Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1 (Penguin Classics)

Marx was ahead of his time with this in depth critique of political economy

There is an enormous collection of valuable information in volume 1 of Marx's Capital. Volume 1, moreover, serves very effectively as the first of three volumes in which Marx gives truly compelling evidence of his genius -- how else could one author come to terms with this massive account of the reality of capitalist production as Marx uniquely understands it? While it soon becomes abundantly clear that Marx was a master prose stylist, there is no mistaking the fact that he did not write for the ease and convenience of his readers. I can't imagine taking the full measure of this volume, much less the two volumes which follow, without the sustained help of explanatory material such as that provided by David Harvey, a veteran American academician who takes Marx very seriously indeed. Without question, even for exceptionally well informed and intellectually capable readers, this book is a bear. If you invest the substantial amount of time and prodigious effort needed to master it, you will definitely come to understand why Marxists become Marxists, and you may very well become one yourself. At the very least, you'll see the world differently, and you'll have a firmer grasp on the character of our contemporary world, not just its economic make-up, but in a socially expansive way. It's hard to imagine anyone reading the book carefully and with a modicum of understanding and coming away with the judgment that this is merely an ideologically motivated, long-winded exercise in willful self-deception and the deception of others. If you encounter someone who characterized Marx as a willfully wrong-headed ideologue, you may safely assume that you're dealing with someone who has not read Capital. Capital Volume 1 is, in fact, a richly informative and very difficult piece of world-class research. I imagine that most readers who take its full measure will come back to it again and again. I can't imagine doing justice to Capital Volume 1 without putting forth the kind of effort that makes for the creation of a life-long connection. Marx himself claims to have sacrificed his health, happiness, and family to writing the book. This has the pathetic sound of self-pitying exaggeration. But given what I know of Marx and the necessarily prodigious demands of the kind of work he produced, I'm sure he's being dispassionately truthful. You may be disappointed to find that Capital is much less polemical than it is rigorously analytical. That was my first response. For the long term, however, I realized the book is a keeper, and I acknowledged that I'd have to look elsewhere for a call-to-arms that is not also embedded in massive learning. It's true, of course that Marx was an active professional revolutionary, but he was also a world-class scholar with a prodigiously cultivated mind. Reading Marx makes me want to spend a year or two in the library of the British Museum, where Marx did his best scholarship. Marx and Charles Darwin exchanged fairly frequent correspondence. Everyone knows that Darwin transformed our understanding of the world and our place in it. Much the same is true of Marx's contribution to human knowledge. It's interesting to acknowledge that social and religious conservatism were barriers to the rightful dissemination of both. That Marx maintained an ongoing relationship with others of undeniable genius, such as Darwin, bespeaks Marx's own intellectual prowess and reflects his status as a wonderfully original thinker. In his own authentic way, Marx was at least as much a brilliant scientist as Darwin. Darwin changed the way we thought about ourselves, but Marx changed the way we live.

I don't know what this book is about. It was a request for a gift and he loved it

delivered with no damage, book itself - go figure it out

Karl Marx spent ten years researching and writing Vol. 1 of Capital. He had originally assembled notes, letters, and manuscripts for six volumes, later paired down to two volumes (2 and 3), which he was unable to complete in his lifetime. After Marx's death, it was left to his close collaborator and friend, Frederick Engels, to edit and compile those for publication. I want to re-iterate what several other reviewers have already stated about what Capital is, but most importantly what it is NOT. It's secondary title is 'A Critique of Political Economy', that is: a highly developed criticism of the classical political economists that preceded Marx, primarily Adam Smith, David Riccardo, Thomas Malthus, Jean-Baptiste Say, John Stuart Mills, etc. and the system (capitalism) they sought to explain. It is NOT The Communist Manifesto, that is: it is NOT a 'communistic' or socialist 'program'. In fact, as others have previously stated, socialism is only mentioned once in Ernest Mandel's excellent introduction to this edition. In Capital, Marx's presents a devastating analysis of the 'capitalist mode of production' that, in light of the world wide economic crash of '08 (and continuing crises), is as relevant today as it was when first published in 1867. Further, the results of and failures,(both perceived and real) of the previously existing 'socialist/communist' states are completely irrelevant when judging the validity of both Marx's analytical method (dialectical materialism) and his conclusions about the 'capitalist mode of production'. When, in an interview with The Wall St. Journal, respected (and intellectually honest) bourgeois economist, Nuriel Roubini, declared that "Karl Marx said it right...capitalism can self-destruct", he was truthfully admitting what Marx had made evident 140 years ago. [...] If one wants to understand the roots and causes of economic crises, environmental destruction, gross wealth inequality, poverty, never ending wars and militarism, racism, sexism, unemployment, hunger and misery for billions across the globe, look inside Marx's Capital. It holds the key to unlocking those answers. I highly recommend (as several other reviewers have) David Harvey's excellent (free) on-line companion video series, 'Reading Marx's Capital'. Harvey is especially good when he relates what Marx wrote about in Capital to modern society today. davidharvey.org

The most important book ever written. Be sure to read it in a reading group with other comrades. This is a tough text to tackle completely on your own.

The book came in perfect conditions

ある程度の語学力は必要だが、新日本出版の新版資本論に比べ、はるかにわかりやすい。もっとも、新日本の方も、訳の参考に必携ではあるが。

Sermayenin yıkıcı ve diyalektik bir eleştirisi. İkinci ve üçüncü ciltleri de mutlaka ardı ardına (ve sonra tekrar tekrar) okunmalı.

Leitura muito rica.