1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910957955503321

Autore

Hansen Fay R.

Titolo

The breakdown of capitalism : a history of the idea in western Marxism, 1883-1983 / / F.R. Hansen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London ; ; New York : , : Routledge, , 2017

ISBN

1-315-38748-4

1-315-38750-6

1-315-38749-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (183 pages)

Collana

Routledge Library Editions: The History of Economic Thought ; ; Volume 4

Disciplina

330.1220904

Soggetti

Capitalism

Marxian economics

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

First published in 1985 by Routledge & Kegan Paul plc.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Breakdown theory and intellectual history : an introduction to the relevant issues -- 2. Points of reference in Marx's theory of capitalist development -- 3. Breakdown theory in the Second International : the political construction of the orthodox concept -- 4. Neo-orthodoxy and the general analysis of a politicized economy -- 5. Breakdown theory and the American Marxists : the theoretical spectrum of the early years -- 6. The anti-orthodox response to crash and recovery : superstructural models of collapse -- 7. Breakdown theory and the American Marxists : abandonment and retrieval in the post-war period -- 8. Conclusions.

Sommario/riassunto

This comprehensive and lucid study, first published in 1985, reconstructs the history of Western Marxist theories of the breakdown of capitalism. It provides a critical reading of theories of breakdown, with their conflicting interpretations of a single text, their invulnerability to empirical defeat, and their retreat from class analysis, as events in the history of ideas. This study traces the sources of theoretical conflict in a series of historical and epistemological issues that shift over time and generate new conditions for speculations concerning the fate of the system. In seeking to understand that durability of the concept of breakdown, the author raises important



questions about the social conditions and consequences of theoretical work and the status of critical thought in society. This title will be of interest to students of history and economics.