Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Original Title -- Original Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 Theoretical abstraction and concrete analysis -- 2 Can there be a general theory of modes of production? -- 3 The concept of mode of production -- One Primitive communism, politics and the state -- 1 The concepts of necessary- and surplus-labour -- 2 Politics and the state -- 3 The primitive communist mode of production -- Two The ancient mode of production -- 1 The concept of the ancient mode of production -- 2 Social conflict in the ancient world -- 3 Trade and commodity production in the ancient world -- Three Slavery -- 1 The nature of slavery as an institution -- 2 Is slavery a form of political domination? -- 3 Is there a 'slave mode of production'? -- 4 The concept of the slave mode of production and the analysis of slave systems -- Four The 'Asiatic' mode of production -- 1 Questions of method -- 2 The theory of rent -- 3 Is there a mode of production which corresponds to the tax/rent couple? -- 4 The 'stasis' of the Asiatic mode of production - Asia has no history -- 5 Wittfogel and 'hydraulic' society -- Five The feudal mode of production -- 1 Feudal rent and the feudal mode of production -- 2 The concept of feudal mode of production -- 3 The relations of production and the forces of production -- 4 Variant forms of the feudal mode of production -- Six The transition from feudalism to capitalism -- 1 Balibar's conception of manufacture as a transitional mode of production -- 2 Teleological causality and material causality in the analysis of transition -- 3 The transition from feudalism to capitalism -- Conclusion -- Concepts and history -- The object of history -- Althusser's proposal for a 'science of history' -- Concepts and the concrete -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index