more from over 25 languages and all genres of writing.

The Dogma of Christ by Erich Fromm is a collection of psychological and cultural essays which argue that in order to understand how society works, one must first understand basic human needs. Erich Fromm was a psychologist whose work was often said to have been the bridge between Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud.

Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy is a utopian novel about an American named Julian West who falls into a deep hypnotic sleep, and wakes up 113 years later in a socialist utopia. Thereafter, Bellamy outlines his thoughts about improving the future and the problems associated with capitalism. The sequel Equality was published almost ten years after.

By Thad Higa