Introduction to Marxist Historical Concepts: Traditions and Debates

Catalog description

This course will introduce students to the main currents, themes, and debates in Marxist historical writing, with a focus on the European and Anglophone traditions with some consideration of forms of Marxist thought and historical practice in the postcolonial world. Though it cannot hope to provide a comprehensive outline of Marxist historiography and its intellectual foundations, it will cover major concepts integral to the Marxist tradition as well as wider historical and social science concepts to which the Marxist historical tradition has made serious contributions. In this capacity the class will cover such topics as mode of production, world systems, primitive accumulation, the rise of capitalism, economism, ideology, culture, articulation, hegemony, imperialism, and nationalism. Beyond the exploration of key concepts, the course will explore different modes of Marxist historical writing, from the analysis of working class history, rural rebellion and peasant movements to debates about origins of capitalism, the analysis of precapitalist economies, and the rise of anti-colonial nationalism. The course will also provide exposure to some of the social scientific and philosophical interactions that Marxism as a historical discipline has had with related fields like analytical philosophy, structuralist and post-structuralist philosophy, and cultural studies, in addition to interaction that Marxist historical writing has had with political vectors and movements and historical traditions like the New Left, labor history, anti-colonialism, feminism, race, and queer theory.