Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1

Great overview of Capitalism. This is not a book about Communism. Although some of his criticism of Capitalism comes through, for the most part he holds himself in check and writes a scholarly analysis. What I really enjoyed was the historical context his footnotes provide. Never realized how big of a battle the 8 hour workday was. How much of a discussion among Industrial Theorist on how to keep a workforce in the factories and how much to pay them. Many of the arguments of the 1800's eerily reflect contemporary arguments about the workforce. A good read if a bit wordy.

I'm not a fan of the font and spacing of this version, it's quite tiny. Marx is one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented thinkers, but he is also a very clear writer -- makes it all the more remarkable that people like David Harvey are able to pass themselves off as experts on Marx. If you do end up getting Harvey's companion, compare what he says about value to the first chapter of Capital and the shortcomings are quite clear. Regardless, the qualitative aspect of value is the most overlooked, yet most important, part of Marx's work; pay close attention to the fact that exchange value is a commodity's being immediately exchangeable, and that exchange value is the phenomenal form of value: commodities are immediately exchangeable with each other because they are both values, and, because exchange value is the *only way they can express themselves as values,* there is no value outside of exchange, although exchange value and value as distinct from each other. Neither should this be read as the magnitude of value being created in exchange, only that exchange is where the thing takes on the form of value and becomes a commodity (remember, it's when and only when looked at as crystals of the social substance that they are Values). Treating value as something that was already in an object, in addition to being pure fetishism, causes problems -- ie, if things only take on the form of value in exchange, where commodities show their two-fold nature of being use-values and values, then it makes sense to say a mud pie has no value, regardless of concrete labor time invested, because it is not an object of utility. Conversely, if value happens in the production process, countering the mud pie argument comes across as an arbitrary exclusion. Furthermore, it overlooks Marx's insight that value is the particular form social labor takes in capitalist society, where relations between people have to take on the form of relations between things in exchange -- the form of value; fetishism is not about false consciousness, but about how our relationships *actually are, and have to be in commodity society.* The first chapter is the most difficult and the most important; if you read and understand it, the rest of the book is easy. For specific criticisms of Harvey that I didn't bother to go over, look up the critisticuffs review and read Mark Worrell's paper A Faint Rattling.

I am very upset with this purchase. Not only is the text highly edited from the original (the translation is awful and hard to understand when compared to the Penguin classics edition) but it only goes up to chapter 14 when the original goes past chapter 20! YOU ARE NOT GETTING ALL OF THE TEXT FROM CAPITAL VOLUME 1. If I hadn't already marked the text with highlights and notes I would send it back immediately. Now, in class, I have to deal with not being on the same page as eveyone else and not only that but once I reach chapter 14 I'll have to buy another book or print the pages out online. Thank for wasting my money. -Student.

It's a great book for those who are interested in economics and related stuff. In my opinion it should be read by all people in the world. This book is divided into 4 parts: Commodities and money, Transformation of money into capital, The production of absolute surplus-value, Production of relative surplus value. In my opinion this book has nothing in common with freak communist ideas. Enjoy reading and greets from Ukraine!

Buyers beware! This edition is almost certainly an older English translation of CAPITAL (translators Moore and Aveling) and NOT the more recent, superior translation by Ben Fowkes, published by Penguin Books. Evidently Amazon doesn't now offer that newer translation for sale, except in the Kindle edition. (You'll notice that nowhere on the copyright page of this edition does it even mention the translators.) The old, Moore and Aveling translation is good as far as it goes, but it is almost certainly in the public domain now. The fly by night publisher of the $9.00 paperback here offered for sale must be raking in the profits, since it has 'acquired' the rights for this edition of CAPITAL for nothing! (If you read the fine print at the bottom of the publisher's blurb by scrolling down to the bottom of the blurb you'll notice that it warns you that the blurb refers to an "alternate" paperback edition of the book, NOT the Penguin edition that IS for sale as a Kindle book. If I were you, I'd consider buying the Kindle book (the price isn't too bad) but WAIT for Amazon the get access again to the Penguin, Ben Fowkes translation in order to buy a bound copy..

This book is NOT the full volume 1 of capital, it contains only the first 14 chapters (and numerous print errors with entire pages illegible!). That's what you get with the cheapest edition available I guess, lol.

Not full volume.

I was dissapointed when I recieved me copy to find out that it only contains Parts 1-4. It does not have parts 4-8 like the Penguin Edition or the versions online. If you want the entire work make sure you don't buy this version.

Stops at chapter 14. There should be 33 chapters! What am I supposed to tell Ben Burgis?! Even with this poorly published half book there is more to think about than the PPC drawing and idealistic nonsense of my college economics liberal free market classes. This is old school political economy that actually explains why things go wrong under capitalism instead of referring to everything as an "externality". Class conflict seems like a completely different concept until you get to chapter 10 and the history of the working day; the term itself can't convey what Marx is getting at. But now, we're entering another gilded age because we haven't learned anything from the first one. 30 years after the end of the cold war, there is no USSR to blame for lack of faith in this system and people will continue to see through the Econ 101 propaganda and come around to something more sensible.

Do not buy this edition. This is NOT a complete volume 1. This is just part of Volume 1. The most interesting parts of Volume 1 are totally omitted.

An edition riddled with errors. Just plain bad…

A busefully cheap and clear guide to Capital, a great primer for all those on low budgets or not willing to oplough through the Penguin volumes

This version of Capital is laden with typos to the point of illegibility. A difficult text made much more difficult by bad editing. Would return if I had dug into it prior to the return date!