The Asiatic Mode Of Production In China

Brook (history, U. of Toronto) surveys the history of the concept of the AMP (a concept formulated by Karl Marx in the 1850s) in China in relation to debates elsewhere, and examines the particular issues raised in recent Chinese discussions. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Wherever possible in this monograph I have referred to English trans lations of works originally appearing in other languages. Where this has not been possible, for example with Russian material, I have followed the Library of Congress system of transliteration, but omitted the diacritics. I have also retained the conventional use of 'y' for the ending of certain Russian proper names (e.g., Trotsky not Trotskii). In accordance with the policy of using existing English translations, I have referred to the Martin Nicolaus translation of Marx's Grundrisse, which is relatively faithful to the text. (The Grundrisse, although the Dead Sea Scroll of Marxism, bear all the characteristics of a rough draft, characteristics which are preserved in the Nicolaus translation.) The term 'Marxian' has been employed in the conventional way in this book, to distinguish the views of Marx and Engels from those of their 'Marxist' followers. In preparing this work I have received bibliographical assistance from Professor Israel Getzler, now of the Hebrew University, and critical assistance from Mr Bruce McFarlane of the University of Adelaide and especially from Professor Eugene Kamenka of the Aus tralian National University. Professor Jean Chesneaux of the Sorbonne, as one of the leading participants in the more recent debates discussed here, provided me with some further insight into the issues, and Pro fessor K.A. Wittfogel of Columbia also supplied some valuable in formation.

This wide-ranging collection of articles, first published in 1981, documents the development of the intellectual and political aspects of the concept of the Asiatic Mode of Production – a concept central to the Western understanding of non-capitalist societies.

This reissue was first published in 1982. It deals specifically with the 'Asiatic mode of production' described by Karl Marx in his basic evolutionary model for human society. The term defines a special form of society marked by state ownership of the means of production and extensive intervention by the state in all forms of social life. In the soviet Union, the concept has had a chequered and controversial career: leading writers, primarily Stalin, have denied its very existence, mobilizing the heavy artillery of state ideology in their defence, whilst later scholars show signs of reversing this trend. Drawing on a large body of Soviet writing on historiography, Stephen Dunn develops a critical analysis of the issue, and introduces important corrections to the accounts hitherto available in the West. His work should be of major interest to students of Soviet politics, economists and Marxists.