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erost's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
4.75
Do not read alone, it is a long read treat as a academic text
kidzbopofficial's review against another edition
5.0
expectedly sensual; unexpectedly therapeutic. thank you Karl
jonathanmarty_'s review against another edition
have you guys heard about all this?!?!?
ashercsb's review against another edition
Star rating does not apply.
Quite a project to read this. I learned a huge amount and it gave me a theoretical framework with which I can try to think about the modern world. On the other hand, the prose isn't exactly enjoyable.
Quite a project to read this. I learned a huge amount and it gave me a theoretical framework with which I can try to think about the modern world. On the other hand, the prose isn't exactly enjoyable.
p3ter_sheehan's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
tombomp's review against another edition
5.0
A masterpiece (although I guess it'd be weird if I said otherwise, given that I consider myself a Marxist. WHATEVER) It's sometimes tough to read - which is kind of inevitable given the subject - and sometimes I feel that it could have used a good editor to help fix a few minor issues with chapter ordering and stuff (I'm sure Marx would have appreciated an editor and more time to work on it too) but taken overall it's incredible, enlightening and, even for a relatively into it Marxist, constantly thought-provoking. Marx touches on a lot of stuff that isn't talked about so much now and it's pretty amazing how much of what he talks about is more relevant now than when he wrote it - the "Marx isn't relevant today" argument completely falls apart. One interesting thing is how much he talks about history - it's interesting from a history perspective as well as making it absolutely clear that capitalism is a historical thing.
The one big thing that he doesn't really talk about is gender - he mentions that women are in the workforce and stuff like that but goes no further and explicitly treats the "default" worker as male. It's disappointing but it'd be ridiculous to expect him to cover everything and given how our analysis of these issues is still awful it's understandable at least. His analysis of a few things (particularly colonialism) is really limited in this but it's essential to understand that this was meant to be the first of 6 books (maybe more or less depending on the scheme used) - of which he only published one in his lifetime, two more were mostly finished, one was mostly notes and the last two weren't started. Some of what he doesn't cover he intended to cover later on. The introduction to the Penguin edition covers this well.
If you're only mildly interested in Marx's ideas you're probably better served with a secondary source (I recommend Marx's Capital by Ben Fine, which is an excellent book and helpful as an overview before diving into this at any rate) but if you have a serious interest you'll find this fascinating. I think Marx still brings up important issues that aren't adequately addressed even today, as well as focusing on stuff that the conventional left tends to ignore. I read this with a Companion to Marx's Capital by David Harvey, which really helped me at certain points - it's not essential and I disagreed with some of his analysis but it will help things like the difficult starting chapters not seem so impossible.
(note to myself: Still not read the whole appendix because it seems to repeat a lot of the main text, if not directly. Something for later)
The one big thing that he doesn't really talk about is gender - he mentions that women are in the workforce and stuff like that but goes no further and explicitly treats the "default" worker as male. It's disappointing but it'd be ridiculous to expect him to cover everything and given how our analysis of these issues is still awful it's understandable at least. His analysis of a few things (particularly colonialism) is really limited in this but it's essential to understand that this was meant to be the first of 6 books (maybe more or less depending on the scheme used) - of which he only published one in his lifetime, two more were mostly finished, one was mostly notes and the last two weren't started. Some of what he doesn't cover he intended to cover later on. The introduction to the Penguin edition covers this well.
If you're only mildly interested in Marx's ideas you're probably better served with a secondary source (I recommend Marx's Capital by Ben Fine, which is an excellent book and helpful as an overview before diving into this at any rate) but if you have a serious interest you'll find this fascinating. I think Marx still brings up important issues that aren't adequately addressed even today, as well as focusing on stuff that the conventional left tends to ignore. I read this with a Companion to Marx's Capital by David Harvey, which really helped me at certain points - it's not essential and I disagreed with some of his analysis but it will help things like the difficult starting chapters not seem so impossible.
(note to myself: Still not read the whole appendix because it seems to repeat a lot of the main text, if not directly. Something for later)