Since Nobody Reads Books, We Need the Graphic Novel

Capital may be stalling. But watch out for Capital.

The first Capital is, of course, the anti-wealth bestseller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, by the French professor Thomas Piketty. As much projectile as book, Capital was hurtling forward, seemingly unstoppably, until journalists and scholars began to discover flaws in its data. Still, around the time many pundits expect Capital to wipe out — i.e., within a couple of weeks — a second Capital will be entering the intellectual marketplace. This one is Haymarket Books’ new illustrated edition of Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. In other words, Piketty can rest easy: Marx’s Capital Illustrated will continue his class war even if he himself flags. Haymarket Books confirms as much when it describes this volume as “economics for the 99 percent.”