Marxism Missing, Missing Marxism

Examining how Marxist theory is lacking but much needed in a variety of analytical contexts, this book traces the theoretical maze in which Marxism currently finds itself, and from which it is trying to exit while remaining epistemologically intact. Scholar Tom Brass cogently argues that when Marxism is stripped of any or all of its core elements—such as class formation/consciousness/struggle, and a socialist transition—it ceases to be recognizable as Marxism at all. Consequently, the book constitutes an attempt by Marxist political economy to extricate itself from mistaken attempts to conflate it with the cultural turn, identity politics, bourgeois economics, or varieties of populism and nationalism, while grappling with the danger of not mapping Marxism in relation to those discourses.

Publication date: March 15, 2022

Acknowledgements

Introduction
Marxism Missing – Presumed Dead?
How Marxism Went Missing
Why Marxism Went Missing
As Clear as Mud(de)
Essentializing Rurality?
Marxism Missing, but ...
Themes

PART 1
Marxism Missing

1 Marxism(s) within/beyond the Nation
 Introduction
 The External/Eternal ‘Other’
 The Source of Social Miracles
 Because the Country Is Hungry
 Winning the Peasantry?
 A Huge Part of the People
 Class Solidarity and/or Cultural Autonomy
 Nationalism beyond the Nation
 Privileged Sections, Cheap Immigrants
 An Indispensable Attribute
 Conclusion

2 From Marxism to the Cultural Turn (via Social History)
 Introduction
 Marxism and Third World Development
 Populism, Social History, and Third World (Non-)Development
 Enemy of the (Capitalist) State?
 History, Methods, Politics
 Social History and/as the ‘Cultural Turn’
 Ambiguity + Authenticity = Absent Marxism
 Conclusion

3 From Marxism to Nationalism (via Imperialism)
 Introduction
 The Authenticity of Populism
 The Inapplicability of Marxism
 Down the Drain (Once Again)
 India’s Chief Curse
 Populism, Nationalism, Postmodernism
 What Did the Romans Ever Do for Us?
 Conclusion

4 From Marxism to Agrarian Populism (via the Cultural Turn)
 Introduction
 Peasants, Marxism, Populism
 The ‘Cultural Turn’ and/as the ‘New’ Populist Postmodernism
 Russia Then, India Now
 Old Believers?
 Farmers, Peasants, Kulaks
 Old/New Agrarian Populism?
 A Sense of Robust Realism?
 Conclusion

PART 2
Missing Marxism

5 From Marxism to Late Antiquity (via Postmodernism)
 Introduction
 The World beyond
 Citizens, State and Economy
 Not Death but Resurrection
 Postmodernizing Premodernity
 Conclusion

6 From Modern to Ancient Capitalism (via Bourgeois Economics)
 Introduction
 Capitalism, Capitalism Everywhere
 Money Makes the World Go Round?
 Fear of Feudalism
 All Modes Lead to Rome
 Had Marx Lived ...
 Marginalism Is Not Marxism
 Building Castles in the Air
 Conclusion

7 From Class Struggle to Identity Politics ( via ‘Otherness’)
 Introduction
 Film, Sameness, Otherness
 To Keep Them Divided
 Solidarity, Struggle, Socialism
 Magical (Un-)Realism
 Diasporic Discourse
 On the Shoulders of Giants?
 Placid Multiculturalism
 Celebrating Otherness?
 Conclusion

8 Great Replacement, or Reaping the Capitalist Whirlwind ( via Populism/Nationalism)
 Introduction: The Last Taboo
 White Fright, White Fight
 Demography, Culture, Civilization
 Who/What Is Responsible?
 Rival Ethnicities, Rival Populisms
 Political Economy and/as Great Replacement
 Migration and/as Surplus Labour
 Marxism and the Industrial Reserve
 Conclusion

Conclusion
Beyond Marxism, What?

Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index