17 chapters, 17 contradictions of capitalism that are currently eating it (and us) alive.

… how to explain why I loved this so much?

I think it’s not a coincidence that my two favourite contemporary anti-capitalist thinkers (Kohei Saito and David Harvey) don’t just study Marx, they study the unfinished and fragmented third volume of Capital by Marx, specifically. 

And they also update Marx to cover climate change, imperialism, and unpaid women’s labour.

This is just the best kind of Marxism. It doesn’t limit itself, like most other Marxists, to only focusing on production à la Capital Vol. One by Marx (1,000+ pages)—Harvey also includes distribution and financialization à la Capital Vol. Two (600+ pages) and Vol. Three (1,000+ pages).

[I’m resisting going on a tangent about how Marx’s three volumes can’t be read separately because, like a Hegelian dialectic or Kant’s three critiques, they mediate each other…. I’m trying not to be so long-winded, trying to grow 😅]

Harvey just gets it. It makes sense that he famously predicted the 2008 financial crisis. And this book, even though it’s 11 years old now, has aged like fine wine. Because he knows what’s up.

Is this book dense as heck? Yes. But the 17 contradictions, 17 chapters set up was also really approachable.

It’s a one-stop shop for every conceivable problem with, and Achilles’ heel of, modern capitalism. What’s not to love??