Political Marxism

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Political Marxism (PM) is a strand of

Marxist theory that places history at the centre of its analysis. It is also referred to as a form of neo-Marxism.[1][2]

History

The term political Marxism itself was coined during the

Marxist historian Guy Bois. Bois distinguished Brenner's "political Marxism" from "economic Marxism".[3] As such, the label political Marxism has not always been accepted by the scholars to whom it has been applied.[4][5] The term is also distinguished from Marxism in the politically activist sense. According to Arnold Hauser, in this system of analysis, one can agree with Marxism as a philosophy of history and society without being a Marxist.[6]

Political Marxism was developed as a reaction against historical models of

Researchers linked with political Marxism today include Benno Teschke,[8] Hannes Lacher,[9] and George Comninel.[10]

References

  1. .
  2. .
  3. ^ 'Against the Neo-Malthusian Orthodoxy', in The Brenner Debate: Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe, ed. by Trevor Aston and C.H.E. Philpin, Past and Present Publications (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 107–18 (pp. 115–16) [repr. from Past & Present, 79 (1978), pp. 60-69]. 'Brenner's Marxism is "political Marxism"—in reaction to the wave of economistic tendencies in contemporary historiography. As the role of the class struggle is widely underestimated, so he injects strong doses of it into his own historical interpretation. I do not question the motivation behind such a reaction, but rather the summary and purely ideological manner in which it is implemented. It amounts to a voluntarist vision of history in which the class struggle is divorced from all other objective contingencies and, in the first place, from such laws of development as may be peculiar to a specific mode of production.
  4. ^ David McNally, "Ellen Meiksins Wood obituary" The Guardian.
  5. ^ Alex Callinicos, 'Marxism loses a passionate champion', Socialist Review, 410 (February 2016).
  6. ^ Dixon, Rebecca (1982). Choice: Publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a Division of the American Library Association. Middletown, CT: American Library Association. p. 571.
  7. ^ Political Marxism and the Social Sciences
  8. ^ See: Benno Teschke (2003). The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics and the Making of Modern International Relations. London and New York: Verso.
  9. ^ See: Hannes Lacher (2006). Beyond Globalization: Capitalism, Territoriality and the International Relations of Modernity. London and New York: Routledge.
  10. ^ See: Comninel, G. (2000) English Feudalism and the Origins of Capitalism. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 27 (4), pp. 1– 53
    Comninel, G (1990 [1987]) Rethinking the French Revolution. London and New York: Verso.

Further reading

  • By Robert Brenner:
(1976) 'Agrarian Class Structures and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe'. Past & Present, 70, (February 1976), pp. 30-75.
(1977) 'The Origins of Capitalist Development: A Critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism'. New Left Review, I/104. pp. 25-92.
(1995 [1982]) 'The Agrarian Roots of European Capitalism' in Aston, T.H. and C.H.E. Philpin (eds.) The Brenner Debate: Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 213-327. Originally published (1982). ’The Agrarian Roots of European Capitalism’, Past & Present, 97, November, pp. 16-113.
  • By Ellen Meiksins Wood:
(1991) The Pristine Culture of Capitalism: An Historical Essay on Old Regimes and Modern States. London and New York: Verso.
(1995) Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(2002 [1999])
The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View
. London and New York: Verso.
(2008) Citizens to Lords. A Social History of Western Political Thought From Antiquity to the Middle Ages. London and New York: Verso.

External links