Theory As History: Essays On Modes Of Production And Exploitation

The Essays Collected Here Straddle Four Decades Of Work In Both Historiography And Marxist Theory, Combining Source-Based Historical Work In A Wide Range Of Languages With Sophisticated Discussion Of MarxS Categories. Key Themes Include The Distinctions That Are Crucial To Restoring Complexity To The Marxist Notion Of A Mode Of Production, The Emergence Of Medieval Relations Of Production, The Origins Of Capitalism, The Dichotomy Between Free And Unfree Labor And Essays In Agrarian History That Range Widely From Byzantine Egypt To 19Th-Century Colonialism. The Essays Demonstrate The Importance Of Reintegrating Theory With History And Of Bringing History Back Into Historical Materialism. An Introductory Chapter Ties The Collection Together And Shows How Historical Materialists Can Develop An Alternative To MarxS Asiatic Mode Of Production.Table Of Contents:Forewordacknowledgementintroduction: Themes In Historical Materialismquestions Of Theory A Marxist Characterization Of Asiatic Regimes From The Asiatic To The Tributary Mode: Marx, Haldon And Beyond Ruler And Ruling Class: Configurations Of The Tributary Mode Some General Conclusionsmodes Of Production In A Materialist Conception Of Historythe Retreat Into Historical Formalism Productions Wise As Labor-Process And Epoch Of Production Levels Of Abstraction In Historical Materialism Wage-Labor As Abstract Determination And Determinate Abstraction Self-Owning Capital The Defining Role Of The Laws Of Motion The Failure Of Abstraction In Vulgar Marxism Reading History Backwards Slavery And The World-Market Slavery The Nascent World-Market Feudal Production The Estate Peculiarities Of The Second Serfdom Commodity-Feudalism As The Pure Form Modes Of Production As Objects Of Long Duration Two Brief Conclusions Simple-Commodity Production: A Determination Of Form The Peasant Mode Of Production The Simple-Commodity Producer As Wage-Slavehistorical Arguments For A Logic Of Deployment In Precapitalist Agricultureworkers Before Capitalismthe Fictions Of Free Labor: Contract, Coercion And So-Called Unfree Laborpremises: The Elusive Reality Of Consent A Marxism Of Liberal Mystifications Forms Of Exploitation Based On Wage-Labor Free Contract In SartreS Critique Summaryagrarian History And The Labor-Organization Of Byzantine Large Estatesintroduction A Historiography Of Abstractions Rural Stratifications: Geouchountes, Ktetores And Ergatai The Case For Permanent Labor Restructuring In The Later Empire The New Estates The Labor-Organization Of Sixth-Century Estates Conclusionlate Antiquity To The Early Middle Ages: What Kind Of Transition?Introduction: Marxist Uncertainties Background To The Late Empire Unresolved Issues The Reshaping Of Relations Of Production The Legacy Of The Colonate Slavery And The Post-Roman Labor-Force The Legacy Of Direct Management What Happened To The Aristocracy? Final Comments: Wickham And Modes Of Productionaristocracies, Peasantries And The Framing Of The Early Middle Agesintroduction Aristocracies The Agrarian Watershed Of The Seventh Century Critique Of Wickham The East: Vulnerabilityislam, The Mediterranean And The Rise Of Capitalismhistoriographies Of Capital Towards A Marxist Theory Of Ccial Capitalism From Corporate Capitalism To The Earliest Capitalist Forms Of Association The Arab Trade-Empire From Genoa To Portugal Company-Capitalism And The Advance System Concluding Note: Merchant-Capitalism And Laborcapitalist Domination And The Small Peasantrythe Deccan Districts In The Late Nineteenth Century The Subordination Of Labor To Capital Commodity-Expansion In The Deccan Districts, 1850-90 Structure Of Capital In The Deccan Interest As Surplus-Value: Increasing Formal Subsumption Of Labor Into Capital The Big Peasantry Of The Deccan Peasant-Differentiation The Stage Of Evolution Of Capitalism In The Nineteenth-Century Deccantrajectories Of Accumulation Or Transitions To Capitalism?Modes Of Production: A Synthesismarxists And Feudalism The Tributary Mode Periodising Capitalism Articulation?Publications Of Jairus Banajireferencesgeneral Index