Marx's 'Das Kapital' Lives On in Capitalist Age
Karl Marx struggled for two decades to complete his masterpiece, Das Kapital. Grove/Atlantic Inc. hide caption
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Francis Wheen, biographer of Karl Marx, argues that as long as capitalism endures, Marx's masterwork, Das Kapital, will be required reading.
First published in 1867, Marx's influential critique of capitalism laid the groundwork for thinkers and revolutionaries to follow.
In his "biography" of Marx's treatise — the latest in the Grove/Atlantic Books That Changed the World series — Wheen writes that Marx describes "a world in which humans are enslaved by the monstrous power of inanimate capital and commodities."
The biography sheds light on Marx's childhood, his experience of alienation, and his 20-year struggle to complete his unfinished masterpiece.