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"'As gripping and as readable as a first-rate thriller.' A. C. Grayling, The Times * 'Exhilarating... A healthy corrective to those brought up to think of Marx's work as rigid and doctrinaire... Wheen provides a vivid portrait of the man.' Adam Sisman, Sunday Telegraph * 'These well written stories of great books serve as finger-licking, appetite-whetting hors d'oeuvre.' Ziauddin Sardar, Independent"
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"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it," wrote Karl Marx in 1845. This is the essence of "Das Kapital", a blazing expose of the new capitalist world of the Victorian era, whose ideas would affect the lives of millions, and alter the course of world history. In vivid detail, Francis Wheen tells the story of Marx's twenty-year fight to complete his unfinished masterpiece. "Das Kapital" was born in a two-room flat in Soho amid political squabbles and personal tragedy. The first volume was published in 1867, to muted praise, but, after Marx's death, went on to influence thinkers, writers and revolutionaries, from George Bernard Shaw to Lenin. Wheen's brilliant and accessible book shows that, far from being a dry economic treatise, "Das Kapital" is like a vast Gothic novel, whose heroes are enslaved by the monster they created: capitalism. Furthermore, Wheen argues, as long as capitalism endures, "Das Kapital" demands to be read and understood.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The acid test is whether it makes you more or less likely to read Capital, surely. In that sense this is a real winner. A very lucid and enjoyable account highlighting aspects of Marx not often noticed. A nice counterpart to his biography of Karl, which paints the old sod as much nastier than does this one. Well worth reading.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book may not change your mind about Marxism but it certainly will about Marx. He and Engels both come out of it as the most engaging characters (!).
Wonderful introduction to Marx - bit of a page turner, in fact!
Wonderful introduction to Marx - bit of a page turner, in fact!
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Marx's Das Kapital" is noted Marx-sympathetic journalist Francis Wheen's contribution to Atlantic Magazine's series on book biographies. It's short, merely 120 pages of actual text, but it does the job well. Relying strongly on prominent secondary literature about Marx, such as David McLellan's excellent biography (Karl Marx, Fourth Edition: A Biography) and S.S. Prawer's equally fascinating study of Marx' use of literature and literary references (Karl Marx and World Literature (Oxford Paperbacks)), Wheen summarizes the background of Das Kapital, how it came to be, as well as its content and its reception.
Wheen is at his best in the journalistic parts, when he can give colorful and well-done descriptions of Marx's life and activities, his relation to Engels, his trials and tribulations while working on the magnum opus, and in commentary on Marx's books and style. On the other hand, his grasp of Marx's economic theories is very weak and likely to make things more confusing, especially since he misses the point and meaning of Marx's Theory of Value entirely. Also dubious is that he appends a chapter on 'afterlife' of the book, which is mostly an attempt to summarize all of the later Marxist tradition (from an anti-Leninist viewpoint) in a few pages, a task so impossible that its attempt is fruitless and uninformative.
However, Wheen is quite good at putting Das Kapital in its historical context, in emphasizing the rhetorical and literary qualities of the book and of Marx' thought in general, and the book also contains some fascinating quotes and remarks from pro-capitalist economists and businessmen who have come to see, to their own astonishment, that ol' Marx was a better analyst of the system they wish to support than anyone else. Let us hope the reader of this booklet will be inspired by this to attempt to delve into Marx & Engels' own works, which constantly show their relevance in new and unexpected ways. As Wheen demonstrates, this is precisely as Marx had intended it.
Wheen is at his best in the journalistic parts, when he can give colorful and well-done descriptions of Marx's life and activities, his relation to Engels, his trials and tribulations while working on the magnum opus, and in commentary on Marx's books and style. On the other hand, his grasp of Marx's economic theories is very weak and likely to make things more confusing, especially since he misses the point and meaning of Marx's Theory of Value entirely. Also dubious is that he appends a chapter on 'afterlife' of the book, which is mostly an attempt to summarize all of the later Marxist tradition (from an anti-Leninist viewpoint) in a few pages, a task so impossible that its attempt is fruitless and uninformative.
However, Wheen is quite good at putting Das Kapital in its historical context, in emphasizing the rhetorical and literary qualities of the book and of Marx' thought in general, and the book also contains some fascinating quotes and remarks from pro-capitalist economists and businessmen who have come to see, to their own astonishment, that ol' Marx was a better analyst of the system they wish to support than anyone else. Let us hope the reader of this booklet will be inspired by this to attempt to delve into Marx & Engels' own works, which constantly show their relevance in new and unexpected ways. As Wheen demonstrates, this is precisely as Marx had intended it.
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