Table of Contents

Part 1 Historical materialism - exposition and defence: forces and relations of production; base and superstructure; being, consciousness and roles; historical inevitability and revolutionary agency; human nature and social change in the Marxist conception of history. Part 2 Historical materialism - criticism and revision: fettering; on an argument for historical materialism; reconsidering historical materialism; restricted and inclusive historical materialism. Part 3 Capitalism, labour and freedom: the dialectic of labour in Marx; the labour theory of value and the concept of exploitation; are disadvantaged workers who take hazardous jobs forced to take hazardous jobs?; the structure of proletarian unfreedom; freedom, justice and capitalism.

Reviews

` the reader is rewarded with many valuable insights'
Labour Research
`the familiar precision of argument and the relevance to contemporary debates make the continuation of this work all the more desirable ... It is political philosophy at its best'
Times Literary Supplement
`Very valuable for exposition and criticism.'
S. Ludlam, Sheffield University
'This is a collection of 14 essays marked by the lucidity and sharpness of argument that Made G. A. Cohen's Karl Marx's Theory of History: a Defence such an impressive tour de force. All stimulating and relevant stuff.'
David McLellan, University of Kent, Political Studies (1990), XXXVII