Marx`s masterpiece DAS KAPITAL is not so much a manual on economics but a moral and theoretical view of social issues and activities as they are determined by economic systems. It is an analysis of capitalism that was the precursor of all subsequent forms of socialism. Isaiah Berlin refers to DAS KAPITAL as having acquired a symbolic significance beyond anything written since the age of faith. It has been blindly worshipped, and blindly hated, by millions who have not read a line of it, or have read without understanding its, at times, obscure and tortuous prose. (from KARL MARX: His Life and Environment, 1978)