Historian and political thinker Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that theories of “postmodern” fragmentation, “difference,” and con-tingency can barely accommodate the idea of capitalism, let alone subject it … Ellen Meiksins Wood hat ein großes Werk eines lebendigen Marxismus vorgelegt. The Pitfalls of Realist Analysis of Global Capitalism: A Critique of Ellen Meiksins Wood's Empire of Capital In: Historical Materialism. Ellen Meiksins Wood Back in the mid-1990s, when I was first getting a handle on the academic left, Wood’s articles on postmodernism were very useful to me. Both believed strongly that social and political theory needed to be placed in historical context. theoreticians – Hannah Arendt and Ellen Meiksins Wood – whose reactivations of ancient political experiences significantly predate recent trends. She spent her early years on West 177th Street in Washington Heights and in nearby J. Her wide-ranging and original work, covering topics which range from examinations of Athenian democracy to contemporary American imperialism, has, alongside Robert Brenner, inaugurated the 'Political Marxist' approach to history. Author: William Robinson 1 View More View Less. At York, the pair founded the Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought. Deshalb stellen sie den Kapitalismus in seinem Kern in Frage. Historian and political thinker Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that theories of “postmodern” fragmentation, “difference,” and con-tingency can barely accommodate the idea of capitalism, let alone subject it to critique. Kinzey Posen / December 6, 2017Syndicated. Central to all these developments has been the “retreat from class,” a phrase originated by Ellen Meiksins Wood (Wood, 1986); in academic circles, this has been displayed in attacks on Marxism as a class-reductionist “master narrative” in need of supplementation by a range of alternative methodologies (Laclau and Mouffe). She was raised in the United States and Europe. When they were both widowed after long and very good marriages, their acquaintance deepened. The claim I want to make is that this historical moment, the one we’re living in now, is the best not the worst, the most not the least appropriate moment to bring back Marx. More than 75% of our operating budget comes to us in the form of donations from our readers. Historian and political thinker Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that theories of “postmodern” fragmentation, “difference,” and con-tingency can barely accommodate the idea of capitalism, let alone subject it to critique. Ellen Meiksins Wood passed away yesterday after a long struggle with cancer. Wood was a thinker of extraordinary range, writing with authority on ancient Greece, early modern political thought, contemporary political theory, Marxism, and the structure and evolution of modern capitalism. Deshalb stellen sie den Kapitalismus in seinem Kern in Frage. Studying the social situations in which theorists lived and worked improved our understanding of what the theorists meant. York University gave them teaching positions at a time when the institution was fast becoming a destination for important figures on the intellectual left. Hood Wright Park. These and related phenomena have for some time now … Her brother, Peter Meiksins, professor of sociology and vice-provost at Cleveland State University, knew a different side of her. Wood was a thinker of extraordinary range, and write with … Ellen Meiksins Wood passed away yesterday after a long struggle with cancer. Wood received a B.A. 19-45. Barely five feet tall but considered an intellectual giant, Marxist scholar and political science professor Ellen Meiksins Wood was instrumental in making Toronto’s York University a centre for the radical critique of social and political thought toward the end of the 20th century. ", "Modernity, Postmodernity, or Capitalism? Her position built upon the pioneering work of the American historian Robert Brenner, fuelling what came to be known as the “Brenner Debate.” Prof. Meiksins Wood extended and developed Prof. Brenner’s analysis by focusing on the central role of the market in emerging economic systems. • "C.B. Her parents, Gregory and Bella, were active in the Jewish labour movement in Europe; they left Latvia as political refugees during the inter-war years and settled in New York. Now a political science professor at York, Prof. Comninel grew up in the same neighbourhood as his teacher, and their weekly meetings recalled the New York environment in which they were raised: The departmental secretary described their sessions as the times “when George and Ellen get together to yell at each other.” Faculty up and down the corridor closed their doors as the two worked their way through the texts, only to discover that they read Marx in exactly the same way. Eco-socialist almost wins Green Party leadership: What does this mean. The Pitfalls of Realist Analysis of Global Capitalism: A Critique of Ellen Meiksins Wood's Empire of Capital In: Historical Materialism. theoreticians – Hannah Arendt and Ellen Meiksins Wood – whose reactivations of ancient political experiences significantly predate recent trends. Bella, who had worked in refugee relief in Europe, became a social worker in New York, and moved to Los Angeles, with Ellen, after she remarried. She remembers leaving each week’s seminar “abuzz with intellectual energy and new ideas.” Even as a young scholar, Prof. Meiksins Wood was a powerfully talented intellectual and a wonderful teacher: clear, logical, imaginative, rigorous, determined, focused on the topic at hand and quick to expose sloppy thinking. Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that with the collapse of Communism the theoretical project of Marxism and its critique of capitalism is more timely and important than ever. Ellen Meiksins Wood (1942–2016), for many years Professor of Political Science at York University, ... For example, Jairus Banaji’s critique of overly simplistic schemas being read unto the development of capitalism in Asia can work with Wood even though the two thinkers disagree on the origins of capitalism. A Critique of Ellen Meiksins Wood s Empire of Capital William I. Robinson Sociology, Global and International Studies, Latin American and Iberian Studies, University of California-Santa Barbara wirobins@soc.uscb.edu Abstract e dynamics of the emerging transnational stage in world capitalism cannot be understood through the blinkers of nation-state-centric thinking. It was an article in New Left Review on the separation of the economic from the political; it was, of course, polemical. "In The Origin of Capitalism, Ellen Meiksins Wood challenges most existing accounts of capitalism's origins, arguing that they fail to recognize its distinctive attributes as a social system by making its emergence seem natural and inevitable." Prof. Meiksins Wood was fond of the English countryside and spent many hours walking on Dartmoor, in Devon, and in other areas. Our supporters are part of everything we do. MacPherson: Liberalism, And The Task Of Socialist Political Theory", "Liberal Democracy And Capitalist Hegemony: A Reply To Leo Panitch On The Task Of Socialist Political Theory", "The Uses and Abuses of 'Civil' Society,", "A Chronology of the New Left and its Successors, or: Who's Old-Fashioned Now? Sign up for our email newsletter and get our news and analysis delivered on the regular. Ellen Meiksins Wood, who died on January 14, was coeditor of Monthly Review with Harry Magdoff and Paul M. Sweezy from 1997 to 2000, and a major contributor to historical materialist thought in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. With Robert Brenner, Ellen Meiksins Wood articulated the foundations of Political Marxism, a strand of Marxist theory that places history at the centre of its analysis. https://louisproyect.org/2016/01/19/ellen-meiksins-wood-a-political-asses Meiksins Wood's many books and articles, were sometimes written in collaboration with her husband, Neal Wood (1922–2003). Educated in Connecticut, Switzerland and Los Angeles, Ellen Meiksins attended Beverly Hills High, earned an undergraduate degree in Slavic languages from the University of California, Berkeley in 1962 and a PhD in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1970. Gregory held a PhD in political science and worked as a United Nations interpreter. All Categories; Metaphysics and Epistemology Ancient equality against modern democracy: resources of critique in Hannah Arendt and Ellen Meiksins Wood. [6][7], Learn how and when to remove this template message, Liberty & Property: A Social History of Western Political Thought from Renaissance to Enlightenment, "C.B. Ellen Meiksins Wood (1942-2016) was a leading political theorist and one of the world's most influential historians. Many went on to have distinguished careers of their own, inspired by her teaching, her willingness to devote time and attention to their work, and her relentless pursuit of clarity in the service of social justice. 215–240. INTRODUCTION The 'collapse of Conununism' in the late 1980s and 1990S seemed to confIrm what many people have long believed: that capitalism is the natural condition of … Wood was born in New York City as Ellen Meiksins one year after her parents, Latvian Jews active in the Bund, arrived in New York from Europe as political refugees. The couple married in 2014. Historian and political thinker Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that theories of “postmodern” fragmentation, “difference,” and con-tingency can barely accommodate the idea of capitalism, let alone subject it to critique. With Robert Brenner, Ellen Meiksins Wood articulated the foundations of Political Marxism, a strand of Marxist theory that places history at the centre of its analysis. In her study Empire of Capital, Ellen Meiksins Wood exhibits the rei“cation and outdated nation-state-centric thinking that plagues much recent work on world capitalism and US intervention, expressed in the confusing notion of a new imperialism. Ellen Meiksins Wood’s review of my book Rethinking Socialism, in her recently published Retreat from Class, and her synthetic remarks on my political views in the concluding chapter are sufficiently well constructed and argued to be plausible, especially to those who have not read my work. In addition to the legendary seminar, George Comninel did a reading course as a master’s student in the late 1970s with Prof. Meiksins Wood on Marx’s Grundrisse and the three volumes of Capital. While their views were different enough to fuel debate, they shared an ethical commitment to a higher form of society and believed deeply in the transformative side of social change. This was the paradox of Ellen Meiksins Wood, or, rather, her achievement: a loving person who flourished in concert with others, and could do so even as she articulated, in person or in print, the sharpest of arguments. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/107918.Ellen_Meiksins_Wood Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that with the collapse of Communism the theoretical project of Marxism and its critique of capitalism is more timely and important than ever. The Institute founded the annual Ellen Meiksins Wood Prize & Lecture to honour Ellen’s legacy as an internationally renowned scholar and to bring her work to new generations of Canadians. Ellen Meiksins Wood, for many years Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto, is the author of many books, including Democracy Against Capitalism and, with Verso, The Pristine Culture of Capitalism, The Origin of Capitalism, Peasant-Citizen and Slave, Citizens to Lords, Empire of Capital and Liberty and Property. The Origins of Capitalism (according to Ellen Meiksins Wood) It was reviewed as an "Outstanding Academic Book" by Michael Perelman. Often overlooked in the focus on Prof. Meiksins Wood’s radical politics and theoretical grounding, notes Jonathan Sas, director of research at the Broadbent Institute, is that, unlike many Marxists, she supported the NDP and the British Labour party, and did not see herself as above or divorced from practical politics. Rejecting the notion that capitalism was the inevitable outcome of economic processes that had always existed, she instead zeroed in on capitalism’s historical specificity. Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that with the collapse of Communism the theoretical project of Marxism and its critique of capitalism is more timely and important than ever. The Institute founded the annual Ellen Meiksins Wood Prize & Lecture to honour Ellen’s legacy as an internationally renowned scholar and to bring her work to new generations of Canadians. An extraordinarily influential teacher, Prof. Meiksins Wood left behind a loyal group of former students influenced by her social-historical approach to theoretical analysis. She was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada in 1996. Wood begins by criticizing what she terms the “commercialization model” that structures the vast majority of historical accounts of capitalism’s development. Prof. Meiksins Wood not only took part in debates about world events, neoliberalism and the rise of postmodernism, producing important books and major articles, but helped to shape them. "Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that, with the collapse of Communism, the theoretical project of Marxism and its critique of capitalism are more timely and important than ever. Barely five feet tall but considered an intellectual giant, Marxist scholar and political science professor Ellen Meiksins Wood was instrumental in making Toronto’s York University a centre for the radical critique of social and political thought toward the end of the 20th century. The Origins of Capitalism (according to Ellen Meiksins Wood) The market was a coercive institution that dominated both workers and capitalists, argued Prof. Meiksins Wood, and as long as production derived from market competition, class antagonism would persist. This consequentialism returns instead to something like the conceptions of history Marx was arguing against in his critique of classical political economy and Enlightenment conceptions of progress. Wood was a thinker of extraordinary range, writing with authority on ancient Greece, early modern political thought, contemporary political theory, Marxism, and the structure and evolution of modern capitalism. Ursula Huws, professor of labour and globalization at the University of Hertfordshire, explains in a Monthly Review essay that at a time when “more and more women were entering academic life, it was still extraordinarily rare in the field of political economy for a woman to be recognised and respected as a towering intellect with a grasp of the whole – and not just someone who writes about gender. The late Ellen Meiksins Wood had a long and illustrious career teaching the history of political thought at Toronto’s York University. Ellen loved music, especially Bach, and learned to play the cello and the piano as a child. It provoked a turn away from structuralisms and teleology towards historical specificity as contested process and lived praxis. Ellen Meiksins Wood’s review of my book Rethinking Socialism, in her recently published Retreat from Class, and her synthetic remarks on my political views in the concluding chapter are sufficiently well constructed and argued to be plausible, especially to those who have not read my work. Of these, The Retreat from Class received the Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize in 1988. Running through her work is the idea that democracy must always be fought for and secured from below, that it comes about through resistance and popular insurgency and is never conferred from above by benevolent legislators. In this book she sets… ", Downloadable radio interview on the origins of capitalism, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07078552.2016.1249124, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ellen_Meiksins_Wood&oldid=991089656, American people of Latvian-Jewish descent, University of California, Berkeley alumni, University of California, Los Angeles alumni, Wikipedia external links cleanup from July 2020, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism: Wood, Ellen Meiksins: 9781784782443: Books - Amazon.ca Ellen Meiksins Wood FRSC (April 12, 1942 – January 14, 2016) was an American-Canadian Marxist historian and scholar. Der Vortrag wird konsekutiv übersetzt. The Origin of Capitalism is a 1999 book on history and political economy, specifically the history of capitalism, by scholar Ellen Meiksins Wood, written from the perspective of Political Marxism. Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that with the collapse of Communism the theoretical project of Marxism and its critique of capitalism is more timely and important than ever. From 1967 to 1996, she taught political science at Glendon College, York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[1][2]. Ellen Meiksins Wood (1942-2016) was a leading political theorist and one of the world's most influential historians. Ellen Meiksins Wood, for many years Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto, is the author of many books, including Democracy Against Capitalism and, with Verso, The Pristine Culture of Capitalism, The Origin of Capitalism, Peasant-Citizen and Slave, Citizens to Lords, Empire of Capital and Liberty and Property. This article originally appeared in the Globe and Mail. INTRODUCTION The 'collapse of Conununism' in the late 1980s and 1990S seemed to confIrm what many people have long believed: that capitalism is the natural condition of … Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that with the collapse of Communism the theoretical project of Marxism and its critique of capitalism is more timely and important than ever. by Ellen Meiksins Wood (Sep 01, 1999) Topics: Economic Theory, Political Economy, Stagnation Our choice of political strategies clearly depends in large part on what we think is possible and impossible in any given conditions. Historian and political thinker Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that theories of "postmodern" fragmentation, "difference," and con-tingency can barely accommodate the idea of capitalism, let alone subject it to critique. It was a blend that won her the loyal, adoring friendship of many people over a long and successful life. by Ellen Meiksins Wood (Jun 01, 1997) Topics: Marxism. Prof. Meiksins Wood, who died of cancer in Ottawa on Jan. 14 at the age of 73, distinguished herself as one of the major political theorists of her generation. --BOOK JACKET. ", "Issues of class and culture: an interview with Aijaz Ahmad", "Class compacts, the welfare state, and epochal shifts: a reply to Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward - New Press, p.13, 1997", "Capitalist Change and Generational Shifts,", "Unhappy Families: Global Capitalism in a World of Nation-States", "York professors named to Royal Society,", Political Marxism and the Social Sciences, RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada, "Ellen Meiksins Wood, author and third wife of Ed Broadbent, dead at 73", "Interview with Ellen Meiksins Wood - Democracy & Capitalism: Friends or Foes? Mr. Broadbent, the classical social democrat, and Prof. Meiksins Wood, iconoclastic, myth-busting thinker of the radical left, respected and engaged with one another, discussing and debating social democracy, capitalism’s inequalities and social organization. Frances Abele, a professor at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration, was one of Prof. Meiksins Wood’s graduate students, from 1976 to 1983. When they retired from York, they divided their time between Toronto and London until Prof. Wood’s death in 2003. Critical evaluation of the thought of C. B. Macpherson. Syntax; Advanced Search; New. In light of her death earlier this year, it is fitting to recount just how much she taught us about the specificity of capitalism. In the late 1960s, Prof. Meiksins Wood was recruited from the United States along with her husband and fellow political scientist Neal Wood. All content ©1963–2020 Canadian Dimension   |   Top of page, Canada should release Meng Wanzhou—and pursue an independent foreign policy, Parliamentarians unite to block NDP wealth tax supported by supermajority of Canadians, Canadian corporate greed on display in Mexico mining dispute, Gone viral: Moral panic over Palestinian content in Ontario schools, Coronavirus colonialism: How the COVID-19 crisis is catalyzing dispossession, Dimitri Lascaris is the best choice to the take the Green Party forward. The duo co-taught an interdisciplinary graduate seminar, The Theory and Practice of the State in Historical Perspective, a social history of political thought that ranged over much of human history. In light of her death earlier this year, it is fitting to recount just how much she taught us about the specificity of capitalism. While still finishing her PhD, she moved to Toronto in 1967 with her first husband, Neal Wood, who had been offered a faculty position in political science at York’s Keele Street campus. Ellen Meiksins Wood. Ellen Meiksins Wood passed away last week (on 14 January) after a long struggle with cancer. Ellen Meiksins Wood, for many years Professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto, Canada, was an editor of the New Left Review from 1984 to 1992, and, co-editor of Monthly Review from 1997 to 2000. Frances Abele, George Comninel and Peter Meiksins, 'Socialism and democracy: the political engagements of Ellen Meiksins Wood', This page was last edited on 28 November 2020, at 05:39. She taught herself to play the oboe during her time in Toronto and played chamber music with other amateur musicians. At this troubling political moment, Ellen's belief that democracy means “nothing more nor less than people’s power, or even the power of the common people or the poor” is more relevant than ever. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory: Vol. It was an article in New Left Review on the separation of the economic from the political; it was, of course, polemical. 21, No. email; facebook; twitter; google+; pinterest; whatsapp; Contributions to marx200 . In The Pristine Culture of Capitalism (1994) and The Origin of Capitalism (1999), she traced capitalism’s origins to the 16th-century English countryside, when the interests of the landed aristocracy were advanced at the expense of the peasant classes. With Robert Brenner, Ellen Meiksins Wood articulated the foundations of Political Marxism, a strand of Marxist theory that places history at the centre of its analysis. [3] It provoked a turn away from structuralisms and teleology towards historical specificity as contested process and lived praxis. I Ellen Meiksins Wood FRSC (April 12, 1942 – January 14, 2016) was an American-Canadian Marxist historian and scholar. [Retrieved April 18, 2010] Ellen, already a promising scholar in her own right, was hired to teach at York’s Glendon campus. "Only with a proper understanding of capitalism's beginning, Wood holds, can we imagine the possibility of it ending." At this troubling political moment, Ellen's belief that democracy means “nothing more nor less than people’s power, or even the power of the common people or the poor” is more relevant than ever. She co-edited a collection of articles published by Monthly Review in 1997 with John Bellamy Foster titled “In Defense of History” that was a frontal assault on Baudrillard,… Ellen Meiksins Wood has delivered a sweeping broadside against the idea that Rational Choice Marxism (rcm) might hoist a standard around which the intellectual forces of the left could rally. All new items; Books; Journal articles; Manuscripts; Topics. [4] Wood served on the editorial committee of the British journal New Left Review between 1984 and 1993. In fact it is hard to think of anyone since Rosa Luxemburg who achieved this status on the academic left.”. Rather, as she argues fairly persuasively, it was a particular development in agrarian England due to conditions specific in the economic and political situation there. Founded in 1963, Canadian Dimension is a forum for debate on important issues facing the Canadian Left today, and a source for analysis of national and regional politics, labour, economics, world affairs and art. in Slavic languages from the University of California, Berkeley in 1962 and subsequently entered the graduate program in political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, from which she received her PhD in 1970. (2020). Ellen Meiksins Wood, who died on January 14, was coeditor of Monthly Review with Harry Magdoff and Paul M. Sweezy from 1997 to 2000, and a major contributor to historical materialist thought in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Prof. Meiksins Wood leaves her husband, Mr. Broadbent, and her brothers, Peter Meiksins of Cleveland and Robert Meiksins of Milwaukee. Ellen Meiksins Wood hat ein großes Werk eines lebendigen Marxismus vorgelegt. email; facebook; twitter; google+; pinterest; whatsapp; Contributions to marx200 . It was a blend that won her the loyal, adoring friendship of many people over a long and successful life. [5] She and Neal Wood divided their time between England and Canada until he died in 2003. She also relished contention and was one of the most rewarding people to disagree with. --Jacket . Robinson, William 2007-01-01 00:00:00 Th e Pitfalls of Realist Analysis of Global Capitalism: A Critique of Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Empire of Capital William I. Robinson Sociology, Global and International Studies, Latin American and Iberian Studies, University of California-Santa Barbara wirobins@soc.uscb.edu Abstract Th e dynamics of the emerging transnational stage in world … Linked to the academic left in North America and in Europe, Prof. Meiksins Wood served on the editorial board of the British journal New Left Review from 1984 to 1993 and the socialist magazine Monthly Review from 1997 to 2000. Robinson, William 2007-01-01 00:00:00 Th e Pitfalls of Realist Analysis of Global Capitalism: A Critique of Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Empire of Capital William I. Robinson Sociology, Global and International Studies, Latin American and Iberian Studies, University of California-Santa Barbara wirobins@soc.uscb.edu Abstract Th e dynamics of the emerging transnational stage in world … Let me start with a provocative claim, which is contrary to all the conventional wisdom. Like Hannah Arendt before her, Prof. Meiksins Wood was an important female scholar in a male-dominated field whose work didn’t focus on feminism. Ellen Meiksins Wood, for many years Professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto, Canada, was an editor of the New Left Review from 1984 to 1992, and, co-editor of Monthly Review from 1997 to 2000. Ellen Meiksins Wood (1942–2016), for many years Professor of Political Science at York University, ... For example, Jairus Banaji’s critique of overly simplistic schemas being read unto the development of capitalism in Asia can work with Wood even though the two thinkers disagree on the origins of capitalism. This was the paradox of Ellen Meiksins Wood, or, rather, her achievement: a loving person who flourished in concert with others, and could do so even as she articulated, in person or in print, the sharpest of arguments.