Ellen Meiksins Wood Reader

Ellen Meiksins Wood was for many years Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto, and is the author of a number of books, including Democracy Against Capitalism, The Pristine Culture of Capitalism, The Origin of Capitalism, Peasant-Citizen and Slave, Empire of Capital, Citizens to Lords, and Liberty & PropertyLarry Patriquin is professor of applied and professional studies at Nipissing University

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction: The ‘Method’ of Ellen Meiksins Wood1. CapitalismThe ‘economic’ and the ‘political’ in capitalismClass-power and state-powerFeudalism and private propertyCapitalism as the privatisation of political powerThe localisation of class-struggleEngland vs. the dominant model of capitalismThe bourgeois paradigmBegging the questionOpportunity or imperative?The commercialisation-modelMarx on the transitionTowns and tradeAgrarian capitalismMarket-dependent producersA different kind of market-dependence?Competitive markets2. Precapitalist SocietiesClass and state in China and RomeRome and the empire of private propertyThe city-states of Florence and VeniceMaster and slave vs. landlord and peasantFree producers and slavesSlavery and the ‘decline’ of the Roman EmpireThe ‘logic’ of slavery vs. the logic of capitalismThe ‘slave-mode of production’Agricultural slavery and the peasant-citizenThe nexus of freedom and slavery in democratic Athens3. The State in Historical PerspectiveClass and state in ancient societyThe emergence of the polis in ancient AthensThe ‘essence’ of the polisClass in the democratic polisVillage and state, town and country, in democratic AthensThe rise and fall of RomeThe culture of property: the Roman lawFrom imperial Rome to ‘feudalism’Absolutism and the modern stateThe idea of the stateThe peculiarities of the English stateContrasting states: France vs. England4. Social and Political ThoughtThe social history of political theoryPolitical theory in history: an overviewPlatoThe Greek concept of freedomJean-Jacques RousseauJohn LockeRevolution and tradition, c. 1640–17905. Democracy, Citizenship, Liberalism, and Civil SocietyLabour and democracy, ancient and modernFrom ancient to modern conceptions of citizenshipCapitalism and democratic citizenshipThe American redefinition of democracyA democracy devoid of social contentFrom democracy to liberalismCapitalism and ‘liberal democracy’Liberal democracy and capitalist hegemonyThe idea of ‘civil society’The civil-society argument‘Civil society’ and the devaluation of democracy6. The Enlightenment, Postmodernism, and the Post-‘New Left’Modernity vs. capitalism: France vs. EnglandFrom modernity to postmodernityModernity and the non-history of capitalismThemes of the postmodern leftEnlightenment vs. capitalism: Condorcet vs. LockeEnlightenment-universalismThe periodisation of the Western leftLeft-intellectuals and contemporary capitalism7. Globalisation and ImperialismGlobalisation and the nation-stateNation-states, classes, and universal capitalismThe indispensable statePrecapitalist imperialismThe classic age of imperialismGlobalisation and warGlobalisation and imperial hegemonyThe contradictions of capitalist imperialism8. SocialismThe end of the welfare-state ‘compact’There are no social democrats nowMarket-dependence vs. market-enablementLeft-strategies of market-enablementThe political implications of competitionThe working class and the struggle for socialismClass-conflict and the socialist projectSocialism and democracyThe state in classless societiesLiberalism vs. democracy‘Universal human goods’The self-emancipation of the working classThe socialist movementDemocracy as an economic mechanismBibliography of Works by Ellen Meiksins Wood, 1970–2012ReferencesIndex

The writing is so supple and accessible, and the argument so persuasive, it's like watching a cloudy mixture of ideas being turned into a clear solution.”Adrienne Rich, on The Origins of Capitalism Few historians of comparative political thought are in the same league as Ellen Wood, who surveys the whole sweep of ancient and medieval thinkers with equal magisterial brilliance of insight.”Professor Paul Cartledge, University of CambridgeMeiksins Wood is a rare breed an academic with the soul of a storyteller.”Morning StarImmensely impressive, bold and erudite ... Meiksins Woods conclusions are undeniably nuanced, challenging and important.”Times Higher Education Supplement