Working my way through theory and wondering if Kapital is worth what seems to be a monumental effort. I kind of just look at it now like, “I already agree ideologically, and a complex economic argument will probably be lost on me.”
So is there an upside to reading (at least parts of) the text that I’m missing out on?
You should read it at some point, it underpins the bulk of theory. Maybe it was the specific translation that I had, but in my experience it wasn’t a difficult, academic process to get through. Also you really only need to read volume 1. Anyone who says they have read 2 & 3 are weasely little liars
I’ll actually go ahead and say just get the Penguin version.
The reason is not because it’s the best or anything, but that it’s the most widely used. If you want to read some introductions along with it, or read some commentary of Capital, or watch some lectures or anything, they will always use the Penguin version for translation, page numbers etc.
You can read other translations afterwords if you want. But the Penguin one has the largest amount of “support” material and basically every academic who cites Capital in their own work used it too.
I recommend listening to the podcast Reading Kapital with Comrades, really helped me grasp some of the harder-to-grok parts of Marx, especially the first 3 or so chapters. That’s mostly the hard part, anyways, the beginning. Made the whole thing much more digestible, at least for a dipshit like me :3
Have you read Value, Price and Profit?
It’s very short and is a great introduction to Marx’s economic theories and style
I haven’t read it but I’ve heard it’s not nearly as bad as it’s made out to be, and that Marx actually does a good job of laying out understandable examples to explain the concepts he’s discussing. I do need to pick it up, though.
