Capitalism from Above and Capitalism from Below

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxiii

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2. The Problematic

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Origins, Context and Method

      • Terence J. Byres

      Pages 3-19

   3. The Agrarian Question, Diversity of Agrarian Transition and the Two Paths: ‘Capitalism From Above’ and ‘Capitalism From Below’

      • Terence J. Byres

      Pages 20-39

3. The Prussian Path: Capitalism From Above

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 41-41

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   2. From ‘One of Europe’s Freest Peasantries’ to Feudalism and the Eve of Abolition of Serfdom

      • Terence J. Byres

      Pages 43-103

   3. The Prussian Transition: Full-Blooded Capitalism From Above and Its Consequences

      • Terence J. Byres

      Pages 104-158

4. The American Paths

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 159-159

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   2. Attempted Feudalism, Primitive Accumulation and Eradication of Native Populations

      • Terence J. Byres

      Pages 161-216

   3. The South: Slavery

      • Terence J. Byres

      Pages 217-281

   4. The Postbellum South: From Slavery, Through Unfree Labour to Wage Labour

      • Terence J. Byres

      Pages 282-341

   5. The North and the West: From Early to Advanced Petty Commodity Production

      • Terence J. Byres

      Pages 342-414

5. Some Conclusions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 415-415

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   2. The Comparison, Some Implications, and Some Contemporary ‘Lessons’

      • Terence J. Byres

      Pages 417-436

6. Back Matter

   Pages 437-490

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The distinction between 'capitalism from above' and 'capitalism from below' is important in the analysis of the agrarian question in poor countries. The 'Prussian path' and the 'American path' are here examined, against existing historical scholarship. Their unfolding, from their earliest roots to the point of final 'agrarian transition' in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is considered. The dialectic between social relations and productive forces, mediated as it was by the state, is treated and the implications for capitalist industrialisation scrutinised.

• capitalism
• economy
• labour
• political economy
• population
• production
• Russia
• transition

• School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK

  Terence J. Byres

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