Karl Marx's Grundrisse

Foundations of the critique of political economy 150 years later

Edited by Marcello Musto

With a special foreword by Eric Hobsbawm

ISBN: 978-0-415-43749-3

Binding: Hardback

Published by: Routledge

Publication Date: 25th July 2008

Pages: 320

http://www.routledgeeconomics.com/books/Karl-Marxs-Grundrisse-isbn9780415437493

About the Book

Written between 1857 and 1858, the Grundrisse is the ﬁrst draft of Marx's critique of political economy and, thus, also the initial preparatory work on Capital. Despite its editorial vicissitudes and late publication, Grundrisse contains numerous reﬂections on matters that Marx did not develop elsewhere in his oeuvre and is therefore extremely important for an overall interpretation of his thought.

In this collection, various international experts in the ﬁeld, analysing the Grundrisse on the one-hundred-and-ﬁftieth anniversary of its composition, present a Marx in many ways radically different from the one who ﬁgures in the dominant currents of twentieth-century Marxism. The book demonstrates the relevance of the Grundrisse to an understanding of Capital and of Marx's theoretical project as a whole, which, as is well known, remained uncompleted. It also highlights the continuing explanatory power of Marxian categories for contemporary society and its present contradictions. Musto's volume is divided into three parts. The ﬁrst consists of eight chapters on the main themes that emerge from a reading of the Grundrisse: method, value, alienation, surplus value, historical materialism, ecological contradictions, socialism, and a comparison between the Grundrisse and Capital. The second reconstructs the biographical and theoretical context in which Marx wrote these manuscripts; while the third presents a full account of their dissemination and reception throughout the world.

With contributions from such scholars as Eric Hobsbawm, Moishe Postone, John Bellamy Foster, Ellen Meiksins Wood and Terrell Carver, and covering subject areas such as political economy, philosophy and Marxism, this book is likely to become required reading for serious scholars of Marx across the world.

Table of Contents

1. Prologue

2. Foreword, Eric Hobsbawn

Part I. Grundrisse: Critical Interpretations

3. History, Production and Method in the 1857 'Introduction', Marcello Musto

4. The Concept of Value in Modern Economy. On the Relationship between Money and Capital in 'Grundrisse', Joachim Bischoff and Christoph Lieber

5. Marx Conception of Alienation in 'Grundrisse', Terrell Carver

6. The Discovery of the Category of Surplus value, Enrique Dussel

7. Historical Materialism in 'Forms which precede Capitalist Production', Ellen Meiksins Wood

8. Marx's 'Grundrisse' and the Ecological Contradictions of Capitalism, John Bellamy Foster

9. Emancipated Individuals in an Emancipated Society. Marx's Sketch of Post-Capitalist Society in the 'Grundrisse', Iring Fetscher

10. Rethinking 'Capital' in Light of the 'Grundrisse', Moishe Postone

Part II. Marx at the time of Grundrisse

11. Marx's life at the time of the 'Grundrisse'. Biographical notes on 1857-8, Marcello Musto

12. The First World Economic Crisis: Marx as an Economic Journalist, Michael R. Kratke

13. Marx's 'Books of Crisis' of 1857-8, Michael R. Kratke

Part III. Dissemination and reception of Grundrisse in the world

14. Dissemination and Reception of the 'Grundrisse' in the world. Introduction, Marcello Musto

15. Germany and Austria and Switzerland, Ernst Theodor Mohl

16. Russia and Soviet Union, Lyudmila L. Vasina

17. Japan, Hiroshi Uchida

18. China, Zhongpu Zhang

19. France, Andre Tosel

20. Italy, Mario Tronti

21. Cuba and Argentina and Spain and Mexico, Pedro Ribas and Rafael Pla

22. Czechoslovakia, Stanislav Hubik

23. Hungary, Ferenc L. Lendvai

24. Romania, Gheorghe Stoica

25. USA and Britain and Australia and Canada, Christopher J. Arthur

26. Denmark, Birger Linde

27. Yugoslavia, Lino Veljak

28. Iran, Kamran Nayeri

29. Poland, Holger Politt

30. Finland, Vesa Oittinen

31. Greece, John Milios

32. Turkey, E. Ahmet Tonak

33. South Korea, Hogyun Kim

34. Brazil and Portugal, Jose Paulo Netto

Reviews

"The present collective volume appears at a time when Marxist parties and movements are only rarely signiﬁcant actors on the global scene and when debates about their doctrines, strategies, methods and objectives are no longer the inevitable framework of debates about the writings of Marx, Engels and their followers. And yet it also appears at a time when the world appears to demonstrate the perspicacity of Marx's insight into the economic modus operandi of the capitalist system. Perhaps this is the right moment to return to a study of the Grundrisse less constricted by the temporary considerations of leftwing politics between Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin and the fall of Mikhail Gorbachev. It is an enormously difﬁcult text in every respect, but also an enormously rewarding one, if only because it provides the only guide to the full range of the treatise of which Capital is only a fraction, and a unique introduction to the methodology of the mature Marx. It contains analyses and insights, for instance about technology, that take Marx's treatment of capitalism far beyond the nineteenth century, into the era of a society where production no longer requires mass labour, of automation, the potential of leisure, and the transformations of alienation in such circumstances. It is the only text that goes some way beyond Marx's own hints of the communist future in the German Ideology. In a few words, it has been rightly described as Marx's thought at its richest.

This collection is divided into three parts. The ﬁrst is made up of eight chapters which interpret the main themes (method, value, alienation, surplus value, historical materialism, ecological contradictions, socialism, and a comparison between the Grundrisse and the Capital) coming from reading the Grundrisse. The second reconstructs the intellectual biography of its author between 1857 and 1858. The third, ﬁnally, presents a complete and rigorous account of the dissemination and the reception of this Marx's work throughout the world.

In short, this volume makes a successful attempt both to display some of the riches of Grundrisse and to place its origin fortunes in their international setting".

Eric Hobsbawm

"This volume promises to be required reading for all serious students of Marx".

Simon Clarke (University of Warwick, UK)

meric

2008-12-15

Hewlett-Packard