Reading Capital Politically

by
Harry Cleaver

Below you will find the entire text of my book Reading Capital Politically. You may well prefer to read it in hardcopy instead of on-line. The e-text version was prepared during the time the book was out of print. The current English hardcopy is published by Anti/Theses through AK Press. It has the footnotes handy at the bottom of the pages (an improvement over the original edition), and has a new, updated preface and is more or less pocket-sized.

The concepts and questions for review included at the end, and in the commentary on chapter 2, are for students and were not included in the original text.

Preface to the Turkish Edition (2008).
Preface to 2nd English Edition (2000).
Preface to the Korean Edition.
Preface to Mexican Edition (1981).
Chapter 1: Introduction, [pdf version from 2nd Edition].
Chapter 2: The Commodity-Form, [pdf version from 2nd Edition].
Outline and Commentary
Chapter 3: The Substance and Magnitude of Value, [pdf version from 2nd Edition].
Chapter 4: The Two-fold Character of Labor, [pdf version from 2nd Edition].
Chapter 5: The Form of Value, [pdf version from 2nd Edition].
Chapter 6: Conclusion, [pdf version from 2nd Edition].
Bibliography from 2nd Edition.
Concepts and Questions for Review.

BANNED!

Reading Capital Politically has been banned twice, to my knowledge, first in South Korea and second in South Africa. I heard about the first because I knew the Korean translator, but I knew nothing of the second until the following newpaper clipping announcing that the book had been un-banned was brought to me from Capetown. I found it amusing to discover that in South Africa in 1988, Plekanov, Cleaver and Stalin were no longer "undesirable" but porn from Texas and information on Namibian women were illegal.

I was quite honored to be banned both by the repressive government of South Korea and by the vicious apartheid government of South Africa.