Capital: Volume I

Karl Marx

Feb 2004 · Capital Book 1 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

'A groundbreaking work of economic analysis. It is also a literary masterpice' Francis Wheen, Guardian

One of the most notorious and influential works of modern times, Capital is an incisive critique of private property and the social relations it generates. Living in exile in England, where this work was largely written, Marx drew on a wide-ranging knowledge of its society to support his analysis. Arguing that capitalism would cause an ever-increasing division in wealth and welfare, he predicted its abolition and replacement by a system with common ownership of the means of production. Capital rapidly acquired readership throughout the world, to become a work described by Marx's collaborator Friedrich Engels as 'the Bible of the working class'.

Translated by BEN FOWKES with an Introduction by ERNEST MANDEL

Ratings and reviews

The 5 stars are for the great quality of the book. I recommend this book to see why Marx failed to predict anything, failed to explain simple terms such as "value" and why, despite his claims, he wasn't a scientist, on the contrary, there's not a shred of science in this book, except baseless assertions. But there's more to it. Read the prefaces by Engels to see how rude and silly he was, calling a critic as "the little man" attacking his physical state, instead of politely addressing his concerns. There's around 50 pages of BS by Ernest Mandel desperately trying to defend Marx and his hilarious unscientific ideology, his language is not more polite than that of Engels, he attacks the critic and call Marx's ideology as "perfected theory". Even though the book starts with BS, continues with BS, I recommend to read as far as you can, however, only one line from the beginning is enough to see why Marx was dead wrong, the line is by Marx himself, explaining why diamond was of such high value. I recommend this book.

The book is great. However, google charging $90 for all parts is an example of the bourgeois appropriating proletariat works for commercial benefit. This is a book meant for the Proletariat and they have put a monetary barrier up. It is the antithesis of Marxist idealogy. Go to The Marxist Archives and download the book for free, as was intended. Google you capitalist dogs may you pay in hell for your exploitation and bloodletting of the poor.

The first two pages have 3 sentences which make no sense.

About the author

Karl Marx was born in 1818 in Trier, Germany and studied in Bonn and Berlin. Influenced by Hegel, he later reacted against idealist philosophy and began to develop his own theory of historical materialism. He related the state of society to its economic foundations and mode of production, and recommended armed revolution on the part of the proletariat. Together with Engels, who he met in Paris, he wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party. He lived in England as a refugee until his death in 1888, after participating in an unsuccessful revolution in Germany.

Ernst Mandel was a member of the Belgian TUV from 1954 to 1963 and was chosen for the annual Alfred Marshall Lectures by Cambridge University in 1978. He died in 1995 and the Guardian described him as 'one of the most creative and independent-minded revolutionary Marxist thinkers of the post-war world.'