Lenin described The Agrarian Question as the first systematic Marxist study of capitalism and agriculture and the most important event in economic literature since the third volume of Capital. This great work is regarded as Kautsky's main achievement and is a classic work of analysis.Kautsky's pariah status in the eyes of revolutionary Marxists resulted in many years of neglect, but his role and work are now commanding great attention. The analysis of the transformation of peasant economies by capital in The Agrarian Question is now seen as particularly relevant to contemporary Third World peasant economies.This remarkable translation, which brings out the humanity - and the humour - in Kautksy's writing, is more than a work of economic analysis: in a manner ahead of his time, Kautsky integrates questions of political strategy, ecology, sexuality and the family.The illuminating reassessment of The Agrarian Question in the introduction by Professor Teodor Shanin and Hamza Alavi examines in detail the political context, Kautsky's own life, the development of Kautsky's ideas within the work, and its contribution to our understanding of the world

Between 1905 and 1949, the economic and political map of the world was altered decisively. The basis was created for the first experiements for establishing an egalitarian social order. Prolonged and intense debates on the nature of agrarian relations, and on the role of the peasantry in relation to the working class, took place in teh course of these revolutionary movements. These debates were actuated by the need to theorise the specific class configuration and the class alliances appropriate for achieving the aim not only of overthrowing the old semi-feudal order but of establishing the conditions for transition to a more egalitarian and just society. These debates remain of immense interest because they were not abstract or scholastic but addressed the very concrete and immediate questions of the class nature of the state and the question of who were the friends and who the enemies of the revolutionary movement. This question in turn was linked closely to the analysis of the trend of development of capitalist relations and assessment regarding the nature of the principal contradiciton at a given point of time. This volume brings together selecitons from the writings of V.I. Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and Mao Zedong. The editor's Introduction is a masterly exposition of the main themes of these debates, and their connection with our times.

Features "The Agrarian Question and the Critics of Marx," written by Russian Communist leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924) in 1901. David J. Romagnolo provides the writing online from the 1961 publication "Collected Works."

This comprehensive volume advances heterodox reconstructions of agrarian Marxism on the occasion of Marx’s 200th birth anniversary. While Marxists have long criticized ‘populists’ for ignoring capitalism and class, populists have charged Marxists with historical determinism. This ongoing debate has now reached something of an impasse, in part because new empirical work addressing the complex contemporary patterns and conjunctures of global agrarian capitalism offers exciting new horizons, along with new and generative theoretical reconstructions of Marxism itself. This book helps to point the way beyond this impasse, and illustrates that agrarian Marxism remains a dynamic theoretical program that offers powerful insights into agrarian change and politics in the twenty-first century. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Journal of Peasant Studies.

In Marx Matters noted scholars explore the way a Marxian political economy addresses contemporary social problems, demonstrating the relevance of Marx today and outlining how his work can frame progressive programs for social change.