Capital's faces

Marx was only able to complete Book I of Capital in accordance with his original plan. Books II and III were published posthumously, in 1885 and 1894, respectively, thanks to a massive editorial effort by Friedrich Engels. While scholars have long debated the reliability of these two volumes - based on incomplete, fragmented manuscripts written years apart and containing numerous unresolved theoretical issues - fewer have delved into another equally crucial question: whether a definitive version of Book I existed. This debate has resurfaced

- MARCELLO MUSTO

Decades pass and, al though Capital has often been described as an outdated text, the debate surrounding this book persists. Despite being 157 years old, Karl Marx’s critique of political economy retains all the qualities of a great classic: it sparks new insights with every reading and continues to shed light on key aspects of both the past and the present. Moreover, it has the remarkable ability to place the chronicle of the present ~ and the often-inadequate figures at its helm ~ into the relative perspective they deserve. It is no coincidence that the well known Italian writer and journalist Italo Calvino asserted that a classic is one that helps us “relegate the present to the status of background noise”.

Classics point to the essential issues and inescapable truths necessary to understand the problems thoroughly and resolve them. This is why they consistently captivate new generations of readers. A classic remains indispensable despite the passage of time and, in the case of Capital, one could argue that its relevance only grows as capitalism spreads to every corner of the globe and expands into all aspects of our lives.

Following the outbreak of the 2007-2008 economic crisis, the rediscovery of Marx’s magnum opus became a real necessity, almost a response to an emergency: bringing back into circulation the text ~ long forgotten after the fall of the Berlin Wall ~ that offered still-relevant interpretative keys to understanding the true causes of capitalism’s de s tructive madness.

As global stock market indices were burning through hundreds of billions of euros, and numerous financial institutions declared bankruptcy, within a few months Capital sold more copies than it had in the previous two decades combined.