Reading Capital presents Louis Althusser's systematic theory of a Marxism cleansed of all idealist and Hegelian notions. No reader interested in modern Marxism can afford to bypass this book. "One reads his passionate study with attention, even with excitement". Eric Hobsbawm, Times Literary Supplement.
Together with Louis Althussers book For Marx, Reading Capital represents one of the foundational texts of the school of structuralist Marxism which transformed the face of modern philosophy and social theory. Presided over by the magnetic and intellectually coruscating figure of Althusser, the structuralist Marxists attempted no less than an intellectual revolution against dominant interpretations of Marx. Seeking to cleanse Marx of all Hegelian impurities and recast his thought on a rigorously scientific basis, in this work Althusser and one of his most brilliant students and colleagues, Etienne Balibar, subjected Marxs method in Capital, his critique of classical political economy, and the fundamental terms of historical materialism, to searching textual analysis and challenging conceptual reconstruction. Inaugurating a new way of reading Marx that was to prove both intensely stimulating and capable of generating fierce controversy, Reading Capital is a work that cannot be bypassed by anyone interested in Marxism, and in theory more generally, in this century.
