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Das Kapital (Das Kapital #1)

by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels (Editor), Serge L. Levitsky (Introduction)

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 5,526 ratings · 257 reviews

Pt 1: Commodities & Money
1.1 Ch 1: The Commodity
1.1.1 Sect 1. The Two Factors of the Commodity: Use-Value & Value (Substance of Value/Magnitude of Value)
1.1.2 Sect 2. The Dual Character of the Labor Embodied in Commodities
1.1.3 Sect 3. The Value-Form or Exchange-Value
1.1.3.1 a) The Simple, Isolated or Accidental Form of Value
1.1.3.2 b) The Total or Expanded Form...more

Paperback, Abridged, 356 pages

Published July 1st 1996 by Gateway Editions (first published 1867)

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Aug 30, 2012 Hadrian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: economics-finance-business, history, nonfiction, politics-and-foreign-policy, society-and-culture, germany

How could one give a star-rating to Das Kapital? It stands, with Marx's canon, as one of the most influential books in history, perhaps rivaling only some religious texts. With three stars, I think I will have reached a compromise which will offend everyone.

Das Kapital is Marx's attempt to codify and transmit his collected observations on the state of capitalism. This is a far cry from the soaring rhetoric of the Manifesto - its aim is to be both a systematic critique of capitalism as well as an...more

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Dec 10, 2008 Bart rated it 3 of 5 stars

Had Marx avoided moral judgments in this tome, had he stuck only to symptoms of capitalism’s maladies, this book might still be read in the West today. Instead, Marx and his labor theory of value are considered discredited by economics departments and worthy of little more than synopses and essays about the work – Das Kapital is still cited by many and read by none – and this is probably because Marx’s moral remedy led to greater woes than capitalism did.

This book is also too long by about 2/3....more Had Marx avoided moral judgments in this tome, had he stuck only to symptoms of capitalism’s maladies, this book might still be read in the West today. Instead, Marx and his labor theory of value are considered discredited by economics departments and worthy of little more than synopses and essays about the work – Das Kapital is still cited by many and read by none – and this is probably because Marx’s moral remedy led to greater woes than capitalism did.

This book is also too long by about 2/3. I would recommend reading it the following way: Review the title and first two pages of each chapter. If you grasp what Marx is after, move along to the next chapter – otherwise, keep reading until you do have a grasp on it. Marx will repeat himself tirelessly and occasionally leaven things with mathematical formulae that are entirely unnecessary for a contemporary reader. If you’re reading Das Kapital for its economics insights, you may skip large parts of the book’s second half. If you are reading it for a condemnation of the moral failures of free-market capitalism, you may skip large parts of the book’s first half – and most of the first halves of each chapter.

Is this book still timely in some of its observations? Absolutely. Is it worth the 40 or so hours it takes to read cover-to-cover? Probably not.

Here are the book’s two greatest insights, I believe:

1. The farther money moves from human labor, the more dangerous it becomes.
2. At every moment capitalism reduces the value of every existing commodity and subsequently the value of every skill set required to provide it.

The overarching insight that Marx had about capitalism, the one we’re contending with right now, is that it eventually cannibalizes itself.

Trouble is, Marx insisted on putting faces on the system. He insisted on chronicling the immorality of some English capitalists of the 1860s. In so doing, he failed to predict today’s United States of America: Everybody is a participant, an exploiter and an exploited, and all are ruined by the system. Today’s corporate officer works 100 hours/week. Today’s lower middle-class laborer works 40 hours/week. One envies the other’s wealth. One envies the other’s time. Neither is fulfilled or content. Both realize capitalism’s constant revolution and reinvention will render them obsolete at least once in their lives.

Capitalism’s fundamental instability is incompatible with human contentment.

But the acceleration of capitalism’s cycles is not something Marx explicitly predicted. Make no mistake, though: Were Marx able to stand in the middle of today’s Manhattan and behold the meltdown of a commissions-based economy in which trillions of dollars are made by electronically moving capital from one place to another, he would say, “What took so long?”(less)

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Jun 03, 2010 Rowland Bismark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Karl Marx's Capital can be read as a work of economics, sociology and history. He addresses a myriad of topics, but is most generally trying to present a systematic account of the nature, development, and future of the capitalist system. There is a strong economic focus to this work, and Marx addresses the nature of commodities, wages and the worker-capitalist relationship, among other things. Much of this work tries to show the ways in which workers are exploited by the capitalist mode of produ...more Karl Marx's Capital can be read as a work of economics, sociology and history. He addresses a myriad of topics, but is most generally trying to present a systematic account of the nature, development, and future of the capitalist system. There is a strong economic focus to this work, and Marx addresses the nature of commodities, wages and the worker-capitalist relationship, among other things. Much of this work tries to show the ways in which workers are exploited by the capitalist mode of production. He also provides a history of past exploitations. Marx argues that the capitalist system is ultimately unstable, because it cannot endlessly sustain profits. Thus, it provides a more technical background to some of his more generally accessible works, like The Communist Manifesto.

This study guide focuses on one component of Capital, Marx's schema of how the capitalist system functions. Marx argues that commodities have both a use-value and an exchange-value, and that their exchange-value is rooted in how much labor-power went into them. While traditionally people bought commodities in order to use them, capitalists use commodities differently. Their final goal is increased profit. Therefore, they put out money and buy commodities, in order to sell those commodities for a profit. The cycle then repeats itself. The reason why the capitalists are able to make a profit is that they only need to pay workers their value (how much it takes to keep them functional), but the workers produce more than that amount in a day. Thus, the workers are exploited. The capitalists are able to do this because they have more power, and control the means of production. Furthermore, the workers' character is negatively affected by the system. They don't own the products of their labor, and the repetitive work they have to do makes them little more than machines.

Marx presents several definitions that will be important throughout his work, so it is very important to be clear on their meanings. A use-value corresponds to the usefulness of an object, and is internal to that object. For example, a hammer is a use-value because of its contributions to building. Its use-value comes from its usefulness. In contrast, a hammer's exchange-value comes from its value relative to other objects. For example, a hammer might be worth two screwdrivers. An object doesn't have an exchange value in itself, but only in its relationship with other objects.

However, the fact that the hammer and screwdriver can be exchanged at all suggests that there must be something common between them, some means of comparison. Marx says that this is the object's value. Value means the amount of labor it takes to make the commodities. This labor theory of value is very important to Marx's theory. It implies that the price of commodities comes from how much labor was put into them. One implication of this is that objects with natural use-value, such as forests and other natural resources, do not have value because no labor went into them. One problematic question, then, is how such natural resources can have exchange-value (people do spend money on them) without benefiting from labor. It is also important to consider how Marx's conception of the roots of exchange value differs from modern economic theory. In modern theory, something's exchange value is rooted in people's subjective preferences. While the amount of labor required would be linked to the supply curve of a commodity, its exchange value is also determined by the demand curve. Marx focuses exclusively on labor.

This book also gives a general sense of Marx's approach in Capital.Here he dissects one aspect of the modern capitalist system and presents a schema for understanding why it functions as it does. Later Marx will analyze things like the role of money and the capitalist. While this book makes many historical and sociological arguments, it is largely a book of economic theory and its implications.

One thing to consider when thinking about Marx's characterization of capitalism is where this capitalistic ethic came from. Marx says that capitalists have an endless need for more money, and that the system of capitalism requires and perpetuates this attitude. Even if this is true, however, it does not explain how capitalism developed in the first place. What made people view M' as an end in itself? Where does this thirst for profit come from? Marx's description does not spend a lot of time explaining how people could have come to develop these ideas. This limitation is a potential theoretical difficulty.

Marx spends a lot of time discussing the ways in which capitalism is rooted in social institutions. Capitalism is not natural, but rather depends upon social structures, such as property laws. One social factor that is very important for Marx's theory is that the workers don't own the means of production. Because of this, they must sell their labor to others. It is precisely because workers do own their own labor that they are able to give up all claims to it, by selling it as property. As a result, they don't own the commodities they produce; somebody else owns their labor and the products of that labor. The result is that workers become alienated from their labor—they do not control or own what they create. In Marx's framework, labor-power is a commodity in the market. Its value is determined in the same way as for other commodities, and it is used by capitalists as another commodity in the production process.

Marx's labor theory of value becomes very important when looking at the commodity of labor-power. A hammer's value comes from the amount of labor put into it. What, then, is labor-power's value? Marx applies the definition of value—its value is the amount of labor needed to produce and sustain labor-power. Or more simply, it is the amount of labor needed to keep the laborer alive and functioning at his capacity. Let's say that a worker needs $100/week to survive and function. The value of his labor-power is, therefore, $100/week as well. A worker's "price" (his wage) must be at least $100/week in order for the worker to be paid at value. This concept will be very important in later chapters, when Marx will try to show that it is possible to exploit labor.

Marx's labor theory of value again makes an appearance, as he tries to explain a seeming paradox. A capitalist purchases all of the inputs needed to make a commodity (labor-power, raw materials, etc.) at their value. He also sells the end-product at its value. If this is the case, where does the surplus value come from? If there's no surplus value, then capitalism cannot exist, because there would be no profit. Marx's answer comes from the unique character of labor- power. Labor-power's use-value (what it can create) is not the same thing as its exchange-value (what is needed to sustain the worker). A worker sells himself at his value, but he produces more than this value. In this way, the capitalist gains surplus-value. This is significant, because it explains how exploitation can occur as the result of a series of freely made trades. The worker could complain that he is not being paid for the value of what he produces. However, the capitalist can reply that the worker is being paid his value. Once the worker is paid for a day's work, the capitalist has the right to use him for a day. Justice is part of the overall mode of production of the times, and as a result, this exchange can be considered "just."

Why do the workers put up with such exploitation? Couldn't they demand higher wages, that match the value their labor-power produces? Marx's answer is that the workers don't have the capacity to work without the capitalists; they require factories and other means of production. The workers are selling an abstract capacity to labor, and because of this, the capitalist is able to exploit them by only paying labor-power's value. Consider whether you think Marx's characterization of the labor market is fair. Does labor have the ability to fight exploitation and set wages closer to the value of what they produce? Think of this both historically and theoretically.

An important theme in Marx's work is class tension. According to Marx, all of history has been defined by class conflict. Modern times are no different in this regard, and are defined by tension between the capitalist and the worker. Marx describes one source of this tension in this chapter, as he mentions again the asymmetry between the use-value and exchange-value of labor-power (already discussed in Chapter 7). In this class conflict, the capitalists are the stronger class. This allows them to exert more force and define what workers will be paid. However, the fact that they are the stronger class does not simply give capitalists more bargaining power. Rather, social institutions such as property laws are defined to support the capitalists' needs. The mode of production reflects the economic system of capitalism. It will continue to do so, and continue to favor the capitalists, until it self-destructs.

It is important to realize that the capitalists cannot behave differently; there will always be tension between them and the workers. The very essence of a capitalist is his desire to gain surplus-value. The only way to do so is to exploit workers by failing to pay workers for the full value of what they produce. In order to survive, the capitalist must exploit. Thus, the tension between workers and capitalists is structural. The capitalist system requires exploitation. Measures to ease workers' hardships, such as a minimum wage or welfare are simply band-aids; they cannot change what a capitalist is.(less)

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Dec 21, 2007 Jacob marked it as to-read · review of another edition Recommends it for: cute Marxist girls (call me)

I bought two copies of this book. I gave one copy to my girlfriend. We agreed to read it together. We never did. We broke up. I still have a copy. And so does she. Karl Marx ruins relationships by putting undue pressure on them to perform. I think, if I am ever to be in real a relationship again, I will have to work out my problems with Marxism first. I will post an ad on craigslist. It will say this:

Man with commitment issues and problems understanding the causal relationship between labour and...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Keith added it · review of another edition

I read this while in High School and at the time I thought the ideas where good but as I have grown older I have found that the ideas of Marx are incompatible with the driving forces of man. We would need to go through a radical evolution of mind to even be able to adopt any of Marx and if you take his ideas and apply them to a microcosm of individual families you can see the break down pretty quickly.

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Jul 19, 2012 Michael Gerald rated it 1 of 5 stars

I have four sentences for you, Marx. You were a BAD, BAD writer and an even worse economist, if you can be called that. Your "scientific socialism" is anything but scientific. Your half-baked theories spawned some of the world's worst creatures to come up from the gutter and inflict so much suffering and evil. And you got almost everything wrong.

So my final words to you are: go f@*k yourself in your grave.

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Jan 27, 2008 nick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hot_joints

I have to say, this joint is bangin'. I find it useful when I'm in the club. P.S. Check out the total or expanded form of value. It's defective!

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Mar 28, 2013 Koen rated it 5 of 5 stars

More relevant than ever!

Capitalism is a system that will pass, just like other systems have passed, and maybe with the current global crisis we've finally hit the boundaries of it. Tragically communism (or the totalitarian regimes they made of it) wasn't the answer either, but Markx is a visionairy man and should be read and reinterpreted by everyone who is concerned about the welfare of our planet. (..or how an ever-growing economy has to clash with finite resources sooner or later)

Marx basical...more

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Oct 24, 2007 Savuth4u added it · review of another edition Recommends it for: The Political Economy

This is the most important book for economist

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Aug 05, 2012 Lauren Sheil rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just finished reading “Capital”, Karl Marx’s seminal work on political economy originally published in 1867 toward the end of the industrial revolution. The following is a summary of quotes from the book that I’ve been tweeting for the past few days along with my impressions and comments on each.

“The country that is more developed industrially only shows, to the less developed, the image of its own future.” #marx

Throughout the book Marx appears to me to be similar on tone to all the great dev...more

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Nov 19, 2010 Kevin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have been reading this book for way too long. However, it has been a worthwhile experience, revealing the provenance of many leftist values that I may have had sympathy for, but admittedly did not fully understand because I lacked an understanding of origin. Not saying I'm a doctrinaire Marxist now, but that is exactly the whole point of reading Marx at this juncture in the state of leftist social theory/politics... To read it from an non-dogmatic perspective. I think if you do this, Marx has...more

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Aug 12, 2009 Scott rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this book for one of my classes at the U. Here is the best summary of the book I could find:
The central driving force of capitalism, according to Marx, was in the exploitation and alienation of labour. The ultimate source of capitalist profits and surplus was the unpaid labor of wage laborers. Employers could appropriate the new output value because of their ownership of the productive capital assets—protected by the state. By producing output as capital for the employers, the workers con...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Erik Graff rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Erik by: David Schweickart

Shelves: political-social-science

I had long avoided reading Das Kapital because I thought it would be too mathematically advanced for me. Taking courses with the Marxist philosopher and mathematician, David Schweickart, induced me to make the effort since his assignments and my own readings of Marx had already become pretty extensive and the avoidance of his most important text seemed silly. So, on my own now, I began carrying the tome about in my backpack, reading most of it at Jim's Deli across Sheridan Road from the Lake Sho...more

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Mar 31, 2008 Nate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy-and-theory, commie-pinko

A friend of mine dissed me to another friend, said I read this book the way some people read the bible. I do think it's a super important book, historically and in helping us understand capitalism in the present. An Italian writer who I like, Antonio Negri, said that one of the best reasons to read this book is for the sense of class hatred it instills. Of course, there other sources for that, but this is a useful one.

Capital volume one is the only volume Marx finished himself. The other volume...more A friend of mine dissed me to another friend, said I read this book the way some people read the bible. I do think it's a super important book, historically and in helping us understand capitalism in the present. An Italian writer who I like, Antonio Negri, said that one of the best reasons to read this book is for the sense of class hatred it instills. Of course, there other sources for that, but this is a useful one.

Capital volume one is the only volume Marx finished himself. The other volumes were put together from notes and drafts after his death. This volume focuses on waged labor. Marx's basic point is that workers produce more than their paid. My friend Pat has a useful analogy about a toothpaste factory that I think is good on explaining how this is a conflict built in to capitalist society.

There's a lot more to it than that, though. In my opinion the best way to read this book if you're struggling is to read it fast in a group. Treat the group like AA - together you are kicking the habit of not reading Capital. Start with chapter 26 because the ending is gory and exciting. Then start over at chapter one. Hopefully the outrage from the ending will keep you going for the long boring slog of the first 100 pages or so. When you get to the end, hurray for you. Then go back over the stuff you didn't really understand. Hopefully that won't be the entire book. Most of the passages that were confusing the first time around will make more sense after you're read all of the book.

This is not to say Marx is perfect or gets everything exactly right. I find his political views kind of dull and his attitude toward women workers (often sounds like reproductive work isn't work and like waged women workers should be sent back home) is stupid. And Marx doesn't contribute much here in the way of organizational efforts to end capitalism. Still, this is one of the most important books or possibly the most important for understanding capitalist society. And once in a while it's kind of funny.
(less)

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Dec 18, 2007 Sean rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think one of the great misconceptions about Capital is that it is dry and difficult. Many people seem to think that reading it would be a chore. Not true. I think if you were to read it on your own or in a study group, you’d find it funny, engaging and not all that hard. It assumes perhaps a small amount of understanding of classical political economy (Malthus, Smith, Ricardo, etc) but not much. I’d say if you’re going to read it, read it in a group, because some of the ideas need to be worked...more

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Mar 01, 2009 Ira added it

"Moreover, all progress in capitalistic agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the labourer, but of robbing the soil; all progress in increasing the fertility of the soil for a given time, is a progress towards ruining the lasting sources of that fertility. The more a country starts its development on the foundation of modern industry, like the United States, for example, the more rapid is this process of destruction. Capitalist production, therefore, developes technology, and...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Robert rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Earlier I rated 2 stars to an inferior and incomplete (first 3 parts plus about 25% pf part 4) publication of Capital by Pacific Publishing 2010. This is my complete review since picking up a full version (with quality pagination and typographic design):

The book was excruciating at first. Marx goes over in detail and in repetition what seem to me very simple concepts. He employs a lot of repetition throughout the book, but the first quarter of this book was pretty painful. That said there are so...more Earlier I rated 2 stars to an inferior and incomplete (first 3 parts plus about 25% pf part 4) publication of Capital by Pacific Publishing 2010. This is my complete review since picking up a full version (with quality pagination and typographic design):

The book was excruciating at first. Marx goes over in detail and in repetition what seem to me very simple concepts. He employs a lot of repetition throughout the book, but the first quarter of this book was pretty painful. That said there are some common sense ideas that Marx did help clarify for me.

Not everything advanced by Marx is necessarily so elementary, but there certainly wasn't anything earth-shattering in here for me. It is evident that a lot of this is due to the book's importance and popularity (i.e., many of these ideas have come my way via third parties directly or indirectly influenced by Marx). There's some good perspective in here on the nature of industry in Marx's time, and some important historical connections in the preceding centuries. Particularly piercing analysis in the latter-middle of the book about the soul-crippling nature of "detail labourers" in manufacture is also good, this is then followed by analysis of many different segments of the working class. He hits you hard over the head with documentation, and excerpts thereof, about the condition of the working class in his time. This is followed by historical analysis of the "pre-history" of capital (i.e., so-called "primitive accumulation"), which is bursting at the seems with historical concepts that continue to loom large among the modern left (and beyond... it is very interesting to consider that some of these economic ideas are also embraced by the right. When I have time I'll share some notes with examples of what I mean).

This edition also adds an originally scrapped "Part 7" as well as some other "Isolated Fragments" tacked on to the end.

I anticipate the value of this book increases after considering Marx's full argument -- through parts 2 and 3 -- but for now, standing on its own, I can not give it more than 3 stars because of the monotony in the beginning, and the over-use of repetition. In 2012, I feel the whole work could be condensed much further.(less)

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May 16, 2013 Austin Wimberly rated it 5 of 5 stars

I gave this book five stars for the influence it continues to have. Despite the fall of communist regimes around the world (and I realize there's a whole other debate about whether or not those regimes were truly Marxist), the ideas of Marx continue to play out in various social phenomena in the modern world, even if we don't label those phenomena "Marxist." For example, the buy local movement (and I'm a buy local kind of guy) is vaguely Marxist. It's an appeal to decentralize capital and give l...more I gave this book five stars for the influence it continues to have. Despite the fall of communist regimes around the world (and I realize there's a whole other debate about whether or not those regimes were truly Marxist), the ideas of Marx continue to play out in various social phenomena in the modern world, even if we don't label those phenomena "Marxist." For example, the buy local movement (and I'm a buy local kind of guy) is vaguely Marxist. It's an appeal to decentralize capital and give labor more ownership over the means of production. So, a familiarity with Marx helps to identify Marxist ideas in today's society, and there may be some use there for people who like to label things. Familiarity with Marx also allows a person to understand when the word "Marxist" is being thrown around more as a pejorative than as a truly descriptive adjective.

For me, the high points of the book were learning about Marx's M-C-M idea of money and learning about his theory of surplus value. As a working stiff, I'd actually come to some of the same conclusions (I'm being exploited when I work and I'm exploiting others when I pay for labor) although for different reasons. For Marx, the exploitation is one of pure math. The capitalist enters into contract for so much labor and then, through a kind of slight of hand, doesn't pay labor for all the hours worked. That unpaid labor becomes "surplus-value" which goes into the capitalist's coffers and so forth. For me, the exploitation is more metaphysical. My time is invaluable to me. If someone pays me for my time, they cannot, by definition, pay me enough.

Another take-away I got from reading this is the feeling that, perhaps, all profit is the result of either theft or lying. If commodities were exchanged true value for true value, then would there ever be a profit? On the surface, true value for true value would seem to indicate that no one would ever make any money. But then I think, "well what if people value the same commodity differently?" If that's the case, then I suppose we could swap value for value and still have profit. But this is not so much about Das Kapital as it is about the ideas that Das Kapital germinates, and it is this generation of ideas that makes me rate this work so high.

For historical, philosophical, and classical education reasons, I give this book full marks.

The money quote: "Force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one. It is itself an economic power."(less)

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Mar 07, 2008 angela rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: politics, economics

Although I have marked the date as September 2007, I first read this years ago. I *always* enjoy reading Marx, especially when he gets all "economist" on everything. Better than the actual book is debating this book's concepts with super-critical folks (critical from a simply ideological point of view as opposed to being critical in a more rational or "theory-based" way) who know nothing about economic concepts... they're like sitting ducks.

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Apr 05, 2007 Bradley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Shut-Ins

Often confused with a telephone book. The range of writing in here is absurd...from scholarly economics to spiritual phenomenology, Marx does not achieve an even style throughout. With that said, I'd like to see anyone else do so with such elusive subject matter. This is the kind of reading that makes otherwise mechanical concepts like "commodity" and "surplus value" dance in their own special universes. Don't expect any overt politics.

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Mar 26, 2007 anique Halliday rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, classics

Do you know how many pages this is? 1152. And worth every leaf on the tree. A must read for anyone willing or wanting to wax grand about capitalism.

Picture it: My first semester in graduate school. Day two. My professor goes over the syllabus, week one: Das Kapital (Marx)/ chps. 1 - 15, 22, 27 etc. I cry for three days lamenting the decision to pursue higher education. Then I read that shit and my little world changes.

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Apr 05, 2010 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: economics

Marx's primary treatise on capitalist economics. Straight-forward yet a little dry, it's not exactly a thrilling read but an important component of Marx's total theory. I've read it a few times now and I'm becoming more and more aware of both the limitations of the work and also the absolute magnificence of it. It's imperfect, yet it remains the most important work on economics.

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Jul 21, 2012 Steven rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: politics, philosophy, economics

Although Marx seems to be one of those writers that everyone has an opinion about but few seem to have actually read, I've always found him to be quite readable if sometimes a bit too verbose. For those willing to make the investment, a reading of his three volumes of "Capital" is well worth it. Even if you don't agree with all of his conclusions (and admittedly some of them are highly debatable), this detailed and far-reaching analysis of capitalist economics is one of the best for understandin...more

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Aug 11, 2007 Arvind Passey rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: buy it, keep it...do read it sometime

Buy it... keep it... do read it sometime is all I can say of this book. Not everyone will be interested in the concepts expressed in the pages. However, going through the concepts helps one in understanding the delicate relationship of humans with other humans within the structured frame-work of civilization.

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Mar 19, 2013 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars

Brilliant. The book that shaped the 20th century. Those 'Muricans who accuse people or governments of "being socialists" have absolutely no idea, nor the desire, I imagine, to read Marx's masterpiece. Not that they would understand, anyway.

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Jun 08, 2011 Cassandra Silva rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: economics, politics

I made the absolute horror of a mistake of listening to this on audio! Once I started I just couldn't put it down (due partly to the amazing nature of the book, and partly to my own neuroses).

The reasons not to listen to this on audio:
1. Too many citations to juggle easily on the audio format!
2. Multiple readers is irritating (no thank you librovox)
3. You will hear the words cotton, capital, trade, exchange, sterling, and Loco Cito so many times on the audio book that you will be saying them...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Jesse Lopes rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the beginning, God (the first commodity) created the heavens (exchange-value) and the earth (use-value). And so begins the materialist Bible, Das Kapital, which, if its abstract theoretical model is to be believed, and I think the case is much stronger for than against, it is the most important book of the industrial, i.e. our, epoch. The two greatest intellectual merits of this work are the discoveries of socially necessary labor-time and the precise nature of surplus value, that is, that it...more In the beginning, God (the first commodity) created the heavens (exchange-value) and the earth (use-value). And so begins the materialist Bible, Das Kapital, which, if its abstract theoretical model is to be believed, and I think the case is much stronger for than against, it is the most important book of the industrial, i.e. our, epoch. The two greatest intellectual merits of this work are the discoveries of socially necessary labor-time and the precise nature of surplus value, that is, that it is generated by one and only one commodity - labor power. Many people have their bourgeois economists convince them that the Marxist labor theory of value is untrue. It is instructive to note, then, Russell's take on it, since he himself claimed to be a socialist. Russell says in his essay, Charybdis and Scylla, that Marx took over wholesale Ricardo's theory that the value of a commodity is proportional to the labor embodied within it, which Russell points out is negated by Ricardo's own theory of rent. Russell apparently did not read Das Kapital, and simply repeated whatever Keynes told him to repeat, since within the first hundred pages it is immediately apparent that Marx synthesized the labor theory of value with the theory of rent to produce the concept of socially necessary labor time. It follows that, from the quasi-leftist bourgeoisie from Russell to Keynes all the way to the fascistic Friedman and Hayek, everyone has misunderstood this basic intellectual discovery, which, if properly estimated, I think, cannot be superseded. Next, surplus value was discovered before Marx as a derivative category of profit, which was only first understood in the eighteenth century. What Marx did was show that the upper class view, that surplus value results from a leisure class buying up luxury goods, apparently still currently held as a dogma amongst the neoliberal class, was preposterous (see chapters 7-9 of this volume). Then, by proceeding in a manner very similar to Kant's transcendental deduction of the elements, Marx points to labor-power, because labor is the only commodity that can produce value on top of its own use-value: this is why the capitalist mode of production, despite surplus value more or less existing since the beginning of petty commodity production, has been so revolutionary. If this analysis holds, and I think it does, Marx truly discovered the key behind the greatest economic mystery of all time. Marx, then, got right the concept of absolute surplus value (the lengthening of the working hour beyond the value of the means of subsistence), but it does not appear that the concept of relative surplus value, that revolutions in production increase the value of constant (dead labor) over variable (living labor) capital, can be as easily categorized or understood. Indeed, Marx spends the greatest portion of the book examining it. Marx seems to assume that the more technology, i.e. the more capital intensive, the greater the productivity. But a recent World Bank report on agriculture shows that in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador, small labor intensive farms are 3 to 14 times more productive than their capital intensive, and mostly U.S. financed, counterparts (hence the broad acceptance of Marx into the Western canon). And there is, of course, a lot more controversy swirling around the worth of machinery to the emancipation of humanity, as there is, of course, a lot more to this amazing book than can be gone into here. I have just reviewed the 3 most significant intellectual points of the book: 2 are as significant as ever, and one will perhaps always remain ambiguous from a scientific standpoint (I should also like to point out that, subsidiary to these points, Marx blows out of the water the Weberian analysis that Protestantism had something to do with capital accumulation: capitalists must reinvest or they are not capitalists! It has nothing to do with protestant abstinence, though everyone, from Russell to the extreme right, has parroted this view as somehow an insight). From this, one should realize that this book is not outdated, and should be read by all concerned citizens of the world.(less)

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Dec 26, 2012 Juka Pakatsoshvili rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Honestly speaking, I've been reading this book for a while. I started it few years ago, but i only read the parts I needed and i sorta saved it for later and I started once again a year ago or two, but never finished. So, I started reading this again, but this time, I did finish it (yaaay).
And, I liked this book because I like Marx's writing style. compared to this A. Smith's books are kinda weak. I mean both theories are important to understand economics, but Marx's arguments are well develope...more

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Juka Pakatsoshvili მატრიცას რაც შეეხება, მე გირჩევდი რომ ნახო. ნუ მარქსი შეიძლება ჩემი ინტერპრეტაცია იყო მარტო, მაგრამ დანარჩენი ძირითადი ფილოსოფიური იდეები, რაც არის ტრ...more მატრიცას რაც შეეხება, მე გირჩევდი რომ ნახო. ნუ მარქსი შეიძლება ჩემი ინტერპრეტაცია იყო მარტო, მაგრამ დანარჩენი ძირითადი ფილოსოფიური იდეები, რაც არის ტრილოგიაში ნუ ნათელია და პრინციპში ნაკლებად სადავო შეიძლება ითქვას. რომ არ დაგისპოილერო არ ჩამოვთვლი ავტორებს, თუ უყურებ, პირველივე ნაწილში წიგნს მიაქციე ყურადღება, სადაც ნეოს დისკი აქვს შენახული ;).
მარქსის თეორიას რაც შეეხება, ჰო, მე უფრო მეცნიერული და დასაბუთებული მომეჩვენა, თუმცა რა თქმა უნდა არ ვეთანხმები რაღაც საკითხებს. ზოგი თავი "ზედმეტად" ინფრომაციულიც არის ისტორიული კუთხით :)). სმითი უფრო ნაივურია, თავისუფალი ბაზარი მნიშვნელოვანი იდეაა, თუმცა რაზეც აფუძნებს სმითი ამას, ცოტა მოისუსტებს, რომ ხალხი არ არის ეგოისტი და ერთი რომ დააგროვებს გარკვეულ რაოდენობას - არ გახარბდება. არც ის მგონია, რომ ეს პრინციპი მაინც კარგად მუშაობს, ფასების ზოგჯერ არაბუნებრივი მერყეობა მგონი ნათელს ხდის ამ თეორიის სისუსტეს. თუმცა მარქსის თეორიაც, მისი კარგად დასაბუთების მიუხედავად, მოისუსტებს ნამდვილად :)(less)
Dec 27, 2012 05:50am

Giorgi მატრიცა ფილოსოფიურია ფანტასტიკური ჰოლივუდირი ფილმების მოყვარული არ ვიცი რატომღაც ამასოდეს მომდომებია მთლიანად მეყურა როდესაც ყველა მასძე საუბრობდა, რჩ...more
Dec 27, 2012 06:08am

Mar 12, 2009 Andrew added it · review of another edition

Shelves: economics

After cogitating on Marxist theory for years, I finally read the entirety of Volume One of Capital. Yay. What surprises me (and apparently a lot of people) about it is how straightforwardly economic it is, more akin to the work of Adam Smith than it is to Adorno or any of the other cultural critics that followed in Marx's wake. But what I loved most about it wasn't the statistical exegeses, valuable though they were, but the glimpses of future writing in it. Hey, there's the starting point for F...more

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Nov 20, 2008 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book to the accompaniment of a lecture series by David Harvey. I would have sunk right to the bottom where it not for his help. Marx is a prophet, get used to it.

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About Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx was a 19th-century philosopher, political economist, sociologist, humanist, political theorist and revolutionary. Often called the father of communism, Marx was both a scholar and a political activist. He addressed a wide range of political as well as social issues, and is known for, amongst other things, his analysis of history. His approach is indicated by the opening line Cha...more Karl Heinrich Marx was a 19th-century philosopher, political economist, sociologist, humanist, political theorist and revolutionary. Often called the father of communism, Marx was both a scholar and a political activist. He addressed a wide range of political as well as social issues, and is known for, amongst other things, his analysis of history. His approach is indicated by the opening line Chapter 1 of the The Communist Manifesto(1848): "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." Marx argued that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, will produce internal tensions which will lead to its destruction. Just as capitalism replaced feudalism, capitalism itself will be displaced by communism, a classless society which emerges after a transitional period in which the state would be nothing else but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.

On the one hand, Marx argued for a systemic understanding of socioeconomic change. On this model, it is the structural contradictions within capitalism which necessitate its end, giving way to communism:

On the other hand, Marx argued that socioeconomic change occurred through organized revolutionary action. On this model, capitalism will end through the organized actions of an international working class: "Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence." (from The German Ideology)

While Marx was a relatively obscure figure in his own lifetime, his ideas began to exert a major influence on workers' movements shortly after his death. This influence was given added impetus by the victory of the Marxist Bolsheviks in the Russian October Revolution, and there are few parts of the world which were not significantly touched by Marxian ideas in the course of the twentieth century. The relation of Marx to "Marxism" is a point of controversy. Marxism remains influential and controversial in academic and political circles.
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“They don't know it, but they are doing it.” — 27 people liked it

“There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits. (Preface to the French edition).” — 12 people liked it

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