Study course of Marx's "Capital" ....

[Sam Lord]

Would anyone else be interested in doing this?

A close reading of the text of Karl Marx's Capital Volume I in 13 video lectures by David Harvey.

http://davidharvey.org/

I just read the Kunkel reviews of Harvey's books from the LRB also on that site. Very interesting.


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Edit: CF - Bibliography - Useful links posted in the thread.

"Here is the audio book for you if you want, all 81 sections included,"

Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production, Volume 1

http://www.archive.org/download/capi...x_64kb_mp3.zip

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V1 HTML online version here. Also available as download (PDF or DOC).

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Harvey on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/user/readingcapital


Marx's Comments on Mill (covers similar ground to beginning of Capital)

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx...44/james-mill/

[20 yards of linen=1 coat]

I might be interested in doing it. What form would it take?

Harvey's lectures are indeed good, but take massive chunks of the book for each one, maybe too big for us to do a lecture at a time.

Check out this lecture on the first chapter as well. Havent listened to it myself yet but will do and imagine its clear and useful http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2983068/mxb090a6.mp3. the guy is an absolute pro

Given that Capital is quite difficult maybe it'd be worth starting with his Comments on James Mill, which is a bit like a summary of chapter 1 of Capital in about 10 pages. Also gives you a reasonable taste of contemporary (to Marx) political economy before encountering it second hand in his own more polished stuff.

What do ye think?

[Sam Lord]

I might be interested in doing it. What form would it take?

Harvey's lectures are indeed good, but take massive chunks of the book for each one, maybe too big for us to do a lecture at a time.

Check out this lecture on the first chapter as well. Havent listened to it myself yet but will do and imagine its clear and useful http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2983068/mxb090a6.mp3. the guy is an absolute pro

Given that Capital is quite difficult maybe it'd be worth starting with his Comments on James Mill, which is a bit like a summary of chapter 1 of Capital in about 10 pages. Also gives you a reasonable taste of contemporary (to Marx) political economy before encountering it second hand in his own more polished stuff.

What do ye think?

I was thinking of doing the lectures but I don't mind giving a week or so to the James Mill first ....

[20 yards of linen=1 coat]

I was thinking of doing the lectures but I don't mind giving a week or so to the James Mill first ....

I dont mind doing the lectures, might give us good room for disagreement with one another/his interpretation. What I meant was just that those lectures were for a post-graduate course where the students were probably expected to do around 20 hours of reading a week, and get the whole book done in 10 weeks, which would be a whole lot more than most people would be able to commit to on here. So rather than trying to match Harvey's pace, if we went much more slowly and then used his lectures as a kind of summary or something? I'm not sure how it would work.
,
And excuse my ignorance but we are going to do this online somehow, yeah? It doesnt require meeting up in Dublin once a week or anything?

[C. Flower]

I dont mind doing the lectures, might give us good room for disagreement with one another/his interpretation. What I meant was just that those lectures were for a post-graduate course where the students were probably expected to do around 20 hours of reading a week, and get the whole book done in 10 weeks, which would be a whole lot more than most people would be able to commit to on here. So rather than trying to match Harvey's pace, if we went much more slowly and then used his lectures as a kind of summary or something? I'm not sure how it would work.
,
And excuse my ignorance but we are going to do this online somehow, yeah? It doesnt require meeting up in Dublin once a week or anything?

Online. If people wanted to talk it could go to skype conference (no visuals needed ) otherwise on a thread.

[C. Flower]

I'm pro Capital and think it needs to be read, but anti-Harvey. We have a youtube of him here talking about the capitalist crisis but imo he doesn't present a Marxist view.
That would at least mean there would be some debate

[Sam Lord]

I'm pro Capital and think it needs to be read, but anti-Harvey. We have a youtube of him here talking about the capitalist crisis but imo he doesn't present a Marxist view.
That would at least mean there would be some debate

It would be good to have your perspective. Would you be interested in doing the lectures?

[C. Flower]

It would be good to have your perspective. Would you be interested in doing the lectures?

I think I like the idea of starting with his notes on Mill.

I'd personally like to tackle it by focusing on the book itself, and maybe more than one source of discussion on it rather than Harvey alone, but would like as part of that to watch the lectures and take part in discussing them.

It's a serious undertaking so far as I'm concerned as Marx's whole way of thinking and analysing involves a way of thinking that looks at process, rather than only mechanics, and he takes things apart in away that can be counterintuitive, a bit like modern physics.

It would be seriously helpful to me to read it as part of a group.

[Sam Lord]

I think I like the idea of starting with his notes on Mill.

I'd personally like to tackle it by focusing on the book itself, and maybe more than one source of discussion on it rather than Harvey alone, but would like as part of that to watch the lectures and take part in discussing them.

It's a serious undertaking so far as I'm concerned as Marx's whole way of thinking and analysing involves a way of thinking that looks at process, rather than only mechanics, and he takes things apart in away that can be counterintuitive, a bit like modern physics.

It would be seriously helpful to me to read it as part of a group.

Could we start with Mill and then do the lectures? The lectures seem like an easy way in for me. We could then read the book in a group or other stuff if you liked. (as long as your man starting with T and ending with y is not involved)

I have loads of text books on Marxist Political Economy (some of which I partly read in my misspent youth) and I did a course in University, But I have never actually studied Capital and have now developed an interest ... but I need a gentle introduction.

[C. Flower]

[quote]

Could we start with Mill and then do the lectures? The lectures seem like an easy way in for me. We could then read the book in a group or other stuff if you liked. (as long as your man starting with T and ending with y is not involved)

I'm happy either way. I don't think Harvey is a Marxist though, apart from in some kind of sense that he's made his career from Marx.

I'm sure there must be excellent summaries - I think Lenin wrote something easy to get a grip on.

The other thing worth doing is reading the Wealth of Nations first as a lot of Capital is based on the same concepts as Adam Smiths and its full of wonderful concrete examples.

We read it on Machine Nation -

http://machinenation.forumakers.com/...lth-of-nations

[Elmer]

Lectures alone are not sufficient to prepare for something. When we were in high school we were told to do extra research and I still remember that we had to google not through internet only but also articles available in library as well as books on that particular topic.

[Munnkeyman]

I'd like to join in with this group I've always had an interest in Marx and haven't studie him half as much as I'd like.
Could I also suggest a study Capitalism, Socialism and Democracyy by Schumpeter sometime.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/32097500/C...Democracy-Copy

I think it's vary pertinent to the here and now.

[LeftAtTheCross]

I'm interested in this.

I got halfway through Vol. 1 on a couple of occasions but couldn't keep up the momentum.

I started watching Harvey's series of lectures and also gave up for lack of time, it's a major commitment and to be honest in the late evening my brain is just about able for another episode from the boxset of "The Wire", or Vincent Browne at a push...

Now that the election is almost over, hopefully there will be a bit more time available for longer-term activities such as this.

Count me in please. I can't promise that I'll last the duration, but I'll make a start anyhow.

[C. Flower]

I'd like to write up a post on what I got out of Adam Smith, to start with. Perhaps if people started posting a bit about what they have grasped already, and shared it, it would ease us into the book ?

[Sam Lord]

I think I will just embark on the lectures as was my original intent. I will have to get my hands on a copy of V1 as there are assigned readings.

In the meantime I will start with Lecture 1 as there is nothing to prepare for that afaik.

I would be happy if other people join in and we could pose questions, put forward criticisms or whatever as went along ... and try and help each other.

I'm not planning to try and coordinate anything, however. I think each person should do it in their own time.