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    The Twofold Labors of Marx

    How Karl Marx Invented the Modern Theory of Work and Workers

    Author Michael Denning
    Paperback
    $26.95 US
    Verso Books | Verso
    On sale Jan 05, 2027 | 256 Pages | 9781836744818
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    Marx was the Darwin of labor, founding the modern critical theory of work: the first full reconstruction and elaboration of Marx's theory.

    It is often said that Marx was right about capital, but wrong about labor. The Twofold Labors of Marx challenges that verdict by turning Capital on its head, reconstructing and elaborating its critical theory of labor. Placing Marx's own labors amidst the crisis of artisanal labor, the emerging factory system, and the revolutionary overthrow of enslaved and enserfed labor, as well as the remaking of the sciences and philosophies of work, it explores Marx's account of the metabolism and metamorphosis of labor, follows the circuit of labor as well as the circuit of capital, and argues that the “mystery of wages” is as central as the “fetishism of commodities,” the theory of “surplus population” and "labor movement" as the theory of “surplus value” and the movements of capital. Rejecting any metaphysics or fetish of labor, Marx's twofold labors remain central to any politics of emancipation.
    Michael Denning is a leading Marxist scholar in cultural studies, labor studies, and American Studies (awarded Bode-Pearson prize for lifetime achievement by the American Studies Association); William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of American Studies and of Ethnicity, Race and Migration at Yale University; coordinator of the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture, a pioneering research collective that has appeared in venues from the World Social Forum and Occupy encampments to the Left Forum, the Marxist Education Project, and Historical Materialism conferences; active as public speaker in universities and on podcasts (The Dig, Conjuncture) and contributor to New Left Review; author of Noise Uprising: The Audiopolitics of a World Musical Revolution, Culture in the Age of Three Worlds, and The Cultural Front.
    Michael Denning View titles by Michael Denning

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    Marx was the Darwin of labor, founding the modern critical theory of work: the first full reconstruction and elaboration of Marx's theory.

    It is often said that Marx was right about capital, but wrong about labor. The Twofold Labors of Marx challenges that verdict by turning Capital on its head, reconstructing and elaborating its critical theory of labor. Placing Marx's own labors amidst the crisis of artisanal labor, the emerging factory system, and the revolutionary overthrow of enslaved and enserfed labor, as well as the remaking of the sciences and philosophies of work, it explores Marx's account of the metabolism and metamorphosis of labor, follows the circuit of labor as well as the circuit of capital, and argues that the “mystery of wages” is as central as the “fetishism of commodities,” the theory of “surplus population” and "labor movement" as the theory of “surplus value” and the movements of capital. Rejecting any metaphysics or fetish of labor, Marx's twofold labors remain central to any politics of emancipation.

    Author

    Michael Denning is a leading Marxist scholar in cultural studies, labor studies, and American Studies (awarded Bode-Pearson prize for lifetime achievement by the American Studies Association); William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of American Studies and of Ethnicity, Race and Migration at Yale University; coordinator of the Yale Working Group on Globalization and Culture, a pioneering research collective that has appeared in venues from the World Social Forum and Occupy encampments to the Left Forum, the Marxist Education Project, and Historical Materialism conferences; active as public speaker in universities and on podcasts (The Dig, Conjuncture) and contributor to New Left Review; author of Noise Uprising: The Audiopolitics of a World Musical Revolution, Culture in the Age of Three Worlds, and The Cultural Front.
    Michael Denning View titles by Michael Denning

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