Overview
- Demonstrates how influential classical sociologists read Capital
- Identifies the implications of Marx's reception for later social scientists
- Examines how early thinkers understand theory and practice
Part of the book series: Marx, Engels, and Marxisms (MAENMA)
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
Reviews
“In Marx’s Wager, Thomas Kemple explores the dense and thorny bramble where the classic sociological tradition wrestled with Marx’s critique of political economy even as it tried to escape from his socialist conclusions. A book replete with keen observations and insights, this is also a profound meditation on what it means to really engage with the modern world, to study its forces and dynamics in the hope that one might, in some measure, transform it.”— William Clare Roberts, Associate Professor of Political Science, McGill University, author of Marx’s Inferno: The Political Theory of Marx’s Capital
“What a treasure of insight awaits readers who open this fine book! With a light touch and a lapidary style, Thomas Kemple offers a master class in Marx's Capital, which he views through a double lens—on the one hand, the literary masterpieces from which Marx drew inspiration, and second, the classical sociology which drew inspiration from Marx and Capital. Wearing his erudition lightly, Kemple weaves a tapestry in which Marx appears alongside Goethe, Dante, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, and a cornucopia of others. Subtleties of Marx's analysis are matched with corresponding subtleties in the works of his successors, and it becomes clear that, clichés to the contrary notwithstanding, all of the major classical sociologists contributed to the project he inaugurated—the effort to understand capital in the light of what Kemple calls Marx's "surplus-value theory of labour-power." That effort, in the age of globalization, remains as relevant as ever, and Thomas Kemple is a sure-footed guide to the classical literatures that, I am convinced, remain central to our insight into this subject.”— David N. Smith, Professor of Sociology, University of Kansas, author of Marx’s Capital: An Illustrated Introduction
“This book takes its reader on a Faustian journey, with Marx's Capital—one of the most profound works in social theory ever written, yet largely underappreciated or misrepresented—at the center of its own wager. An exemplary work of interpretive sociology, the book animates encounters with some of the most influential early sociologists through brilliantly constructed juxtapositions and creative syntheses.The journey is as thrilling as it is thought provoking.” — Babak Amini, Visiting Research Fellow in Sociology at the London School of Economics, co-editor of the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Marx's Capital: A Global History of Translation.
“Provides some very creative readings of Marx in relation to social theory for the twenty-first century.” — Kevin B. Anderson, Professor of Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara, author of Marx at the MarginsAuthors and Affiliations
About the author
Thomas Kemple is Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia, Canada. His articles appear in Theory, Culture & Society, Journal of Classical Sociology, and Rethinking Marxism. He is the author of Reading Marx Writing: Melodrama, the Market, and the ‘Grundrisse’ (1995), Intellectual Work and the Spirit of Capitalism: Weber’s Calling (2014), and Simmel (2018).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Marx’s Wager
Book Subtitle: Das Kapital and Classical Sociology
Authors: Thomas Kemple
Series Title: Marx, Engels, and Marxisms
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08065-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-08064-7Published: 14 October 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-08065-4Published: 13 October 2022
Series ISSN: 2524-7123
Series E-ISSN: 2524-7131
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXIX, 162
Number of Illustrations: 9 b/w illustrations
Topics: Sociological Theory, Social Theory, Political Theory, Political Sociology