Examining how Marxist theory is lacking but much needed in a variety of analytical contexts, this book traces the theoretical maze in which Marxism currently finds itself, and from which it is trying to exit while remaining epistemologically intact. Scholar Tom Brass cogently argues that when Marxism is stripped of any or all of its core elements-such as class formation/consciousness/struggle, and a socialist transition-it ceases to be recognizable as Marxism at all. Consequently, the book constitutes an attempt by Marxist political economy to extricate itself from mistaken attempts to conflate it with the cultural turn, identity politics, bourgeois economics, or varieties of populism and nationalism, while grappling with the danger of not mapping Marxism in relation to those discourses.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Marxism Missing – Presumed Dead?
How Marxism Went Missing
Why Marxism Went Missing
As Clear as Mud(de)
Essentializing Rurality?
Marxism Missing, but ...
Themes
PART 1
Marxism Missing
1 Marxism(s) within/beyond the Nation
Introduction
The External/Eternal ‘Other’
The Source of Social Miracles
Because the Country Is Hungry
Winning the Peasantry?
A Huge Part of the People
Class Solidarity and/or Cultural Autonomy
Nationalism beyond the Nation
Privileged Sections, Cheap Immigrants
An Indispensable Attribute
Conclusion
2 From Marxism to the Cultural Turn (via Social History)
Introduction
Marxism and Third World Development
Populism, Social History, and Third World (Non-)Development
Enemy of the (Capitalist) State?
History, Methods, Politics
Social History and/as the ‘Cultural Turn’
Ambiguity + Authenticity = Absent Marxism
Conclusion
3 From Marxism to Nationalism (via Imperialism)
Introduction
The Authenticity of Populism
The Inapplicability of Marxism
Down the Drain (Once Again)
India’s Chief Curse
Populism, Nationalism, Postmodernism
What Did the Romans Ever Do for Us?
Conclusion
4 From Marxism to Agrarian Populism (via the Cultural Turn)
Introduction
Peasants, Marxism, Populism
The ‘Cultural Turn’ and/as the ‘New’ Populist Postmodernism
Russia Then, India Now
Old Believers?
Farmers, Peasants, Kulaks
Old/New Agrarian Populism?
A Sense of Robust Realism?
Conclusion
PART 2
Missing Marxism
5 From Marxism to Late Antiquity (via Postmodernism)
Introduction
The World beyond
Citizens, State and Economy
Not Death but Resurrection
Postmodernizing Premodernity
Conclusion
6 From Modern to Ancient Capitalism (via Bourgeois Economics)
Introduction
Capitalism, Capitalism Everywhere
Money Makes the World Go Round?
Fear of Feudalism
All Modes Lead to Rome
Had Marx Lived ...
Marginalism Is Not Marxism
Building Castles in the Air
Conclusion
7 From Class Struggle to Identity Politics ( via ‘Otherness’)
Introduction
Film, Sameness, Otherness
To Keep Them Divided
Solidarity, Struggle, Socialism
Magical (Un-)Realism
Diasporic Discourse
On the Shoulders of Giants?
Placid Multiculturalism
Celebrating Otherness?
Conclusion
8 Great Replacement, or Reaping the Capitalist Whirlwind ( via Populism/Nationalism)
Introduction: The Last Taboo
White Fright, White Fight
Demography, Culture, Civilization
Who/What Is Responsible?
Rival Ethnicities, Rival Populisms
Political Economy and/as Great Replacement
Migration and/as Surplus Labour
Marxism and the Industrial Reserve
Conclusion
Conclusion
Beyond Marxism, What?
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index
About the Author :
Tom Brass, D.Phil (1982) formerly lectured in the SPS Faculty at Cambridge University and directed studies for Queens' College. He edited The Journal of Peasant Studies for almost two decades, and has published extensively on agrarian issues and rural labour relations, including Revolution and Its Alternatives (Brill, 2019).
