Analysis Of Maurice Herbert Dobb’s Economic History Thought

Maurice Herbert Dobb was a prominent economic historian in British Marxisthistory school. His academic researches inherited and developed the Marxisttheoretical system and his historic theory broken through the traditionalhistoriography concept. Dobb was good at adopting unique research perspective. Hehad made remarkable achievements in the field of the capitalist economy historyresearch, by taking the economic and history cross field of vision.The paper’s main line is Maurice Dobb’s economic history thought. Chapter1copes with the era of the academic background and social and political environmentwhen Dobb lived in. In these social and historical conditions, Dobb formed his ownunique historical thought and wrote many academic famous books. Chapter2is thecentre of gravity in the whole text. By investigating the questions of origin ofEuropean capitalism and the long time of European social history, chapter2discussesthe decline of the feudal social system. Dobb revealed “the main driving force” of thetransition from feudal society to capitalist society, with special class struggleperspective. Chapter3deals with the “Dobb–Sweezy Controversy”, which is afamous dispute in the western historical field. The “Dobb–Sweezy Controversy”embodied the new idea of Marxist historiography in the Dobb’s economic thought. Inthe context of modern economic and social development, Dobb primarily analyzed therelations of material production, the origin and development of the modern capitalismeconomy, and the questions of the feudal social transition to capitalist society. Chapter4explores Dobb’s contribution to the history of Marxist economicthought—introducing the feudal socio-economic system “collapse” theory, correctingthe widespread misunderstanding to the Riparian theory in academic circles, andinvestigating the situation of the Soviet economy in the Marxist Economic Theoryperspective. The last chapter discusses Dobb’s contribution to the history of Marxisteconomic thought and the new western Marxism historiography.