Helen Maixins Wood

Helen Maixins Wood (Ellen Meiksins Wood) - American Marxist historian. Born April 12, 1942 in New York, died January 14, 2016 in Ottawa. She worked along the lines of Political Marxism (which also includes Robert Brenner , George Comninel, Benno Teshke, Charlie Post). Together with Brenner (although their views did not coincide in everything) Wood is considered the founder of the version of historical materialism, which is called "political Marxism" and in which more attention is paid to politics, violence and class struggle.

Activity

Wood was best known for her work on the history of political thought, from Antiquity to modernity, where she always interpreted ideas in the context of social and economic conditions. For several years she was the editor of the New Left Review, and then, with Paul Sweesy, the editor of the Monthly Review, the leading left-wing magazines. In the field of political economy, Wood and Brenner wrote about how important, in addition to the "vertical" relationship of labor and capital, not to forget about the "horizontal" relationship of capital between themselves - the role of capital competition in the development of capitalism in general and in its dynamics in the 20th century Particularly runs a red thread through their work. Wood’s ideas about democracy, which, under capitalism in its opinion, should be redefined taking into account the enormous power that employers have over workers, are interesting: the arbitrariness of the market limits our freedom much more than the state, and these restrictions must be thought of politically.

Links

• https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/01/ellen-wood-obituary-chibber-retreat-from-class-origins-of-capitalism-marxist/
• https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2302-ellen-meiksins-wood-the-separation-of-the-economic-and-the-political-in-capitalism
• http://crookedtimber.org/2016/01/14/ellen-meiksins-wood-1942-2016/