Prerna’s Reviews > Capital: A Critique of Political Economy Volume 1 > Status Update

Ughh. I missed capitalism.

Missing capitalism would indicate that it no longer exists. Where is this place and how do I get there?!

Guangzhou . Hard to get there, today.

Damn. You must notify me when it's easier.

Awesome!

I remember Harry Cleaver writing that when he taught vol. 1 of Capital, he always assigned the material on primitive accumulation first before going back to the beginning, to make clear the context against which the chapters on value were written. It wasn't just theoretical writing on the micro-economics of price formation, comparable to the labor theory in Smith and Ricardo. It was a description of the imperatives of capitalists themselves to extract surplus labor, against a background in which they had expropriated the land and separated workers from the means of production.

Phil wrote: "Awesome!"

Thanks, Phil!

Kevin wrote: "I remember Harry Cleaver writing that when he taught vol. 1 of Capital, he always assigned the material on primitive accumulation first before going back to the beginning, to make clear the context..."

That's actually how I started with Capital! I read part 8, the chapters on primitive accumulation first, to understand the context as you said. But also to get used to Marx's style of writing and to avoid getting discouraged by the notoriously abstract chapters 1, 2 and 3. However, Marx's style of writing is nowhere close to consistent and while the historical background from part 8 definitely helped, Marx's change of styles from one chapter to next still gives me whiplash. While reading chapter 1, just as I was getting used to the style and the multiple definitions, Marx dropped the bit on commodity fetishism, and there I was, wrestling with the text again.

And all the references and footnotes alone are enough to drive anyone away.