(This review is based on a complimentary pre-release copy of the book, provided by the publisher.) For people with a tech background who are unfamiliar with Wark's work, I'd probably recommend A Hacker Manifesto over this book. That was what I found novel about Hacker Manifesto, and I had hoped that this book would take the opportunity to sketch out the concept more fully. Overall, I wish there was more critical analysis of what the author describes as the vectoralist class, which may have replaced (or superseded) what we usually think of as the 'capitalist class' through attaining control or ownership of information. There's also an analysis of The Young Karl Marx (a film), in the last chapter, which I found surprisingly thoughtful, but which felt a bit out of place as a closing chapter. I liked A Hacker Manifesto a lot, and this text definitely builds on the ideas introduced there, but there's also a lot that will likely confuse anyone who isn't well-versed in the literature on topics ranging from vulgar Marxism, to what is sociology, to how planning worked in the Soviet Union.

It zigzags between wading deep into academic debates over interpretations of (e.g.) Marx, and lucidly illuminating modern-day economic phenomena using concepts from critical theory. They teach at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College in New York City.This is a bit hard to rate, because it's not the most consistent text. McKenzie Wark is the author of A Hacker Manifesto, Gamer Theory, 50 Years of Recuperation of the Situationist International, and The Beach Beneath the Street, among other books. Drawing on the writings of a surprising range of classic and contemporary theorists, Wark offers an illuminating overview of the contemporary condition and the emerging class forces that control-and contest-it.

So how do we find a way out? Capital Is Dead offers not only the theoretical tools to analyze this new world, but ways to change it. The new ruling class uses the powers of information to route around any obstacle labor and social movements put up. While techno-utopian apologists still celebrate these innovations as an improvement on capitalism, for workers-and the planet-it's worse. Even Walmart and Nike can now dominate the entire production chain through the ownership of not much more than brands, patents, copyrights, and logistical systems. And it's not just tech companies like Amazon and Google. Through the ownership and control of information, this emergent class dominates not only labour but capital as traditionally understood as well.

It's not capitalism, it's not neoliberalism-what if it's something worse? In this radical and visionary new book, McKenzie Wark argues that information has empowered a new kind of ruling class.

Capital is dead mckenzie wark