Historical Materialism
Research in Critical Marxist Theory
VOLUME 10, NUMBER 1
CONTENTS
Editorial Note
Articles
Ellen Meiksins Wood
Infinite War
Peter Green
'The Passage from Imperialism to Empire': A Commentary on Empire by
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri
John Holloway
Foing in the Wrong Direction: Or, Mephistopheles Not Saint Francis of
Assisi
Ray Kiely
Actualy Existing Globalisation, De-Globalisation, and the Political
Economy of Anticapitalist Protest
Enzo Traverso
Bohemia, Exile and Revolution
Interventions
Patrick Murray
Reply to Geert Reuten
Paul Burkett
Analytical Marxism and Ecology: A Rejoinder
Reviews
Erik Olin Wright and Harry Brighouse
on Alex Callinicos¹s Equality
Paresh Chattopadhyay
on Bertell Ollman¹s Market Socialism: The Debate among Socialists and
Michael Howard¹s Self-Management and the Crisis of Socialism
Chris Arthur
on Robert Albritton¹s Dialectics and Deconstruction in Political Economy
John Foster
on Neil Davidson¹s The Origins of Scottish Nationhood
Alex Law
on William Kenefick and Arthur McIvor¹s Roots of Red Clydeside
1910-1914?
Thomas M. Jeannot
on John O¹Neill¹s The Market: Ethics, Knowledge, and Politics
Richard Saull
on Fred Halliday¹s Revolution and World Politics: The Rise and Fall of
the Sixth Great Power
Notice of next issue
Notes on Contributors
Historical Materialism seeks to reappropriate and refine the classical
Marxist tradition for emancipatory purposes. It promotes a genuine and open
dialogue between individuals working in different traditions of Marxism and
encourages an interdisciplinary, international debate between researchers
and academics. Historical Materialism sees itself as encouraging a new
generation of Marxist writers and researchers. Future issues will focus on
Africa, fantasy, the visual arts, Empire, anticapitalism, film, dialectics,
the American working class, modes of production, sexuality and postcolonial
fascism.
Now published by Brill Academic Publishers
EDITORS:
MATTHEW BEAUMONT
EMMA BIRCHAM
PAUL BLACKLEDGE
MARK BOULD
SEBASTIAN BUDGEN
DAE-OUP CHANG
ALEJANDRO COLÁS
ALAN JOHNSON
ESTHER LESLIE
MARTIN MCIVOR
CHINA MIÉVILLE
PAUL REYNOLDS
GREGORY SCHWARTZ
PARIS YEROS
CONTACT: [log in to unmask]
ADVISORY BOARD:
AIJAZ AHMAD (New Delhi), HAMZA ALAVI (Karachi), GREG ALBO (Toronto), ROBERT
ALBRITTON (Toronto), ELMAR ALTVATER (Berlin), GIOVANNI ARRIGHI (Baltimore),
CHRIS ARTHUR (Brighton), JAIRUS BANAJI (Bombay), COLIN BARKER (Manchester),
DANIEL BENSAÏD (Paris), HENRY BERNSTEIN (London), PATRICK BOND
(Johannesburg), WERNER BONEFELD (York), ROBERT BRENNER (Los Angeles), SIMON
BROMLEY (Leeds), MICHAEL BURAWOY (Berkeley), PAUL BURKETT (Terre Haute),
PETER BURNHAM (Warwick), TERRY BYRES (London), ALEX CALLINICOS (York),
GUGLIELMO CARCHEDI (Amsterdam), ALAN CARLING (Bradford), VIVEK CHIBBER (New
York), ANDREW CHITTY (Sussex),SIMON CLARKE (Warwick), DAVID COATES (Reynolda
Station), ANDREW COLLIER (Southampton), GEORGE COMNINEL (Toronto), MIKE
DAVIS (Los Angeles), RICHARD B. DAY (Toronto), MICHAEL DENNING (Yale), FRANK
DEPPE (Marburg), ARIF DIRLIK (Eugene), GÉRARD DUMÉNIL (Paris), TERRY
EAGLETON (Manchester), GREGORY ELLIOTT (London), BEN FINE (London), ROBERT
FINE (Warwick), JOHN BELLAMY FOSTER (Eugene), ALAN FREEMAN (London), NORMAN
GERAS (Manchester), MARTHA GIMENEZ (Boulder), MAURICE GODELIER(Paris), PETER
GOWAN (London), IRFAN HABIB (Aligarh), JOHN HALDON (Birmingham), DAVID
HARVEY (New York), WOLFGANG-FRITZ HAUG (Berlin), COLIN HAY (Birmingham),
MICHAEL HEINRICH (Berlin), JOHN HOLLOWAY (Mexico City), FREDRIC JAMESON
(Duke), BOBJESSOP (Lancaster), GEOFFREY KAY (London), JOHN KELLY (London),
RAY KIELY (London), STATHIS KOUVELAKIS (Paris), MARK LAFFEY (London), DAVID
LAIBMAN (NewYork), COSTAS LAPAVITSAS (London), NEIL LARSEN (Davis), NEIL
LAZARUS (Warwick), MICHAEL LEBOWITZ (Vancouver), ANDREW LEVINE (Madison),
DOMINIQUE LÉVY (Paris), MARCEL VAN DER LINDEN (Amsterdam), PETER LINEBAUGH
(Toledo), DOMENICOLOSURDO (Urbino), MICHAEL LÖWY (Paris), JOE MCCARNEY
(Brighton), DAVID MCNALLY (Toronto), SCOTT MEIKLE (Glasgow), PETER MEIKSINS
(Cleveland), ISTVÁN MÉSZÁROS (Brighton), WARREN MONTAG (Los Angeles), KIM
MOODY (New York), FRED MOSELEY (Mount Holyoke), FRANCIS MULHERN (Middlesex),
PATRICK MURRAY (Omaha), BERTELL OLLMAN (New York), JOHN O¹NEILL
(Lancaster),WILLIAM PIETZ (Los Angeles), KEES VAN DER PIJL (Sussex), CHARLES
POST (New York), MOISHE POSTONE (Chicago), HELMUT REICHELT (Bremen), GEERT
REUTEN(Amsterdam), JOHN ROBERTS (London), JUSTIN ROSENBERG (Sussex), MARK
RUPERT (Syracuse), ALFREDO SAAD-FILHO (London), SUMITSARKAR (Delhi), SEAN
SAYERS (Kent), THOMAS SEKINE (Tokyo), ANWAR SHAIKH (New York), JENS
SIEGELBERG (Hamburg), HAZELSMITH (Warwick), NEIL SMITH (New York), TONY
SMITH (Iowa), HILLEL TICKTIN (Glasgow), ANDRÉ TOSEL (Nice), ENZO
TRAVERSO (Paris), LISE VOGEL (Lawrenceville), ALAN WALD (Ann Arbor), RICHARD
WALKER (Los Angeles), JOHN WEEKS (London), CHRIS WICKHAM(Birmingham),
MICHAEL WILLIAMS (Milton Keynes), ELLEN MEIKSINS WOOD (London), ERIK OLIN
WRIGHT (Madison)
Details
o Volume 10 (2002, 4 issues per year)
o ISSN 1465-4466
o List price Institutions EUR 149.- / US$ 173.-
o List price Individuals EUR 36.50 / US$ 42.-
o Price includes online subscription
Why Historical Materialism now?
It is thirteen years since the implosion of 'historical communism' and the
triumphal proclamation of capitalism as the natural terminus of world
history. As neo-liberal strategies continue their work of global
accumulation and exploitation, the invincibility of the world market has
been assumed by all sides of the political spectrum. But while this new
global order is thus marked by an unprecedented unity of appearance, in
reality sharp differences and deepening inequalities persist, both between
states and within societies. For the world today is increasingly driven by
the political, economic and social contradictions which capitalist
development brings in its wake. To those on the margins of the world
economy, the effects of being left out are devastating: poverty, starvation
and civil war are widespread. Meanwhile in the advanced countries, the
pursuit of global competition for investment and the related internal
restructuring of the state have discredited even moderate Keynesian policies
and social reformism. Thus, despite the production of ever greater surplus
wealth, the numbers of those in poverty keep growing; and the vast majority
remain excluded from any meaningful power. And yet against this backdrop,
capitalism itself has been absolved of responsibility, and there has been a
retreat from any fundamental critique. One of the most effective arguments
in the hands of political and economic elates in enforcing domestically
unpopular policies is that international, Œglobalising¹ capitalism has
become our Œfate¹ in a qualitatively new sense. It is this disabling eclipse
of social imagination, manifested in the almost universal assumption of a
continuing capitalist future that Historical Materialism seeks to counter.
Theoretical orientation
Motivated by a vision of society free of exploitation and domination, the
journal sets out from the conviction that classical Marxism provides the
richest framework for analysing the making and unmaking of social phenomena.
Its aim is to build upon that tradition, drawing on and debating the diverse
contributions of its various strands. We believe that the explanatory power
of classical Marxism derives above all from two key elements. The first of
these elements is the epistemology of the Theses on Feuerbach, especially
its unity of theory and practice. Marx famously said that Œphilosophers have
only interpreted the world, the point is to change it¹. In other words, the
most incisive interpretations of the world are those which are harnessed to
practical efforts to transform it. The second key element is Marxism¹s
recognition of the centrality of class relations and social struggle which
result from historically specific modes of surplus appropriation and
domination. The key to understanding history lies in relating the systemic
forces inherent in capitalist and other class societies, with the
experiences of their agents. From this dialectical antagonism of subject and
object arises historical change.
Aware of the deformations and instrumentalisations of Marxism, we believe
that Marx¹s dictum in the Eighteenth Brumaire that Œthe tradition of all the
dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living¹ must
be critically applied to Marxism itself as an intellectual and political
tradition. Far from being a theoretical monolith, Marxism is necessarily an
object of continuing debate, a debate fuelled by the ever-changing
subjective experiences of people in differing social contexts, and
contingent on the objective logic of production and reproduction as embedded
in specific social relations. We propose that the regeneration of classical
Marxism requires the recovery of human agency, understood both in its
objectified existence which reproduces dominant social relations, and in its
disruptive, and potentially emancipator forms.
Working principles
The journal maintains two fundamental working principles:
Interdisciplinarity
When the study of natural and social life is fragmented into discrete
disciplines, the potential for comprehending the shape of the whole is
weakened. This modern division of intellectual labour arose with the
emergence of capitalism and its concomitant differentiation of society.
Society is not, however, composed of different spheres of action, separately
pursuing their own self-reproductive logics. Rather, one relation dominates
and takes an exploitative form in class societies - that 'twofold relation'
through which people organise their collective interaction with the natural
world in order to transform it according to their needs: the relation of
production. The historically specific forms of this relation affect all
dimensions of social life, which have in the modern period become
differentiated in new ways. The task must be to take self-reflexive account
of these historical differentiations without naturalising and reifying their
separation and content. It is therefore necessary to continue the critique
of ideology and oppose the compartmentalisation of knowledge. Historical
Materialism will encourage the systematic integration and
cross-fertilisation of various fields of knowledge in concrete analyses.
Marxist pluralism
Historical Materialism will seek to create a forum for debate between those
working in different Marxist traditions. The journal will also engage with
non-Marxist contributions which constructively criticise Marxist theorems
and attempt alternative explanations of social phenomena. The journal is not
aligned with any particular tendency or party and aims to ensure that
political differences are neither simply repressed nor asserted a priori,
but can emerge as a result of substantive theoretical enquiry.
"The birth of Historical Materialism was a major event not only because it
provides a unique forum for non-sectarian Marxist debate but also because it
represents a change in the wind a really promising sign of socialist
renewal."
- Ellen Meiksins Wood
"Historical Materialism provides exactly what is needed today: a Marxist
antidote to postmodern and similar fashions. It is one of the few journals
in English actually turned towards the future - one of the few journals in
which a progressive theorist can publish without secretly feeling ashamed!"
- Slavoj Zizek
"Historical Materialism is already among the most highly regarded journals
in Marxian theory published in any language. In an age of increasing
specialization it is committed to high quality articles from across a broad
range of disciplines. If a resurgence of Marxian thinking occurs in the
twenty-first century Historical Materialism will deserve a good part of the
credit."
- Tony Smith
Research agenda
The journal encourages research into four broad and, we stress,
non-exclusive areas.
Firstly, at the very heart of the Marxist tradition is the theorisation of
history, class struggle and revolution. Within the wider ambit of the
Marxist theory of social change, we invite contributions of a historical and
theoretical nature which investigate the nexus between class conflict, and
social and political movements. Furthermore we encourage studies which
address Marxist conceptualisations of revolution.
Secondly, the development of historical materialism involves an attempt to
fathom and revitalise the elements which remain fundamental in the Marxist
tradition. We therefore welcome studies which survey recent attempts to
re-appropriate and redefine Marxism for contemporary social science. Areas
which could be covered within this context include: the clarification of
core concepts and theorems such as work on variations in Marxist method and
epistemology, as well as studies on the history and historiography of
Marxism itself.
The third area of study is provided by the uneven and contradictory
universalisation of capitalism, and its international political economy.
Here we envisage debate on the geographical expansion of capitalism, its
incorporation of other social structures, and the politics of resistance to
these processes. We invite work on the historical relationship between the
state and the economy, and that between fragmented political authority and
the world market. The complexity of the historical genesis of capitalist
modernity requires that the arguably neglected themes of war/geopolitics,
diplomacy, trade, migration, strategies of exploitation, conjunctures of
crisis, questions of globalisation, and the latest round of neoliberal
orthodoxy must be within the scope of Marxist scholarship. Furthermore, we
welcome single country or area studies which combine the explanation of
conjunctural contexts within the perspective of long-term economic, social
and political developments.
In the fourth area we aim to confront the challenges of post-Marxist
critique, the claim that the allegedly totalising and class-reductionist
premises of Marxism hinder comprehension of important questions concerning
gender, racism, ecology, culture and aesthetics. We recognise the need for
constructive engagement with these issues and encourage studies into their
historical constitution, and their relation to the reproduction of
capitalist society as a whole. Space will also be provided for the critical
exploration and development of the classical themes of ideology and
consciousness in which discussion of the above issues were prefigured.
Editorial policy
Historical Materialism aims to be neither a traditional academic journal
locked into the career structure of a particular discipline, nor a platform
for the exhibition of a particular Œline¹ on the intellectual Left by the
already established. We welcome submission of work by graduate students and
younger researchers.
The journal also intends to maintain a broad international awareness and
will actively encourage contributions from a non-anglophone public. These
could take the form of introducing country-specific Marxist debates and
issues to a primarily English-speaking readership, or the presentation or
discussion of major new or as yet untranslated publications.
Operating from these principles, the journal hopes to display the ongoing
power and commitment of historical materialism - both as a method of
analysis capable of providing explanation adequate to the world we inhabit,
and as an inspiration to human potential and practical action.
ŒHistorical Materialism demonstrates that Marxist analysis is not merely
alive, but thriving again as the contradictions of globalisation generate
economic, social and cultural tensions which mainstream analysis cannot
account for.¹
‹ John Weeks
ŒHistorical Materialism is an excellent journal providing a unique forum for
serious intellectual work about every aspect of Marxism. The quality of the
first issues surpassed expectations. The journal is essential reading for
anyone with an interest in this field.¹
‹ Sean Sayers
Back issues
Volume No.1, Winter 1997: Ellen Meiksins Wood on the non-history of
capitalism o Colin Barker on Ellen Wood o Esther Leslie on Benjamin¹s
Arcades Project o John Weeks on underdevelopment o Tony Smith on theories of
technology o Michael Lebowitz on the silences of capital o John Holloway on
alienation o Peter Burnham on globalisation and the state oFred Moseley on
the US rate of profit, plus reviews by PeterLinebaugh, Matthew Beaumont and
Benno Teschke
Volume No. 2, Summer 1998: China Miéville on architecture o Gregory Elliott
on Perry Anderson o Andrew Chitty on recognition o Michael Neary & Graham
Taylor on alchemy o Paul Burkett on neo-Malthusian Marxism o Slavoj Zizek on
risk society, plus reviews by Ben Watson, Mike Haynes, Esther Leslie, Elmar
Altvater, Martin Jenkins, Geoffrey Kay and Henning Teschke
Volume No. 3, Winter 1998: Symposium on Leninism and Political Organisation:
Simon Clarke o Howard Chodos &Colin Hay o John Molyneux o John Ehrenberg o
Alan Shandro o Jonathan Joseph o Peter Hudis o Plus Paul Burkett on Ted
Benton o Werner Bonefeld on novelty o John Robertson head-wounds, plus
reviews by Michael A. Lebowitz, Adrian Budd, Giles Peaker, Gareth Dale,
Kenneth J. Hammond and Christopher Bertram
Volume No. 4, Summer 1999: Symposium on Robert Brenner and the World Crisis,
Part 1 Alex Callinicos o Guglielmo Carchedi o Simon Clarke o Gérard Duménil
and Dominique Lévy o Chris Harman o David Laibman o Michael A. Lebowitz o
Fred Moseley o Murray Smith o Ellen Meiksins Wood o Plus Alan Johnson on Hal
Draper o Hal Draper on Lenin o Tony Smith on John Rosenthal, plus reviews by
Mathew Worley, Edwin Roberts, Charles Post, Alan Wald, Rick Kuhn and Emma
Bircham
Volume No. 5, Winter 1999: Symposium on Robert Brenner and the World Crisis,
Part 2 Werner Bonefeld o Alan Freeman o Michael Husson o Anwar Shaikh o Tony
Smith o Richard Walker o John Weeks o Plus Craig Brandist on ethics,
politics and dialogism o Geoff Kay on abstract labour and capital o plus
reviews by Sean Sayers, Jon Gubbay, Gregor Gall, Alan Johnson, Greg Dawes
and Adrian Haddock
Volume No. 6, Summer 2000: Alan Shandro on Marx as a conservative thinker o
Patrick Murray on abstract labour o Deborah Cook on Adorno and Habermas o
Andrew Kliman on intrinsic value o Felton Shortall vs. Michael Lebowitz on
the limits of capital o Ben Fine, Costas Lapavitsas & Dimitris Milonakis vs.
Tony Smith on Brenner o plus reviews by Michael Cowen, Alan Carling & Paul
Nolan, Jonathan Joseph and Ian Birchall
Volume No. 7, Winter 2000: Tony Burns on ancient Greek materialism o Chik
Collins on Vygotsky and Voloshinov o Paul Wetherly on Giddens o Patrick
Murray on abstract labour, part II o Geert Reuten on Patrick Murray o John
Kelly vs. Gregor Gall on class mobilisation o An interview with Slavoj Zizek
o plus reviews by Noel Castree, Paul Blackledge, Paul Jaskot, John Roberts,
Andrew Hemingway and Larry Wilde
Volume No. 8, Summer 2001: Focus on East Asia: Paul Burkett & Martin
Hart-Landsberg on East Asia since the financial crisis o Michael Burke on
the changing nature of capitalism o Giles Ungpakorn on Thailand o Vedi Hadiz
on Indonesia o Dae-oup Chang on South Korea o Raymond Lau on China o Jim
Kincaid on Marxist explanations of the Crisis o Dic Lo on China o
Joseph T. Miller in Peng Shuzhi o Paul Zarembka & Sean Sayers debate Marx
and Romanticism o Ted Benton & Paul Burkett debate Marx and ecology o
Reviews by Walden Bello, Warren Montag, Alex Callinicos, Paul Burkett, Brett
Clark and John Bellamy
Volume No. 9, Winter 2001: Peter Gowan, Leo Panitch & Martin Shaw on the
state and globalisation: a roundtable discussion o Andrew Smith on occult
capitalism o Susanne Soederberg on capital accumulation in Mexico o David
Laibman on the contours of the maturing socialistic economy o John Rosenthal
on Hegel Decoder: A Reply to Smith¹s ŒReply¹ o Jonathan Hughes on Analytical
Marxism and Ecology: A Reply to Paul Burkett o Reviews by Alex Callinicos,
Warren Montag, Kevin Anderson and Tony Smith
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