How to Read Marx’s Capital

Stephen Shapiro is Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.

Capital Volume I is essential reading on many undergraduate courses, but the structure and style of the book can be confusing for students, leading them to abandon the text. This book is a clear guide to reading Marx's classic text, which explains the reasoning behind the book's structure and provides help with the more technical aspects that non-economists may find taxing. Students are urged to think for themselves and engage with Marx's powerful methods of argument and explanation. Shapiro shows that Capital is key to understanding critical theory and cultural production. This highly focused book will prove invaluable to students of politics, cultural studies and literary theory.

Preface Acknowledgements Part One: Commodities and Money 1. The Commodity 2. The Process of Exchange 3. Money, or the Circulation of Commodities Part Two: The Transformation of Money into Capital 4. The General Formula for Capital 5. Contradictions in the General Formula 6. The Sale and Purchase of Labor-power Part Three: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value 7. The Labor Process and the Valorization Process 8. Constant Capital and Variable Capital 9. The Rate of Surplus-Value 10. The Working Day 11. The Rate and Mass of Surplus-Value Part Four: The Production of Relative Surplus-Value 12. The Concept of Relative Surplus-Value 13. Co-operation 14. The Division of Labor and Manufacture 15. Machinery and Large-Scale Industry Part Five: The Production of Absolute and Relative Surplus-Value 16. Absolute and Relative Surplus-Value 17. Changes of Magnitude in the Price of Labor-power and in Surplus-value 18: Different Formulae for the Rate of Surplus-Value Part Six: Wages 19. The Transformation of the Value (and Respectively the Price) of Labor-power into Wages 20. Time-Wages 21. Piece Wages 22. National Differences in Wages Part Seven: The Process of Accumulation of Capital 23. Simple Reproduction 24. The Transformation of Surplus-Value into Capital 25. The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation Part Eight: So-Called Primitive ["Originating"] Accumulation 26. The Secret of Primitive Accumulation 27. The Expropriation of the Agricultural Population from the Land 28. Bloody Legislation Against the Expropriated Since the End of the Fifteenth Century. The Forcing Down of Wages by Act of Parliament 29. The Genesis of the Capitalist Farmer 30. Impact of the Agricultural Revolution on Industry. The Creation of a Home Market for Industrial Capital 31. The Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist 32. The Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation 33. The Modern Theory of Colonization Suggestions for Further Reading Index