Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix A Note on References and Translations xiii 1 Introduction: Rereading Capital 1 Reading Capital as Political Theory 3 Reading Capital as Political Theory 9 Outline of the Argument 17 2 Taenarus: The Road to Hell 20 The Elements of the Case 24 The Social Hell 32 Marx's Katabasis 40 Conclusion 54 3 Styx: The Anarchy of the Market 56 Republican Socialism and the Money Mystery 58 Marx's Innovations 74 Fetishism and Domination 82 Conclusion 101 4 Dis: Capitalist Exploitation as Force Contrary to Nature 104 Exploitation before Capital 108 Capitalist Exploitation in Capital 119 Exploitation as Forza contra Natura 134 Conclusion 142 5 Malebolge: The Capitalist Mode of Production as Fraud 146 Capital with a Human Face 153 The Monsters of Fraud 163 Conclusion 183 6 Cocytus: Treachery and the Necessity of Expropriation 187 Primitive Accumulation as a Problem 193 Negating the Negation 208 Conclusion 222 7 Conclusion: Purgatory, or the Social Republic 228 Marx's Midwifery 231 The Shape of Things to Come 244 Conclusion 256 Bibliography 259 Index 277

About the Author

William Clare Roberts is assistant professor of political science at McGill University.

Reviews

"Well-researched and clearly written... Imaginative and refreshingly enjoyable."--David Harvey, Jacobin "Marx's Inferno is highly original and informative... Regardless of whether Marx even thought about Dante in writing his masterwork, Roberts' insights open up a much broader and deeper reading of Marx. This is an excellent book, highly recommended."--Choice