Rosa Luxemburg’s The Accumulation of Capital

This paper provides some reflections on the centenary of publication of Rosa Luxembourg’s The Accumulation of Capital in 2013. It does so in four sections. The first section discusses some of the circumstances surrounding the writing of The Accumulation of Capital, and its original publication in 1913. It also provides some biographical background on the economic studies of its author. The second section summarises the book’s contents, with emphasis on its major contributions to the economics of crises and of imperialism. Section three reviews selected interpretations of Luxembourg’s book: by Paul Sweezy in 1949, by Michal Kalecki in 1967 and by Joan Robinson in 1951, as well as by some more recent commentators. The final section presents some conclusions, including some observations on the possible influence on Luxembourg’s work by J.A. Hobson’s writings, and on the major sources of inspiration of her work.