From feudalism to capitalism : Marxian theories of class struggle and social change
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
From feudalism to capitalism : Marxian theories of class struggle and social change
(Contributions in political science, no. 239)
Greenwood Press, 1989
- : alk. paper
Available at 27 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Bibliography: p. [185]-192
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
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.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Dynamics of Qualitative Social Transformation
The Feudal Mode of Production
From Feudalism to Capitalism: The Role of Merchant Capital
From Feudalism to Capitalism: The Transformation of the Countryside
Conclusion
Selected Bibliography
Index
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