Since Reading Capital Politically was first published in 1979, Harry Cleaver has been a central figure for autonomist Marxists seeking practical, political strategies within Marx's work. Rupturing the Dialectic brings this project up to the present by interpreting capitalism's most recent crises and demonstrating how ordinary people can, and do, rupture the smooth functioning of the system that exploits them.

“Harry Cleaver does battle divine against capitalism. His sword and shield are Less Work and More Time. He rides into battle mounted on a thoroughbred of theory. He carries a banner proclaiming what we—students, housewives, farmers, workers of office, shop, and mine—have already done as we do diligently our parts against the demon. He blows a golden horn summoning us to assemble and to cash in our chits for mutual aid. Here is Marxist interpretation we can use. Now, on with the practices!” —Peter Linebaugh, author of The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All

“In this timely and long-awaited book, Harry Cleaver illuminates Marx’s categories of class struggle and sharpens our critical understanding of contemporary processes of financialization. Harry never loses focus on two grounding aspects of our lives in common: the struggle against capital’s imposition of work and the creation of non-commodified alternatives.... Read this book and add it to the fundamental toolbox of radical commoners.” —Massimo De Angelis, author of The Beginning of History: Value Struggles and Global Capital

“In the midst of a crisis-inspired revival of interest in Marx’s work, especially the labor theory of value, comes Harry Cleaver’s Rupturing the Dialectic. It is a major step beyond Cleaver’s now classic text, Reading Capital Politically. By boldly displaying the lineaments of the class struggle in Capital’s monetary categories, he charts a way out of capitalism. A remarkable performance by a leading scholar-activist. Don’t miss it.” —George Caffentzis, author of In Letters of Blood and Fire: Work, Machines, and the Crisis of Capitalism

Harry Cleaver was a university professor for three decades, before retiring in 2012. His book Reading Capital Politically has been republished in seven languages and ten countries.