Book cover of Reading Capital: The Complete Edition

Book description

Originally published in 1965, Reading Capital is a landmark of French thought and radical theory, reconstructing Western Marxism from its foundations. Louis Althusser, the French Marxist philosopher, maintained that Marx's project could only be revived if its scientific and revolutionary novelty was thoroughly divested of all traces of humanism, idealism,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Reading Capital as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This book has given an important impetus to the critical discussion of Marx's work, by criticizing the mechanistic, historicist, and economistic legacy that still weighs on Marxism.

It marks a radical new beginning of the debate on Marxism and the thereof points of contention: What, in fact, is the scientific breakthrough that Marx made with his Critique of Political Economy in the field of the sciences of history and society?

In what sense does this scientific breakthrough provide indispensable foundations for a politics of overcoming the domination of capitalist mode of production in contemporary societies?

And finally: What contribution can…

From John's list on Marxian economic theory.

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These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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