I just put up a some new notes on my teaching pages, a brief handout on capital and capitalism.
The goal of this isn’t, of course,to give a comprehensive overview of what capital means or what capitalism has been historically. I just want to introduce students to the basic terms and concepts that they’ll encounter in the sort of Marxist and Marx-influenced historians I assign in my economic history class — Sven Beckert, Immanuel Wallerstein, Fernand Braudel, Ellen Meiksins Wood, Eric Foner, Mike Davis, and so on.
That said, I’ve tried to write it in clear, non-technical language and keep it focused on the most fundamental concepts, so if you are looking for an eight-page introduction to how Marxists think about capital and capitalism, perhaps this will do.
If you are a teacher yourself and think this is useful, feel free to use it in your own class. And if you have thoughts about ways it could be improved or expanded, I’d love to hear them.