Marx's Revenge

The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism

Meghnad Desai

• Publisher: Verso
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781859844298
• eBook ISBN:
  9781789609455
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Theory
• Index: Economics

In this provocative and enthusiastically revisionist book, the distinguished economist Meghnad Desai argues that capitalism's recent efflorescence is something Karl Marx anticipated and indeed would, in a certain sense, have welcomed. Capitalism, as Marx understood it, would only reach its limits when it was no longer capable of progress. Desai argues that globalization, in bringing the possibility of open competition on world markets to producers in the Third World, has proved that capitalism is still capable of moving forwards.
Marx's Revenge opens with a consideration of the ideas of Adam Smith and Hegel. It proceeds to look at the nuances in the work of Marx himself, and concludes with a survey of more recent economists who studied capitalism and attempted to unravel its secrets, including Joseph Schumpeter, John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• 1. Two Revolutions and a Demolition
• 2. Adam Smith and the Principles of Social Astronomy
• 3. Hegel and the Ideal State
• 4. Marx I: Clearing the Decks
• 5. Marx II: Profits
• 6. The Future of Capitalism I: How Soon the End?
• 7. War and Revolution
• 8. War and Imperialism (in theory and in practice)
• 9. The Interwar Years: Return to Normality, 1919–29
• 10. The Interwar Years: Crisis and Catastrophe
• 11. Curing Capitalism: Keynes, Schumpeter and Hayek
• 12. Can Socialism Work?
• 13. Foundations of the Global Order
• 14. The Golden Age of National Capitalism
• 15. The High Noon of Socialism
• 16. Things Fall Apart
• 17. Up from the Abyss
• 18. A Bonfire of Illusions
• 19. The Future of Capitalism II: Endgame or the Only Game?
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index