Description
Book SynopsisIn this collection British and Argentinian historians analyze the Asiatic, Germanic, peasant, slave, feudal, and tributary modes of production by exploring historical processes and diverse problems of Marxist theory. The studies treat an array of pre-capitalist social formations, including medieval Iceland and Norway, Byzantium, the Roman Empire, ancient Egypt, medieval Len and Castile, and the Castilian later Middle Ages.
Trade Review"A Marxist analysis must relate the parts dialectically to a totality, and cannot be served by reductive analytical categories that are defined by fixed internal characteristics, rather than by their dynamic interrelations. The best contributions in this fascinating collection are alive to the way that Marx developed his dialectical approach to analysis, and in a range of detailed case studies, are able to show the fruitful potential the study of modes of production can still provide. Indeed, if Marxists can overcome subservience to positivistic analytical presumptions, and recapture Marx’s own way of thinking, then we are only at the beginning of a potential transformation in our understanding of human history.” —Dominic Alexander, Counterfire
Table of ContentsPreface , Carlos Astarita Introduction to Studies on Pre-Capitalist Modes of Production: Debates, Controversies and Lines of Argument, Laura da Graca and Andrea Zingarelli 1. Asiatic Mode of Production: Considerations on Ancient Egypt, Andrea Zingarelli 2. The Slave Roman Economy and the Plantation System, Carlos García Mac Gaw 3. Origins of the Medieval Craftsman, Carlos Astarita 4. Passages to Feudalism in Medieval Scandinavia, Chris Wickham 5. Peasant Mode of Production and the Evolution of Clientelar Relations, Laura da Graca 6. Mode of Production, Social Action, and Historical Change: Some Questions and Issues, John Haldon 7. Simple Commodity Production and Value Theory in Late FeudalismOctavio Colombo References Index
