The Regime of Capital

Abstract

During the last half century the influence of Marxism on the social sciences, as understood and taught in the advanced capitalist countries, has steadily increased. This has happened in two ways—through younger social scientists becoming converted to Marxist ways of thinking and acquiring positions in academia; and through bourgeois social scientists being exposed to Marxist work in these fields and frequently finding aspects of it valuable, or at least worthy of study. History has probably been the discipline most affected. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that most serious work in history nowadays takes for granted the validity of some of the basic tenets of historical materialism—without of course necessarily coming to characteristically Marxist conclusions. Sociology and anthropology have also been much influenced, often in subtle and even unconscious ways. Political science—or, as it is sometimes more appropriately called, "government" or "politics"—has been less affected, and economics least of all.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.