Theory as history : essays on modes of production and exploitation / / by Jairus Banaji.

• Superior document: Historical materialism book series, v. 25
• Author: Banaji, Jairus, 1947-
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Series: Historical materialism book series ; 25.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (426 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Winner of the 2011 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize. The essays collected here straddle four decades of work in both historiography and Marxist theory, combining source-based historical work in a wide range of languages with sophisticated discussion of Marx's categories. Key themes include the distinctions that are crucial to restoring complexity to the Marxist notion of a 'mode of production'; the emergence of medieval relations of production; the origins of capitalism; the dichotomy between free and unfree labour; and essays in agrarian history that range widely from Byzantine Egypt to 19th-century colonialism. The essays demonstrate the importance of reintegrating theory with history and of bringing history back into historical materialism. An introductory chapter ties the collection together and shows how historical materialists can develop an alternative to Marx's 'Asiatic mode of production'.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / J. Banaji -- Chapter One. Introduction: Themes In Historical Materialism / J. Banaji -- Chapter Two. Modes Of Production In A Materialist Conception Of History / J. Banaji -- Chapter Three. Historical Arguments For A ‘Logic Of Deployment’ In ‘Precapitalist’ Agriculture / J. Banaji -- Chapter Four. Workers Before Capitalism / J. Banaji -- Chapter Five. The Fictions Of Free Labour: Contract, Coercion, And So-Called Unfree Labour / J. Banaji -- Chapter Six. Agrarian History And The Labour-Organisation Of Byzantine Large Estates / J. Banaji -- Chapter Seven. Late Antiquity To The Early Middle Ages: What Kind Of Transition? (A Discussion Of Chris Wickham’s Magnum Opus) / J. Banaji -- Chapter Eight. Aristocracies, Peasantries And The Framing Of The Early Middle Ages / J. Banaji -- Chapter Nine. Islam, The Mediterranean And The Rise Of Capitalism / J. Banaji -- Chapter Ten. Capitalist Domination And The Small Peasantry: The Deccan Districts In The Late Nineteenth Century / J. Banaji -- Chapter Eleven. Trajectories Of Accumulation Or ‘Transitions’ To Capitalism? / J. Banaji -- Chapter Twelve. Modes Of Production: A Synthesis / J. Banaji -- Publications Of Jairus Banaji / J. Banaji -- References / J. Banaji -- Index / J. Banaji.