The accumulation of capital Book

In a day when Marxist thought in America is all too frequently associated with vague hippie sentiment, it's good to know that one can be a passionate revolutionary and a rigorous analytical thinker at the same time. How refreshing is that?

The problem at the heart of The Accumulation of Capital is simple: how is it that, dealing with a finite amount of resources, laborers, and consumers, capitalist economies are able to grow? Luxemburg points to the engine of imperialism. We take such ideas largely for granted now-- all of you who have read Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, or any of the other popular expositors of the North American left could cite any number of examples-- but this concept was still revolutionary in the early 20th Century. Much of the book is made up of molasses-slow, formula-heavy economics, so it's probably not for everyone. But the third part of the problem should be read by anyone interested in historical examples of the imperialist spread of capitalism (British invasions in South Africa, the creation of the fellahin serf class in Egypt) and anyone interested in the mechanics of the capitalist strangulation of the third world.