Despite insoluble contradictions, intense volatility and fierce resistance, the crisis-ridden capitalism of the 21st century lingers on. To understand capital's paradoxical expansion and entrenchment amidst crisis and unrest, Mute Compulsionoffers a novel theory of the historically unique forms of abstract and impersonal power set in motion by the subjection of social life to the profit imperative. Building on a critical reconstruction of Karl Marx's unfinished critique of political economy and a wide range of contemporary Marxist theory, philosopher Soren Mau sets out to explain how the logic of capital tightens its stranglehold on the life of society by constantly remoulding the material conditions of social reproduction. In the course of doing so, Mau intervenes in classical and contemporary debates about the value form, crisis theory, biopolitics, social reproduction, humanism, logistics, agriculture, metabolism, the body, competition, technology and relative surplus populations.

The antibureaucratic revolution was the most crucial episode of Yugoslav conflicts after Tito. Drawing on primary sources and cutting-edge research, this book explains how popular unrest contributed to the fall of communism and the rise of a new form of authoritarianism, competing nationalisms and the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Small Comrades is a fascinating examination of Soviet conceptions of childhood and the resulting policies directed toward young children. This book offers some tentative answers to the questions, 'What did children make of the Revolution?' and 'What did the Revolution make of them?' This project emphasises young children as the subjects of policies and politics in their own right. It draws on work that has been done on Soviet schooling, and focuses specifically on the development of curricula and institutions, it also examines the wider context of the relationship between the family and the state, and to the Bolshevik vision of the 'children of October.'

eBook available with sample pages: PB:0815339453

In his new book, Katz offers a new reading of Karl Marx's theory of history. The book re-examines two incompatible versions of historical materialism: one ascribes the primary cause of historical development to technological progress, the other to class struggle. Katz argues that these versions are inadequate, both as interpretations of Marx's theory and as explanations of the problems of historical change. His study distinguishes three different levels of analysis. The first level is Marx's own summaries of historical materialism, which typically award causal primacy to technology. The second level is Marx's historical studies of feudalism and the transition to capitalism, where class and class struggle play a central role. The third level is the modern debate on the transition from feudalism to capitalism. The history of this transition is chosen by Katz as an empirical test of Marxian theory because it is the principal source from which Marx developed the concepts for interpreting the dynamics of crisis in modes of production. By establishing a reciprocal movement between the respective explanatory roles of technology and class struggle on the one hand, and the historical record on the other, Katz evaluates their relative contributions to an understanding of the supersession of feudalism by capitalism. The result is a reconstruction of Marx's theory of radical social change, one which is historically and theoretically more tenable. The book's first two chapters develop and contrast the two dominant principles of historical causality in Marx's work: class struggle and the development of technology. Subsequent chapters explore the history of feudalism's decline and final disintegration, and its replacement by capitalism, providing a critical analysis of Marx's theory of history. From Feudalism to Capitalism is an important new scholarly source for students of Karl Marx's social and political thought, or students enrolled in social science programs.

This book was written as a doctoral thesis. It was submitted to and accepted by the University of Poona in 1979. Several people contributed to the creation of this book, in various ways. Prof. S. D. Joshi, my supervisor, introduced me to the study of the Sanskrit grammatical tradition. His unfailing skepticism towards and disagreement with the ideas worked out in this book contributed more to their development than he may have been aware. Prof. Paul Kiparsky gave encouragement when this was badly needed. In the years following 1979 Dr. Dominik Wujastyk was kind enough to read the manuscript and suggest improvements in language and style. To all of these lowe a debt of gratitude, but most of all lowe such a debt to Pandit Shivarama Krishna Shastri. In the course of several years he read with me many portions of Nagesa's grammatical and other works, and much besides. His ability to understand difficult grammatical and philosophical texts in Sanskrit was unequalled, and without his help it would have taken far longer to write this book and indeed might very well have proved impossible. Shivarama Krishna Shastri never saw the result of our reading; he died before this book could appear in print. I dedicate it to his memory. J. BRONKHORST Xl INTRODUCTION In the following pages an attempt will be made to establish that the part of Nagesa's Paribha$endusekhara (PS) which deals with Par.

A classic of early modernism, Capital combines vivid historical detail with economic analysis to produce a bitter denunciation of mid-Victorian capitalist society. It has also proved to be the most influential work in social science in the twentieth century; Marx did for social science what Darwin had done for biology. Millions of readers this century have treated Capital as a sacred text, subjecting it to as many different interpretations as the Bible itself. No mere work of dry economics, Marx's great work depicts the unfolding of industrial capitalism as a tragic drama - with a message which has lost none of its relevance today. This is the only abridged edition to take account of the whole of Capital. It offers virtually all of Volume 1, which Marx himself published in 1867, excerpts from a new translation of 'The Result of the Immediate Process of Production', and a selection of key chapters from Volume 3, which Engels published in 1895.

A volume in a set of monographs which present a broad and comprehensive consideration of European views on Weber's relevance to twentieth century sociology.

China Under Communism examines how Marxism took root, flourished and developed within the context of an ancient Chinese civilization.
Through analysis of China's history and traditional culture, the author explores the nature of Chinese communism and how it has diverged from the Soviet model. This book also provides insight into the changing perceptions Westerners have of the Chinese, and vice versa.
Key features include:
* assessment of controversial issues: The Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and Mao's record
* coverage of gender and family, ethnicity, nationalism, and popular culture
* long historical context.
This timely evaluation details how China's political and economic policies have been inextricably linked, and assesses past failures and successes, as well as major problems for the future.

This detailed study traces the history of the Soviet-Polish War (1919-20), the first major international clash between the forces of communism and anti-communism, and the impact this had on Soviet Russia in the years that followed. It reflects upon how the Bolsheviks fought not only to defend the fledgling Soviet state, but also to bring the revolution to Europe. Peter Whitewood shows that while the Red Army’s rapid drive to the gates of Warsaw in summer 1920 raised great hopes for world revolution, the subsequent collapse of the offensive had a more striking result. The Soviet military and political leadership drew the mistaken conclusion that they had not been defeated by the Polish Army, but by the forces of the capitalist world – Britain and France – who were perceived as having directed the war behind-the-scenes. They were taken aback by the strength of the forces of counterrevolution and convinced they had been overcome by the capitalist powers. The Soviet-Polish War and its Legacy reveals that – in the aftermath of the catastrophe at Warsaw –Lenin, Stalin and other senior Bolsheviks were convinced that another war against Poland and its capitalist backers was inevitable with this perpetual fear of war shaping the evolution of the early Soviet state. It also further encouraged the creation of a centralised and repressive one-party state and provided a powerful rationale for the breakneck industrialisation of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1920s. The Soviet leadership’s central preoccupation in the 1930s was Nazi Germany; this book convincingly argues that Bolshevik perceptions of Poland and the capitalist world in the decade before were given as much significance and were ultimately crucial to the rise of Stalinism.

Focusing especially on the 1970s and 1980s in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, this work provides an overview of reforms in socialist agrarian systems. Empirical evidence is used by the contributors to provide an assessment of how agrarian economies performed in different communist countries. The Soviet and Eastern European experience is contrasted with reforms in China, Vietnam and Cuba to provide a detailed account of agricultural restructuring after the collapse of communism in Europe and Asia.

This important set brings together for the first time works indispensable to a complete understanding of the diffusion of Marxist economic thought in the Western world. The comprehensive selection of contemporary material includes introductions to editions of Marx's works, articles, book excerpts, reviews and letters. The collection includes key material written between 1867, the year Das Kapital: Volume One was published, and 1914. It documents the reception of Marx's work throughout Europe, and outlines debates raised by Das Kapital among Marx's contemporaries and their successors, including Engels, Pareto, Bohm-Bowerk, Wicksell and Veblen.
* Volume One covers debate on the first volume of Das Kapital
* Volume Two includes debate on the third volume of Das Kapital
* Volume Three covers critical appraisals of Marx's work
* Volume Four includes Marx in the histories of economic thought and early biographies

This book explores Marxist and Leninist revolutionary theory. Topics include: the philosophical dialectic, historical materialism, the revolutionary movement, and Communist cadre political rule in the socialist state. Emphasis on Lenin's wartime political treatment of imperialism, national self-determination, and socialism in one country.

A classic of early modernism, Capital combines vivid historical detail with economic analysis to produce a bitter denunciation of mid-Victorian capitalist society. It has also proved to be the most influential work in social science in the twentieth century; Marx did for social science what Darwin had done for biology. Millions of readers this century have treated Capital as a sacred text, subjecting it to as many different interpretations as the Bible itself. No mere work of dry economics, Marx's great work depicts the unfolding of industrial capitalism as a tragic drama - with a message which has lost none of its relevance today. This is the only abridged edition to take account of the whole of Capital. It offers virtually all of Volume 1, which Marx himself published in 1867, excerpts from a new translation of 'The Result of the Immediate Process of Production', and a selection of key chapters from Volume 3, which Engels published in 1895.

Historians of immigration and ethnicity in the United States have typically devoted little attention to Greek Americans compared to the extensive historical literature produced about their Irish, Italian, and German counterparts. From acclaimed historian Kostis Karpozilos, Red America provides a deeply researched correction to Western perspectives on Greek American interaction with social, political, and economic change. Focusing on the history of the Greek American Left from the beginning of the twentieth century to the Cold War, this volume uncovers the threads that bound notions of radical social change to the everyday experiences of immigrants, tracing ethnic radicalism from the boundaries of a specific community to the epicenter of American social and political history.

In The Demise of Marxism-Leninism in Russia , distinguished specialists chart the rise of new thinking on the Soviet system and the decline and fall of Marxism-Leninism in the late Soviet period. They also discuss the failure of Marxism-Leninism to make a comeback in post-Soviet Russia. This book makes a significant contribution to understanding the independent importance of ideas in politics and provides clear analyses of the rise of liberal and social democratic thought about the political system, the economy, international Communism, nationalism and federalism.

With the recent revival of Karl Marx's theory, a general interest in reading Capital has also increased. But Capital - Marx's foundational nineteenth century work on political economy - is by no means considered an easily understood text. Central concepts such as abstract labor, the value form, or the fetishism of commodities, can seem opaque to us as first time readers, and the prospect of comprehending Marx's thought can be truly daunting. Until, that is, we pick up Michael Heinrich's How to Read Marx's Capital. Paragraph by paragraph, Heinrich provides extensive commentary and lucid explanations of questions and quandaries that arise when encountering Marx's original text. Suddenly, such seemingly gnarly chapters as "The Labor Process and the Valorization Process" and "Money or the Circulation of Capital" become refreshingly clear, as Heinrich explains just what we need to keep in mind when reading such a complex text. Deploying multiple appendices referring to other pertinent writings by Marx, Heinrich reveals what is relevant about Capital, and why we need to engage with it today. How to Read Marx's Capital provides an illuminating and indispensable guide to sorting through cultural detritus of a world whose political and economic systems are simultaneously imploding and exploding.

In recent years historians and other social scientists have widely questioned the continued relevance of social class - as historical relationship, as sociological category, as philosophical concept, and in terms of its enduring political significance. The success of the British Conservative Party since 1979, combined with the weaknesses and failures of the Labour movement, have led historians and social scientists to reconsider the general nature of connections between the 'social' and the 'political' and the specific relations between the working class and socialist and Labour politics. This collection of essays is a multi-disciplinary critique of the new revisionism, which demonstrates the continued vitality and promise of non-reductionist and non-determinist modes of class analysis.

In this 37th issue of the Research in Political Economy series, Jan Toporowski and leading experts offer a unique and insightful overview of Polish Marxism after Luxemburg, serving as an introduction to some key themes and the ideas of several Polish political economists. Polish Marxism after Luxemburg covers various ideas that emerged around the same period as Rosa Luxemburg was active, such as Ludwik Krzywicki who pioneered the study of monopoly finance capital and suggested the possibility of industrial feudalism. Chapters illustrate the current relevance of these thinkers and highlight the development from Polish Marxism of Michal Kalecki and Oskar Lange, who went on to become one of the founders of what came to be called the Keynesian Revolution in macroeconomics and economic policy. After exploring the relationship of Kalecki to Marxism, through the work of Luxemburg. Polish Marxism after Luxemburg also illuminates a selection of Polish discussions in the political economy from the second half of the twentieth century, particularly in the circle of political economists around Oskar Lange, like Wlodzimierz Brus and Tadeusz Kowalik.

Our understanding of the dynamics of Communist systems was substantially improved by taking political culture into account. But how much does the concept of political culture add to our empirical understanding of post-Communist Russia? The book's contributors engage with theoretical debates between political culture and competing 'rational choice' and institutionalist approaches to post-Soviet politics, and provide illustrative empirical studies of civic participation, views of national identity, the Russian criminal justice system and political violence.

By distinguishing between classical Marxist and neo-Marxist approaches to imperialism, this volume challenges generally accepted views on the relationship between these two branches of Marxist thought, reaffirming the principles and tools of fundamental Marxism as essential for understanding and explaining the internationalization of capitalist economic life. Together, original source materials and Polychroniou's highly readable analysis present a commentary both outlining and clarifying essential ideas contained in Marxist writings from the late 19th century to the present. Marxist Perspectives on Imperialism also identifies current political and economic issues to which authentic Marxist concepts can be applied.

A review of Marx's views on capitalist production relations and expansion opens the discussion and defines criteria for evaluating analyses which follow. Studies by classical Marxists such as Hilferding, Bukharin, and Lenin are then contrasted to the neo-Marxist writings of Baran, Frank, and Wallerstein, among others. Polychroniou's defense of orthodox Marxism strengthens as he turns his attention to the practical uses of Marxist ideology to topics of international concern. His conclusions clarify a complex topic and provide political economists, sociologists, and political scientists with a clear explanation of the theoretical and methodological contours of Marxist thought on capitalist imperialism.

Theories heralding the rise of network governance have dominated for a generation. Yet, empirical research suggests that claims for the transformative potential of networks are exaggerated. This topical and timely book takes a critical look at contemporary governance theory, elaborating a Gramscian alternative. It argues that, although the ideology of networks has been a vital element in the neoliberal hegemonic project, there are major structural impediments to accomplishing it. While networking remains important, the hierarchical and coercive state is vital for the maintenance of social order and integral to the institutions of contemporary governance. Reconsidering it from Marxist and Gramscian perspectives, the book argues that the hegemonic ideology of networks is utopian and rejects the claim that there has been a transformation from 'government' to 'governance'. This important book has international appeal and will be essential reading for scholars and students of governance, public policy, human geography, public management, social policy and sociology.

A classic of early modernism, Capital combines vivid historical detail with economic analysis to produce a bitter denunciation of mid-Victorian capitalist society. It has also proved to be the most influential work in social science in the twentieth century; Marx did for social science what Darwin had done for biology. Millions of readers this century have treated Capital as a sacred text, subjecting it to as many different interpretations as the Bible itself. No mere work of dry economics, Marx's great work depicts the unfolding of industrial capitalism as a tragic drama - with a message which has lost none of its relevance today. This is the only abridged edition to take account of the whole of Capital. It offers virtually all of Volume 1, which Marx himself published in 1867, excerpts from a new translation of 'The Result of the Immediate Process of Production', and a selection of key chapters from Volume 3, which Engels published in 1895.

This collection of the correspondence of Mao Zedong during the period 1956 to 1957 explores the question of legitimatizing the leadership of the CCP, the pace of the socialist transformation of China's economy, and the issue of the divergence of ideological opinion over the strategy of revolution.