Marxist analysis on history (Greek, Roman)

[Kidblop]

Can anyone provide me with some literature on historical analysis (particularly Marxist in origin). I am especially looking for literature devoted to past modes of production, not just capitalism, socialism, and communism.

* Sorry for my english.

[GeneCosta]

You have good English.

Try:

- The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World: From the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests by Croix

- Pre-capitalist Modes of Production by Barry Hindess

Both are well written; it's interesting to read about Marxism applied before capitalism and even feudalism.

[Kidblop]

Thanks. Ill look into these two books!

So what Im getting from all of this is that Marx saw communism as inevitable, rite?

[GeneCosta]

Actually, no. Marx believed upon interpreting history and environments, one can predict certain events as being probable.

Marx's outreach to Hegelian theory concludes that paradoxes occur which shape human history. For example, feudalism was built around a popularized class cooperation. The peasants supplied their nobles with food, and in exchange the nobles supplied the peasants with protection. However, after the Black Plague(s) hit Europe, agriculture improved and people started to move into the cities, where they became part of the guilds (markets). Ironically, this new labor left over from improved harvesting methods fueled the bourgeoisie wealth machine, until it finally pressured the feudal relations to finally collapse in favor of classical liberalism. Likewise in Japan agricultural improvements during the Edo Period produced new wealth in the cities, particularly ports. The Boshin War secured a defeat for the previous political system. In Russia, Peter's adoption of commerce rights and tools from West Europe inevitably led to the end of serfdom in the late 1800s. India's own Zamindari system was pulled out when the Dutch and British arrived.

Communists predict that technology will (paradoxically) lead to the downfall of capitalism. Freeware, nanotechnology, piracy, and other methods of 'gift exchange' will overtake the market until there is a boiling point when the workers rise up and remove the past political system. Thereupon defeating the bourgeoisie, the workers will look to decentralize and divide up the functions of the state until there no longer is a need for a state. Anarchists believe the proletariat will simply destroy the state.

The "dictatorship of the proletariat" has been abused to mean a literal, 20th-century dictatorship, when in fact Marx was using the Roman definition of a temporary government - only instead of a military leader, the state would be dominated by the politics, culture, and economy of the working class.