Marxist History

[RevolverNo9]

The following is but a brief inidication of the important contributions to our understanding of the past that we owe to Marxist practices. Further, the list also includes works by other social historians, and therefore as a whole serves as a recommended reading-list for members who wish to investigate history themselves (something that cannot be encouraged enough!)

For those wishing to read an introduction to Marxist historiography - both in theory and as it has been practiced, Matt Perry's Marxism and History is servicable and very accessable, while Paul Blackledge's Reflections on the Marxist Theory of History is excellent as an overview of Marxist history-writing from its inception to this day, comprehending all the major debates and interventions within the tradition. Chris Wickham's edited volume, Marxist History-writing for the Twenty-first Century, is an excellent collection of recent debates as well as reflections on what Marxist history has (or hasn't) achieved. History and Revolution: Refuting Revisionism, edited by Mike Haynes and Jim Wolfreys, is a recent collection of articles that attempt to do just what they say: reassert the importance of social and economic explanatory models and - in particular - of revolutionary change as an important historical phenomenon against revisionist narratives.

-- Titles marked with '##' are indicated for their status as classic or pathbreaking works which continue to be both important and accessable --

(Updated, May, 2008)


GENERAL HISTORY

:: Chris Harman ::
- A People's History of the World: From the Stone-Age to the New Millennium.


CLASSICAL HISTORY

:: Geoffery De Ste Croix ::
- Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World. ##

:: Ellen Meiksins Wood ::
- Peasant, Citizen and Slave: Foundations of Athenian Democracy.


FIFTH CENTURY - NINTH CENTURY

:: Perry Anderson ::
- Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism.

:: Chris Wickham ::
- Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800; ##
- Land and Power: Studies in Italian and European Social History, 400-1200;
- Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400-1000;
- The Mountains and the City: The Tuscan Appennines in the Early Middle Ages.

:: Jacques le Goff* ::
- The Birth of Europe: 400-1500.


TENTH CENTURY - TWELFTH CENTURY

:: Perry Anderson ::
- Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism.

:: Marc Bloch* ::
- Feudal Society [2 vols]; ##
- French Rural History.

:: Guy Bois ::
- The Transformation of the Year 1000.

:: Pierre Bonnassie ::
- From Slavery to Feudalism in South-Western Europe.

:: Georges Duby* ::
- The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined; ##
- The Chivalrous Society;
- The Age of the Cathedrals: Art and Society 980-1420.

:: Rodeny Hilton ::
- English and French Towns in Feudal Society: A Comparative Study.

:: Jacques le Goff* ::
- The Birth of Europe: 400-1500;
- The Medieval Imagination;
- Your Money or Your Life: Economy and Religion in the Middle Ages;
- Time, Work, & Culture in the Middle Ages.

:: Lester K. Little** ::
- Benedictine Maledictions: Liturgical Cursing in Romanesque France;
- Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe.

:: Chris Wickham ::
- Courts and Conflict in Twelfth-century Tuscany;
- Community and Clientele in Twelfth-century Tuscany: The Origins of the Rural Commune in the Plain of Lucca.


:: Chris Wickham (ed.) ::
- Rodney Hilton's Middle Ages: An Exploration of Historical Themes.


THIRTEENTH CENTURY - FIFTEENTH CENTURY

:: Guy Bois ::
- The Crisis of Feudalism.

:: Rodney Hilton ::
- Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant Movements and the English Rising of 1381; ##
- Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism;
- The English Peasantry in the Later Middle Ages.


:: Rodney Hilton (ed.) ::
- The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism.

:: Chris Wickham (ed.) ::
- Rodney Hilton's Middle Ages: An Exploration of Historical Themes.


SIXTEENTH CENTURY - SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

:: Perry Anderson ::
- Lineages of the Absolutist State.

:: Fernand Braudel* ::
- Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century [3 vols] ##

:: Robert Brenner ::
- Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict and London's Overseas Traders 1550-1653.

:: Carlo Ginzburg** ::
- The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller. ##

:: Christopher Hill ::
- The World Turned Upside Down; ##
- Society and Puritanism in Pre-revolutionary England;
- God's Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution;
- Milton and the English Revolution;
- The Collected Essays of Christopher Hill [3 vols].

:: James Holstun ::
- Ehud's Dagger: Class Struggle in the English Revolution. ##

:: Brian Manning ::
- The English people and the English Revolution, 1640-1649;- Revolution and Counter-Revolution in England, Ireland and Scotland: 1658-60;
- 1649: Crisis of the English Revolution.

:: Ethan H. Shagan** ::
- Popular Politics and the English Reformation.

:: Benno Teschke ::
- The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics and the Making of Modern International Relations. ##

:: Ellen Meiksins Wood ::
- The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View.


:: T. H. Aston & C. H. E. Philpin (eds.) ::
- The Brenner Debate: Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-industrial Europe. ##


EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

:: Benedict Anderson ::
- Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism.

:: Neil Davidson ::
- Discovering the Scottish Revolution: 1692-1746.

:: Eric Hobsbawm ::
- Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848.

:: C. L. R. James ::
- The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. ##

:: Georges Lefebvre ::
- The French Revolution;
- The Coming of the French Revolution;
- The Great Fear of 1789: Rural Panic in Revolutionary France.


NINETEENTH CENTURY

:: Benedict Anderson ::
- Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism.

:: Maurice Dobb ::
- Studies in the Development of Capitalism.

:: Catherine Hall** ::
- Civilising Subjects.

:: Eric Hobsbawm ::
- Age of Empire;
- Age of Capital: 1875-1914;
- Industry and Empire: From 1750 to the Present Day;
- Bandits;
- Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality.

:: Karl Marx ::
- The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte; ##
- The Civil War in France;
- Capital, vol. 1. ##

:: Karl Polanyi** ::
- The Great Transformation.

:: E. P. Thompson ::
- The Making of the English Working Class; ##
- Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law.


:: John Rule & Robert Malcolmson (eds.) ::
- Protest and Survival: Essays for E. P. Thompson.


TWENTIETH CENTURY

:: Maurice Dobb ::
- Soviet Economic Development Since 1917.

:: Marc Ferro* ::
- The Great War 1914-1918; Bolshevik Revolution: Social History of the Russian Revolution.

:: Eric Hobsbawm ::
- The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991. ##

:: Kevin Murphy ::
- Revolution and Counter-Revolution: Class Struggle in a Moscow Metal Factory. ##

:: Steve Smith ::
- The Russian Revolution: A Very Short Introduction.

:: Leon Trotsky ::
- The History of the Russian Revolution.

:: Howard Zinn** ::
- A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present.

ON HISTORIOGRAPHY

:: Paul Blackledge ::
- Reflections on the Marxist Theory of History

:: Marc Bloch* ::
- The Historian's Craft

:: Alex Callinicos ::
- Making History: Agency, Structure, and Change in Social Theory

:: Marc Ferro* ::
- The Use and Abuse of History

:: Eric Hobsbawm ::
- On History

:: Matt Perry ::
- Marxism and Historiography


:: Mike Haynes & Jim Wolfreys (eds.) ::
- History and Revolution: Refuting Revisionism.

:: Chris Wickham (ed.) ::
- Marxist History-Writing for the Twenty-First Century.


* Annalist historian: the annalists were a school of social historians focused around the French journal 'Annales'. They attempted to write 'eventless' history that ignored the ephemeral and superficial 'fireflies' (as Braudel once put it) of individuals, dates and events and instead studied the evolution of material circumstances across wide expanses of time and space ('la longue duree'). Their belief that history should not be subdivided into different themes led them to adopt analytical approaches which were not before used by historians, such as geography and anthropology. Extremely original in their historiography, they have much in common with a Marxist approach and the two schools have - and will - learn much from each other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annales_School

** These historians are either non-Marxist (or perhaps Post-Marxist) historians who are nevertheless informed by related historiographical methods, or social and economic historians whose works are of value.

[under perpetual construction...]

[Scars]

I fully endorce all of Christopher Hill's books. They are well written, well researched and as Hill himself said "We have much to learn from the 17th Century"

[novemba]

in many ways the 20th century is the most important one...everyone can see how badly leninist ideology failed and turned the western hemisphere against communism

[tunes]

Would like to add:
Howard Zinn - A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present

[Guerrilla22]

Originally posted by [email protected] 3 2005, 12:49 AM
in many ways the 20th century is the most important one...everyone can see how badly leninist ideology failed and turned the western hemisphere against communism
Was it the ideology that failed or the people responsible for transforming the ideology into reality who failed?

[RevolverNo9]

I've added Zinn's work and works of Geoges Lefebvre, the starting point for a detailed analysis of the French Revolution and the thesis of bourgeois revolution. It is interesting to note - and a testament I think to the validity of the Marxist approach - that Lefebvre's theory of the French Revolution and Hill's on the English Civil War passed into historiographical orthodoxy.

I have also put in Marx's Brumaire, his work that most closely resembles a strictly historical investigation, since it shows such brilliant interpretation of the past and has been a great influence on Marxist historical praxis.

[flyby]

the works listed are excellent. though a little one-sidedly focused on Europe (and the U.S.) in a way that seems to leave the history of most of humanity off the radar screen. I'm sure that is unintentional -- but it is a common problem (among those who think Euro-America are the center of human history and progress, as well as the center of empire).

I would like to recommend the addition of a few other works:

Eric Wolfe, Europe and the People Without History (1982) -- pathbreaking work that views human history as a whole, and describes the rise of European capitalism in the context of processes and dynamics that envelope the globe. In this book he writes "The world of humankind constitutes a manifold, a totality of interconnected processes, and inquiries that disassemble this totality into bits and then fail to reassemble it falsify reality."

Bob Avakian, Conquer the World -- the International Proletariat Must and Will (http://rwor.org/bob_avakian/conquerworld/) -- though not a work of history itself, it is a major methodological exploration on how to see this relationship between descrete nations and the world as a whole. Particularly the section "More on Proletarian Revolution as a World Process."

Then there are a great many works of history that deal with the modern revolutionary movements -- the Chinese Revoluion (Morning Deluge and Wind in the Tower, by Han Hsuyin), the Culutral REvolutin (for example: Daumier's book, or "Loss in china and the Legacy of Mao" by Bob Avakian), Vietnam's defeat of the U.S., The Naxalite revolution in india (for example the book "Spring Thunder")....

A valuable book is "Chile, an Attempt at Historic Compromise" by Jorge Palacios.

Another book to add: Germany, the Failed Revolution by Sebastian Haffner

*****

on a friendly polemical note, i'd like to comment on this: "It is interesting to note - and a testament I think to the validity of the Marxist approach - that Lefebvre's theory of the French Revolution and Hill's on the English Civil War passed into historiographical orthodoxy."

Being bestowed with claims of orthodoxy is hardly praise or validation.
Passing into historigraphical orthodoxy is the stage right before brain death, isn't it?

[Djehuti]

Some good books there!

I want to add:
Leo Huberman - Man's worldly goods (covers feudalism til ww2)

[Scars]

<<Being bestowed with claims of orthodoxy is hardly praise or validation.
Passing into historigraphical orthodoxy is the stage right before brain death, isn&#39;t it?>>

Actually, I think that it is a good thing and helps to validate Marxist history as a real academic tecnique, as opposed to communists reinventing history to fit with their theories. The fact that both these people&#39;s works, which are both openly Marxist, are now considered the defining works on the subject by bourgeois historians is a good thing as it gives us ammunition when fighting people who blindly attack Marxist anything (philosophy, history, geography, whatever) as politically motivated and bias shit.

Being &#39;radical&#39; and outside the &#39;mainstream&#39; just for teh sake of it is just plain stupid.

[RevolverNo9]

Being bestowed with claims of orthodoxy is hardly praise or validation.

To follow up on what Scars said...

In historiography, Marxism is a force every bit as serious as the other major appraoches. That this can happen in a society in which hyper-critical theories are constantly under fire demonstrates how historical evidence supports a philisophical view-point that is thus hard to discredit. Since the eighties, yes, we have seen reaction and revision since the great post-war explosion of socialist and theoretical understanding of history. But Marxism is still here. Postmodernism has fallen out of fashion (quite literally), and people are taking stock on all the supposed modifications and subliminations of revolution feudal and bourgeois.

The point that I am making is not that orthdoxy represents validity (obviously quite the opposite in the classic case&#33;), but that the acceptence of challanging theses by a non-receptive community displays their strength.


the works listed are excellent. though a little one-sidedly focused on Europe (and the U.S.) in a way that seems to leave the history of most of humanity off the radar screen. I&#39;m sure that is unintentional -- but it is a common problem (among those who think Euro-America are the center of human history and progress, as well as the center of empire).

Obviously I&#39;m aware as anyone else about the Euro-centricity of the list. This should be addressed and if anyone knows about serious works of world history that&#39;d be great. There is of course the problem that as a part of a certain culture the material accessable to us is largely going to be of that same tradition.

I also wonder (I must admit I&#39;m not familiar with him at all here in Britain) if a partisan work like that of Avakian&#39;s stands as creditable enough history? For this list to remain legitimate it is important that all works are thoroughly researched and supported. I&#39;d be weary of the situation of holding these various Stalin / Mao white-washes, for example

[RevolverNo9]

Mm, Wolfe&#39;s book looks very interesting, have added.


Leo Huberman - Man&#39;s worldly goods (covers feudalism til ww2)

Any information on that?

[gilhyle]

Personally, I am very sceptical about the &#39;peoples history/Marxist history&#39; thing. Seems to me that few of the books in this tradition stand significantly above the best academic history and by guiding yourself to the &#39;Marxist&#39; books you can miss the best.

The idea of producing a list of history books worth reading is mind-boggling.

But ever the opportunist, I&#39;ll just take this opportunity to mention:

I.M. Diakanoff Paths of History which is technically a non-Marxist work, but very relevant to anyone trying to read into an overall Marxist conception of history.

The works of the Annalles school from France, particularly Ferdinand Braudel are indispensable for anyone interested in history. No Marxist should fail to read his 3 volume work on the emergence of commercial relations in Europe - incredible stuff.

(De Ste Croix is not the only one on ancient Greece. Check out George Thomson and there is a couple who wrote a book whose names I can&#39;t remember - but I could search it out if anyone were interested. )

BTW, I strongly agree with reading Perry Anderson&#39;s historical works, thought provoking.

[Lamanov]

Originally posted by RevolverNo9
I have also put in Marx&#39;s Brumaire, his work that most closely resembles a strictly historical investigation, since it shows such brilliant interpretation of the past and has been a great influence on Marxist historical praxis.

Agreed. Fantastic book.
__

Of course (not classic histories, but will do)
: F.Engels - Origin of the Family, Private Properity and the State, Role of Labour in Transition from Man to Ape, and On The History of Early Christianity

Some old Soviet historiography of ancient times is pretty good, because alot of historians who wanted to express themselves had to work with not so contemporay and recent history where they did not have a freedom to express themselves without the fear that they might write something that was not in acordance with established dogmas. So in addition:

: V.V. Struve - D.P. Kalistov, Ancient Greece
: Mashkhin, Ancient Rome

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

In the same grain couldn&#39;t The Civil War In France by Marx be added?

[RevolverNo9]

Personally, I am very sceptical about the &#39;peoples history/Marxist history&#39; thing. Seems to me that few of the books in this tradition stand significantly above the best academic history and by guiding yourself to the &#39;Marxist&#39; books you can miss the best.

You make a good point. It is imperitive that those wishing to study history read a breadth of opinions and sources. If anyone soley examined Marxist interpretations - be it of the more structurist or humanist &#39;history from below&#39; tendency - their understanding would be jilted and shallow. However, in conjunction with other good historians&#39; works, we can assess the strength of the Marxist approach, increasing due to the use of historical evidence our awareness of its various merits and demerits. For the historian the reading of a Marxist history allows an important analysis of events while for those engaged in praxis it provides a far greater aid to comprehension of where we are now.

I&#39;d also dispute the insinuation that Marxist history is some sort of subcultural current in historiography that could never match up to the academic titans, like CrimethInc&#39;s book found in the philosophy section next to Foucault (though Zinn may come under that catagory from what I hear). On the contrary it has been one of the dominant strands. Especially in the 50s to 70s. As has been mentioned, Christopher Hill and Lefebvre&#39;s interpretations have been THE analyses if their respective fields. In medieval study, Wickham is a giant while Bois for example, after men such as Barthelemy and Bonnassie, is one of the most important contributors to the perrenial debate on what feudalism is and how it occurred.

The emphasis on social history was an innovation by Marxist historians, one that is now more than commonplace. Along with the Annalistes, they radically changed the primacy over politics and events and neo-Rankianism, instead placing an emphasis on the economic. If it wasn&#39;t for the strength of the Marxists, R W Southern, a very conservative, Anglican medieval historian, would never be dreamt of arguing that the idea of purgatory was due to the growth of the profit economy&#33;


The works of the Annalles school from France, particularly Ferdinand Braudel are indispensable for anyone interested in history. No Marxist should fail to read his 3 volume work on the emergence of commercial relations in Europe - incredible stuff.

Yes&#33; The Annalistes are brilliant men. I&#39;ve already included Marc Bloch (having studied his Feudal Society) and Braudel along with Bloch friend and co-founder Lucein Febvre are to highly recommended to anyone with a serious desire to understand history. From the next generation Georges Duby would also be a good man to be sought out.


In the same grain couldn&#39;t The Civil War In France by Marx be added?

Yes, definitely, an ingenius work

[YKTMX]

:: Eric Hobsbawm - The Age of Extremes ::

Not sure about Hobsbawm really. He&#39;s a good historian, but his politics are highly questionable. He&#39;s still a bit Stalinist - in fact, I read him saying recently that he&#39;d spy for the Soviet Union if it still existed. His analysis of the October Revolution in &#39;Age of Revolutions&#39; (I think) is totally flawed. Now spends his time telling liberal broadsheets why the &#39;socialist experiment&#39; has failed.

Bit of a prick.

Can I suggest &#39;A history of the Russian Revolution&#39; by Lev

And &#39;Redemption Song&#39; by Mike Marquese, which is the best book I &#39;ve read about the sixties.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

I&#39;d add The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People&#39;s History of Ancient Rome by our favorite popstar, Michael Parenti, and maybe Chris Harmen&#39;s "Revolution and Bureaucracy in Eastern Europe". You might disagree with the latter&#39;s ideological stance (I don&#39;t, but . . .), but it is a fascinating and uncommon look at some interesting segments of Soviet History.

[Entrails Konfetti]

I&#39;ve been reading A Peoples&#39;s History of the World by Chris Harman, I haven&#39;t read Howard Zinns A People&#39;s History of the U.S.A, although I heard Harman attempts to take off where Zinn left.

I haven&#39;t read all of this book yet, but before the 20th century its well informed, the 20th parts I&#39;ve skimmed through seem sort of incomplete--it will explain what happened, but not how or why.

[RevolverNo9]

Not sure about Hobsbawm really. He&#39;s a good historian, but his politics are highly questionable. He&#39;s still a bit Stalinist - in fact, I read him saying recently that he&#39;d spy for the Soviet Union if it still existed.

Well then you&#39;ve settled the question yourself- he&#39;s a good historian. I&#39;d dispute that he&#39;s a Stalinist; recent interview I read he stated that with hindsight the Soviet &#39;experiment&#39; was not worth it. Perhaps there&#39;s an element of intellectual cloudiness hung over from the CPGB, but hey, this is also the man who supported the Labour 3rd Way. He attacked The Militant Tendency for jeopodising Labour political unity.

[RevolverNo9]

I remebered making this thread a while ago and I still think it would be a great resource... so, here&#39;s another attempt at making this into a good resource.

[Sankara1983]

The last three are probably not "Marxist" in the strictest definition, but anyway:

Walter Rodney: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Roque Dalton: Miguel Mármol
Tariq Ali: Pakistan: Military Rule or People&#39;s Power
José Carlos Mariátegui: History of the World Crisis
Ilario Salucci: A People&#39;s History of Iraq
Richard Gott: Cuba: A New History
Eduardo Galeano: Open Veins of Latin America
Hanna Batatu: The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq

[Comrade-Z]

A book that you must absolutely put on the list is Poland 1980-1982: Class Struggle and the Crisis of Capital (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0934868263/sr=8-1/qid=1149565777/ref=sr_1_1/102-8198456-7750527?%5Fencoding=UTF8). (Follow the amazon link--I comment on the book down in the comments section).

[chimx]

this should be pinned

[Invader Zim]

I am glad that a person is listing works by prominat marxst and socialist historians of good repute.

Christopher Hill and E. P. Thompson are among the greatest historians to have explored the field of history. As a student of history these are my favorate historians: -

Christopher Hill,
Edmund Dell,
Maurice Dobb,
Rodney Hilton,
Eric Hobsbawm and
E. P. Thompson.

Any student of history, specifically &#39;history from below&#39;, must read these historians as well as those who were part of the &#39;annales&#39; school. I also suggest a personal favorate, while often lambasted by both left and rightwing critics; A. J. P. Taylor.

[Reuben]

christoper hill is brilliant.

[RedJacobin]

Colonizer&#39;s Model of the World - James Blaut

Before European Hegemony - Janet Abu-Lughod

[RedJacobin]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2005, 02:42 PM
The Naxalite revolution in india (for example the book "Spring Thunder")....
Do you know the author and publisher of that book?

lots of thanks

[nickdlc]

The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Transformation

[Invader Zim]

Originally posted by [email protected] 12 2006, 12:23 AM
christoper hill is brilliant.
Yeah, just as long as you can put up with 17th century history. I personally can&#39;t stand it, but Hill is a fantastic historian.

[RevolverNo9]

I&#39;ve just done a little update while I&#39;m passing (still much more that needs to be done).

I&#39;ve added books by Chris Wickham, a really exciting and original Marxist medievalist. He employs a lot of anthropology and sociology in order to construct truly comparative history that brakes down the weaknesses of the case-studies that dominate the social field in medieval history. His new book, Framing the Early Middle Ages looks excellent - I (perhaps slightly creepily...) can&#39;t wait for it to come out in paperback... It&#39;s a massive survey of the whole of the old Roman empire trying to find the cause and effects of economic and social changes.

Added Karl Polanyi, which appears to be a classic of economic explanation.

Added Matt Perry&#39;s very useful introductory text-book on Marxist historiography - as far as I know it&#39;s the only thing like it that&#39;s easily accessable and well done.

Added Marc Bloch&#39;s unfinished book on historiography, The Historian&#39;s Craft (a defence of history and his specific annalist approach as well as reflections on the subject). I personally can&#39;t recommend it enough - it is so utterly rational, insightful and persuasive.

Added a collection of essays on historiography by Eric Hobsbawm, On History. Personally recommended, includes essays arguing for the validity of the Marxist approach as well as theses on the nature of history and many other crucial historiographical vicissitudes.

Plus, I wrote a little explanation of who the Annalists - next time I update this I should hopefully have included other works by Bloch, Braudel, Febrvre... maybe Duby (and any other suggestions&#33;)

Alritey then.

[chimx]

Your description of the Annales school is a bit brief and ignores their emphasis on geography and other fields. Their rallying cry of histoire totale has less to do with the creation of general histories as it does their emphasis on multi-disciplinary research methods, though they certainly prefered long-term historical evolutions to the event driven model of political historians. I was about to suggest the later Annales director Marc Ferro&#39;s work on the russian revolution as being quite good. though it is somewhat event driven obviously he places it clearly in the context of greater russian history and heavily emphasizes peripherial players outside of petrograd and moscow.

Trotsky&#39;s multi-volume history of the Russian Revolution is also certainly worth checking out. and though it is far more revisionist than marxist, i am a fan of Rabinowitch&#39;s work, but that is probably irrelavent to this thread.

[Raubleaux]

I don&#39;t think Zinn is somebody who should be lionized by Marxists. His book was what set me on course to being a radical, so I owe him a lot, but it also led me into believing a lot of anarchist nonsense for several years.

And sometimes he is just a bad historian -- as with everything he has to say about World War II.

[black magick hustla]

i love this thread, it should be stickied&#33;

man is there a way to download this books online? i live in a little mexican city, and this kind of books arent certainly in the municipal library. it would be of great help if someone would tell me if any of these books can be downloaded.

[RevolverNo9]

Alreet...

Yeah chimx, added a little more on the annalists (although I think it should be brief there, maybe we should discuss more at length in the body of this thread.)

And I&#39;ve brought more annalist joy to the board too&#33; Another Marc Bloch study, the exemplary analysis of capitalist development by Fernand Braudel, works by Marc Ferro (including an exciting looking work on the &#39;use and abuse&#39; of history) and, for good measure because I love it, a work on feudal ideology (and the idea of the three orders) by Georges Duby, a medievalist annalist of the next generation.

Many will I&#39;m sure to be please that old Lev&#39;s (rather large) work on the Russian Revolution has made its way on the list.

Another book by the Communist historian Rodney Hilton on towns in feudalism, as well as things by Maurice Dobb.


man is there a way to download this books online?

I don&#39;t know, Marmot. I doubt it. If ever though people do come across excellent works of history uploaded they should give it a mention.

[chimx]

Originally posted by [email protected] 20 2006, 09:05 PM
Yeah chimx, added a little more on the annalists (although I think it should be brief there, maybe we should discuss more at length in the body of this thread.)
maybe throw a link up to the annales wikipedia page. personally, i didn&#39;t even hear of the french school of thought until i was a senior as an undergraduate, and i have a suspicion that many hobbyist historians are in the same boat.

unfortunately with the explosion of cultural vs. social history, the annales school has grown more irrelavent in the past few years. multi-disciplinary research has almost become the norm. the lines are becoming so blurred between history and other disciplines such as anthropology&#33;

[RevolverNo9]

maybe throw a link up to the annales wikipedia page.

Done.


personally, i didn&#39;t even hear of the french school of thought until i was a senior as an undergraduate, and i have a suspicion that many hobbyist historians are in the same boat.

Yes I would have thought that to be so. I&#39;ve been very lucky to have come across so early on in life - I did a personal study on the &#39;feudal revolution&#39;, so my teachers pointed me to Marc Bloch. Since then I&#39;ve been greatly interested by them.


unfortunately with the explosion of cultural vs. social history, the annales school has grown more irrelavent in the past few years. multi-disciplinary research has almost become the norm. the lines are becoming so blurred between history and other disciplines such as anthropology&#33;

Which to my mind can only be a good thing&#33; And we have the annales to thank for this, as well as the post-war Marxist explosion in social history and &#39;history from below&#39; (and journals such as Past and Present). I look forward to a day when historians can claim that Ranke is dead.

[Invader Zim]

As this list seems to now comprise of more than just marxist histiorians and has gone for more history from below, I suggest the addition of all of Marcus Rediker&#39;s books.

[Monty Cantsin]

Not strickly Marxist but World system analysis writers such as -

The World System: Five Hundred Years or Five Thousand By Andre Gunder Frank and Barry Gills.

and

Jones, E.L. (1985), The European Miracle: Environments, economies and geopolitics in the history of Europe and Asia, USA, Cambridge University Press. - Analysis of european development and Asian development to highlight the key factors in the development of capitlaism....


and

Immanuel Wallerstein&#39;s The Modern World-System, vol. I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century.

and so forth and so on

.............

This Thread should really really be pegged - History, FACTS are needed...

[Monty Cantsin]

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=HYVJSG...lt&cd=1#PPP1,M1 (http://books.google.com.au/books?id=HYVJSGi-xjQC&dq=Jones,+E.L.+(1985),+The+European+Miracle:+Envir onments,+economies+and+geopolitics+in+the+history+ of+Europe+and+Asia&pg=PR38&ots=10XupCOBqC&sig=fE_fVccAEddhlKoxSzWMGp0XJNM&prev=http://www.google.com.au/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3DJones%252C%2BE.L.%2B(1985)% 252C%2BThe%2BEuropean%2BMiracle%253A%2BEnvironment s%252C%2Beconomies%2Band%2Bgeopolitics%2Bin%2Bthe% 2Bhistory%2Bof%2BEurope%2Band%2BAsia%26btnG%3DGoog le%2BSearch%26meta%3D&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=1#PPP1,M1)

The Eric Jones book i was talking about can be found online - google books .....

[Djehuti]

Originally posted by [email protected] 06, 2005 01:16 pm
Mm, Wolfe&#39;s book looks very interesting, have added.


Leo Huberman - Man&#39;s worldly goods (covers feudalism til ww2)

Any information on that?
Leo Huberman (1903-1968) was a marxist writer and economist. "Man&#39;s worldly goods" describes history from a marxist common people perspective. What differs Huberman from so many others is that he isn&#39;t just a great historian and economist, he is also a great writer and educationalist. You have fun while reading and the book will have the "just another chapter"-effect on you.

It is in my opinion the perfect introduction to marxist history and everyone should read it.

[Luís Henrique]

I would suggest,

Bettelheim's Class Struggle in the Soviet Union;
Poulantzas The Crisis of Dictatorships;
Deustscher's trilogy on Trotsky;
Marx's Formen
Genovese's works on slavery in America;
Jacob Gorender's Colonial Slavery;
E.K. Hunt's History of Economic Thought;
Anderson's Considerations on Western Marxism (Anderson totally rocks; I want to be Perry Anderson when I grow up).

There is a book I would recommend with enormous reservations: History of Socialism and Social Struggles by Max Beer; it offers documentation on the widest range of contestators of all kinds, from Ancient to Modern Age. Unhappily, he seems to have the ability to spot "socialism" at the strangest places (to him, Plato was a socialist, and so was Catilina...). So it should probably not be read by socialist noobs, but only by those who have already a solid base in socialist theory.

Luís Henrique

[Luís Henrique]

Originally posted by Invader [email protected] 12, 2006 12:59 am
I am glad that a person is listing works by prominat marxst and socialist historians of good repute.

Christopher Hill and E. P. Thompson are among the greatest historians to have explored the field of history. As a student of history these are my favorate historians: -

Christopher Hill,
Edmund Dell,
Maurice Dobb,
Rodney Hilton,
Eric Hobsbawm and
E. P. Thompson.

Any student of history, specifically &#39;history from below&#39;, must read these historians as well as those who were part of the &#39;annales&#39; school. I also suggest a personal favorate, while often lambasted by both left and rightwing critics; A. J. P. Taylor.
Yeah... heavens is a place where the cooks are French, the lovers are Italian, the drivers are Swiss, and, above all and more importantly than all, historians are English.

Luís Henrique

[Avtomat_Icaro]

Originally posted by [email protected] 03, 2005 12:49 am
in many ways the 20th century is the most important one...everyone can see how badly leninist ideology failed and turned the western hemisphere against communism
The US would have turned against it anyway, no matter how well it was put into action.

[gilhyle]

THe Black Jacobins CLR James

[CornetJoyce]

I don&#39;t pay a lot of attention to professions of Marxism. St. Croix, Hill and Hilton are brilliant historians. Hill was originally quite doctrinaire but opened up to actual history as he matured.

[which doctor]

The Movement of the Free Spirit by Raoul Vaneigem

This book by the legendary Situationist activist is a fiercely partisan historical reflection on the ways religious and economic forces have shaped Western culture. Within this broad frame, Raoul Vaneigem examines the heretical and millennarian movements that challenged social and ecclesiastical authority in Europe from the 1200s into the 1500s. At the core of these heresies, Vaneigem sees not only resistance to the power of State and Church but also the immensely creative intention of new forms of love, sexuality, community and exchange.

[McCaine]

James Blaut, Eight Eurocentric Historians (about eurocentrism and ahistoricism among Whiggish historians)
Silvia Federici, Caliban and the Witch (the witch-hunts in the Renaissance and their origins)
Michael Perelman, The Invention of Capitalism
Moshe Lewin, The Soviet Century
Peter Linebaugh, The London Hanged (17th century UK)
Maurice Meisner, Mao&#39;s China and After
Mazoyer & Roudart, A History of World Agriculture (not sure they are Marxists, but it is published by Monthly Review Press)

[Scientific]

Knowing Indian history You should read some books of
Irfan Habib
Romila Thapar

[Monty Cantsin]

Does anyone know of any good sources on modern Japanese history?

[RevolverNo9]

Some additons...

Commentry to follow.

[Invader Zim]

I would like to suggest that Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery (London, 1944) be added.

It is an investigation into the decline of slavery in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries, which employed Marxian model.

It is a classic, even if it has been largely undermined by subsequent historians. Worth a read.

[Random Precision]

The Western Soviets: Workers Councils versus Parliaments, 1915-1920 and
The Nazis, Capitalism and the Working Class by Donny Gluckstein

[Die Neue Zeit]

Moshe Lewin, The Soviet Century

This one is the big one. He talks about the bureaucratic motions of the Soviet state, but not just under Stalin. He's a bit too positive on Khrushchev, but he's right in mentioning the no-party state for different reasons that what the Trots say (lack of political initiative in the CPSU):

In the 1930s, the organization calling itself the 'party' had already lost its political character; it had been transformed into an administrative network, wherein a hierarchy ruled a rank and file... The process of 'statization' which was so important in the Soviet phenomenon, and probably reached its main characteristic when it came to the political system, reached its final stage. When the system entered into a prolonged phase of 'stagnation,' the party, unable to do anything, powerless to impose far-reaching measures on ministries and other agencies, foundered along with everything else.

[gilhyle]

"the materialist method turns into its opposite if, in an historical study, it is used not as a guide but rather as a ready-made pattern in accordance with which one tailors the historical facts."

Friedrich Engels, Letter to Paul Ernst 5/6/1890, MECW Vol 48, P.503

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ Point being? :confused: A (justified) rant against the reductionist traditional schematisms plaguing much of the revolutionary left today?

[RevolverNo9]

An update is in process. Prepare yourselves...

[RevolverNo9]

The update continues... lots of exciting stuff that wasn't there before. Plus a handy few works highlighted.

[Cumannach]

Has anyone mentioned "A People's History of England", by 'A.L. Morton'?

It's a fantastic introduction to English History, encompassing the whole lot. Fairly orthodox marxist work- lots of class analysis etc. It's not perfect by any means but learnt alot from it.

Hobsbawm said 'nobody since has written a single-volume history of the country to compare with it'.

and Christopher Hill calls it 'The best history of england for the ordinary reader'

[mikehussy]

You're a Capitalist like Mitt Romney He agrees with all you have said and made Marriage Equality and Universal Health Care the Law in Massachusetts and he is a Republican so that seems pretty Strange to me that a Republican allows Liberal Causes to become Law.

[bailey_187]

can this topic get revived or a new version of the thread made?

I would like to recommend:
E.A. Thompson - Atilla and the Huns
A Marxist history of the Huns.
Rodney Hilton - The Transition from Feudalism to capitalism
A debate between Paul Sweezy and Maurice Dobb on the title, with aditional articles by other Marxist historians such as Hobsbawm, Hill

Mark Steel - Viva la Revolucion
A lighthearted history of the french revolution from ex-SWP member Mark Steel

[bailey_187]

Lets get some more added!

[x359594]

Does anyone know of any good sources on modern Japanese history?

Early Modern Japan by Conrad Totman
The Allied Occupation of Japan by Takemae Eiji
Okinawa, Cold War Island, Chalmers Johnson, editor
Peasants, Rebels and Outcasts by Mikiso Hane
Reflections on the Way to the Gallows by Mikiso Hane
The Culture of the Meiji Period by Irokawa Daikichi
Japan, Who Governs? by Chalmers Johnson
Japanese Imperialism Today by Jon Halliday and Gavin McCormack
War Without Mercy by John Dower
Embracing Defeat by John Dower
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herman Bix

[S.Artesian]

There are great books here. Very, very worthwhile thread.

I would add Soboul's works on the sans-culottes and the French Revolution and, for the Jacobins amongst us:

Mathiez's The French Revolution and After Robespierre

DuBois Black Reconstruction

Dr. Eric Williams, From Columbus to Castro-- although Williams is not a Marxist, his analysis of the impact of developing capitalism and the slave legacy in the Caribbean is very incisive.

Let's see-- not Marxist but IMO much better than Zinn's works are many of the "unMarxist" analyses of post Civil-War Reconstruction in the US. Like Reconstruction in the Cane Fields-- a study of Reconstruction and the resistance to black free labor on the part of the planter class in Louisiana.

Also Iron Confederacy about how Northern capital, in its desire to build a unified rail network in the South, sold out the Reconstruction governments and allied with the Redemptionist KKK-planter class nexus.

More recent events: Stefan de Vylder's Allende's Chile-- The political economy of the rise and fall of the Unidad Popular.

If I were back in NYC among my books I could provide a lot more. Pierre Broue's books on the Spanish and German revolutions are the best studies I've read. And Harold Isaac's Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution is also a great study.

And can't leave out Dunkerly's Revolution in the Veins-- about Bolivia; and Mariatequi's Seven Essays; Knight's 2 volumes The Mexican Revolution

[Manulearning]

Should not these be there ?

How man became a giant - Illin and Seagal ?
Ancient Society - Morgan
History of world(in two volumes) from USSR

[moro7]

Yes. Thank you for all of those resources! :)

[Sūn Wùkōng]

Searching for books on Chinese history of pre-mao-era, specially the (late) Qing-dynasty, but general overviews would also be fine. Doesnt have to be "strict marxist" but with a "materialist" like view, more focussed on social-relations. "Post-colonial Studies"-like stuff would also be great.

Any Ideas?

[Comrade Thomas]

Robert Service is good,

[Max]

Im reading the history of the Russian revolution right now. It is quite interesting and a very good book. I highly recommend it.

[Redistribute the Rep]

Can anyone recommend some on the Great Depression?