Schwarzbuch Kapitalismus: Ein Abgesang auf die Marktwirtschaft Add a review

The Black Book of Capitalism (Subtitle: A Farewell to Market Economy) (Original title: Schwarzbuch Kapitalismus – Ein Abgesang auf die Marktwirtschaft) is a book written by German philosopher and critical-theorist Robert Kurz and published in 1999. It critically examines the history and purported slow collapse of capitalism. It is considered one of the main work of the author associated with value criticism and sparked a debate about the description of the origins of capitalism, its contemporary diagnosis, and the consequences of criticizing the prevailing conditions. The book has, as of 2023, not yet been translated into other languages from the original German.

Kurz had originally preferred the title The Satanic Mills for his work, but was convinced by editor, that preferred a title in relation to The Black Book of Communism. However, Kurz's book does not attempt to list the crimes of capitalism, as Kurz explains that he doesn't "think that even 100 thick volumes would suffice". Instead, this work is a history of the three great industrial revolutions, the legitimization of the social consequences of capitalism, the socialist labour movement viewed as engrained in bourgeois modernization, and the crises that can be viewed as endemic under the capitalist system.