[Book] Understanding Marx’s Capital: A reader’s guide Index [Book] Understanding Marx’s Capital: A reader’s guide Preface Introduction: the making of Marx’s Capital Introduction: Marxism in Our Time 1) Chapter 1: The Commodity 2) Chapters 2-3: Money 3) Chapters 4-8: Surplus-value 4) Chapters 9-11: exploitation 5) Chapters 12-14: Productivity, Co-operation, and the Division of Labour 6) Chapter 15: The Machine 7) Chapters 16-22: Wages 8) Chapters 23-25: Accumulation 9) Chapters 26-33: The Origins of Capitalism Appendix 1: The Organic Crisis of Capitalism Appendix 2: ‘Underconsumption’ and the Marxist Theory of Crisis Appendix 3: The Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall Glossary All Pages Page 2 of 17PrefaceKarl Marx’s Capital is an undeniable masterpiece of political economy – a work that is even more relevant today than at the time it was written, over 150 years ago. Through his writings in the three volumes of Capital, Marx revolutionised our understanding of the capitalist system, uncovering and explaining its inner processes, emergent laws, and inherent contradictions. “To reveal the economic law of motion of modern society,” Marx wrote in the preface to Capital, was “the final purpose” of his book.Capital, however, remains a difficult book to fully understand, particularly for those who are new to Marxist ideas and its dialectical method of analysis. Like other sciences, political economy has its own terminology, which at times can add a barrier to accessing the concepts and theories contained within Marx’s magnum opus. Those who do overcome such hurdles, however, will find a veritable feast of ideas and analysis; an invaluable toolkit for making sense of modern society and the global capitalist economy.The aim of this book is to help guide readers through the pages of volume one of Capital; to bring out the main themes and ideas contained within it; and to discuss the relevance of this great Marxist classic in terms of understanding the crisis-ridden world around us today – and, most importantly, how we can radically transform it. “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways,” Marx famously asserted. “The point, however, is to change it.” “I hope to deal the bourgeoisie a theoretical blow from which it will never recover.” – Letter by Marx to Klings, 4th October 1864 Prev Next