On the Dead of World History

In: Race & class: a journal on racism, empire and globalisation, Band 43, Heft 4, S. 26-33

Abstract

Despite the advance of global capitalism & the decline of precapitalist social & economic structures in Europe, the peasantry has not died out. Examined here is the problematic status of the peasant class across history & in Marxist historical writing. Three arguments are proffered regarding (1) the centrality of the peasant experience to any understanding of history & political transformation, (2) the status of the dead in the peasant experience, particularly in the writings of John Berger, & (3) the centrality of the dead in the experiences of the peasantry, the working class, & Marxism itself. 15 References. K. Hyatt Stewart