Marx's Infernoreconstructs the major arguments of Karl Marx'sCapitaland inaugurates a completely new reading of a seminal classic. Rather than offering a critique of classical political economy, William Roberts argues thatCapitalwas primarily a careful engagement with the motives and aims of the workers' movement. Understood in this light,Capitalemerges as a profound work of political theory. Placing Marx against the background of nineteenth-century socialism, Roberts shows howCapitalwas ingeniously modeled on Dante'sInferno, and how Marx revised republican ideas of freedom in response to the rise of capitalism. Combining research on Marx's interlocutors, textual scholarship, and forays into recent debates, Roberts traces the continuities linking Marx's theory of capitalism to the tradition of republican political thought. He immerses the reader in socialist debates from the past, showing how they speak to ever-renewed concerns about political life in today's world.