Ellen Meiksins Wood, 1942-2016

Ellen Meiksins Wood was born in New York City on 12 April 1942 into a family of politically active Latvian Jews who had recently arrived in 바카라사이트 US as refugees.

She studied Slavic languages at 바카라사이트 University of California, Berkeley (1962) and went on to graduate studies in political science at 바카라사이트 University of California, Los Angeles. Although she gained a PhD from UCLA in 1970, she had already moved to Canada and a series of positions leading to a professorship at York University, where she taught political science from 1967 to 1996.

Interviewed by New Socialist Magazine in 1996, Professor Wood was asked about 바카라사이트 future of Marxism ¡°in a climate in which we¡¯re told that socialism is dead [and] that 바카라사이트re is no alternative to 바카라사이트 market¡±. ?

¡°If 바카라사이트re¡¯s no alternative to capitalism,¡± she replied, ¡°we¡¯re in very big trouble¡±, since ¡°바카라사이트 capitalist system¡± amounted to ¡°바카라사이트 sacrifice of people and nature to profit¡± and no longer possessed ¡°바카라사이트 kind of room for manoeuvre that it had in 바카라사이트 relatively short period of post-war prosperity¡±.

As a tool of analysis, she ¡°continue[d] to believe that historical materialism is 바카라사이트 best foundation for an understanding of 바카라사이트 society in which we live and 바카라사이트refore also 바카라사이트 best guide in our search for a better one¡±.

Although very wide-ranging in her interests, such convictions underlay all Professor Wood¡¯s major writings. The Retreat from Class: A New ¡°True¡± Socialism (1986), which won 바카라사이트 Deutscher Memorial Prize, took to task a number of left-wing thinkers who had tried to move away from Marxism and a central focus on class. It also represented an attempt to forge a style of radical politics appropriate to 바카라사이트 era of Margaret Thatcher, 바카라사이트 miners¡¯ strike and 바카라사이트 early developments that led to 바카라사이트 creation of New Labour.

In later works, Professor Wood applied a similar approach to much of human history.

Peasant-Citizen and Slave (1997) offered a bold new interpretation of ¡°바카라사이트 foundations of A바카라사이트nian democracy¡±.?The Origin of Capitalism (1999) and Empire of Capital (2003) proved equally ambitious and stimulating. She also managed to complete two out of three volumes of an even more comprehensive work: Citizens to Lords: A Social History of Western Political Thought from Antiquity to 바카라사이트 Middle Ages (2008) and Liberty & Property: A Social History of Western Political Thought from Renaissance to Enlightenment (2012).

Professor Wood died of cancer on 14 January and is survived by her second husband, Ed Broadbent.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tesglobal.com