BiblioVault - Books about Kapital

33 Lessons on Capital

Reading Marx Politically

Harry Cleaver

Pluto Press, 2019

This book provides an up-to-date reading of Capital Volume I, emphasizing the relevance of Marx's analysis to everyday twenty-first century struggles. Harry Cleaver's treatise outlines and critiques Marx's analysis chapter by chapter. His unique interpretation of Marx's labour theory of value reveals how every theoretical category of Capital designates aspects of class struggle in ways that help us resist and escape them. At the same time, while rooted within the tradition of workerism, he understands the working class to include not only the industrial proletariat but also unwaged peasants, housewives, children and students. A challenge to scholars and an invaluable resource for students and activists today.

[more]

The Concept in Crisis

Reading Capital Today

Nick Nesbitt, editor

Duke University Press, 2017

The publication of Reading Capital—by Louis Althusser, Étienne Balibar, Roger Establet, Pierre Macherey, and Jacques Rancière—in 1965 marked a key intervention in Marxist philosophy and critical theory, bringing forth a stunning array of concepts that continue to inspire philosophical reflection of the highest magnitude. The Concept in Crisis reconsiders the volume’s reading of Marx and renews its call for a critique of capitalism and culture for the twenty-first century. The contributors—who include Alain Badiou, Étienne Balibar, and Fernanda Navarro—interrogate Althusser's contributions in particular within the context of what is surely the most famous collective reading of Marx ever undertaken. Among other topics, they offer a symptomatic critique of Althusser; consider his writing as a materialist production of knowledge; analyze the volume’s conceptualization of value and crisis; examine how leftist Latin American leaders like Che Guevara and Subcomandante Marcos engaged with Althusser and Reading Capital; and draw out the volume's implications and use for feminist theory and praxis. Retrieving the inspiration that drove Althusser's reinterpretation of Marx, The Concept in Crisis explains why Reading Capital's revolutionary inflection retains its critical appeal, prompting readers to reconsider Marx's relevance in an era of neoliberal capitalism.

Contributors. Emily Apter, Alain Badiou, Étienne Balibar, Bruno Bosteels, Adrian Johnston, Warren Montag, Fernanda Navarro, Nick Nesbitt, Knox Peden, Nina Power, Robert J. C. Young

[more]

Economics Transformed

Discovering the Brilliance of Marx

Robert Albritton

Pluto Press, 2007

Robert Albritton brings to life the classic concepts in Marx's economic thought. As well as examining these essential points of Marxist theory, he shows that they offer great potential for further study. Deeply critical of the way economics is taught and studied today, this is a textbook that will appeal to anyone who wants

a forward-thinking approach to the discipline that's free from the constraints of neo-classical orthodoxy.

Taking up key aspects of Marx's work, including surplus value theory,dialectical reasoning and the commodity form, Albritton highlights their relevance in the modern world-and explains why mainstream economics has been so blind to their revolutionary potential. Written with style and clarity, it is perfect for economics undergraduates.

[more]

How to Read Marx's Capital

Stephen Shapiro

Pluto Press, 2008

Das Capital Volume 1 is essential reading on many undergraduate courses, but the structure and style of the book can be confusing for students, leading them to abandon the text. This book is a clear guide to reading Marx's classic text, which explains the reasoning behind the book's structure and provides help with the more technical aspects that non-economists may find taxing.

Students are urged to think for themselves and engage with Marx's powerful methods of argument and explanation. Shapiro shows that Capital is key to understanding critical theory and cultural production.

This highly focused book will prove invaluable to students of politics, cultural studies, and literary theory.

[more]

Marx's 'Capital'

Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho

Pluto Press, 2016

This brilliantly concise book has established itself over twenty-five years and five editions as the standard companion to Karl Marx’s most important work, the sprawling Capital. This new edition retains the features that have made it a crucial teaching tool—a clear explanation of the structure of Marx’s analysis, an exploration of his method and terminology, and the significance of his central concepts—while also bringing it fully up to date with the latest scholarship and a clearly written analysis of the continuing relevance of Capital to today’s ongoing discussions of politics, economics, and the struggles of capitalism.

[more]

Moneybags Must Be So Lucky

On the Literary Structure of Capital

Robert P. Wolff

University of Massachusetts Press, 1988

Karl Marx's great work, Capital, has intrigued and puzzled readers for more than a century by its mystifyingly intricate arguments and dramatic literary embellishments. In this book, Robert Paul Wolff dispels much of the mystery surrounding Capital by providing a literary-philosophical analysis of the text and of Marx's intentions.

[more]

The Scientific Marx

Daniel Little

University of Minnesota Press, 1986

The Scientific Marx was first published in 1986. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Marx advanced Capital to the public as a scientific explanation of the capitalist economy, intending it to be evaluated by ordinary standards of scientific adequacy. Today, however, most commentators emphasize Marx's humanism or his theory of historical materialism over his scientific claims. The Scientific Marx thus represents a break with many current views of Marx's analysis of capitalism in that it takes seriously his claim that Capital is a rigorous scientific investigation of the capitalist mode of production. Daniel Little discusses the main features of Marx's account, applying the tools of contemporary philosophy of science.

He analyzes Marx's views on theory and explanation in the social sciences, the logic of Marx's empirical practices, the relation between Capital and historical materialism, the centrality of micro-foundations in Marx's analysis, and the minimal role that dialectics plays in his scientific method. Throughout, Little relies on "evidence taken from Marx's actual practice as a social scientist rather than from his explicit methodological writings." The book contributes to current controversies in the literature of "analytic Marxism" joined by such authors as Jon Elster, G.A. Cohen, and John Roemer.

[more]

Understanding Capital

Marx’s Economic Theory

Duncan K. Foley

Harvard University Press, 1986

Understanding Capital is a brilliantly lucid introduction to Marxist economic theory. Duncan Foley builds an understanding of the theory systematically, from first principles through the definition of central concepts to the development of important applications. All of the topics in the three volumes of Capital are included, providing the reader with a complete view of Marxist economics.

Foley begins with a helpful discussion of philosophical problems readers often encounter in tackling Marx, including questions of epistemology, explanation, prediction, determinism, and dialectics. In an original extension of theory, he develops the often neglected concept of the circuit of capital to analyze Marx’s theory of the reproduction of capital. He also takes up central problems in the capitalist economy: equalization of the rates of profit (the “transformation problem”); productive and unproductive labor and the division of surplus value; and the falling rate of profit. He concludes with a discussion of the theory of capitalist crisis and of the relation of Marx’s critique of capitalism to his conception of socialism.

Through a careful treatment of the theory of money in relation to the labor theory of value, Foley clarifies the relation of prices to value and of Marx’s categories of analysis to conventional business and national income accounts, enabling readers to use Marx’s theory as a tool for the analysis of practical problems. The text is closely keyed throughout to the relevant chapters in Capital and includes suggestions for further reading on the topics discussed.

[more]