Alfredo Saad-FilhoReseñas

An excellent summary of all 3 volumes of Capital that can be read separately. Although it obviously can't cover everything, it looks at all the key concepts in enough detail and understandable language, striking a good balance between depth and accessibility. Obviously some concepts are tough, but the author does a good job of making them easier to understand. One nice touch is that after summarising, he provides a couple paragraphs just to point out the existence of other important interpretations, which is very handy. Very much recommended for anyone interested in Marxism and needs a guide to the major economic ideas.

Pretty tough to read - the subjects chosen and the depth of analysis makes it seem like an introduction yet it uses a lot of Marxist value related terms without introducing them, leaving me confused. Explanations hinge on terms which I don't understand and can't reasonably infer from context. I'm not a complete beginner to this and so I at least have a basic understanding of a lot of it but he seems to expect a broader understanding of a lot of the terms already. It also constantly forward-references which is frustrating.

Talks about various interpretations of Marx and then presents what I presume is his own as the "right" one but without introducing it as such exactly - this is a small thing but it's a little weird.

The dialectics chapter was a big old mess.

I've learnt some stuff from it but I haven't felt like I've got much of a grasp on Marx's theory of value. Maybe helpful as a summary when you already know the topic well, but not useful at all for me.

This brilliantly concise book is a classic introduction to Marx's key work, Capital. In print now for over a quarter of a century, and previously translated into many languages, the new edition has been fully revised and updated, making it an ideal modern introduction to one of the most important texts in political economy. Book jacket.

Reviewed in the December 1989 issue of the Socialist Standard:

http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2015/09/marxs-economics-1989.html

Also reviewed in the June 1978 issue of the Socialist Standard:

http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-useful-introduction-to-ma...

"Anti-Capitalism: A Marxist Introduction" is a collection of essays seeking to establish, or perhaps re-establish, the Marxist paradigm as the only one which can explain and analyze the broad range of important economic, social, environmental etc. phenomena we see today. With each essay being written by someone of the very highest quality of Marxist scholarship, this collection succeeds completely in its purpose, and provides an invaluable guide for analysis for every Marxist thinker.

The book is divided into three parts: the first establishes the Marxist critique of political economy and explains why Marxism, and only Marxism, can adequately explain all the phenomena of capitalism as well as its past. The Marxist theory of value is explained and defended, the meaning of money, unions, labor markets, technological change and so forth are all discussed. Lapavitsas' essay on the role of money is particularly enlightening considering the somewhat difficult subject matter, and Lev Levidow's article on technological change in agriculture is very useful, dispelling a lot of mythology about the "Green Revolution" as well as technology in general.

The second part of the collection is about "global capitalism" or 'globalization'. This goes into the history and origins of capitalism, its impetus to spread across the globe and to 'capitalize' all prior relations, as well as the position of the developing world vis-á-vis capital. Particularly interesting here for people familiar with the general arguments on development economics is Elizabeth Dore's article on social relations in the Third World: she makes a good argument that a lot of socialist movements in and about the Third World in the past have tended to overstate the 'proletarianization' of those countries, and this leads to strategic errors when trying to make socialist policies (she uses the Sandinistas as example). There's also an article by Simon Clarke on the Soviet system, but it's rather vague and poorly argued, probably the weakest essay in the book.

The overcoming of capitalism and the possibility and nature of socialism is the subject of the third part. Lebowitz here summarizes the argument made in his excellent book "Beyond Capital" in a short essay, and Fred Moseley has a very interesting article on the falling rate of profit and its meaning for the US economy. Chattopadhyay and Holloway finish the work with strong essays showing the use of class struggle and the possibility of socialism.

What makes this collection all the more interesting is that all the essays are not only by world-class Marxist thinkers, but they are also all short and well-written, making reading it a breeze. This is probably why the book is called an introduction, even though not all essays are at introductory level. This book is a must-have for anyone interested in the state and possibilities of Marxism today.