On 14 September 1867 the first volume of Das Kapital, Karl Marx's critique of political economy, appeared in Hamburg, after twenty years of study in the British Museum Reading Room. It analyses capitalism as a system in which owners of capital extract surplus value from workers, and predicts recurring crises and eventual replacement by socialism. Marx, supported by Friedrich Engels, did not finish the work: Engels edited volumes two and three after Marx's death in 1883. The book sold slowly at first, but it became the foundational text of Marxism, and its ideas shaped labour movements and the revolutions of the twentieth century.
Before and after
- 11 August 1867Birth of Edgar de Wahl
- 14 August 1867Birth of John Galsworthy
- 25 August 1867Death of Michael Faraday
- 31 August 1867Death of Charles Baudelaire
- 14 September 1867Karl Marx publishes Das Kapital
- 5 December 1867Birth of Józef Piłsudski
- 1868Founding of Technical University of Munich
- 1868Founding of University of California
- 1868Construction of Auckland Grammar School
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The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.