Capital and Race

1492: a year that captivated the world. Columbus's "discovery" of a new continent is widely remembered for revealing both the wonders of the earth and the unprecedented capacity of men to free themselves from boundaries. But the invention of America was actually a story untold: the consecration of a new relationship between nature and mankind, which saw capital and race unite irrevocably. Sylvie Laurent tells the story of racial capitalism as a "two-headed creature" forged by figures such as Daniel Defoe in Robinson Crusoe, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Alexis de Tocqueville. Beneath these authors' fantasies of a free-market land of endless riches is the empire of racial capitalism. However powerful, this system has been identified and resisted by a long line of anti-colonial theorists, from Rosa Luxemburg to W. E. B. Du Bois. Against the backdrop of their thinking, and at a time when it is commonplace to oppose class struggles and racial demands, Laurent illuminates the rich and little-known intellectual tradition of overcoming the divide. It's about time, she argues, that Karl Marx and Martin Luther King Jr. get to talk to one another. Capital and Race: The History of a Modern Hydra is a timely and gripping intellectual history that will be of interest to historians and general readers alike.

I INTRODUCTION Reuniting Marx and Martin Luther King II BOOK ONE – Origins Chapter 1 - The Birth of America and the Dawn of Capitalist Modernity Chapter 2 - The Origin of Racial Views III BOOK TWO – Institutions Chapter 3 - The Plantation Chapter 4 - The Academy Chapter 5 - The Multinationals Chapter 6 - The Colonial Contract IV BOOK THREE - Narratives Chapter 7 - Robinson Crusoe, a Parable of Racial Capitalism Chapter 8 - Emancipation through Trade V BOOK FOUR - Praxis Chapter 9 - The Civilizing Mission of Capitalism Chapter 10 - The Rehabilitation of Imperialism Chapter 11 - The Fundamental Structures of Racial Capitalism VI EPILOGUE - Territories Notes Index