57 pages • 1 hour read
Raj PatelA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Feudalism was a social, political, and economic system that dominated medieval Europe, particularly between the ninth and 15th centuries. It emerged in the aftermath of the collapse of the Carolingian Empire and the subsequent period of political fragmentation and instability.
Under feudalism, society was structured around a hierarchical system of land ownership and loyalty. The king or monarch granted land (known as fiefs) to nobles (lords) in exchange for military service and other forms of support. These nobles, in turn, granted smaller parcels of land to lesser nobles or knights, who pledged their loyalty and service to their lord. At the bottom of this hierarchy were the peasants or serfs, who worked the land and owed labor and a portion of their crops to their lord in exchange for protection and the right to use the land.
Key features of feudalism included a decentralized power structure, an agrarian economy, reciprocal obligations, social hierarchy, and military service. Under feudalism, political power was distributed among a network of lords and vassals, with the king having limited control over distant territories. The economy was primarily based on agriculture, with serfs working the land and producing crops for their lords. The feudal system was characterized by a complex web of rights and obligations between lords and vassals, with each party owing specific duties and services to the other. Society was divided into distinct social classes, with limited social mobility; birth largely determined one’s place in the social order. The feudal system was designed to provide a reliable source of military manpower, with vassals obligated to provide knights and soldiers to their lords when called upon.
Feudalism began to decline in the late Middle Ages due to a variety of factors, including the rise of centralized monarchies, the growth of cities and commerce, the impact of the Black Death, and the increasing use of mercenary armies. Patel and Moore also argue that revolts and climate change caused feudalism to crumble and capitalism to rise in its wake. The system gradually gave way to more centralized forms of government and the emergence of nation-states in the early modern period. Patel and Moore root their history of capitalism in the decline of feudalism, writing that those in power spurred the creation of capitalism as they sought a means to retain and expand their power and profit in the midst of a crumbling societal structure.
While Patel and Moore draw on a wide variety of scholarly research in A History of the World of Seven Cheap Things, one prominent figure whose work undergirds many of their critiques of capitalism is Karl Marx, author of The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867).
Marx, the influential 19th-century German philosopher, economist, and socialist revolutionary, developed a comprehensive critique of capitalism that has had a lasting impact on social, political, and economic thought. Marx’s analysis of capitalism is rooted in his theory of “historical materialism,” which holds that the mode of production—the way in which society produces and distributes goods—shapes all aspects of social life, including political institutions, cultural values, and human consciousness.
Marx argued that capitalism alienates workers from the products of their labor, the act of production itself, their fellow workers, and their own human potential. According to Marx, capitalism is based on the exploitation of the working class (the proletariat) by the owners of the means of production (the bourgeoisie). The bourgeoisie extracts surplus value from the labor of the proletariat, accumulating wealth and power at the expense of the workers. Marx saw history as a series of class struggles between oppressors and oppressed, with capitalism representing the latest stage in this conflict. He believed that the inherent contradictions of capitalism would ultimately lead to its overthrow by the proletariat and the establishment of a communist society.
Under capitalism, Marx argued, everything becomes a commodity, including labor, which is bought and sold on the market. This commodification of human activity leads to the devaluation of individual worth and the erosion of social bonds. Marx noted that capitalism tends to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a small elite, leading to growing inequality and the impoverishment of the working class. Furthermore, he believed that capitalism is prone to periodic crises of overproduction, in which the market becomes flooded with goods that cannot be sold, leading to economic downturns, unemployment, and social unrest.
While Marx acknowledged the historically progressive role played by capitalism in breaking down feudal social relations and unleashing the productive forces of society, he ultimately believed that it was a transitory stage on the path to a higher form of social organization—communism—in which the means of production would be owned and controlled collectively by the workers. Marx’s ideas have had a profound influence on subsequent socialist and communist movements, as well as on fields like sociology, economics, and literary theory.
Books that Feature the Theme of...
View Collection
Business & Economics
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Colonialism & Postcolonialism
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Contemporary Books on Social Justice
View Collection
Earth Day
View Collection
Globalization
View Collection
Indigenous People's Literature
View Collection
Nation & Nationalism
View Collection
Politics & Government
View Collection
Power
View Collection
Science & Nature
View Collection