Das Kapital sciences published before 1950. In "Das Kapital" (1867), Marx proposes that the motivating force of capitalism is in the exploitation of labor, whose unpaid work is the ultimate source of surplus value. The owner of the means of production is able to claim the right to this surplus value because he or she is legally protected by the ruling regime through property rights and the legally established distribution of shares which are by law only to be distributed to company owners and their board members. The historical section shows how these rights were acquired in the first place chiefly through
Biographies of Karl Marx Biographies of Karl Marx Karl Marx (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. Born in Trier to a middle-class family, he later studied political economy and Hegelian philosophy. For a general review of Karl Marx biographies, see the article "Karl Marx: An Overview of his Biographies" by Angelo Segrillo. Karl Marx: The Story of His Life () is a 1918 book about Karl Marx by Franz Mehring, a German historian. Considered the classical biography of Marx, the work has been translated into many languages, including Russian (1920), Danish (1922), Hungarian