Marx
Marx, Wittfogel, Godelier, Mandel
Asiatic Mode of Production Readings (Revised)
I have collected several short texts we are going to read about the Asiatic Mode of Production into one PDF. Chapter 20 of Capital Vol. 3, two letters Marx sent to the New York Daily Tribune in the 1850s, a chapter from Grundrisse, a chapter from Wittfogel’s Oriental Despotism, an article by Maurice Godelier, and a chapter from a book by Ernest Mandel. I have uploaded all these books in full below as well. (Including the missing pages from Wittfogel.)
(Here is a PDF just with the two missing pages from Wittfogel. Wittfogel-Missing-Pages.pdf )
Wittfogel, Karl
Oriental Despotism
This book looks really interesting. It’s an examination of how important irrigation was to Asiatic societies during (European) feudal times. It includes an extended discussion of Marx’s “Asiatic Mode of Production.”
Godelier, Maurice
“On the Asiatic Mode of Production”
Mandel, Ernest
The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx
We’ll give Mandel the final word. Godelier criticized Wittfogel, and Mandel criticized Godelier. We will have to decide for ourselves who is right.
Marx, Karl
Grundrisse
The Grundrisse is an extensive series of notes Marx wrote in 1857–58 in preparation for Capital and Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. (“Grundrisse” means something like “outline” or “plan.”) It was not intended for publication, and never saw the light of day until published in Russia in 1939. As such, it has provided fertile ground for decades of Marxist scholarship.
Marx, Karl
Capital, Vol. 1: The Process of Capitalist Production
For historical interest, these are the 1900s Kerr editions of these books (in English). This is the classic edition that is frequently used for page references.
Marx, Karl
Capital, Vol. 2: The Process of Circulation of Capital
For historical interest, these are the 1900s Kerr editions of these books (in English). This is the classic edition that is frequently used for page references.
Marx, Karl
Capital, Volume 3: The Process of Capital Production as a Whole
For historical interest, these are the 1900s Kerr editions of these books (in English). This is the classic edition that is frequently used for page references.
Marx, Karl
Two Letters on Asia, 1850s
These are two letters Marx wrote to the New York Daily Tribune regarding Asia in the 1850s. The first, written in 1853, is on India, and the second, written in 1859, is on Trade with China.
Lukács, György
History and Class Consciousness
This book helped to create the Western Marxism that we all know and love. That means the philosophical and cultural focus of 20th century western Marxist philosophers, such as Althusser, Gramsci, Adorno, Marcuse, and so on. (The term “Western Marxism” was apparently first used disparagingly during the “Third International,” which is the Marxist Cult version of comic-con. They are the ones who think Medicare For All is bad because it’s not international.) We’re interested in Marx as a philosopher and political-economic analyst, not as a religious figure. In this book, published in German in 1923 (but not in English until 1971!), Lukács attempts a philosophical justification of Bolshevism, as well as analyzing the concept of “class consciousness” and returns to Hegel’s influence on Marx. What is “Bolshevism”? It is the communist party in Russia founded by Lenin, which led the October Revolution in Russia in 1917. See the Lenin book What Is To Be Done? below.
Lukács, György
Tailism and the Dialectic (a Defence of History and Class Consciousness)
The Russian “communists” did not like Lukács’s History and Class Consciousness, and later in life Lukács renounced it. But who knows if he meant his retraction, because in 1926 he was still defending the ideas in that book, in this manuscript called Tailism and the Dialectic. It was not published in Hungarian until 1996! And finally in English in 2000. Isn’t that interesting?
Lenin, Vladimir
What Is To Be Done?
The Marxist party that led to the “communist” revolution in Russia in 1917 has a long and fractured history. Lenin of course is the most famous figure. “Bolsheviks” were (are?) the far-left Marxist faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP). Founded by Lenin, they split from some other faction in the RSDLP and eventually led the “communist” revolution in Russia. This book, What Is To Be Done?, written in 1901, was the political pamphlet that precipitated the split in the RSDLP. We are not interested in the history of Russian “communism” per se, but since part of Lukács’s book is a defense of the movement, and ultimately action IS Marx’s point (“The point however is to change it [the world]”), I think it would be helpful—certainly edifying—to hear what Lenin has to say before we read Lukács.