Marx’s Capital after 150 Years

Critique and Alternative to Capitalism
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London-New York: Routledge
2019
xii + 293 pages

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.

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Endorsements

"A hundred and fifty years later, isn’t Marx’s Capital more relevant today than when it was written? This is the message of the remarkable collection of essays edited by Marcello Musto, with the cooperation of an extraordinary array of committed scholars. The chapters of this book investigate the critical potential of Marx’s opus magnum, not only concerning political economy, but also in relation to gender issues, ecology, as well as social theory, from a humanist and revolutionary perspective".
– Michael Löwy
"The planet is in trouble, because capitalism is in trouble. Where is the best and most comprehensive critical account of all the issues? Marx's Capital is now more on-message than ever. Marcello Musto has assembled diverse viewpoints and pertinent updates in this lively and provocative volume".
– Terrell Carver

Table of contents

About the editor vii
Notes on contributors viii
Acknowledgements xii

Introduction: The Unfinished Critique of ‘Capital’ 1
Marcello Musto

PART I: Capitalism, Past and Present 37

Revisiting the “expropriation of expropriators” in Marx’s ‘Capital’ 39
Etienne Balibar

“Every beginning is difficult, holds in all sciences”: Marx on the Economic Cell form of Capital and the Analysis of Capitalist Social Formations 54
Bob Jessop

The Challenge of Transcending ‘Capital’ 83
Leo Panitch

The Current Crisis and the Anachronism of Value 94
Moishe Postone

Marx’s New Concept of Class 108
Richard Wolff

PART II: Extending the Critique of CapitaI 123

Revolution Begins at Home: Rethinking Marx, Reproduction and the Class Struggle 125
Silvia Federici

Towards a Communist Revolution: Gender and Class in ‘Capital’ Volume I 145
Himani Bannerji

Marx and Engels: The Intellectual Relationship Revisited from an Ecological Perspective 167
Kohei Saito

Marx's Capital and the Earth: An Ecological Critique of Political Economy 184
John Bellamy Foster

Five Explicit and Implicit Notions of Revolution in ‘Capital’, Volume I, as Seen from a Multilinear, Peripheral Angle 197
Kevin B. Anderson

Had 'Capital' Been Written Today 208
Pietro Basso

PART III: The Politics of Capital 217

Reading ‘Capital’ as Political Theory: On the Political Theory of the Value-Form 219
William Clare Roberts

The Neglected Chapters on Wages in ‘Capital’ 232
Gary Teeple

The Persistence of Marx’s Humanism, from the Doctoral Dissertation on Epicurus to ‘Capital’ 247
Mauro Buccheri

The Ambivalence of Cooperation 258
Alfonso Maurizio Iacono

Toward a Marxist Revision of Marx’s Revision of Marxism in ‘Capital’ 277
Bertell Ollman

Index 288

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