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tombomp's review against another edition
4.0
Very useful book to help demystify some of the stuff in Capital Volume 1. I disagree with quite a bit of what he says when he goes beyond Capital (particularly the focus on neoliberalism) but he connects it to Marx's work and seeing someone explicitly draw from it and developing it is useful. Most helpful early on - at parts it's limited to reiterating what Marx has said; understandable because the first couple of parts are definitely the toughest so it's not too big a deal. I do think he sometimes misses chances to argue a bit further. The main example is the labour theory of value - Marx didn't feel the need to justify it because it was commonly accepted at the time and Harvey only spends about a page (I think) doing so. Given that it's such an important part of what follows, it would have been nice to have a bit more time spent on it.
Overall though, very handy guide and I recommend it as a guide to your own understanding and interpretation.
(Couple of things: David Harvey recommends the Penguin edition, which is probably the best available, if you're planning on following along, and it's the one he quotes from with page numbers. However, the Penguin version comes with an appendix which is another chapter Marx wrote but didn't publish yet Harvey doesn't mention it at all. It's no big deal, but it would have been nice just to say "I'm not covering the appendix" somewhere)
Overall though, very handy guide and I recommend it as a guide to your own understanding and interpretation.
(Couple of things: David Harvey recommends the Penguin edition, which is probably the best available, if you're planning on following along, and it's the one he quotes from with page numbers. However, the Penguin version comes with an appendix which is another chapter Marx wrote but didn't publish yet Harvey doesn't mention it at all. It's no big deal, but it would have been nice just to say "I'm not covering the appendix" somewhere)
natlib91's review against another edition
3.0
i found this very helpful right up until a friend pointed out to me that harvey's work aren't so much companions to capital so much as riffs or tangents off capital, and once i had heard that, i found it difficult to find this much more than frustrating. certainly if you remove the lengthy quotations from das kapital, as well as harvey rendering the material relevant to his own interests, i.e. reaganomics, urban space, you would have excised about 70% of the book. i think if i ever re-read capital i will probably try to find a different companion
natlib91's review against another edition
3.0
i found this very helpful right up until a friend pointed out to me that harvey's work aren't so much companions to capital so much as riffs or tangents off capital, and once i had heard that, i found it difficult to find it much more than frustrating. certainly if you remove the lengthy quotations from das kapital, as well as harvey rendering the material relevant to his own interests, i.e. reaganomics, urban space, mondragon you would have excised about 70% of the book. i think if i ever re-read capital i will probably try to find a different companion
djinnmartini's review against another edition
5.0
how would I have survived the past 7 months without Uncle David, I wonder
ilchinealach's review against another edition
3.0
i found this very helpful right up until a friend pointed out to me that harvey's work aren't so much companions to capital so much as riffs or tangents off capital, and once i had heard that, i found it difficult to find this much more than frustrating. certainly if you remove the lengthy quotations from das kapital, as well as harvey rendering the material relevant to his own interests, i.e. reaganomics, urban space, you would have excised about 70% of the book. i think if i ever re-read capital i will probably try to find a different companion
ilchinealach's review against another edition
3.0
i found this very helpful right up until a friend pointed out to me that harvey's work aren't so much companions to capital so much as riffs or tangents off capital, and once i had heard that, i found it difficult to find it much more than frustrating. certainly if you remove the lengthy quotations from das kapital, as well as harvey rendering the material relevant to his own interests, i.e. reaganomics, urban space, mondragon you would have excised about 70% of the book. i think if i ever re-read capital i will probably try to find a different companion
tylerrobinson1's review against another edition
3.0
“Thatcher famously remarked, ‘no alternative,’ which in a way is like saying that the social necessities that surround us are so implacably set that we have no choice but to conform to them?” (p.21)
+Helps to bring out many of the important themes in Marx that are understudied (e.g. the importance technology, time and temporality, deskilling etc).
+Pulls out useful quotes that the reader may have skipped over, due to confusion or unclear significance upon initial engagement.
+Provides a detailed conclusion and retrospective analysis which attempts to bring out key, relevant themes for out 'neoliberal' era.
+Makes bridges between Marx's original work and important themes in Marxian theory more broadly (e.g. imperialism, the global division of labour, neoliberalism, the 2008 financial crash, the Latin American debt crisis etc).
-Links to contemporary themes are often lacking and shallow in places, and occasionally appear forced, despite their apparent usefulness.
-Dry writing style often makes the book much less engaging.
-Harvey's opinions often stray from more popular or established conceptions found in mainstream Marxian economics/sociology/philosophy, without a full consideration of the implications arising from this deviation.
-Large concessions are made to Marx, and any disagreements are generously interpreted away with reference to other texts ("well Marx may be wrong in this quote, but look at the Grundrisse or Capital Volume 3!")
-References to alternative schools of thought seldom have the level of description or detail required for a lay reader. Harvey expects readers to know what the Autonomist School is when they haven't read Capital Volume 1!
I think folks should consider a smaller guide to Capital over this one (such as [b:How to Read Marx's Capital|4233518|How to Read Marx's Capital|Stephen Shapiro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1315686640l/4233518._SX50_.jpg|4280924], [b:Marx's Capital|186818|Marx's Capital|Ben Fine|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1312031413l/186818._SX50_.jpg|180589], [b:An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital|13328339|An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital|Michael Heinrich|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375061502l/13328339._SX50_.jpg|18535606]) or maybe simply listening to Harvey's lectures, rather than reading them, may be a more useful way to spend your time understanding Marx's magnum opus.
+Helps to bring out many of the important themes in Marx that are understudied (e.g. the importance technology, time and temporality, deskilling etc).
+Pulls out useful quotes that the reader may have skipped over, due to confusion or unclear significance upon initial engagement.
+Provides a detailed conclusion and retrospective analysis which attempts to bring out key, relevant themes for out 'neoliberal' era.
+Makes bridges between Marx's original work and important themes in Marxian theory more broadly (e.g. imperialism, the global division of labour, neoliberalism, the 2008 financial crash, the Latin American debt crisis etc).
-Links to contemporary themes are often lacking and shallow in places, and occasionally appear forced, despite their apparent usefulness.
-Dry writing style often makes the book much less engaging.
-Harvey's opinions often stray from more popular or established conceptions found in mainstream Marxian economics/sociology/philosophy, without a full consideration of the implications arising from this deviation.
-Large concessions are made to Marx, and any disagreements are generously interpreted away with reference to other texts ("well Marx may be wrong in this quote, but look at the Grundrisse or Capital Volume 3!")
-References to alternative schools of thought seldom have the level of description or detail required for a lay reader. Harvey expects readers to know what the Autonomist School is when they haven't read Capital Volume 1!
I think folks should consider a smaller guide to Capital over this one (such as [b:How to Read Marx's Capital|4233518|How to Read Marx's Capital|Stephen Shapiro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1315686640l/4233518._SX50_.jpg|4280924], [b:Marx's Capital|186818|Marx's Capital|Ben Fine|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1312031413l/186818._SX50_.jpg|180589], [b:An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital|13328339|An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital|Michael Heinrich|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375061502l/13328339._SX50_.jpg|18535606]) or maybe simply listening to Harvey's lectures, rather than reading them, may be a more useful way to spend your time understanding Marx's magnum opus.