Karl Marx, Das Kapital (Volume One) [Capital]

Stephen Shapiro (University of Warwick)
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Karl Marx’s three volumes of

Kapital

[

Capital

] (1867-94) stand as the most influential set of left-wing analyses of the capitalist economy. Written as a rebuttal to liberal political economy mainly represented by Adam Smith’s

Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations

(1776), Marx’s

Capital

devotes itself to a forensic demolition of political and economic liberalism that celebrates the marketplace as a naturally harmonizing sphere and idealizes the sanctity of private property. Although Marx meant

Capital

to form an integral part of his explicitly political and historical writings in support of the international communist movement, the works have little to say about political activism. Yet the three volumes are crucial reading regardless of one’s political allegiances for they stand,…

4545 words

Citation: Shapiro, Stephen. "Das Kapital (Volume One)". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 February 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4271, accessed 19 March 2024.]

4271 Das Kapital (Volume One) 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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