1. The Poverty of Philosophy, in Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick, Collected Work, 50 vols. projected (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975-), 6:211Google Scholar (hereafter cited as CW); The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, CW 11:187. The problem at the heart of this debate — the nature of the relationships between structure and subject — “has always constituted one of the most central and fundamental problems of historical materialism as an account of the development of human civilization” (Anderson, Perry, In the Tracks of Historical Materialism [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984], pp. 34–35).Google Scholar

2. Cohen, , Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), p. 73.Google Scholar See also Anderson, Perry, Arguments Within English Marxism (London: NLB, 1980), pp. 39–43.Google Scholar

3. Thompson, , The Making of the English Working Class (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books), pp. 9–11Google Scholar; “Eighteenth Century English Society: Class Struggle Without Class?” Social History 3 (05 1978): 146–50Google Scholar; The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays (London: Merlin Press, 1978), pp. 297–99.Google Scholar See also Wood, Ellen Meiksins, “The Politics of Theory and the Concept of Class: E. P. Thompson and His Critics,” Studies in Political Economy 9 (Fall 1982): 45–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. For analyses of Marx’s views on peasants, see Draper, Hal, Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, 4 vols. (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977–1990), 2:317–452Google Scholar; Gilbert, Alan, Marx’s Politics, Communists and Citizens (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1981), pp. 201–219Google Scholar; Duggett, Michael, “Marx on Peasants,” The Journal of Peasant Studies 2 (01 1975): 159–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mitrany, David, Marx Against the Peasant (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1951), pp. 7–23.Google Scholar

5. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:187; quoted below, p. 63. In Elster’s, Jon view, this passage is the canonical text for clarifying Marx’s notion of class consciousness. Making Sense of Marx (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 345–46.Google Scholar

6. Cohen, , Marx’s Theory of History, p. 76Google Scholar; Draper, , Marx’s Theory of Revolution, 2:349Google Scholar; Croix, G. E. M. De Ste., The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World: From the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquest (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981), pp. 60–63.Google Scholar The structural reading of Marx has a distinguished pedigree, dating back to Frederick Engels and Karl Kautsky. See, e.g., Engels’s letters to Joseph Bloch, 21 September 1890, and to Conrad Schmidt, 27 October 1890, where he recommends The Eighteenth Brumaire as “a most excellent … application” of Marx’s conception of the relationship between the economy and class consciousness, culture and politics. In Marx-engels, , Selected Correspondence (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), pp. 394–402.Google Scholar See also Kautsky, , The Class Struggle (New York: W. W. Norton, 1971).Google ScholarPrzeworski, Adam has traced the lineages of this reading of class from Kautsky to Erik Olin Wright (Capitalism and Social Democracy [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985], pp. 48–69).CrossRefGoogle Scholar Lucio Colletti has provided an excellent critique of Engels’s and Kautsky’s misappropriation of Marx’s concept of the economy and its influence on orthodox Marxism, (From Rousseau to Lenin, trans. Merrington, John and White, Judith [New York: Monthly Review Press, 1972], pp. 62–76).Google Scholar It is precisely this “old-fashioned historical materialism” that Cohen sets out to defend (Marx’s Theory of History, p. x).

7. Mclellan, David, The Thought of Karl Marx: An Introduction (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1971), p. 155Google Scholar; Andrew, Edward, “Class in Itself and Class Against Capital: Karl Marx and his Classifiers,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 16 (09 1983): 577–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Despite the widely received view that Marx himself used the term class-in-itself, it appears nowhere in his writing. Its absence, it will be argued, undermines the case for a structural reading of the concept. Accordingly, this article argues against both those interpretations which defend Marx for making a valid distinction between a class-in-itself and for-itself, and those which criticize him for introducing an untenable one. For a critical assessment, see Przeworski, , Capitalism and Social Democracy, pp. 47–92.Google Scholar Elster notes the absence of the term class-in-itself but nevertheless attributes to Marx the thesis that objective economic relations alone serve to define class (Making Sense of Marx, chap. 6).

9. Cohen, , Marx’s Theory of History, p. 73.Google Scholar

10. Anderson, , Arguments, p. 39.Google Scholar

11. Thompson, , “Eighteenth Century English Society,” p. 148.Google Scholar

12. Cohen, , Marx’s Theory of History, p. 74.Google Scholar

13. Ibid., pp. 74–75; Anderson, , Arguments, pp. 32–35Google Scholar; Draper, , Marx’s Theory of Revolution, 2:317–18.Google Scholar

14. Anderson, , Arguments, pp. 40, 43Google Scholar; Cohen, , Marx’s Theory of History, p. 76Google Scholar; Croix, Ste., Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World, pp. 57, 62–63.Google Scholar

15. Thompson, , “Eighteenth Century English Society,” p. 147.Google Scholar

16. For a discussion of the contrasts between descriptive and explanatory conceptions of class, see Giddens, Anthony, The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies (London: Hutchinson University Library, 1973), pp. 76–78, 104–106Google Scholar; Elster, , Making Sense of Marx, pp. 335–42.Google Scholar

17. Thompson, , Making of the English Working Class, pp. 9–11Google Scholar; “Eighteenth Century English Society,” pp. 147–50.

18. Wood, , “The Politics of Theory,” p. 51.Google Scholar

19. Thompson, , Making of the English Working Class, p. 10.Google Scholar

20. Ibid., pp. 207–213. See also Wood, “The Politics of Theory,” pp. 59–62. Przeworski, like Thompson, argues that “classes are not given uniquely by any objective positions” within the relations of production (Capitalism and Social Democracy, p. 66). When prosecuting the intentions of “rational choice Marxism,” however, Przeworski maintains that the connection between the economy and class formation is not struggle but choice, as individuals choose the class relations most apt to maximize their utilities (Ibid., pp. 92–97). The problem with this conception, characteristic of rational choice Marxism as a whole, is that it abandons any explanation of society and history in terms of surplus-extraction and class struggle. See the excellent discussions by Wood, Ellen Meiksins, “Rational Choice Marxism: Is the Game Worth the Candle?” New Left Review 177 (09/10, 1989): 45–59Google Scholar; and Bronner, Stephen Eric, “Politics and Judgment: A Critique of Rational Choice Marxism,” Review of Politics (Spring 1990): 250–54.Google Scholar

21. Thompson, , Making of the English Working Class, pp. 11–12, 211–13.Google Scholar See also Draper, , Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, 1:385Google Scholar; Przeworski, , Capitalism and Social Democracy, pp. 70–71, 79–80Google Scholar; Wood, , “The Politics of Theory,” pp. 59–62.Google Scholar

22. See Marx, Karl, The German Ideology, CW 5:76–77, 78, 80.Google Scholar

23. Thompson, , “Eighteenth Century English Society,” p. 149.Google Scholar

24. See, e.g., Anderson, , Arguments, p. 43.Google Scholar

25. Thompson, , “Eighteenth Century English Society,” pp. 148–49.Google Scholar

26. German Ideology, CW 5:76–81, 90; The Poverty of Philosophy, CW 6:211–12. See Lukács, Georg, History and Class Consciousness, trans. Livingston, Rodney (London: Merlin Press, 1971), pp. 55–63Google Scholar; Giddens, , Class Structure of the Advanced Societies, pp. 76–77.Google Scholar

27. Anderson, , Arguments, p. 40.Google Scholar

28. Cohen, , Marx’s Theory of History, p. 76.Google Scholar

29. The Class Struggles in France, CW 10:120Google Scholar; Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:187.Google Scholar

30. Marx, Karl, Theories of Surplus Value, 3 vols. (Moscow: Progress Publishers 1963–1971), 1:407–09.Google Scholar

31. Class Struggles, CW 10:57, 119–22Google Scholar; Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:190–92.Google Scholar

32. Marx, Karl, Capital, trans. Moore, Samuel and Aveling, Edward, ed. Engels, Frederick, 3 vols. (Moscow: Progress Publishers, n.d.), 1:669–70.Google Scholar

33. Class Struggles, CW 10:56–57, 116.Google Scholar For a comparative study of Marxian analyses of the transition from feudalism to capitalism in England and France, see Katz, Claudio, From Feudalism to Capitalism: Marxian Theories of Class Struggle and Social Change (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1989), chap. 5.Google Scholar

34. Capital 1:713; 3:807.

35. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:190Google Scholar; “The Bill Proposing the Abolition of Feudal Obligations,” CW 7:295Google Scholar; Letter to Engels, 27 July 1854, Selected Correspondence, pp. 81–82.

36. “The Bourgeoisie and the Counter-Revolution, CW 8:161Google Scholar; “Moralising Criticism and Critical Morality,” CW 6:319.Google Scholar

37. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:190.Google Scholar

38. Marx, , Capital, 1:671–93.Google Scholar

39. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:189, 190.Google Scholar

40. Class Struggles, CW 10:120–21.Google Scholar Marx’s analysis of the peasantry’s adverse impact on productive development in nineteenth century France is prima facie evidence against Cohen’s interpretation of historical materialism, which maintains that a given set of class relations obtains because and only so long as it serves the optimal development of the forces of production (Marx’s Theory of History, chap. 6). It could of course be argued that the peasants were eventually expropriated from their lands, and that French productive development did eventually overtake its English counterpart. But the kind of time scale implicit in Cohen’s version of historical materialism depends upon a rather cavalier treatment of historical time and geographical space Marx did not countenance. See Wood, , “Rational Choice Marxism,” pp. 59–69.Google Scholar

41. German Ideology, CW 5:81, 87–89Google Scholar; Grundrisse, CW 28:410–12.Google Scholar

42. Draper, , Marx’s Theory of Revolution, 2:317, 337–39, 344–48.Google Scholar

43. Marx, , Capital, 3:798–9Google Scholar; The Civil War in France, First Draft, CW 22:494.Google Scholar

44. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:187.

45. This is Draper’s, characterization, Marx’s Theory of Revolution, 2:348–49.Google Scholar

46. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:193, n. bGoogle Scholar; Draper, , Marx’s Theory of Revolution, 2:358Google Scholar; Gilbert, , Marx’s Politics, pp. 201–11, 217–19.Google Scholar

47. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:187.Google Scholar

48. Marx, , Class Struggles, CW 10:134.Google Scholar

49. On the relationship between explanation and strategy in Marx’s work, see Gilbert, , Marx’s Politics, esp. pp. 5–16, 210–11.Google Scholar

50. Class Struggles, CW 10:122Google Scholar; The Civil War in France, CW 22:337–38.Google Scholar

51. “Bill Proposing Abolition of Feudal Obligations,” CW 7:290.Google Scholar

52. Marx, , The Civil War in France, CW 22:337.Google Scholar

53. Class Struggles, CW 10:121–22Google Scholar; Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:188, 191.Google Scholar

54. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:189–93.Google Scholar

55. Class Struggles, CW 10:54, 80Google Scholar; Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:187, 189.Google Scholar

56. Class Struggles, CW 10:80.Google Scholar

57. See, e.g., Draper, , Marx’s Theory of Revolution, 2:349.Google Scholar

58. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:189, 191.Google Scholar

59. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:188.Google Scholar

60. Class Struggles, CW 10:122Google Scholar; Civil War, CW 22:337–38.Google Scholar

61. Class Struggles, CW 10:80–81, 85Google Scholar; Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:193–96.Google Scholar

62. Draper, , Marx’s Theory of Revolution, 1:403.Google Scholar

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68. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:188Google Scholar; see also Civil War, CW 22:338.Google Scholar

69. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:187–88.Google Scholar Marx employs the same homology to explain the influence of the priests and the army. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:192.Google Scholar

70. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:190.Google Scholar

71. Civil War, CW 22:338.Google Scholar

72. Class Struggles, CW 10:120.Google Scholar

73. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:189Google Scholar; see also Class Struggles, CW 10:84, 118–20.Google Scholar

74. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:189, 192–93.Google Scholar

75. See, e.g., Price, Roger, A Social History of Nineteenth Century France (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1987), pp. 182–95Google Scholar; see also Gilbert, , Marx’s Politics, pp. 204–206.Google Scholar

76. Eighteenth Brumaire, CW 11:193, n. b.Google Scholar Marx deleted these lines from the 1869 edition of The Eighteenth Brumaire, just before the communards’ solo indeed became a bloody swan song at the hands of a counterrevolutionary army.

77. Anderson, , Arguments, p. 55.Google Scholar