Written during the winter of 1857-8, the Grundrisse was
considered by Marx to be the first scientific elaboration of
communist theory. A collection of seven notebooks on capital and
money, it both develops the arguments outlined in the Communist
Manifesto (1848) and explores the themes and theses that were to
dominate his great later work Capital. Here, for the first
time, Marx set out his own version of Hegel’s dialectics and
developed his mature views on labour, surplus value and profit,
offering many fresh insights into alienation, automation and the
dangers of capitalist society. Yet while the theories in Grundrisse
make it a vital precursor to Capital, it also provides
invaluable descriptions of Marx’s wider-ranging philosophy, making
it a unique insight into his beliefs and hopes for the foundation of
a communist state.
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