Tag Archives | Derek Le Page

THE SPHERE AND DUTIES OF GOVERNMENT

By Wilhelm von Humboldt
Read by Derek Le Page

8 hours 36 minutes

Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) now lives under the shadow cast by his more famous brother Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859, naturalist, explorer, geographer and much else) but Wilhelm was an important figure in Prussian-German history in his own right. He contributed considerably through his work as a diplomat, educationalist (he was one of the principal founders of the Humboldt University of Berlin), philologist and linguist. Continue Reading →

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL STUDY AND THE FUTURE OF AN ILLUSION

By Sigmund Freud
Read by Derek Le Page
5 hours 1 minutes

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) reveals himself, in this autobiography which is simultaneously an account of the early history of psychoanalysis, to have been an outsider from the start. This fascinating account describes the journey of a young, Jewish doctor setting out to find his way in the world of professional medicine, his relationships and collaborations, friendships made and lost and his investigations into cocaine, hypnosis and the cathartic method which contributed to the evolution of his conceptual framework and practices. Continue Reading →

THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS IN ENGLAND IN 1844

By Friedrich Engels
Read by Derek Le Page
14 hours 45 minutes

This remarkable account has had an enduring influence on social and economic studies, and has remained in print since its first English publication in 1885. It was written, in German, by a youthful Friedrich Engels, the son of a German industrialist, who was already concerned – even angered – by the conditions he saw inflicted on the working classes as the Industrial Revolution gathered momentum. Continue Reading →

THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO

By Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Read by Derek Le Page
4 hours 7 minutes

It could be argued that few documents have had such a considerable effect on the course of world social and political history as the Manifesto of the Communist Party written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and published in 1848. The social structures of the 19th century were undergoing considerable change yet even so it was over half a century before Communism claimed its first scalp with the 1917 Russian Revolution. Continue Reading →

CAPITAL Volume 3

By Karl Marx
Read by Derek Le Page
50 hours 4 minutes

After the detailed history and workings of the development of capitalism in Capital Volumes I and 2, Marx set out, in Capital Volume 3 to consider the future of capitalism, its direction and its inevitable fall from a series of crises and faults intrinsic to the system itself. Published in 1894, 11 years after the death of Marx himself, Capital Volume 3 was the product of the untiring and meticulous work of Friedrich Engels working from Marx’s outline and notes and carried the subtitle The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. Continue Reading →

Derek Le Page

FORMATIVE EARLY WRITINGS

FORMATIVE EARLY WRITINGS

By Karl Marx
Read by Derek Le Page
12 hours 22 minutes

Though Karl Marx is best known for Capital and The Communist Manifesto, his revolutionary thoughts and ideas had developed over decades spent in study, discussion and association with a variety of organisations throughout Europe and the US, intent on challenging the establishment order. Continue Reading →

CAPITAL Volume 1

By Karl Marx
Read by Derek Le Page
43 hours 04 minutes

It can be said of very few books that the world was changed as a result of its publication – but this is certainly the case of Capital, Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx (1818-1883). Volume 1 appeared (in German) in 1867, and the two subsequent volumes appeared at later dates after the author’s death Continue Reading →

CAPITAL Volume 2

By Karl Marx
Read by Derek Le Page
29 hours 34 minutes

It was the close friendship and professional association between Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that enabled Marx’s full vision presented in Capital: A Critique of Political Economy to come to fruition. Following Marx’s death in 1883, Engels was able to step into the breach and, drawing on Marx’s extensive notes and writings, complete Volume 2 of Capital, leading to its publication in 1885. Here, Marx turns his attention to the money owner, the money lender, the wholesale merchant, the trader and the entrepreneur or ‘functioning capitalist. Continue Reading →

ON THE ENDS OF GOOD AND EVIL

By Marcus Tullius Cicero
Read by Derek Le Page
9 hours 8 minutes

Towards the end of his life, and his career as one of the leading politicians and orators in Rome, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BCE-43 BCE) was exiled to his country house. It was a time of political turmoil in the capital of the Empire caused by the power-grab of Julius Caesar. Continue Reading →

THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

By Sigmund Freud
Read by Derek Le Page
25 hours 49 minutes

The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud is one of the most significant books of the 20th century. Though dreams and their role in human consciousness have been a continuing thread in religion and art and life down the centuries, Freud’s look at the subject through the prism of his emerging practice and study of psychoanalysis provided a startlingly new and challenging perspective. Continue Reading →

THREE ESSAYS ON THE THEORY OF SEXUALITY, BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE, THE EGO AND THE ID

By Sigmund Freud
Read by Derek Le Page
8 hours 52 minutes

Here are three key works by Sigmund Freud which, published in the first decades of the 20th century, underpinned his developing views and had such a dramatic effect on world society. In the uncompromising Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905) he declared that ‘sexual aberrations’ are not limited to the insane but exist in ‘normal’ people to a greater or lesser degree. Continue Reading →

THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF EVERYDAY LIFE

By Sigmund Freud
Read by Derek Le Page
8 hours 6 minutes

The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, which appeared first in 1901 and was then expanded in a series of subsequent editions, has proved to be one of Freud’s most popular works, and one of his most influential during his lifetime. It was here that he proposed that many slips and errors of memory common to the average man in everyday life actually signals unconscious issues that beset the individual, and, if examined, can be extremely revealing. Continue Reading →

UTILITARIANISM • ON LIBERTY

By John Stuart Mill
Read by Derek Le Page
8 hours 49 minutes

John Stuart Mill (1808-1873) was a torch-bearer for liberal thought in the 19th century: liberty of the individual, freedom of speech, a champion for women’s suffrage in Parliament. A remarkable man – he learnt Greek aged three, and by eight had read Herodotus, Xenophon and Plato – he campaigned all his life for a just society. Continue Reading →