What is money? What is capital? Christopher J. Arthur brilliantly tackles these fundamental questions at a deep philosophical level in The Spectre of Capital. He argues that the modern world is ruled by an unseen force, the spectre of capital. This insight is rooted in a strikingly original combination of the ideas of Marx and Hegel. Arthur here presents the most sophisticated argument to date for the 'homology thesis,' spelling out how the order of Hegel's logical categories, and that of the social forms assessed by Marx in Capital, share the same architectonic. The systematic-dialectical presentation of this thesis shows how capital becomes a self-sustaining power.

Engels Today marks the centenary of Frederick Engels death through a collection of papers engaging with the thought of Marx's only close collaborator, who was influential in his own right, as well as in his attempted popularisation of 'Marxism'. Specialists in different disciplines here address what is still alive in Engels' contributions to them; they discuss matters that remain influential, or controversial, in the works of this great socialist and thinker, relating to Nature, Science, Women, Revolution, Democracy, Economics, Materialism and Class.

The second volume of Marx's Capital is entitled The Circulation of Capital . Here a collection of original essays, by internationally known scholars, treat its themes, bringing to bear on all its parts the latest textual findings, methodological resources and accumulated knowledge of Marxian theory. The result repairs the unjustified neglect of this volume in the literature on Marx and will awaken new interest in it among economists, philosophers and social theorists.

Ranging widely in substance and style Solstice moves from lyrical invocations of Nature to reactions to 'lockdown'; from a classical sonnet to the free-wheeling title poem. Across this short collection, the musicality of Arthur's register is enlivened with wit, including a couple of outrageous puns. Often culminating in wonderful surprises, the poems include a deeply felt meditation on Edward Hopper's art, and a powerful prophecy of ecological disaster. This is a collection to savour and revisit. Arthur's work is moving and expertly written. His is a distinctive voice. - Claire Crowther