A Companion to Marx's Grundrisse

David Harvey tackles Marx's notebooks that have spawned wide-ranging and raging controversies

When leading scholar of Marx, Roman Rosdolsky, first encountered the virtually unknown text of Marx’s Grundrisse - his preparatory work for his masterpiece Das Capital - in the 1950s in New York Public Library, he recognized it as “a work of fundamental importance,” but declared “its unusual form” and “obscure manner of expression, made it far from suitable for reaching a wide circle of readers.”

David Harvey’s Companion to Marx’s Grundrisse builds upon his widely acclaimed companions to the first and second volumes of Capital in a way that will reach as wide an audience as possible. Marx’s stated ambition for this text - where he was thinking aloud about some of possible metamorphoses of capitalism - is to reveal “the exact development of the concept of capital as the fundamental concept of modern economics, just as capital itself is the foundation of bourgeois society.”
 
While respecting Marx’s desire to “bring out all the contradictions of bourgeois production, as well as the boundary where it drives beyond itself,” David Harvey also pithily illustrates the relevance of Marx’s text to understanding the troubled state of contemporary capitalism.
"David Harvey provoked a revolution in his field and has inspired a generation of radical intellectuals."
—Wolfgang Streeck, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies

"Harvey is a scholarly radical; his writing is free of journalistic clichés, full of facts and carefully thought-through ideas."
—Richard Tuck, Harvard University

"Few people have penetrated the heartland of contemporary cultural theory and critique as explosively or insightfully as David Harvey."
Financial Times

"One of the most perceptive and intelligent thinkers the progressive movement has."
Wall Street Journal

"A consistent and intelligent voice on the left."
Times Higher Education

"It is often said of Marx that you need to read to the end to grasp what comes at the beginning. True to that maxim, after a lifetime of studying and interpreting Marx, David Harvey has finally returned to where Marx's critique of political economy effectively began, in the famous Grundrisse. Harvey likens his Companion to accompanying the reader on a long hike, pointing out key landforms, junctions and hazards along the way. So put on your boots, fill your water bottle, and join Harvey in his dazzling venture to bring Marx's 'most interesting and difficult' book to life."
—Brett Christophers

"An indispensable companion to the Grundrisse. Harvey's newest is as illuminating for experienced readers as it is helpful for those who are encountering Marx's great text for the first time."
—Nancy Fraser

"No matter how many times I read the Grundrisse by myself, I find it a difficult text. When I read it with David Harvey, however, the text is illuminated with light from the present. Harvey uses Marx's insights to make sense of the tricks capital plays today, from its drive towards financialization to its devastation of the planet. This is an extraordinary ability. For it reminds us not only of the relevance of Marx, but by making capitalism legible in the here and now, Harvey re-commits us to struggles against it. He is truly the Marx whisperer of our times."
—Tithi Bhattacharya, Co-Author of Feminism for the 99%

"Superbly lucid."
—Charles Mudede, The Stranger

"Building on his acclaimed companions to the first and second volumes of Capital, Harvey carefully examines the drafts Marx's wrote in the 1850s, and illustrates their relevance to understanding the troubled state of contemporary capitalism."
Climate & Capitalism

"When it comes to the critique of capitalist society over the last half century, few thinkers can rival David Harvey's influence and originality..."
—Benjamin Tetler, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

"Just as Das Kapital provided orientation amid the Great Recession, the Grundrisse-and Harvey's interpretation of it-could be an indispensable guide to navigating our political situation today, specifically when it comes to the question of how to deal with a rapidly developing artificial intelligence and the continued, seemingly inexorable rise of China"
—Samuel McIlhagga, Foreign Policy
David Harvey teaches at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and is the author of many books, including Social Justice and the City, The Condition of Postmodernity, The Limits to Capital, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Spaces of Global Capitalism, and A Companion to Marx's Capital. His website is davidharvey.org.

About

David Harvey tackles Marx's notebooks that have spawned wide-ranging and raging controversies

When leading scholar of Marx, Roman Rosdolsky, first encountered the virtually unknown text of Marx’s Grundrisse - his preparatory work for his masterpiece Das Capital - in the 1950s in New York Public Library, he recognized it as “a work of fundamental importance,” but declared “its unusual form” and “obscure manner of expression, made it far from suitable for reaching a wide circle of readers.”

David Harvey’s Companion to Marx’s Grundrisse builds upon his widely acclaimed companions to the first and second volumes of Capital in a way that will reach as wide an audience as possible. Marx’s stated ambition for this text - where he was thinking aloud about some of possible metamorphoses of capitalism - is to reveal “the exact development of the concept of capital as the fundamental concept of modern economics, just as capital itself is the foundation of bourgeois society.”
 
While respecting Marx’s desire to “bring out all the contradictions of bourgeois production, as well as the boundary where it drives beyond itself,” David Harvey also pithily illustrates the relevance of Marx’s text to understanding the troubled state of contemporary capitalism.

Reviews

"David Harvey provoked a revolution in his field and has inspired a generation of radical intellectuals."
—Wolfgang Streeck, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies

"Harvey is a scholarly radical; his writing is free of journalistic clichés, full of facts and carefully thought-through ideas."
—Richard Tuck, Harvard University

"Few people have penetrated the heartland of contemporary cultural theory and critique as explosively or insightfully as David Harvey."
Financial Times

"One of the most perceptive and intelligent thinkers the progressive movement has."
Wall Street Journal

"A consistent and intelligent voice on the left."
Times Higher Education

"It is often said of Marx that you need to read to the end to grasp what comes at the beginning. True to that maxim, after a lifetime of studying and interpreting Marx, David Harvey has finally returned to where Marx's critique of political economy effectively began, in the famous Grundrisse. Harvey likens his Companion to accompanying the reader on a long hike, pointing out key landforms, junctions and hazards along the way. So put on your boots, fill your water bottle, and join Harvey in his dazzling venture to bring Marx's 'most interesting and difficult' book to life."
—Brett Christophers

"An indispensable companion to the Grundrisse. Harvey's newest is as illuminating for experienced readers as it is helpful for those who are encountering Marx's great text for the first time."
—Nancy Fraser

"No matter how many times I read the Grundrisse by myself, I find it a difficult text. When I read it with David Harvey, however, the text is illuminated with light from the present. Harvey uses Marx's insights to make sense of the tricks capital plays today, from its drive towards financialization to its devastation of the planet. This is an extraordinary ability. For it reminds us not only of the relevance of Marx, but by making capitalism legible in the here and now, Harvey re-commits us to struggles against it. He is truly the Marx whisperer of our times."
—Tithi Bhattacharya, Co-Author of Feminism for the 99%

"Superbly lucid."
—Charles Mudede, The Stranger

"Building on his acclaimed companions to the first and second volumes of Capital, Harvey carefully examines the drafts Marx's wrote in the 1850s, and illustrates their relevance to understanding the troubled state of contemporary capitalism."
Climate & Capitalism

"When it comes to the critique of capitalist society over the last half century, few thinkers can rival David Harvey's influence and originality..."
—Benjamin Tetler, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

"Just as Das Kapital provided orientation amid the Great Recession, the Grundrisse-and Harvey's interpretation of it-could be an indispensable guide to navigating our political situation today, specifically when it comes to the question of how to deal with a rapidly developing artificial intelligence and the continued, seemingly inexorable rise of China"
—Samuel McIlhagga, Foreign Policy

Author

David Harvey teaches at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and is the author of many books, including Social Justice and the City, The Condition of Postmodernity, The Limits to Capital, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Spaces of Global Capitalism, and A Companion to Marx's Capital. His website is davidharvey.org.