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sl4u's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced
3.75
There are times when Marx latches onto certain topics and spends way too many paragraphs and pages belaboring the point (extreme willpower and copious amounts of snacks needed to get through these parts). But a lot of his analysis is incredibly prescient, and many of the things he writes about can be found in some form in our current capitalist world, 150 years after the book's initial publication.
Read with the help of David Harvey's companion book and lecture series.
Read with the help of David Harvey's companion book and lecture series.
antonio213's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
5.0
hubbardrbjr's review against another edition
1.0
The book of the dead.
A fascinating, compelling, and interesting read, but don’t for a second forget that the philosophical ideas espoused within and in the subsequent entries, are the harbinger of more division, hate, envy, and collective bloodshed than any other philosophical text in the history of the world, all within less than 200 years. This book has become a tome which carries an evil curse; for every one person who reads it, three tombstones must be carved.
You’ll hear men of great sociological knowledge call this an economic text. It is not. It is strictly a philosophical text in complete disagreement with the entirety of economic discipline. To take this book seriously means to envy your fellow man, hate your neighbor, quit your job, and attach yourself to a tribalistic sect, either based on economic standing, or if you are inclined to the modern evolution of a Neomarxist persuasion, some immutable characteristic which will determine who you should resent, envy, and hate. Any halfway decent human being will see this book for what it is, the antithesis to a self help book.
Marx himself just sat around and passed his toxic excrement while he bummed off of the charity of family or his co-conspirator Engles who, as a halfway productive member of society, organized the latter volumes of Marx’ work into something semi-coherent. A sad little adulterer who amounted to nothing during his lifetime, one must at least credit Marx for practicing what he preached, as even in death he continues to make the rest of us pay for his ideas.
A fascinating, compelling, and interesting read, but don’t for a second forget that the philosophical ideas espoused within and in the subsequent entries, are the harbinger of more division, hate, envy, and collective bloodshed than any other philosophical text in the history of the world, all within less than 200 years. This book has become a tome which carries an evil curse; for every one person who reads it, three tombstones must be carved.
You’ll hear men of great sociological knowledge call this an economic text. It is not. It is strictly a philosophical text in complete disagreement with the entirety of economic discipline. To take this book seriously means to envy your fellow man, hate your neighbor, quit your job, and attach yourself to a tribalistic sect, either based on economic standing, or if you are inclined to the modern evolution of a Neomarxist persuasion, some immutable characteristic which will determine who you should resent, envy, and hate. Any halfway decent human being will see this book for what it is, the antithesis to a self help book.
Marx himself just sat around and passed his toxic excrement while he bummed off of the charity of family or his co-conspirator Engles who, as a halfway productive member of society, organized the latter volumes of Marx’ work into something semi-coherent. A sad little adulterer who amounted to nothing during his lifetime, one must at least credit Marx for practicing what he preached, as even in death he continues to make the rest of us pay for his ideas.
abitliterate's review against another edition
4.0
ok no i did not read every single chapter of capital, i only read as much as i had to for class, but I AM CONSIDERING IT FAR MORE THAN ENOUGH TO CALL THIS FINISHED BECAUSE I AM ACTUALLY NAUSEOUS AND DETERIORATING PHYSICALLY FROM READING THIS TEXT. FAR TOO MANY PAGES. FAR TOO MANY. I HAVE BEEN READING MARX FOR TWO HOURS A DAY FOR LIKE THE LAST FEW WEEKS. I AM FINISHED. TERMINATED. DONE. GOODBYE. SEEYA. I APPRECIATE THE GENIUS GOING ON HERE AND I LEARNED SO MUCH BUT THANK GOD IT IS OVER.
ieguiz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
4.0
I did not want to give this book a 5 out of 5. It is dense, relentlessly verbose, and needs a 300 page warm up just to get to the good parts. Its endless examples beats a dead horse to a fine red mist.
Yet. There are few books that will give you insights as much as this one. It fundamentally changed how I view the world and the mechanisms that govern it. These 1000 pages radiate with analytical potential.
It is also chock full of emotion, which I did not expect. In between the statistics and definitions there is anger. So much anger. Marx raves about labor conditions, the conditions of children, the conditions of housing, the conditions of the agricultural worker. He dredges up the horrific injuries, horrific hours, horrific "cottages," horrific life of the proletarian. And he is fucking pissed.
Read this book. Its good.
Yet. There are few books that will give you insights as much as this one. It fundamentally changed how I view the world and the mechanisms that govern it. These 1000 pages radiate with analytical potential.
It is also chock full of emotion, which I did not expect. In between the statistics and definitions there is anger. So much anger. Marx raves about labor conditions, the conditions of children, the conditions of housing, the conditions of the agricultural worker. He dredges up the horrific injuries, horrific hours, horrific "cottages," horrific life of the proletarian. And he is fucking pissed.
Read this book. Its good.
deck_red's review against another edition
paused to work through Marxist fundamentals first