From Catechism To Class Consciousness: How Marxism Was Taught with Edward Barring

About this episode

The episode explores how Marxism was taught as a mass educational project to develop class consciousness.

What if the real engine of socialist history wasn’t just theory, but teaching? We sit down with historian Edward Baring to trace a vivid, often-misread story: Marxism as a mass educational project designed to turn scattered grievances into class consciousness. From best-selling primers that outsold Capital to study circles in factories and party schools, we unpack how organizers taught at scale—and why the word “vulgar” once critiqued bad teaching, not bad thinking. We map the fault line bet...

People in this episode

Host: C. Derick Varn

Guest: Edward Baring

Topics covered

• Marxism
• education
• class consciousness
• socialism
• historical analysis

Keywords

• Marxism
• education
• class consciousness
• socialist history
• study circles

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Capital

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