Abstract
In 1963 George Lichtheim published an extremely interesting essay on the concept of the Asiatic mode of production. This essay consisted of an incisive account of the nature of the concept and of its place in the writings of Marx and Engels. It was written at a time when the concept was only just being “rediscovered” by Marxists. During the decade since the essay appeared Marxists have not only become familiar with Marx’s concept, thanks to works such as that by Lichtheim, but have also been actively exploring the implications of the concept for contemporary Marxism. In this paper I shall be tracing the developments in Marxist historiography since 1964 associated with the rediscovery of the concept of the Asiatic mode of production.
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Notes
Marx A, Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Moscow Progress, 1970), p. 21.
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© 1977 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, The Netherlands
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Sawer, M. (1977). The Concept of the Asiatic Mode of Production and Contemporary Marxism. In: Avineri, S. (eds) Varieties of Marxism. The Van Leer Jerusalem Foundation Series, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1108-2_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1108-2_18
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