Reading Capital

A landmark of French thought, and an intellectual revolution against dominant interpretations of Marx.Reading Capital is an attempt to topple the entire edifice of Western Marxism, and rebuild it from the original foundations. Establishing a rigorous program of ‘symptomatic reading’ that cuts through the silences and lacunae of Capital to reveal its philosophical core, Louis Althusser interprets Marx’s structural analysis of production as a revolutionary break—the basis of a completely new science. Building on a series of Althussers’ conceptual innovations, including ‘'overdetermination’ and ‘social formation,’ Étienne Balibar explores the historical and structural facets of production as Marx understood them, scrutinizing many of the most fundamental points in Capital, as though for the first time.