Following Marx ─ Method, Critique and Crisis

This collection of articles by Lebowitz (emeritus, economics, Simon Fraser U., Canada) began as a collection of essays published from the early 1970s onwards on discrete economic topics--neo-Ricardian theory, analytical Marxism, the falling rate of profit, crisis theory, monopoly capital, Paul Sweezy, advertising, and the capitalist state--but as he put it together he came to realize that there was a unifying theme running through them concerning the methodological project of Karl Marx, which he here aims to "rescue and retrieve" by also including five new essays describing it in relation to the other topics in the essays. Where others have most crucially gone astray concerning Marx's method, Lebowitz argues, is neglecting the centrality of the concept of totality and misunderstanding the relation of the inner structure of capital to its necessary forms of existence in competition. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Michael A. Lebowitz is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Simon Fraser University. His book, Beyond 'Capital': Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) was awarded the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 2004. His Build it Now: Socialism for the Twenty-first Century (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2006) has been republished in several other languages.