Mat wrote:
>Let's be very clear. I have stated previously that not only do I reject the
>equating of temporal priority with "superiority" I also do not accept
>arguments
>that capitalism was developing in other areas of the world. More importantly,
>Williams-Rodney and contemporary proponents of Williams Rodney make no such
>arguments. If anything, it is the other way around. Alternative traditional
>modes were disrupted and destroyed by capitalism, and the rise of
>capitalism in
>Europe reflects, if not "inferiority", cultural-ideological and other
>conditions
>that are certainly not the source of any kind of "bragging rights."
however, it sure seems that Louis equates temporal priority with
"superiority." He lambastes Brenner, for example, because the latter argues
that England was first to suffer from full-scale capitalism. He then
equates this temporal priority to "superiority" by inaccurately asserting
that Brenner saw the priority as arising from England's relative efficiency.
In another missive, he inaccurately says that >Brenner ... believe[s] that
capitalism arose in England purely as a consequence of internal factors.<
In yet another missive, Louis says: >I argue against the proposition that
capitalism arose in England purely as a consequence of internal factors
uninfluenced by colonialism and slavery.<
This is a red herring. There's no-one on the left who ignores colonialism
and slavery. Brenner doesn't, for example. If you ask Wood, I'd bet she
doesn't either. Her book seems to be at an inappropriately high level of
abstraction (leaving out a lot of stuff that Marx talks about, for
example), which might be explained by the fact that she's not an historian.
(Brenner _is_ an historian, which helps explain some of the weird stuff in
his academic-style works like his _Economics of Global Turbulence_, e.g.,
his not mentioning of the poor countries outside of East Asia. Historians
are supposed to limit their discussion to stuff they have evidence
concerning.)
The fact is that we can learn from both Brenner and Blaut, from Wood and
A.G. Frank. We can't expect any of these folks to be the font of all wisdom.
BTW, Brenner called me the other day. He tells me that he's changed his
first name to Renegade, so that from now on he's "the Renegade Brenner."
(This is quite efficient, BTW, since he doesn't have to get new luggage
since his initials haven't changed.)
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
