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
The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx "locate the essential elements of continuity or discontinuity" in Marx's thought and to correct misinterpretations of it. He credited Avineri with "a close and insightful reading of the whole body of the primary sources, aided by a selective and judicious reading of the secondary literature", and described his writing as "learned and at the same time limpid" and his treatment of Marx as "solidly grounded, fair, and enlightening." However, he criticized Avineri for devoting insufficient space to discussing "Das Kapital" and Marx's views on the nature of capitalist society, and for failing to address the work of the philosophers Louis