A Marxist History of the World
>From Neanderthals to Neoliberals
Neil Faulkner
Paperback | 9780745332147 | £18 / $28
Hardback | 9780745332154 | £70 / $105
Kindle | 9781849648653 | £18 / $28
Epub | 9781849648646 | £18 / $28
PDF | 9781849648639 | £60 / $90
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Praise for A MARXIST HISTORY OF THE WORLD:
'Enlightening and apocalyptic in equal measure' – the Guardian
'Who needs 'objective' history? Not Neil Faulkner, for whom the history of the world is a relentless and disgraceful parade of shame from the brazenly wasteful tribes of the Bronze Age to Maoist China's sell-out state capitalism. If nothing else this book will make you stop and think and give you a taste of what it must have felt like to be a firebrand buoyed up by righteous revolutionary zeal in October 1917. If you like your blood boiled, this is the history for you. I can guarantee you'll be outraged - either because you agree with him or because you don't!' – Guy de la Bédoyère, historian and author of 'Roman Britain: A New History' (2006)
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This magisterial analysis of human history - from 'Lucy', the first hominid, to the current Great Recession - combines the insights of earlier generations of Marxist historians with radical new ideas about the historical process.
Reading history against the grain, Neil Faulkner reveals that what happened in the past was not predetermined. Choices were frequent and numerous. Different outcomes - liberation or barbarism - were often possible. Rejecting the top-down approach of conventional history, Faulkner contends that it is the mass action of ordinary people that drives great events.
At the beginning of the 21st century - with economic disaster, war, climate catastrophe and deep class divisions - humans face perhaps the greatest crisis in the long history of our species. The lesson of A MARXIST HISTORY OF THE WORLD is that, since we created our past, we can also create a better future.
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NEIL FAULKNER is a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, co-director of several archaeological field-projects, and author of numerous books, including 'A Visitor’s Guide to the Ancient Olympics' (2012) and 'Rome: Empire of the Eagles' (2008). He is a leading member of Counterfire and publicity officer for the Coalition of Resistance.
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Introduction: Why History Matters
1. HUNTERS AND FARMERS c. 2.5 MILLION-3000 BC
– The Hominid Revolution – The Hunting Revolution – The Agricultural Revolution – The Origins of War and Religion – The Rise of the Specialists
2. THE FIRST CLASS SOCIETIES c. 3000-1000 BC
– The First Ruling Class – The Spread of Civilisation – Crisis in the Bronze Age – How History Works – Men of Iron
3. ANCIENT EMPIRES c. 1000-30 BC
– Persia: the Achaemenid Empire – India: the Mauryan Empire – China: the Qin Empire – The Greek Democratic Revolution – The Macedonian Empire – Roman Military Imperialism – The Roman Revolution
4. THE END OF ANTIQUITY c. 30 BC-AD 650
– The Crisis of Late Antiquity – Huns, Goths, Germans, and Romans – Mother-Goddesses and Power-Deities – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – Arabs, Persians, and Byzantines
5. THE MEDIEVAL WORLD c. AD 650-1500
– The Abbasid Revolution – Hindus, Buddhists, and the Gupta Empire – Chinese History’s Revolving Door – Africa: Cattle-Herders, Ironmasters, and Trading States – New World Empires: Maya, Aztec, and Inca
6. EUROPEAN FEUDALISM c. AD 650-1500
– The Cycles and Arrows of Time – The Peculiarity of Europe – The Rise of Western Feudalism – Crusade and Jihad – Lord, Burgher, and Peasant in Medieval Europe – The Class Struggle in Medieval Europe – The New Monarchies – The New Colonialism
7. THE FIRST WAVE OF BOURGEOIS REVOLUTIONS 1517-1775
– The Reformation – The Counter-Reformation – The Dutch Revolution – The Thirty Years War – The Causes of the English Revolution – Revolution and Civil War – The Army, the Levellers, and the Commonwealth – Colonies, Slavery, and Racism – Wars of Empire
8. THE SECOND WAVE OF BOURGEOIS REVOLUTIONS 1775-1815
– The Enlightenment – The American Revolution – The Storming of the Bastille – The Jacobin Dictatorship – From Thermidor to Napoleon
9. THE RISE OF INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM c. 1750-1850
– The Industrial Revolution – The Chartists and the Origins of the Labour Movement – The 1848 Revolutions – What is Marxism? – What is Capitalism – The Making of the Working Class
10. THE AGE OF BLOOD AND IRON 1848-1896
– The Indian Mutiny – The Italian Risorgimento – The American Civil War – Japan’s Meiji Restoration – The Unification of Germany – The Paris Commune – The Long Depression
11. IMPERIALISM AND WAR 1873-1918
– The Scramble for Africa – The Rape of China – What is Imperialism? – The 1905 Revolution: Russia’s Great Dress Rehearsal – The Ottoman Empire and the 1908 ‘Young Turk’ Revolution – 1914: Descent into Barbarism – Reform or Revolution? – The First World War
12. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAVE 1917-1928
– 1917: The February Revolution – Dual Power: The Mechanics of Revolution – February to October: The Rhythms of Revolution – 1917: The October Insurrection – 1918: How the War Ended – The German Revolution – Italy’s ‘Two Red Years’ – World Revolution – The First Chinese Revolution – Revolts Against Colonialism – Stalinism: The Bitter Fruit of Revolutionary Defeat
13. THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE RISE OF FASCISM 1929-1939
– The Roaring Twenties – The Hungry Thirties – 1933: The Nazi Seizure of Power – State Capitalism in Russia – 1936: The French General Strike and Factory Occupations – The Spanish Civil War – The Causes of the Second World War
14. WORLD WAR AND COLD WAR 1939-1967
– The Second World War: Imperialism – The Second World War: Barbarism – The Second World War: Resistance – The Cold War – The Great Boom – Maoist China – End of Empire? – Oil, Zionism, and Western Imperialism – 1956: Hungary and Suez – Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution
15. THE NEW WORLD DISORDER 1968-PRESENT
– The Vietnam War – 1968 – 1968-75: The Workers’ Revolt – The Long Recession, 1973-92 – What is Neoliberalism? – 1989: The Fall of Stalinism – 9/11, the War on Terror, and the New Imperialism – The 2008 Crash: From Bubble to Black Hole – The Second Great Depression
Conclusion: Making the Future
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