The Writing of Capital: Genesis and Structure of Marx’s Critique of Political Economy

The debate on the structure of Marx's Capital, and on the probable explanations for the changes he made to the initial ‘six books plan’, has always been a relevant topic in Marxist studies. This article provides a more exhaustive account of the genesis of Capital, on the basis of a revisitation of Marx's intellectual biography during the 1860s, and of the publication of all preparatory manuscripts of Marx's magnum opus, recently appeared in the MEGA2, the historical-critical edition of the complete works of Marx and Engels.