# Das Kapital >[!Ref] Lexicon > ># Das Kapital > The main work of the socialist, Karl Marx (1818-1883); a poorly written, voluminous, three volume anti-capitalistic dissertation based on the classical (or labor) theory of [value](https://www.freemarketcenter.com/lexicon/index.html#value). The rough draft of the three volumes was completed in 1865. Volume I appeared in 1867. Volumes II and III were promised the printer at six month intervals. When Volume I failed to attract notable attention, Marx stopped his finishing touches on the other volumes. After his death, 16 years later, his collaborator and financial backer, Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) brought out Volume II in 1885, and Volume III in 1894. Das Kapital is a book that is much more often quoted and referred to than really read or studied. See "Marxism." > For a critique from the Austrian viewpoint, see "Unresolved Contradiction in the Marxian Economic System" written in 1896 by Eugen von [Böhm-Bawerk](https://www.freemarketcenter.com/lexicon/index.html#Eugen%20von%20B%C3%B6hm-Bawerk) (1851-1914) and appearing in Volume I of Shorter Classics of [Böhm-Bawerk](https://www.freemarketcenter.com/lexicon/index.html#Eugen%20von%20B%C3%B6hm-Bawerk) (South Holland, Ill.: Libertarian Press, 1961), earlier editions under the ID "Karl Marx and the Close of His System" (Macmillan Co., 1898, and Augustus M. Kelley, 1949). See also [Böhm-Bawerk's](https://www.freemarketcenter.com/lexicon/index.html#Eugen%20von%20B%C3%B6hm-Bawerk) Capital and Interest (South Holland, Ill.: Libertarian Press, 1959), particularly Volume 1, Chapter XII, "The Exploitation Theory," which has also been printed as a separate extract. > See also [[Understanding the Dollar Crisis (PLG.)]] 31-39, 49, 109, 116-17, 175, 288. --- # References [[Marxism]]