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''Reading Capital'' (french: Lire le Capital) is a 1965 book about the philosopher
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
's ''
Das Kapital ''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in materialist phi ...
'' by the philosophers
Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser ...
,
Étienne Balibar Étienne Balibar (; ; born 23 April 1942) is a French philosopher. He has taught at the University of Paris X-Nanterre, at the University of California Irvine and is currently an Anniversary Chair Professor at the Centre for Research in Modern E ...
, and
Jacques Rancière Jacques Rancière (; born 10 June 1940) is a French philosopher, Professor of Philosophy at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII: Vincennes—Saint-Denis. After co-authoring ...
, the sociologist
Roger Establet Roger Establet Polity (born 1938) is a French scholar of the sociology of education. A student of Louis Althusser, Establet is an emeritus professor at University of Provence. A student at the lycée in Nice, and khâgne at the Lycée Louis ...
, and the critic
Pierre Macherey Pierre Macherey (; born 17 February 1938, Belfort) is a French Marxist philosopher and literary critic at the University of Lille Nord de France. A former student of Louis Althusser and collaborator on the influential volume ''Reading Capital'' ...
. The book was first published in France by François Maspero. An abridged English translation was published in 1970, and an unabridged translation in 2015. The book was influential among intellectuals.


Summary

The philosopher Louis Althusser and his co-authors — the philosopher Étienne Balibar, the sociologist Roger Establet, the philosopher Jacques Rancière, and the critic Pierre Macherey — discuss
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
's ''
Das Kapital ''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in materialist phi ...
'' (1867–1883) and subjects such as the
labor theory of value The labor theory of value (LTV) is a theory of value that argues that the economic value of a good or service is determined by the total amount of " socially necessary labor" required to produce it. The LTV is usually associated with Marxian ...
,
dialectical materialism Dialectical materialism is a philosophy of science, history, and nature developed in Europe and based on the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxist dialectics, as a materialist philosophy, emphasizes the importance of real-world co ...
, and
historical materialism Historical materialism is the term used to describe Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx locates historical change in the rise of class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. For Marx and his lifetime collaborat ...
. Rancière notes that his contribution builds on Althusser's ''
For Marx ''For Marx'' (french: Pour Marx) is a 1965 book by the philosopher Louis Althusser, a leading theoretician of the French Communist Party (PCF), in which the author reinterprets the work of the philosopher Karl Marx, proposing an epistemological b ...
'' (1965).


Publication history

''Reading Capital'' was first published in French by François Maspero in 1965. An abridged French François Maspero edition followed in 1968. An abridged Italian translation was also published. An abridged English translation by Ben Brewster was published in 1970 by New Left Books. An unabridged English translation by Ben Brewster and David Fernbach was published in 2015 by
Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a left-wing publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of '' New Left Review''. Renaming, new brand and logo Verso Books was originally known as New Left Books. The ...
.


Reception

Together with Althusser's ''
For Marx ''For Marx'' (french: Pour Marx) is a 1965 book by the philosopher Louis Althusser, a leading theoretician of the French Communist Party (PCF), in which the author reinterprets the work of the philosopher Karl Marx, proposing an epistemological b ...
'' (1965), ''Reading Capital'' drew Althusser to the attention of French intellectuals and attracted a significant international readership. The appearance of ''Reading Capital'' and ''For Marx'' in English translation influenced the development of Marxist thought in the Anglophone world throughout the 1970s. The Marxian economist Harry Cleaver wrote that Althusser and his co-authors provided one of the most politically influential of the philosophical reinterpretations of ''Das Kapital'' that were made by Marxists in the 1960s and 1970s. However, he considered their influence regrettable, writing that in ''For Marx'' and ''Reading Capital'', Althusser's aim was to revitalize dialectical materialism "as an ideology to mediate the widely discredited political practices of the
French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European ...
." He accused Althusser of ignoring working class struggles in favor of an abstract "science of history", and noted that Althusser himself admitted that ''Reading Capital'' largely ignored the
class struggle Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The form ...
. William S. Lewis described ''Reading Capital'' as the culmination of the rereading of Marx that Althusser began in 1953. He considered it a theoretically sophisticated text. However, he suggested that the difficulty of the work supported the charge that Althusser aspired to "Leninist vanguardism" and wanted "a small, theoretically sophisticated cadre" to "direct the revolution", and expressed agreement with the historian
Eric Hobsbawm Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. A life-long Marxist, his socio-political convictions influenced the character of his work. ...
's view that the book showed that Althusser was an "extremely selective reader of Marx." The economist
Alain Lipietz Alain Lipietz (born September 19, 1947 as Alain Guy Lipiec) is a French engineer, economist and politician, a former Member of the European Parliament, and a member of the French Green Party. He has, however, been suspended from the party since ...
further pointed out that, while ''Reading Capital'' helped to disengage French Marxism from an oversimplification, determinism and mechanism inherited from the Stalinist period, it also obscured and censored the first chapter of ''Das Kapital'', in which Marx analyzed the relationship of commodity and money.


See also

* '' Louis Althusser and the Traditions of French Marxism''


References


Bibliography

;Books * * * * * * * * ;Journals *


External links


Generation Online
How to Read Marx's Capital
Liberation School
Reading Capital with Comrades {{Authority control 1965 non-fiction books Books about Marxism French non-fiction books Marxist books Works by Louis Althusser