Reading Capital Politically

Harry Cleaver

AK Press, Aug 1, 2000 - Business & Economics - 183 pages

As social movements waned in the late 70s, the study of Marx seemed to take on a life of its own. Structuralist, post-structuralist, deconstructed Marxes bloomed in journals and seminar rooms across the US and Europe. These Marxes and their interpreters struggled to interpret the world, and sometimes to interpret Marx himself, losing sight at times of his dictum that the challenge is not to interpret the world but to change it. In 1979, Harry Cleaver tossed an incendiary device called Reading Capital Politically into those seminar rooms. Through a close reading of the first chapter, he shows that Das Kapital was written for the workers, not for academics, and that we need to expand our idea of workers to include housewives, students, the unemployed, and other non-waged workers. Reading Capital Politically provides a theoretical and historical bridge between struggles in Europe in the 60s and 70s and, particularly, the Autonomia of Italy to the Zapatistas of the 90s. His introduction provides a brilliant and succinct overview of working class struggles in the century since Capital was published. Cleaver adds a new preface to the AK Press/Anti-Thesis edition.

What people are saying

Review: Reading Capital Politically

User Review  - Operaista - Goodreads

This, along with Harry Cleaver's Study Guide to Capital Vol 1 ( https://webspace.utexas.edu/hcleaver/... - yes, the book is just on Chapter 1, but there's a lot there!), should be considered ...

Review: Reading Capital Politically

User Review  - Tim - Goodreads

The single most influential book I have ever read in my life. It came at a time where I was lost in a wilderness of insane theory, bullshit historical events, and a practically dead left wing movement ...

Contents

• Introduction: 23
• Reading Capital as Political Economy: 31
• Reading Marx Philosophically: 46
• Reading Capital Politically: 58
• Reading Chapter One: 77
• The CommodityForm: 81
• The Substance and Magnitude of Value Chapter One Section 1: 95
• The twofold Character of Labour Chapter One Section 2: 127
• The Form of Value Chapter One Section 3: 135
• Conclusion: 159
• Bibliography: 163
• Internet resources: 172
• Index: 175

Bibliographic information

• Title: Reading Capital Politically
• Author: Harry Cleaver
• Edition: 2, illustrated
• Publisher: AK Press, 2000
• ISBN: 1902593294, 9781902593296
• Length: 183 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Economic History; History / Social History; Philosophy / Political; Political Science / General; Political Science / History & Theory; Political Science / Political Economy; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism