Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, also known as Capital, is a foundational theoretical text in materialist philosophy and critique of political economy written by Karl Marx, published as three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his life's work, the text contains Marx's analysis of capitalism, to which he sought to apply his theory of historical materialism "to lay bare the economic law of motion of modern society", following from classical political economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo. The text's second and third volumes were completed from Marx's notes after his death and published by his colleague Friedrich Engels. Das Kapital is the most cited book in the social sciences published before 1950.
First edition title page of Volume I (1867). Volume II and Volume III were published in 1885 and 1894, respectively.
Karl Kautsky, editor of Theories of Surplus Value
Karl Marx, Theorien über den Mehrwert, 1956
Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx located historical change in the rise of class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods.
Scenes from the tomb of Nakht depicting an agricultural division of labour in Ancient Egypt, painted in the 15th century BC
Ancient cave painting showing the primitive communist mode of production
Ancient Egyptian art depicting the ancient mode of production
Medieval art depicting the feudal mode of production