The frontiers of uneven and combined development: a review essay

Davidson, N. (2018) The frontiers of uneven and combined development: a review essay. Historical Materialism, 26(3), pp. 52-78. (doi: 10.1163/1569206X-00001656)

Abstract

Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nişancıoğlu’s How the West Came to Rule is an important intervention within Marxist historical debates which seeks to use the theory of uneven and combined development (UCD) to explain the origin and rise to dominance of capitalism. The argument is shaped by a critique of Political Marxist ‘internalist’ explanations of the process, to which the authors counterpose an account which emphasises its inescapably ‘inter-societal’ nature. While recognising the many contributions that the book makes to our historical understanding, this article argues that these insights do not depend on UCD, and could have been arrived at without reference to it. In particular, it will try to show that UCD is inapplicable in periods before the consolidation of capitalism, but might be more usefully extended spatially rather than chronologically.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Davidson, Mr Neil
• Authors: Davidson, N.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: Historical Materialism
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• ISSN: 1465-4466
• ISSN (Online): 1569-206X
• Published Online: 25 September 2018
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 Koninklijke Brill NV
• First Published: First published in Historical Materialism 26(3):52-78
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher