At this Monday’s Houston DSA Reading Group, we will begin our discussion of Hadas Thier’s recent book A People’s Guide To Capitalism. In this session, we will cover the first three chapters (1-3), which give an overview of basic Marxian economic theory on the origins of capitalism, Marx’s labor theory of value, and a discussion on commodities and money. We will cover the remaining chapters in (two) upcoming sessions.

Thier’s book is a new, accessible introduction to Marxist economics, so if you ever wanted to learn more about the topic, it’s a great place to start. If you would like an epub of the book---for non-distributional purposes only of course---please email reading@houstondsa.org and we will provide you with a copy.

As always, there is no commitment required to read the chapters before attending the reading group---we will make sure we hit on the main ideas in the discussion.

The Houston DSA Reading Group meets (roughly) every other Monday, and is open to members and non-members alike. We try to keep the discussion participatory and accessible, so anyone interested is welcome, regardless of prior experience or knowledge.

We hope to see you there!

From the publisher:

Economists regularly promote Capitalism as the greatest system ever to grace the planet. With the same breath, they implore us to leave the job of understanding the magical powers of the market to the “experts.”

Despite the efforts of these mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many of us have begun to question why this system has produced such vast inequality and wanton disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory.