Phase 1: Foundations
- Rousseau – Discourse on Inequality
- Hegel – Phenomenology of Spirit (selections)
- Feuerbach – The Essence of Christianity (selections)
- Marx & Engels – Communist Manifesto; Capital (selections)
Phase 2: Revolutionary Practice
- Lenin – What is to be Done?
- Mao – On Practice; Cultural Revolution speeches
- Trotsky – The Permanent Revolution
Phase 3: Western Marxism
- Lukács – History and Class Consciousness
- Gramsci – Prison Notebooks (selections)
- Dutschke – speeches on the “long march”
Phase 4: Frankfurt School
- Adorno & Horkheimer – Dialectic of Enlightenment
- Marcuse – One-Dimensional Man; “Repressive Tolerance”
Phase 5: Poststructuralism
- Althusser – “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”
- Foucault – Discipline and Punish; History of Sexuality, Vol. 1
- Derrida – Of Grammatology (selections)
- Lacan – “The Mirror Stage”
Phase 6: Critical Pedagogy
- Freire – Pedagogy of the Oppressed
- Henry Giroux – Teachers as Intellectuals
- bell hooks – Teaching to Transgress
Phase 7: Feminism & Queer Theory
- Simone de Beauvoir – The Second Sex
- Shulamith Firestone – The Dialectic of Sex
- Judith Butler – Gender Trouble
- Sedgwick – Epistemology of the Closet
Phase 8: Postcolonial & Race
- Frantz Fanon – The Wretched of the Earth
- Edward Said – Orientalism
- Kimberlé Crenshaw – essays on intersectionality
- Derrick Bell – Faces at the Bottom of the Well
Phase 9: Strategy & Modern Practice
- Saul Alinsky – Rules for Radicals
- Contemporary DEI texts and training materials
- Recent CRT/queer/feminist pedagogical writings (hooks, Delgado, etc.)
Expanded Curriculum with Exact Selections & Additional Resources
Phase 1: Foundations
| Author | Work / Selection | Suggested Chapters / Passages | Supplementary Readings / Essays | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rousseau | Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality | Preface; Part I & II | Social Contract (Book I & II) | — |
| Hegel | Phenomenology of Spirit | Preface; “Master–Slave” dialectic | Philosophy of Right (selections) | — |
| Feuerbach | The Essence of Christianity | Chapters I–III | “Theses on Feuerbach” (Marx) | — |
| Marx & Engels | The Communist Manifesto | Entire work (short) | Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Preface 1859); selected from Capital(Vol. 1: e.g. chapters on commodity, surplus-value) | Goodreads: The Communist Manifesto(Goodreads) |
| Marx | Capital, Volume I | Chapter 1 (“Commodity”); Chapter 7 (“Surplus-value”) | Grundrisse (excerpts) | Product: Capital: Volume 1 |
Extras / Contextual works:
- Allen Oakley, The Making of Marx’s Critical Theory — helps you navigate Marx’s shifts and context. Product: The Making of Marx’s Critical Theory
- Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx: His Life and Environment (biographical lens)
- David McLellan, Marxism After Marx
Phase 2: Revolutionary Practice
| Author | Work | Selections / Focus | Supplementary | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lenin | What Is to Be Done? | Entire essay; especially sections on “vanguard party” | Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (first 2 chapters) | Online PDF versions exist in Russian and English |
| Trotsky | The Permanent Revolution | Full essay or book | Revolution Betrayed (critique of Stalinism) | — |
| Mao | On Practice & Contradiction | Short essays | On Guerrilla Warfare(selections) | — |
| Luxemburg | Reform or Revolution | Chapter on reformism vs revolution | Mass Strike, Party, and Trade Unions (excerpts) | — |
Extras:
- Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri, Multitude (post-Marx in globalization)
- Rosa Luxemburg, The Accumulation of Capital
Phase 3: Western Marxism
| Author | Work | Selections | Supplementary | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georg Lukács | History & Class Consciousness | “Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat” | Class and Consciousness (shorter essay) | — |
| Antonio Gramsci | Prison Notebooks | Selections: “Modern Prince,” “Hegemony,” “Intellectuals & Education” | Selections from the Prison Notebooks (edited anthology) | — |
| Rudi Dutschke | Speeches & essays | “Long March Through the Institutions” (essay) | Letters or interviews | — |
Extras:
- Celtics: Gramsci’s Political Thought by Roger Simon
- Elisabeth Hill, Antonio Gramsci: Towards an Intellectual Biography
Phase 4: Frankfurt School / Critical Theory
| Author | Work | Selections | Supplementary Works | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adorno & Horkheimer | Dialectic of Enlightenment | “The Concept of Enlightenment”; “The Culture Industry” | Minima Moralia(reflections) | Antology: Critical Theory: A Reader |
| Herbert Marcuse | One-Dimensional Man | Entire book or introduction + “Problems of the Future” | Eros & Civilization(excerpts) | — |
| Fromm, Benjamin, etc. | Essays in Critical Theory anthology | E.g. Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” | Walter Benjamin’s pamphlets | — |
Core anthology:
- Critical Theory: A Reader — a canonical anthology of key texts in critical theory.
Phase 5: Structuralism & Poststructuralism
| Author | Work | Key Selections | Supplementary | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louis Althusser | “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” | Full essay | On the Reproduction of Capitalism(excerpts) | PDF widely circulated |
| Michel Foucault | Discipline and Punish | “Panopticism” chapter; introduction | The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1 (first essays) | — |
| Derrida | Of Grammatology | Preface; “Writing before the Letter” | Margins of Philosophy (excerpts) | — |
| Lacan | “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I” | Single essay | Seminar excerpts (e.g., Seminar I: Freud’s Papers on Technique) | — |
Extras / supplementary readings:
- Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari, Anti-Oedipus / A Thousand Plateaus
- Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter (following Gender Trouble)
- Slavoj Žižek, The Sublime Object of Ideology
Phase 6: Critical Pedagogy
| Author | Work | Selections / Chapters | Supplementary Works | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paulo Freire | Pedagogy of the Oppressed | Preface; Chapter 1 & 2; “Banking vs. problem-posing” | Pedagogy of Hope(reflections) | Goodreads: Pedagogy of the Oppressed(Goodreads) |
| Henry Giroux | Teachers as Intellectuals | Introduction; chapter on critical pedagogy | Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life (1988) (Wikipedia) | — |
| bell hooks | Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom | Preface; chapter on engaged pedagogy | Teaching Community(essays) | — |
| Additional | On Critical Pedagogy(anthology) | Selected essays | — | Product: On Critical Pedagogy |
Other related works:
- Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed (drama & pedagogy)
- Henry A. Giroux, On Critical Pedagogy (for newer essays)
Phase 7: Feminism, Gender, Queer Theory
| Author | Work | Key Sections | Supplementary Works | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simone de Beauvoir | The Second Sex | Introduction; Chapter 1–2 (biology, myth) | “Existence precedes essence” essays | — |
| Shulamith Firestone | The Dialectic of Sex | Part I & II | Feminist manifestos | — |
| Judith Butler | Gender Trouble | Preface; Chapter 1 & 4 | Bodies That Matter (excerpts) | — |
| Eve Sedgwick | Epistemology of the Closet | Introduction; selected chapters | Between Men (essays) | — |
Additional:
- bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody
- Kimberlé Crenshaw, Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality (essay)
Phase 8: Postcolonial & Race
| Author | Work | Key Selections | Supplementary Works | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frantz Fanon | The Wretched of the Earth | “On Violence”; “Colonial War and Mental Disorders” | Black Skin, White Masks(psychoanalytic approach) | Goodreads listing: Wretched of the Earth(Goodreads) |
| Edward Said | Orientalism | Introduction; Part I & II | Culture and Imperialism(essays) | — |
| Kimberlé Crenshaw & CRT | “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality”(essay) | Full article | Critical Race Theory: Key Writings (anthology) | Many PDFs online |
| Derrick Bell | Faces at the Bottom of the Well | Selected stories / introduction | Race, Racism and American Law (chapters) | — |
Extras:
- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak? (essay)
- Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (excerpts)
Phase 9: Strategy, Organizing & Contemporary Wokeism
| Author / Source | Work | Selections / Focus | Supplementary Materials | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saul Alinsky | Rules for Radicals | Preface; early chapters on tactics & “Power” | Interviews or shorter essays | Rules for Radicals widely available in print |
| Contemporary DEI / HR & activist texts | (Various) | DEI training manuals, institutional statements | Critical evaluation essays | — |
| Derek R. Ford | Teaching the Actuality of Revolution | Entire book (short) | — | PDF: Teaching the Actuality of Revolution (Iskra) (Wikipedia) |
| Collections / Anthologies | Critical Theory anthologies, CRT readers | Select essays across domains | — | — |
Key anthologies / collections:
Suggested Reading Order & Tips
- Start with short foundational works (e.g. The Communist Manifesto, Freire’s Pedagogy) before diving into denser texts like Capital or Dialectic of Enlightenment.
- Use anthologies (like Critical Theory: A Reader) early on to get exposure to multiple voices; skip around.
- Always read prefaces, introductions, and chapter summaries first to frame the text.
- Pair theory with contextual/critical commentary (biographies, secondary sources) to avoid misinterpretation.
- Maintain a “journal” or reading log to track how later texts respond to earlier ones (e.g. Foucault’s critique of Marx, Butler’s critique of Foucault).