How to Read Marx's Capital: Commentary and Explanations on the Beginning Chapters

by Michael Heinrich

With the recent revival of Karl Marx’s theory, a general interest in reading Capital has also increased. But Capital—Marx’s foundational nineteenth-century work on political economy—is by no means considered an easily understood text. Central concepts, such as abstract labor, the value-form, or the fetishism of commodities, can seem opaque to us as first-time readers, and the prospect of comprehending Marx’s thought can be truly daunting. Until, that is, we pick up Michael Heinrich’s How to Read Marx’s ‘Capital’.

Paragraph by paragraph, Heinrich provides extensive commentary and lucid explanations of questions and quandaries that arise when encountering Marx’s original text. Suddenly, such seemingly gnarly chapters as “The Labor Process and the Valorization Process” and “Money or the Circulation of Capital” become refreshingly clear, as Heinrich explains just what we need to keep in mind when reading such a complex text. Deploying multiple appendices referring to other pertinent writings by Marx, Heinrich reveals what is relevant about Capital, and why we need to engage with it today. How to Read Marx’s ‘Capital’ provides an illuminating and indispensable guide to sorting through the cultural detritus of a world whose political and economic systems are simultaneously imploding and exploding.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Politics, Theory

448 pages, Paperback

Published August 23, 2021

About the author

Michael Heinrich is a German Marxist political scientist. He taught economics for many years at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin and was managing editor of PROKLA: Journal for Critical Social Science. He has written in depth on Marx’s critique of political economy in his book, The Science of Value. His An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital is probably the most popular introduction to Marx’s economic works in Germany.

Reviews

[Mauricio · Rating 4 out of 5]

In general a great companion (or perhaps follow-up) to a first reading of Capital’s first seven chapters. The title of the book is quite accurate, and Heinrich will go through great lengths to make sure the reader understands the intricacies and nuances of word choices, translation issues, etc.

For this reason, a lot of the commentary banks on knowledge of philosophical concepts from both Marx and his primary influences, which can make parts of this book a real slog to read through. Multiple reads will probably be necessary, though subsequent ones would probably be focused on whatever particular passages or chapters the reader is having issues with.

[blank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly precise commentary on the first seven chapters of Marx's first volume of Capital. Heinrich is apparently well adept with conceptual analysis and has taken care to preserve the most sensitive theoretical accounts which underpin not only the first volume's analysis of capital production but also the scientific methodology Marx inaugurates: that which has cemented his work as among the most important and pivotal of the Western intellectual canon. As evinced by Heinrich's public lectures, his analysis takes root around Marx's critique of value, fetishism [of commodities, money, and capital], and impersonal domination. The conclusions provide additional commentary to always pertinent discussions within the left about the 'Labour Theory of Value', the relevance of moral claims against the 'alienation' and the 'exploitation' that result from capitalist production, and about the eternal nature of concepts such as 'labour' and the 'human', all within the purview of the sentences laid down by Marx in his definitive guide to the production of Capital.

[saml · Rating 4 out of 5]

some of us are still heinrichians, y'know?

[cait · Rating 3 out of 5]

yea he is a certified yapper!!! he needs a better editor

[Hdawg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely detailed, almost feels like more detail (and length!) than the original text. Hard to say if this is a valuable companion text, unless you want to be a true scholar on the subject

[Roberto Yoed · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is what we call here in Mexico "cantinflear" (saying a lot, but in reality not saying anything more than the obvious).

[Shane · Rating 2 out of 5]

See Sheer-Clarke for a unification of Mosley's critique with Heinrich's infantile views.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

genuinely such a big help getting through the first 3 chapters, it really helps you grasp things on the first read through of the first few chapters