Alfredo Saad-Filho

An excellent summary of all 3 volumes of Capital that can be read separately. Although it obviously can't cover everything, it looks at all the key concepts in enough detail and understandable language, striking a good balance between depth and accessibility. Obviously some concepts are tough, but the author does a good job of making them easier to understand. One nice touch is that after summarising, he provides a couple paragraphs just to point out the existence of other important interpretations, which is very handy. Very much recommended for anyone interested in Marxism and needs a guide to the major economic ideas.… (mehr)

Pretty tough to read - the subjects chosen and the depth of analysis makes it seem like an introduction yet it uses a lot of Marxist value related terms without introducing them, leaving me confused. Explanations hinge on terms which I don't understand and can't reasonably infer from context. I'm not a complete beginner to this and so I at least have a basic understanding of a lot of it but he seems to expect a broader understanding of a lot of the terms already. It also constantly forward-references which is frustrating.

Talks about various interpretations of Marx and then presents what I presume is his own as the "right" one but without introducing it as such exactly - this is a small thing but it's a little weird.

The dialectics chapter was a big old mess.

I've learnt some stuff from it but I haven't felt like I've got much of a grasp on Marx's theory of value. Maybe helpful as a summary when you already know the topic well, but not useful at all for me.… (mehr)

Reviewed in the December 1989 issue of the Socialist Standard:

http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2015/09/marxs-economics-1989.html

Also reviewed in the June 1978 issue of the Socialist Standard:

http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-useful-introduction-to-ma...… (mehr)