Das Kapital

Das Kapital, or Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, is a foundational text of Marxist theory by Karl Marx, a critical analysis of the capitalist mode of production. Only the first of its three volumes appeared in Marx's lifetime, in 1867; Friedrich Engels completed the others from his manuscripts and published them in 1885 and 1894. Its central argument is that capitalism is driven by the exploitation of labour, whose unpaid work is the ultimate source of surplus value and profit; it sets out a labour theory of value and the idea of commodity fetishism. It became foundational to the international labour movement and to socialist and communist parties, and it remains much debated.