7/30/2019 1983 Reviewed work(s) The Asiatic Mode of Production Science and Politics. by A. M. Bailey; J. R. Llobera

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Review: [untitled]Author(s): Susanne Weigelin-SchwiedrzikSource: The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Aug., 1983), pp. 899-900Published by: Association for Asian StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2054779 .

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7/30/2019 1983 Reviewed work(s) The Asiatic Mode of Production Science and Politics. by A. M. Bailey; J. R. Llobera

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/1983-reviewed-works-the-asiatic-mode-of-production-science-and-politics 2/3

BOOK REVIEWS-CHINA AND INNER ASIA 899

By the 1940s Fei was completely epelledby Kuomintang olicies, followingpath taken by many other ntellectualswho became disaffected ecause of KMTrepressionnd corruption. ike so many ssociatedwith the Democratic eague, heyearned ornonviolent, emocratic eforms. et when this hope provedfutile,hewelcomed he Communists with apparent nthusiasm."He stayed n China after1949, partly rom atriotism nd partlywith the hope of continuing is work ndmaking contributiono a new society.

The lasttwochapters fthebook, tome themost nteresting,hroniclehe ife fa "bourgeois ntellectual n the People's Republic." Not unlike manyotherswithsimilar ackgrounds,eiwent hrough period f nitial nthusiasm, ryingo adjustto the new values through pparently incere elf-criticism. e did some academicresearch,mostly n minorities, ut worked nder ertain estrictions. e took heart

from he HundredFlowersMovement, ut sufferedn the Anti-Rightist ovementbeginningn 1957. Indeed,hewas identifieds a member fthe Luo Long i-ZhangBojun alliance nd forced o confess is guilt before he National People'sCongress.He was severelyriticized or is rightist iews,his formerympathyoward andlordsand local governmentfficials, nd his "bourgeois ociology." rkush ffers well-reasoneddefense,maintaining hat, though Fei was never Marxist, his "chiefsympathy aswith hepeasants."He suggests hat hemajorreason or riticizingeiand other ntellectualswas Communist ear f the tendency f intellectuals o beskepticaland critical. Fei was not mistreated uring the Cultural Revolution,althoughhe did spend two years n a May Seventh adre School. Since the death of

Mao and theremoval f the Gang of Four,he has returnedo prominence,ble "totravel,write, nd work o rebuildChinese ociology."This is, in sum, a useful tudy,withan excellent nnotated ibliographyf Fei

Xiaotong'swritings. ut it s largely escriptive, ith ongsections ftranslationsrsummaries f Fei'swritings ver heyears.Whentheauthor enturesntoanalysis flarger ssues,he does so effectively,ut these nstances re too infrequentormytastes. References re made to the idea of studyingthe life of a Westernizedintellectualna timeofrevolutionaryhange,but too few omparisonsremade withsimilar ndividuals o concludewhether ei'sexperiences ererepresentativer not.The result s a book that s clearlywrittenndwell-organized,utinsufficientlyich

in texture.EUGENE LUBOT

Albright ollege

The AsiaticMode ofProduction:Science and Politics. EditedbyA. M. BAILEY

and J. R. LLOBERA. London: Routledgeand Kegan Paul, 1981. xi, 363pp. Bibliography,ndex. $18.50.

This is an informativeeader n the history ftheconcept fthe AsiaticMode ofProduction"AMP) foreveryonewho wants to get some basic knowledge f thedevelopmentf this theory.t includes general ntroductionythe editors,A. M.Bailey ndJ. R. Llobera who work n the field f anthropologynd sociology) ndfour artson the sources nd formationf theconcept, he fateof the AMP fromPlekhanow o Stalin, theWittfogel atershed,nd the contemporaryebateon theAMP Theseparts re subdividednto n introductoryotebytheeditors, choiceoftexts someof thempublished n English or hefirst ime), nda short ibliographyfor elected urthereadings.At the end of the book,theeditors resent bibliogra-

7/30/2019 1983 Reviewed work(s) The Asiatic Mode of Production Science and Politics. by A. M. Bailey; J. R. Llobera

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900 JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES

phy f "works eferredo in the textswritten y theeditors nd additional ources ntheAMP" (p. 336), unfortunatelyorgettingo include ome of the titles hey uotein their ntroductions, hich s rather nhelpful o the reader.

In thegeneral ntroduction,he editors resent heir iewof the methodologicaland epistemological roblems f research n the history f science nd especially nthe historyof social science and Marxism, concentrating n the questions ofinternalism ersus xternalism, ontinuism ersus iscontinuism,nd tending o amoreor less eclectical tandpoint.

In the introductiono part 1, they ummarize he main trends f pre-Marxistwritings n Asiatic societies, but the texts they use derive exclusively rom hewritingsfMarx nd Engels. They ustifyheir hoice ftexts ytheir nderstandingofthem s "a foundationponwhich heconcept ftheAMP was elaborated"p. 13).This seems o be thereasonwhy hey o not evengive biographical ints or deeperstudyof pre-Marxist ritings n Asia, which feelwould be of greathelp for hereader n understandinghe background f the articles y Marx and Engels.

The secondpart oncentratesnthediscussion ftheconceptn theSovietUnionwith the introduction xplaining the political background nd its implicationsconcerning he policyof the CPSU underStalin and theComintern.Although heeditorsunderline he close connection f the debate to the question of how tolegitimate he revolutionn China, theyunfortunatelyo not present textfromChinese uthor.

The third nd, to mymind,most nterestingartpresentswotexts yWittfogel

and a number f reviews f hisoeuvreOriental espotism.his part has a somewhatstrongercademicflavor,lthough venherethe reader etsthe mpressionhatthestandpointne takes oward he AMP is morea questionofWeltanschauunghan ofscientific esearch.

Part4 consists f two differentypesof texts s products fa newattempt tdiscussing heconcept fthe AMP thatbegan n the ate 1950s. On the one hand,theeditors iscuss heproblem na mainly heoreticalevel;on theotherhand, theytry odevelop heconceptby applying tto thestudy f"precapitalist"ocieties.Bytheir hoice of readings n this part,theeditors eem to stress hepointthat thedebateontheAMP has becomemore cholarlyver heyearsndneglect hefact hat

it has lately gain shown ts politicalpower s partoftheprocess funderstandingEast European societiesand of reevaluatingMarxismamong WesternEuropeanintellectuals.Although pparently wareof this, the editors o not seemto be in-terested n this aspectbecause theyneither nclude textswritten y authors ikeRudolf Bahro who, at least implicitly, iscusses heAMP) nor thosebyWesternEuropean ntellectualsike the nouveauxhilosophesnd theircriticism f Marxism(which s closelyrelated o theconcept ftheAMP).

Part 4 reveals he main problem of the book-the relationship etweenthescientificspectof the AMP and itspolitical mplicationsnd impacts.The editorsthemselves onceive f the concept s being both political nd scientific,ut to my

mindtheyoverstresshe scientificspect. In thepast, discussion f theAMP hasmainlybeenpolitical,and it seems to me that n the futuret will notprimarilyoccupyan important lace in the scientific ebate butwill once again becomeapoliticaland ideological tool, especially or Marxistdissidents"who try o definetheir ole nthepower onstellation ith heSovietUnionand Eastern urope ntheone side and theU.S.A. and Western uropeon the other ide.

SUSANNE WEIGELIN-SCHWIEDRZIK

RuhrUniversity,ochum