While a lot has changed since 1867, something that stands the test of time in Karl Marx’s Capital is its aspiration to comprehensively understand the world by bringing to bear every intellectual and literary tool available. 

Perhaps fitting then that, on one present-day account, Marx structured his masterpiece with the inspiration of an equally grand thinker more than 500 years his predecessor.

This is a conversation with McGill political theorist William Clare Roberts about Marx’s theoretical ambition and his apparent debt to Dante. Will’s book is Marx’s Inferno: The Political Theory of Capital.

Music for this episode from Uppbeat. License code: 2CWHTEVPITF6KWEO