Capital Volume 1: A Comprehensive Analysis of Karl Marx's Critique of Political Economy

Loui: The coats. Yards of linen = 1 Coat. The commodity fetishization

United States on Nov 06, 2023

Tony S: If you want to read the Capital this is the edition you should buy. The translation is more modern than the one in previous editions, which made the book almost illegible (and it's already a hard book!)

United Kingdom on Oct 12, 2023

Melissa Kurosawa: Great book exactly as described.

Australia on Sep 27, 2023

Henrique Steffens: Recommended

Brazil on Aug 17, 2023

Joseleonardo: This is a dense book that you must read as best as you can. The first volume contains basic block understand how capitalism comes to be. This book, however, can be complex enough to be tiresome as it contains a lot of information. If you get tired or you're at the point that you do not understand what you're reading, then stop and take a rest from reading. Missing information can be confusing to the continuous reading of this book, and to the next two volumes of The Capital.

Another important aspect of this book is that this is not a one-read only to understand entirely. You might have to return to this book to completely understand what Marx is trying to present.

The good thing about this book is that it achieves to be objective. It is not a book to lift one up into become a revolutionary, like some propaganda tries to claim. This book is truly trying to understand the birth, development and potential effects of capitalism. However, by understanding capitalism, one can understand and even reach Marx's conclusion of other books that Engels and Marx himself reach.

United States on Feb 07, 2021

Abantika: Reading the Marxian view on Economics/Society/Politics is as necessary as reading the Classical and Keynesian views. This edition of Penguin Classic a perfect treasure to keep.

India on Aug 21, 2018

Amazon Customer: Despite the mindless hatred of Marx's writings you'll find all over the place, this book is extremely valuable. Aside from the thoughtless dislike of Marxism, Marx was not himself a Marxist despite how counterintuitive that might sound to some. There's a lot of value in these books and there's also stuff that we need to move beyond. The fact that the guy wasn't always right doesn't mean he wasn't also incredibly insightful and somebody whose ideas we have a lot to learn from. No need to worship or completely denigrate him. My advice is don't trust anyone who does either, they either haven't read him or are too dazzled by his undeniable intelligence to see where he went wrong or succumbed to some of the negative cultural paradigms of the day.

All that being said, this book is unbelievable. It's rather long and can feel quite daunting, but it's not half as hard to read as a lot of people make it seem. Just take your time and have patience with it, it has a lot to offer including some interesting, not often talked about, history.

Canada on Feb 25, 2018

not a natural: There is an enormous collection of valuable information in volume 1 of Marx's Capital. Volume 1, moreover, serves very effectively as the first of three volumes in which Marx gives truly compelling evidence of his genius -- how else could one author come to terms with this massive account of the reality of capitalist production as Marx uniquely understands it? While it soon becomes abundantly clear that Marx was a master prose stylist, there is no mistaking the fact that he did not write for the ease and convenience of his readers. I can't imagine taking the full measure of this volume, much less the two volumes which follow, without the sustained help of explanatory material such as that provided by David Harvey, a veteran American academician who takes Marx very seriously indeed.

Without question, even for exceptionally well informed and intellectually capable readers, this book is a bear. If you invest the substantial
amount of time and prodigious effort needed to master it, you will definitely come to understand why Marxists become Marxists, and you may very well become one yourself. At the very least, you'll see the world differently, and you'll have a firmer grasp...

United States on Oct 01, 2017

Paul 'tax the rich': Karl Marx spent ten years researching and writing Vol. 1 of Capital. He had originally assembled notes, letters, and manuscripts for six volumes, later paired down to two volumes (2 and 3), which he was unable to complete in his lifetime. After Marx's death, it was left to his close collaborator and friend, Frederick Engels, to edit and compile those for publication. I want to re-iterate what several other reviewers have already stated about what Capital is, but most importantly what it is NOT. It's secondary title is 'A Critique of Political Economy', that is: a highly developed criticism of the classical political economists that preceded Marx, primarily Adam Smith, David Riccardo, Thomas Malthus, Jean-Baptiste Say, John Stuart Mills, etc. and the system (capitalism) they sought to explain. It is NOT The Communist Manifesto, that is: it is NOT a 'communistic' or socialist 'program'. In fact, as others have previously stated, socialism is only mentioned once in Ernest Mandel's excellent introduction to this edition. In Capital, Marx's presents a devastating analysis of the 'capitalist mode of production' that, in light of the world wide economic crash of '08 (and continuing...

United States on Aug 10, 2012