Analytical anarchism? A critique of Alan Carter's anarchist theory of history. (February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ingham, Stuart
• Is Part Of: Capital & class. Volume 40:Number 1(2016)
• Page Start: 111
• Page End: 127
• Publication Date: 2016-02
• Subjects: Anarchism -- Alan Carter -- G. A. Cohen -- historical materialism -- history -- Marxism; Economics -- Periodicals; Socialism -- Periodicals; 330.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0309816815628009
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0309-8168

Abstract

Alan Carter has proposed that anarchists can develop their own theory of history by engaging with the work of analytical Marxists such as G. A. Cohen. This essay argues that Carter fails to build his own convincing theory of history because it retains too many of the faults within Cohen's reconstructed historical materialism. In particular, his historical theory depends upon an unsustainably extravagant dialectic.