The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System, Being also a Theory of Crises. DRAFT

Abstract

Henryk Grossman's 1929 The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System, Being also a Theory of Crises was one of the most important works of Marxist economics of the twentieth century and remains a reference point in the literature. It recovered Marx's theory of economic crisis, grounded in the tendency for the rate of profit to fall and its counter-tendencies and a path-breaking account of the logical structure of Marx's Capital, provided a critique of other theories of economic crises under capitalism. Grossman also identified the relationship between capitalism's tendency to breakdown and the revolutionary working class action. Rick Kuhn's introduction to this first full translation of Grossman's book into English places it in the context of Grossman’s life and work, summarises its main arguments, surveys its reception and assesses the main criticisms that have been made of it. Show more