synopsis:

This economic and philosophical work by German political and philosophical thinker Karl Marx is an analysis of the way capitalism works. Throughout the last few centuries, according to Marx, it has been the common worker's fate to suffer the "maximum of working time and the minimum of wages" in order to supply Capitalists with profits. "Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, moral degradation, at the opposite pole." This must and shall be ended.

Granted, says Marx, the Capitalist is in tight control. But the pendulum of power has swung many times in the past, and he promises that it will again shift. The Proletariat, under the banner of Communism, will ultimately be victorious. Revolution is the destined scenario - and the ultimate historical "synthesis" will be a perfectly just and egalitarian society, where everyone works, "according to his ability" and receives "according to his needs"; where the state itself finally "withers away."

on this book:

In the mid-nineteenth century, when Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital - an exhaustive work of more than one thousand pages - factory conditions were often intolerable, wages were at best barely adequate, and there were few groups or governments who advocated reform. Therefore, Marx took it upon himself to define "Capitalism, explain and condemn Capitalist methods, predict the inevitable doom of the system, and issue the rallying cry, "Workers of the world, unite!"When Marx simply describes what he sees, his analyses and criticisms appear most lucid. In contrast, his theories become confusing as he attempts to prove even the vaguest point using mathematics. He felt that these elaborate equations and proofs were necessary because his book does not purport to be merely a moral prescription for society's ills, but a scientific description of the unavoidable course of history. It is, of course, actually not only a "prescription" but a passionate exhortation. As he calls himself a matrialist, he condemns alls moral prescriptions: he just uses scientific and empirical arguments.

In any case, some of Marx's words still ring true. as a framework for analyzing the historical transformation of human society, Das Kapital succeeds quite well.