Marx and Modernity

Key Readings and Commentary

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Edited by Robert Antonio

Blackwell Publishers

Due/Published September 2002, 304 pages, paper

ISBN 0631225501

Each new generation of social thinkers have advanced theories in the wake of Marx, and in this collection of readings, Marx emerges as the first theorist to give a comprehensive social view of the birth and development of capitalist modernity that began with the Second Industrial Revolution and still exists today.

Organized analytically, each section of readings relates to an enduring facet of Marxist thought. Along with Marx's own writing, there are fifteen contemporary essays on a variety of topics showing the influence of Marx on today's world. Editorial introductions are included at the beginning of the volume and of each section to situate the readings historically and intellectually. Every student and scholar of social theory and Marxism will find this to be the defining collection of Marxist modern thought.

Contents

Section I: Marx Readings:
Introduction
Part I: Marx's Vision of History: "Historical Materialism":
Introduction
1. Primary Historical Relations or the Basic Aspects of Social Activity: (with Friedrich Engels)
2. The Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas: (with Friedrich Engels)
3. The Formation of Classes: (with Friedrich Engels)
4. Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy: (Preface)
5. Labor Rent
6. Karl Marx: (by Friedrich Engels)
7. Letter to Joseph Bloch: (by Friedrich Engels)

Part II: The Juggernaut of Capitalist Modernity: The Revolutionary Bourgeoisie, End of Tradition, and New Social Powers:
Introduction
8. The So-Called Primitive Accumulation
9. Sections on Division of Material and Mental Labor: (with Friedrich Engels)
10. Bourgeois and Proletarians: (with Friedrich Engels)
11. Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation
12. Cooperation
13. Statement on Cardinal facts of Capitalist Production, from Capital 3

Part III: Marx's Labor Theory of Value: The Hidden Social Relationship Beneath Capitalism's Distorted "Economic" Surface:
Introduction
14. The Two Factors of a Commodity
15. Value, Labor Power, and Surplus Value
16. The Fetishism of Commodities
17. The General Formula for Capital

Part IV: The First and Second Industrial Revolutions: From Manufacture to Modern Industry:
Introduction
18. Division of Labor and Manufacture
19. Machinery and Modern Industry

Part V: The Downside of Capitalist Growth: Unemployment, Poverty, Speculative Crises, and Environmental Devastation:
Introduction
20. General Law of Capitalist Accumulation
21. The Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall
22. Progressive Production of a Relative Surplus Population or Industrial Reserve Army
23. Increase of Lunacy in Great Britain
24. The Economic Crisis in Europe
25. Modern Industry and Agriculture

Part VI: Globalization and Colonialism: The New International Division of Labor, Unequal Exchange, and the Politics of Race and Ethnicity:
Introduction
26. Foreign Trade
27. Repulsion Attraction of Workpeople
28. The Crisis in England
29. British Incomes in India
30. The Indian Revolt

Part VII: New Society Rising in the Old: Socially-Regulated Capitalism and a Third Industrial Revolution:
Introduction
31. The Factory Acts
32. The Role of Credit in Capitalist Production
33. Fixed Capital and Development of the Productive Forces of Society

Part VIII: The Revolutionary Proletariat and Vicissitudes of History: Counterrevolution, Dictatorship, or Radical Democracy?
Introduction
34. Bourgeois and Proletarians: (with Friedrich Engels)
35. Proletarians and Communists: (with Friedrich Engels)
36. The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
37. The Civil War in France
38. Critique of the Gotha Program
Section II: Contemporary Readings:
Introduction

Part IX: After Communism: The Death or Return of Marx?
Introduction
39. Mourning Marxism: Ronald Aronson (Wayne State University)
40. Marx Redux: David Harvey (Johns Hopkins University)
41. The Return of Karl Marx: John Cassidy

Part X: New Economy or Old?: Information Capitalism and the Polarization of American Society:
Introduction
42. Getting to Yes: The Architecture of a New Consensus: Thomas Frank
43. Crossing into the High-Tech Frontier: Jeremy Rifkin (Wharton School)
44. Societal Changes & Vulnerable Neighborhoods: William Julius Wilson (Harvard University)
45. Fortress L.A.: Mike Davis

Part XI: Neoliberal Globalization: Concentration, Proletarianization, & Immiseration in the New Transitional Division of Labor:
Introduction
46. Renewals: Perry Anderson (University of California at Los Angeles)
47. The Connected & the Disconnected: Jeremy Rifkin (Wharton School)
48. America's Immigration Problem: Saskia Sassen (University of Chicago)
49. These Dark Satanic Mills: William Greider
50. From the Great Transformation to the Global Free Market: John Gray (London School of Economics)

Part XII: Emergent Resistance to Neoliberal Globalization: Anti-Corporate, Alliance Politics & Direct Actions:
Introduction
51. Slouching Toward Seattle: Jeff Faux
52. Seattle Diary: Jeff St. Clair
53. Not Just a Seattle Sequel: Bruce Shapiro

Part XIII: Rethinking Class and Emancipation after Communism: Avoiding Marxist Determinism and Totalization:
Introduction
54. Class Analysis, History, and Emancipation: Erik Olin Wright (University of Wisconsin)
55. From Redistribution to Recognition?: Nancy Fraser (New School University).