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As soon as we seem to have succeeded in pinpointing the origins of capitalism, the ground inevitably shifts beneath our feet. The reason for this is that the enterprise requires a definition of what capitalism is. A definition that is necessarily part of the normative debates about capitalism itself. It is therefore a question of establishing the genealogy of a system in which we live and to which our normative commitment is necessarily strong. Should we look for the origin of capitalism in the factories and machinery of the Industrial Revolution, or in the birth of a capitalist mentality? In the emergence of long-distance trade or in the European Liberal Revolutions? In the colonial exploitation of this same Europe or in the agrarian reforms of the 17th century? Each of these choices has a particular bearing on our contemporary societies.
The question of the conditions for the emergence of capitalism has been discussed throughout the history of ideas, especially by Marxist thinkers. With François Allisson, we are particularly interested in the history of debates among Marxist historians on the transition from feudalism to capitalism. So far, we have concentrated on the work of the American historian Robert Brenner, whose work has left its mark on the history of Marxist thought and given rise to a major debate, the Brenner Debate.
Comment et quand le monde a-t-il basculé dans ce système que l'on appelle « capitalisme » ? C’est dans cette discussion que s’inscrit le Brenner Debate, du nom de l’historien américain Robert Brenner. À l’origine de ce débat important parmi les historiennes et historiens du capitalisme, les travaux de Robert Brenner ont exercé une influence majeure sur le développement de la pensée marxiste à partir des années 1970.
Dans une première partie, François Allisson et Nicolas Brisset retracent et contextualisent les principales étapes de ce débat ayant mené aux travaux de Robert Brenner. Les auteurs montrent ainsi que la manière d’aborder l’histoire du capitalisme est intimement liée au regard que l’on porte sur ce système économique. Une seconde partie propose la traduction inédite d’un article de Robert Brenner paru en 2007, « Propriété et progrès : quand Adam Smith faisait fausse route », qui constitue, de l’aveu même de son auteur, la version définitive de son argument développé en 1976.
Cet ouvrage est une porte d’entrée sur la pensée d’un économiste méconnu dans l’espace francophone, qui pourtant mérite, au regard de son importance dans l’historiographie anglo-saxonne, toute notre attention.
How and when did the world fall into the system we call capitalism? The Brenner Debate, named after the American historian Robert Brenner, is part of this discussion. Robert Brenner's work has had a major influence on the development of Marxist thought since the 1970s, and is at the root of this important debate among historians of capitalism.
In the first part, François Allisson and Nicolas Brisset retrace and contextualise the main stages of the debate that led to Robert Brenner's work. The authors show that the way in which the history of capitalism is approached is intimately linked to the way in which this economic system is viewed. The second part contains a previously unpublished translation of an article by Robert Brenner published in 2007, ‘Property and progress: when Adam Smith got it wrong’, which, by its author's own admission, is the definitive version of his argument developed in 1976.
This book is a gateway to the thinking of an economist who is little known in the French-speaking world, yet who deserves our full attention in view of his importance in Anglo-Saxon historiography.
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