1st Edition
Routledge Revivals: Pre-Capitalist Modes of Production (1975)
First published in 1975, this book investigates the various pre-capitalist modes of production briefly indicated in the works of Marx and Engels, and gives an examination of the conditions of the transition from one mode of production to another. The fundamental concepts used in these investigations, including those of mode of production, of necessary labour and surpass labour, of politics and state, are derived from Capital and from other works of Marxist theory. The primary aim of the analysis is to raise the conceptualisation of pre-capitalist modes of production and of transition to a more rigorous level. This book will appear controversial to both Marxists and non-Marxists alike.
Introduction
1. Primitive Communism, Politics, and State
2. The Ancient Mode of Production
3. Slavery
4. The ‘Asiatic’ Mode of Production
5. The Feudal Mode of Production
6. The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Paul Q. Hirst, Barry Hindess