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The Mysteries of ‘Capital’

Michael Denning


Pages 531 - 538

open-access



“The Mysteries of ‘Capital’” argues that Marx’s ‘Capital’ should be read as an imaginative work of the socialist tradition, and must be re-situated historically and generically. It then outlines a framework for such a reading, arguing that ‘Capital’ is, like ‘Moby-Dick’, a modern epic, less a linear, heroic narrative than a sprawling encyclopedia and anatomy of the world, consisting of five different books, each of which has generated a distinct form of Marxist thought.

1 Althusser, Louis. Preface to Capital Volume One. Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. New York: Monthly Review, 2001: 45-70. Print.

2 Althusser, Louis, and Étienne Balibar. Reading Capital (Part 1). Trans. Ben Brewster. London: NLB, 1970. Print.

3 Anderson, Bonnie S. Joyous Greetings: The First International Women’s Movement. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.

4 Baran, Paul A., and Paul M. Sweezy. Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order. New York: Monthly Review P, 1968. Print.

5 Boff, Leonardo. Faith on the Edge: Religion and Marginalized Existence. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989. Print.

6 Brenner, Robert. The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. London: Verso, 2006. Print.

7 Foley, Duncan K. Understanding Capital: Marx’s Economic Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1986. Print.

8 Foner, Philip S. “Marx’s Capital in the United States.” Science & Society 31.4 (1967): 461- 66. Print.

9 Klein, Naomi. Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. London: Allen Lane, 2007. Print.

10 Korsch, Karl. Introduction to Capital. Three Essays on Marxism. London: Pluto, 1971. Print.

11 Lenin, V. I. “The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism.” Trans. George Hanna. Collected Works. Vol. 19. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1963. 23-28. Print.

12 Mandel, Ernest. Late Capitalism. Trans. Joris De Bres. London: Verso, 1978. Print.

13 Marx, Karl. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Vol. 1. Trans. Ben Fowkes. London: Penguin Books, 1976. Print.

14 ---. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Vol. 3. Trans. David Fernbach. London: Penguin Books, 1991. Print.

15 ---. “Inaugural Address of the Working Men’s International Association.” Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Collected Works. Vol. 20. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1985. 5-13. Print.

16 ---. “Letter to Ludwig Kugelmann.” 28 December 1862. Trans. Peter and Betty Ross. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Collected Works. Vol. 41. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1985. 435-37. Print.

17 ---. “Letter to Ludwig Kugelmann.” 30 November 1867. Trans. Peter and Betty Ross. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Collected Works. Vol. 42. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1987. 489-90. Print.

18 Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Holy Family, or, Critique of Critical Criticism: Against Bruno Bauer and Company. Trans. Richard Dixon and Clemens Dutt. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Collected Works. Vol. 4. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1975. 5-211. Print.

19 Messer-Kruse, Timothy. The Yankee International: Marxism and the American Reform Tradition 1848-1876. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1998. Print.

20 Negri, Antonio. Marx Beyond Marx: Lessons on the Grundrisse. Trans. Harry Cleaver, Michael Ryan, and Maurizio Viano. New York: Autonomedia, 1991. Print.

21 Seigel, Jerrold. Marx’s Fate: The Shape of a Life. University Park: Pennsylvania State P, 1993. Print.

22 Taylor, Barbara. Eve and the New Jerusalem: Socialism and Feminism in the Nineteenth Century. London: Virago Press, 1983. Print.

23 Weeks, John. Capital and Exploitation. London: Edward Arnold, 1981. Print.

24 Wilson, Edmund. To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2012. Print.

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