The American road to capitalism : studies in class-structure, economic development, and political conflict, 1620-1877

**Short Listed for the 2011 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize** Unable to analyze the dynamics of specific forms of social labour in the antebellum U.S., most historians of the US Civil War have ignored its deep social roots. To search out these roots, Post applies the theoretical insights from the transition debates to the historical literature on the U.S. to produce a new analysis of the origins of American capitalism. Most US historians assume that capitalism either "came in the first ships" or was the inevitable result of the expansion of the market. Unable to analyze the dynamics of specific forms of social labour in the antebellum US, most historians of the US Civil War have privileged autonomous political and ideological factors, ignoring the deep social roots of the conflict. This book applies theoretical insights derived from the debates on the transition to capitalism in Europe to the historical literature on the US to produce a new analysis of the origins of capitalism in the US, and the social roots of the Civil War. Winner of the Paul Sweezy Marxist Sociology Book Award 2013 Short-listed for the 2011 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize The American Road To Capitalism -- The Agrarian Origins Of Us Capitalism : The Transformation Of The Northern Countryside Before The Civil War -- Plantation-slavery And Economic Development In The Antebellum Southern United States -- Agrarian Class-structure And Economic Development In Colonial British North America : The Place Of The American Revolution In The Origins Of Us Capitalism -- Social-property Relations, Class-connfict, And The Origins Of The Us Civil War : Toward A New Social Interpretation. By Charles Post ; With A Foreword By Ellen Meiksins Wood. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [279]-293) And Index. Content: The American road to capitalism -- The agrarian origins of US capitalism : the transformation of the Northern countryside before the Civil War -- Plantation-slavery and economic development in the antebellum southern United States -- Agrarian class-structure and economic development in colonial British North America : the place of the American revolution in the origins of US capitalism -- Social-property relations, class-connfict, and the origins of the US Civil War : toward a new social interpretation. This book synthesizes Marxian theory with the existing historical literature to produce a new analysis of the origins of capitalism in the US and the social roots of the US Civil War.