1st Edition

Marx's Capital after 150 Years Critique and Alternative to Capitalism

Edited By Marcello Musto Copyright 2020
    312 Pages
    by Routledge

    312 Pages
    by Routledge

    Faced with a new crisis of capitalism, many scholars are now looking back to the author whose ideas were too hastily dismissed after the fall of the Berlin Wall. During the last decade, Marx’s Capital has received renewed academic and popular attention. It has been reprinted in new editions throughout the world and the contemporary relevance of its pages is being discussed again. Today, Marx’s analyses are arguably resonating even more strongly than they did in his own time and Capital continues to provide an effective framework to understand the nature of capitalism and its transformations.





    This volume includes the proceedings of the biggest international conference held in the world to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Capital’s publication. The book is divided into three parts: I) "Capitalism, Past and Present"; II) "Extending the Critique of Capital"; III) "The Politics of Capital". It contains the contributions of globally renowned scholars from 13 countries and multiple academic disciplines who offer diverse perspectives, and critical insights into the principal contradictions of contemporary capitalism while pointing to alternative economic and social models. Together, they reconsider the most influential historical debates on Capital and provide new interpretations of Marx’s magnum opus in light of themes rarely associated with Capital, such as gender, ecology, and non-European societies.





    The book is an indispensable source for academic communities who are increasingly interested in rediscovering Marx beyond 20th century Marxism. Moreover, it will be of great appeal to students, as well as established scholars interested in critique of capitalism and socialist theory.

    1. Introduction: The Unfinished Critique of ‘Capital’ Marcello Musto Part I: Capitalism, Past and Present 2. Revisiting the “expropriation of expropriators” in Marx’s ‘Capital’ Etienne Balibar 3. 'Every beginning is difficult, holds in all sciences': Marx on the Economic Cell form of Capital and the Analysis of Capitalist Social Formations Bob Jessop 4. The Challenge of Transcending Capital Leo Panitch 5. The Current Crisis and the Anachronism of Value Moishe Postone 6. Marx’s New Concept of Class Richard Wolff Part II: Extending the Critique of CapitaI 7. Revolution Begins at Home: Rethinking Marx, Reproduction and the Class Struggle Silvia Federici 8. Towards a Communist Revolution: Gender and Class in Capital, Volume I Himani Bannerji 9. Marx and Engels: The Intellectual Relationship Revisited from an Ecological Perspective Kohei Saito 10. Marx's Capital and the Earth: An Ecological Critique of Political Economy John Bellamy Foster 11. Five Explicit and Implicit Notions of Revolution in Capital, Volume I, as Seen from a Multilinear, Peripheral Angle Kevin B. Anderson 12. Had Capital Been Written Today Pietro Basso Part III: The Politics of Capital 13. Reading Capital as Political Theory: On the Political Theory of the Value-Form William Clare Roberts 14. The Neglected Chapters on Wages in Capital Gary Teeple 15. The Persistence of Marx’s Humanism, from the Doctoral Dissertation on Epicurus to Capital Mauro Buccheri 16. The Ambivalence of Cooperation Alfonso Maurizio Iacono 17. Toward a Marxist Revision of Marx’s Revision of Marxism in Capital Bertell Ollman.

    Biography

    Marcello Musto is Associate Professor of Sociological Theory at York University (Toronto – Canada). He is author of: Ripensare Marx e i marxismi. Studi e saggi (2011); Another Marx: Early Manuscripts to the International (2018); Karl Marx. Biografia intellettuale e politica 1857-1883 (2018); The Last Years of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography (2020); and The Travels of Karl Marx (2020). Among his edited volumes there are: Karl Marx’s Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy 150 Years Later (Routledge, 2008); Marx for Today (Routledge, 2012); Workers Unite! The International 150 Years Later (2014); The International After 150 Years: Labour Versus Capital, Then and Now (with George Comninel and Victor Wallis, Routledge, 2015); Karl Marx’s Life, Ideas, Influences: A Critical Examination on the Bicentenary (with Shaibal Gupta and Babak Amini, 2019); and The Routledge Handbook of Marx's 'Capital': A Global History of Translation, Dissemination and Reception (with Babak Amini, Routledge, forthcoming). His articles appeared in many journals, including the International Review of Social History, Science & Society, Critique, Review of Radical Political Economics, Socialism and Democracy, Economic & Political Weekly, and Contemporary Sociology. His writings – available at www.marcellomusto.org – have been published worldwide in more than twenty languages. He is also the editor (with Terrell Carver) of the Series Marx, Engels, Marxisms.

    "The sesquicentennial of the publication of Marx’s first volume of Capital generated renewed interest in his masterwork and resulted in the publication of numerous reassessments. Musto’s edited volume offers a major contribution to this literature...most chapters are genuinely excellent, contributing a thematic reading of Capital, typically in the area of the author’s expertise...to refashion social existence in a form adequate to social dignity, the analysis provided by Capital remains critical. We are therefore indebted to Musto and this collection of writers for opening new paths through Marx’s text."

    Joel Wainwright, Rethinking Marxism

    "With 17 contributors of diverse political affiliations, theoretical standpoints, and immediate concerns within the contested terrain of Marxism and Marxian scholarship, the relatively peaceful coexistence of these interventions, at the very least, confirms that the breakthroughs realized in the last few decades in the study of Capital proved to be lasting...[T]he wide range of pressing topics covered by key authors makes this compilation a very valuable read."

    Eren Kozluca, Socialism and Democracy

    "Marcello Musto is undoubtedly the rising star on the "marxological" firmament. (...) This book is a real contribution to many current debates about the lasting scientific value of Capital."

    Aktief

    "The highly readable and informative introduction by Marcello Musto that opens the book shows how different the real Karl Marx was from the dogmatic image presented by his ‘adversaries and self-styled disciples’ by tracing the evolution of his critique of political economy from the 1857–58 notebooks (later published as Grundrisse) to the publication of the first volume of Capitaland the writing of the drafts for the other two volumes."

    Marx and Philosophy

    "A hundred and fifty years later, isn’t Marx’s Capital more relevant today than when it was written? This is the message of the remarkable collection of essays edited by Marcello Musto, with the cooperation of an extraordinary array of committed scholars. The chapters of this book investigate the critical potential of Marx’s opus magnum, not only concerning political economy, but also in relation to gender issues, ecology, as well as social theory, from a humanist and revolutionary perspective."

    Michael Löwy, French National Center of Scientific Research, France

    "The planet is in trouble, because capitalism is in trouble. Where is the best and most comprehensive critical account of all the issues? Marx's Capital is now more on-message than ever. Marcello Musto has assembled diverse viewpoints and pertinent updates in this lively and provocative volume."

    Terrell Carver, University of Bristol, UK