This book focuses on a central concept that Theory is History, as the theory of capitalism can only be formulated on the basis of an analysis of its history. In contrast, bourgeois thinking replaces the analysis of historical capitalism with an abstract theory without any links to reality. Economics, which is the theory of an imaginary system, then becomes an apologia intended to give legitimacy to the behaviour of the owners of capital. The author pays special attention to the globalization of the law of value. The individual chapters illustrate the author's thesis by focusing on the links between capital and land ownership, between modernity and religious interpretation, and on questions of the global expansion of capitalism, particularly the ways it has evolved in certain countries, in this case Russia and China. This anthology supplements the author's previous work, centred on the rise of the Southhis reading of capitalism focusing on its imperialist nature.

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Samir Amin is an economist and one of the best-known thinkers of his generation. From 1963 he worked as a Professor at the Universities of Poitiers, Dakar, and Paris; in 1970 he became director of UN-IDEP. Since 1980 and 1997, respectively, Samir Amin has been and still is the director of the 'Forum du Tiers Monde' (Third World Forum) in Dakar, Senegal, and the World Forum for Alternatives.

Inhalt
The globalised law of value.- Capitalism and ground rent.- Modernity and interpretations of religions.- Re-reading the post war period.- Historical capitalism; accumulation by dispossession.- The two paths of historical development; the contrast between Europe and China.- Russia in the world system; geography or history?.- China, the emerging nation.