Marxist Economic Theory Vol. 1

by Ernest Mandel

Marxist Theory

Genres: Economics, Theory

379 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Ernest Ezra Mandel was a German born Belgian-Jewish Marxian economist and a Trotskyist activist and theorist. He fought in the underground resistance against the Nazis during the occupation of Belgium and he became a member of the Fourth International during his youth in Antwerp. Mandel is considered to be populariser of marxism.

Reviews

[Roel Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

You have to be a complete nutjob to read this as relaxing literature while on vacation. But that's exactly what I did, lol.

For some reason, I never tackled Mandel in the past. Not even when venturing through throves of Marxist/Marxian literature. But I am glad that I finally did. Mandel starts from scratch and slowly handles all building blocks to be able to interpret economic crises from a Marxian perspective. Anybody interested in Marxian economics should just start with this, instead of going through incomprehensible writings of the 19th and 20th century.

Interestingly, this work also incorporates classical economics (e.g. monetary equation of exchange), and uses historical perspectives and antropology for explaining certain human behavior. Even if you're not a marxist (like me), this is simply an excellent work of historical writing, woven together with a heterodox narrative.

A new version of this work should include more criticism of marginalism, and neoclassical recipes, and link to other heterodox theories (Minsky!).

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wonder if it could be shorter, certainly his "introduction" to the same topic published later this decade is.

I appreciate in particular the addition of 20th century anthropology to marxist economic theory. On the other hand I didn't find the many charts and equations very convincing.

I was surprised that Ernest didn't mention Marx by name much. This book is rather a retelling of what Marx said, but presumably it is more articulate. I haven't read the original (i imagine that includes Capital) but I did find this book to be very readable even if it's many decades old.