
06 Feb 2013, 00:17
What throws people off is that Kapital really starts at the absolute basis of human interactions with objects. Marx was a philosopher as much as anything else

07 Feb 2013, 20:07
I'm re-reading it in a study group at the moment.
Mind = blown.
This is the best book ever.

07 Feb 2013, 21:06
I'm approaching the end of vol 3. Ground rent is booooooring! I think these three books are essential if you want to consider yourself a Marxist. How can you call yourself such if you haven't read Marx's magnum opus? It completely changes the way you analyse things and makes you a scientific socialist without even realising it! I've realised I'm going to have to re-read some bits though, especially the controversial stuff (e.g. falling rate of profit and the transformation problem).
I'm still thinking about delving into volume IV after this though that could be incredibly heavy going. Also going to give Grundrisse a go.

20 Feb 2013, 05:30
ONE COAT EQUALS TWENTY CUBITS OF LINEN

20 Feb 2013, 17:00
Ha, I read that as lenin.

20 Feb 2013, 18:07
Well vol III is done and I've managed to get hold of Theories of Surplus-Value (part 1 of it at least) aka Capital vol IV in book form. I must say it is much easier so far than vol III.

22 Feb 2013, 16:48
Other - I've just started reading it, and I will read every single page of all volumes. This will take ages, but who cares ...^^

03 Apr 2013, 13:46
No - Although I would have voted other if it wasn't for the fact that I am having trouble finding a copy that is free of charge, a decent translation, and not abridged. I really want to read Kapital to understand him and the ideology better.

10 Apr 2013, 14:38
I read Capital when I was researching for my dissertation. That was many years ago. The version I used, however, was different. My wife had given me the Modern Library version, which was edited my Max Eastman, whom I later discovered had a connection with Leon Trotsky. More to the point, Eastman wanted to give it a more logical flow, so he used Stepen Trask's translation, which was in Jacob Burkhardt, The People's Marx. Are you with me so far? Thus the chapters are re-arranged and whether this does present the material better I do not know. This was the book I had.
While I can say that it did help change my attitude toward economics and life in general, I would need to refresh my memory on many of his arguments. I remember not being totally satisfied with all arguments. I am more familiar with some of his other works such as The German Ideology and the Civil War in France.
I find Marx's style, at least in the translations to be similar to other German scholar writers of the 19th century. I have read some stuff from Ranke and Seeck and it has a similar flow and word usage. Again, I repeat, I am talking about the translations I am using.

10 Apr 2013, 18:41
I finished vol III and am now on vol IV (Theories of Surplus-Value). This is interesting because it's basically Marx going to town on all sorts of classic economists (and pre-classical) and pointing out where they went right and where they went wrong. The most useful part is that he expands and explains some of the key concepts he talks about in vol II and III.

13 May 2013, 20:48
I still haven't been able to slog through it. It just sits there, getting all dusty, and glowering balefully at me, as if to say, "What kind of Socialist are you? Pick me up and read me, damn it!"
Honestly, I've read a thousand and one digests and exegeses, but as for the three (four?) volumes themselves, the barrier of TL/DR is just too treacherous for me to cross.