What are economic crises? Are they only possible or inevitable? Are they caused by chronic under-consumption, inter-sectoral disproportionality, or a fall in the profit rate? In his study of the concept of crisis in Marx’s Capital, Jorge Grespan sets out to answer these questions. Marx’s complex exposition of the concept of economic crisis in Capital and its preparatory manuscripts gave rise to different interpretations about the causes and modalities of capitalist crises. The Negative of Capital renews these urgent debates by treating the concept of crisis as the negative of the concept of capital. In this thoroughgoing exposition of Marx’s masterwork, Jorge Grespan reconstitutes the steps by which Capital’s exposition progressively enriches its content and form. To this end, dialectical categories such as measurelessness and relative necessity are mobilised and developed.

What are economic crises? Are they only possible or inevitable? Are they caused by chronic under-consumption, inter-sectoral disproportionality, or a fall in the profit rate? In his study of the concept of crisis in Marx’s Capital, Jorge Grespan sets out to answer these questions. Marx’s complex exposition of the concept of economic crisis in Capital and its preparatory manuscripts gave rise to different interpretations about the causes and modalities of capitalist crises. The Negative of Capital renews these urgent debates by treating the concept of crisis as the negative of the concept of capital. In this thoroughgoing exposition of Marx’s masterwork, Jorge Grespan reconstitutes the steps by which Capital’s exposition progressively enriches its content and form. To this end, dialectical categories such as measurelessness and relative necessity are mobilised and developed.