In Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason, David Harvey provides a new systemisation of Karl Marx's work in order to uncover, explore and explain the 'madness of economic reason' in the twenty-first century. This is an impressively wide-ranging work that draws upon Marx as a toolbox for contending with the crises of capital today, but Joshua Smeltzer is left questioning ..

Smeltzer, Joshua

LSE Research Online

Book	Review:	Marx,	Capital	and	the	Madness	ofEconomic	Reason	by	David	HarveyIn	Marx,	Capital	and	the	Madness	of	Economic	Reason,	David	Harvey	provides	a	new	systemisation	of	KarlMarx’s	work	in	order	to	uncover,	explore	and	explain	the	‘madness	of	economic	reason’	in	the	twenty-firstcentury.	This	is	an	impressively	wide-ranging	work	that	draws	upon	Marx	as	a	toolbox	for	contending	with	thecrises	of	capital	today,	but	Joshua	Smeltzer	is	left	questioning	whether	this	is	the	appropriate	conceptualapparatus	to	achieve	this.	If	you	are	interested	in	this	book	review,	you	may	also	like	to	listen	to/watch	David	Harvey’s	LSE	lecture,‘Marx,	Capital	and	the	Madness	of	Economic	Reason’,	recorded	18	September	2017.	Marx,	Capital	and	the	Madness	of	Economic	Reason.	David	Harvey.	Profile	Books.	2017.Find	this	book:	David	Harvey,	the	author	of	The	Companion	to	Marx’s	Capital	series	andnumerous	other	books	on	Marx	and	Marxism,	has	returned	once	more	to	theGerman	philosopher	and	political	economist,	this	time	in	order	to	provide	asystematisation	of	Marx’s	work	that	could	explain	and	unearth	the	symptoms	of	apervasive	‘madness	of	economic	reason’	in	the	twenty-first	century.Part	of	Harvey’s	drive	to	present	an	updated	version	of	Marx	relevant	to	thetwenty-first	century	is	directed	against	two	intellectual	sparring	partners:	on	theone	hand,	recent	biographies	of	Marx	by	Jonathan	Sperber	and	Gareth	StedmanJones	that,	while	‘invaluable’,	‘both	[…]	forget	that	the	object	of	Marx’s	study	inCapital	was	capital	and	not	nineteenth-century	life’	(xiii);	and	on	the	other,	‘asupposedly	scientific,	highly	mathematized	and	data	driven	field’	of	orthodoxeconomics	(xiv).	While	Harvey’s	engagement	with	the	latter	runs	through	thetext,	he	largely	avoids	engaging	with	a	historical	reading	of	Marx’s	work,preferring	instead	to	present	Marx	as	providing	the	answers	to	contemporaryeconomic	crises.As	a	result,	Harvey	uses	Marx’s	work	as	a	toolbox	from	which	he	updates	and	applies	diverse	concepts	toilluminate	the	contemporary	contradictions	of	capital.	Harvey’s	analysis	is	impressively	wide-ranging,	coveringtopics	as	varied	as	global	natural	resource	consumption	and	Chinese	economic	policy	(178-84),	the	Greek	debtcrisis	(83,	205)	and	proposals	for	new	trade	agreements	such	as	TPP	and	TTIP	(160-64).	As	Harvey	is	at	pains	toillustrate,	across	the	world	‘daily	life	is	held	hostage	to	the	madness	of	money’	(172),	generating	a	state	ofseemingly	perpetual	crisis.	Against	this,	he	suggests	that	Marx’s	work	is	an	‘open	door	through	which	we	couldprogress	to	ever	higher	understandings	of	the	underlying	problems	that	inform	our	current	reality’	(209).	Indeed,Harvey’s	new	book	invites	the	reader	to	enter	into	the	conceptual	world	of	Marxism	and	encourages	a	criticaldistance	from	the	language	of	economic	necessity.USApp – American Politics and Policy Blog: Book Review: Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason by David Harvey Page 1 of 3		Date originally posted: 2017-09-24Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2017/09/24/book-review-marx-capital-and-the-madness-of-economic-reason-by-david-harvey/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/Image	Credit:	(Marco	Gomes	CC	BY	2.0)Meant	as	a	‘guide,’	Harvey	places	particular	emphasis	in	this	book	on	the	clarity	of	language	and	accessibility	fora	general	reader.	Particularly	in	the	first	chapter,	Harvey	seeks	to	explain	key	concepts	in	the	vocabulary	ofcontemporary	Marxism	through	basic	examples,	such	as	the	exchange	of	shirts	and	shoes	in	the	market	(4).Indeed,	Harvey	wants	to	show	Marx	as	a	thinker	deeply	relevant	for	the	present,	demonstrating,	for	instance,	whythe	15	dollar	minimum	wage	proposals	of	both	Bernie	Sanders	and	Black	Lives	Matter	would	‘amount	to	naught	ifhedge	funds	buy	up	foreclosed	houses	and	pharmaceutical	patents	and	raise	prices	[…]	to	line	their	own	pocketsout	of	the	increased	effective	demand	exercised	by	the	population’	(47).	To	safeguard	against	this,	Harvey	arguesthat	we	need	‘strict	regulatory	intervention	to	control	these	living	expenses,	to	limit	the	vast	amount	of	wealthappropriation	occurring	at	the	point	of	realisation’	(47).	Perhaps	following	Marx’s	famous	dictum,	Harvey	providesboth	an	explanation	for	contemporary	crises	as	well	as	a	means	of	changing	them.And	yet,	at	crucial	moments,	Harvey	seems	to	forget	the	general	audience	for	whom	the	book	is	intended.	Forexample,	Figures	Two	and	Three	on	‘Visualizing	Capital	as	Value	in	Motion’	(6)	and	‘The	Three	Circuits	ofCapital’	(151)	attempt	to	make	Marx	‘no	more	difficult	to	understand	than	the	standard	visualization	of	thehydrological	cycle’	(7)	–	certainly	a	worthy	endeavour.	However,	the	text	provides	no	key	for	the	dizzying	array	ofcolour-coded	arrows,	leaving	the	reader	to	guess	the	significance	of	using	a	dotted	black	line	to	connect‘reproduction	of	Labour	power’	to	‘Labour	power’	versus	using	a	solid	black	line	to	connect	‘commodities’	to‘Labour	power’.	Likewise,	‘Money	Capital’	is	the	only	term	to	be	highlighted	in	black	and	surrounded	by	a	greybox,	but	the	significance	of	this	formatting	is	left	without	explanation.	For	someone	who	hasn’t	spent	half	acentury	interpreting	Marx,	an	interpretative	key	would	have	been	welcome.Likewise,	Harvey	states	in	the	opening	chapter	that	‘the	only	way	to	be	true	to	my	mission	is	to	tell	the	story	ofcapital	in	Marx’s	own	language’	(4).	And	yet	the	rest	of	the	chapter	is	surprisingly	light	on	citations	of	Marx’s	work–	there	are	only	three,	and	all	are	to	Grundrisse	–	let	alone	Marx’s	language.	For	example,	Harvey	tells	us	that	‘atworst,	Marx	tends	to	concede	[…]	that	the	rate	of	profit	will	tend	over	time	to	equalise	between	industrial	capitaland	the	other	distributive	forms’	(20),	but	this	statement	is	not	followed	by	any	direct	reference	to	Marx’s	work.	Moreover,	Harvey	readily	jettisons	the	idea	of	using	Marx’s	language	when,	on	the	subject	of	environmentalprotection	and	renewable	energy,	he	notes	that	‘Marx	did	not	consider	questions	of	this	sort,	but	the	visualisationhere	constructed,	based	on	his	thinking,	is	easily	adapted	to	take	such	questions	into	account’	(22).It	seems	then	that	we	are	confronted	not	with	Marx’s	language	or	even	Marx’s	thought,	but	rather	Harvey’srevision	and	systematisation	of	it.	This	is	particularly	noticeable	in	Harvey’s	discussion	of	Capital	Vol.	2,	in	whichhe	faults	Marx	for	not	conforming	to	his	own	expectations,	noting	that	Marx	‘ignores	the	facts	of	distribution’,which	Harvey	finds	‘particularly	annoying’,	or	that	‘oddest	of	all	[…]	is	the	assumption	that	all	commodities	trade	attheir	value’	(29).USApp – American Politics and Policy Blog: Book Review: Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason by David Harvey Page 2 of 3		Date originally posted: 2017-09-24Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2017/09/24/book-review-marx-capital-and-the-madness-of-economic-reason-by-david-harvey/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/Harvey	ends	his	book	with	an	apocalyptic	warning:to	pretend	[capital]	has	nothing	to	do	with	our	current	ailments	and	that	we	do	not	need	a	cogent,	asopposed	to	fetishistic	and	apologetic	representation	of	how	it	works,	how	it	circulates	and	accumulatesamong	us,	is	an	offence	against	humanity	that	human	history,	if	it	manages	to	survive	that	long,	willjudge	severely	(210).Finding	a	solution	to	the	manifold	crises	of	capital	is	certainly	an	imperative,	but	it	remains	a	question	if	Harvey’sconjuring	of	the	Ghost	of	Marxism	Past	will	ultimately	provide	the	appropriate	conceptual	apparatus	to	do	so.This	review	originally	appeared	at	the	LSE	Review	of	Books.Please	read	our	comments	policy	before	commenting.Note:	This	article	gives	the	views	of	the	authors,	and	not	the	position	of	USAPP–	American	Politics	and	Policy,nor	of	the	London	School	of	Economics.Shortened	URL	for	this	post:	http://bit.ly/2hnB0W0——————————————–About	the	reviewerJoshua	Smeltzer	–	University	of	CambridgeJoshua	Smeltzer	is	a	doctoral	student	at	the	University	of	Cambridge	pursuing	a	PhD	in	Politics	and	InternationalStudies,	with	a	focus	on	twentieth-century	German	Political	Thought.USApp – American Politics and Policy Blog: Book Review: Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason by David Harvey Page 3 of 3		Date originally posted: 2017-09-24Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2017/09/24/book-review-marx-capital-and-the-madness-of-economic-reason-by-david-harvey/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/

Book review: Marx, capital and the madness of economic reason by David Harvey

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