Marx's Capital after 150 Years: Critique and Alternative to Capitalism

Marcello Musto

Sep 2019 · Routledge

About this ebook

Faced with a new crisis of capitalism, many scholars are now looking back to the author whose ideas were too hastily dismissed after the fall of the Berlin Wall. During the last decade, Marx’s Capital has received renewed academic and popular attention. It has been reprinted in new editions throughout the world and the contemporary relevance of its pages is being discussed again. Today, Marx’s analyses are arguably resonating even more strongly than they did in his own time and Capital continues to provide an effective framework to understand the nature of capitalism and its transformations.

This volume includes the proceedings of the biggest international conference held in the world to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Capital’s publication. The book is divided into three parts: I) "Capitalism, Past and Present"; II) "Extending the Critique of Capital"; III) "The Politics of Capital". It contains the contributions of globally renowned scholars from 13 countries and multiple academic disciplines who offer diverse perspectives, and critical insights into the principal contradictions of contemporary capitalism while pointing to alternative economic and social models. Together, they reconsider the most influential historical debates on Capital and provide new interpretations of Marx’s magnum opus in light of themes rarely associated with Capital, such as gender, ecology, and non-European societies.

The book is an indispensable source for academic communities who are increasingly interested in rediscovering Marx beyond 20th century Marxism. Moreover, it will be of great appeal to students, as well as established scholars interested in critique of capitalism and socialist theory.

About the author

Marcello Musto is Associate Professor of Sociological Theory at York University (Toronto – Canada). He is author of: Ripensare Marx e i marxismi. Studi e saggi (2011); Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International (2018); Karl Marx. Biografia intellettuale e politica 1857-1883 (2018); The Last Years of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography (2020); and The Travels of Karl Marx (2020). Among his edited volumes there are: Karl Marx’s Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy 150 Years Later (Routledge, 2008); Marx for Today (Routledge, 2012); Workers Unite! The International 150 Years Later (2014); The International After 150 Years: Labour Versus Capital, Then and Now (with George Comninel and Victor Wallis, Routledge, 2015); Karl Marx’s Life, Ideas, Influences: A Critical Examination on the Bicentenary (with Shaibal Gupta and Babak Amini, 2019); and The Routledge Handbook of Marx's 'Capital': A Global History of Translation, Dissemination and Reception (with Babak Amini, Routledge, forthcoming). His articles appeared in many journals, including the International Review of Social History, Science & Society, Critique, Review of Radical Political Economics, Socialism and Democracy, Economic & Political Weekly, and Contemporary Sociology. His writings – available at www.marcellomusto.org – have been published worldwide in more than twenty languages. He is also the editor (with Terrell Carver) of the Series Marx, Engels, Marxisms.