Das Kapital

High school (ages 12+)
People & Society

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/das-kapital

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. Who wrote Das Kapital?Karl Marx
2. What is the publication of volume 1?1867
3. What is the primary subject?Critique of capitalist political economy and analysis of commodity production
4. What is Das Kapital about?It is a big book that explains how factories make things and why some people have more money than others.
5. What does Marx mean by "capital" in the book?He says capital is not just money but the way owners control factories and machines and hire workers to make things.

Capitalist Mode of Production: An economic system characterized by private ownership of the means of production and wage labor.
Commodity Fetishism: The perception of the social relationships involved in production not as relationships between people, but as economic relationships between the money and commodities exchanged in market trade.
Surplus Value: The value created by the laborer over and above the value of their labor-power, appropriated by the capitalist.
Class Struggle: The inherent conflict between different social classes, particularly the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, over resources and power.