Wage-Labor and Capital

Chicago, IL: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, 1948 Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, Chicago, IL. 1948. Softcover/Trade Wraps. Revised Translation from the 1935 edition. Book i tight, square, and unmarked but for F/O name on the rear wrap. Book Condition: Good +; moisture spotting on the front wrap; wear at spine and tips; rubbing to panels. No DJ. Pictorial card stock wraps. Wraps are not bent or folded; spine is secure in saddle stapling; text is secure in binding. 59 pp 12mo. The publisher ceded control of the firm to the Proletarian Party of America from 1920-1960 as Kerr's interests ranged religion to populism to Marxism and the labor movement. This work appeared first as a series of leading articles in 1849 based on Marx's lectures in 1847 to the German Workingman's Club. This essay began developing a more scientific rationale for his concept of alienated labor which in Marx’s perspective would eventually lead to the proletarian revolution. Main topics examined in the essay include labor power, labor, and how labor power becomes a commodity. The labor theory of value is introduced, which distinguishes between labor and labor power. The essay defines the term commodity and explores how the economic principles of supply and demand affect the pricing of certain commodities. Beyond that, the essay explores how capital and capitalism do not service any purpose other than to gain more of it, which Marx presents as an illogical method of living one's life. Thus, "Wage-Labor and Capital" is considered by Marxists as an "in-depth economic and scientific observation on how capitalist economy works, why it was exploitative, and ultimately why it would eventually implode from within". A clean very presentable copy.