Karl Marx and the Global History of the Civil War: The Slave Movement, Working-Class Struggle, and the American State within the World Market

Abstract This essay stitches together the fragments of Marx's work on United States that are scattered in newspaper articles, letters, notes, some digressions his early writings, economic manuscripts and Capital (1867). The main aim is to show what we can call a “global history Civil War” emerges from pen: global not simply geographical sense, is, because it expands European space beyond Atlantic towards Pacific, but also general meaning takes capitalism. highlights how War opened Marxian issue emancipation, vision class struggle view working class, presence black proletariat interacted with white classes, latter which until then had been focus work. It different disarticulated voices labor – slave free, both sides effected revolutionary shift War: interjecting “revolutionary turn” into “long constitutional history” political conflict between North South changed social shape nation. More importantly, reconstructs be termed “state moment,” was entangled War. As transnational calls for emancipation slavery wage impacted processes accumulation industrial capital, American state became player world market: its financial fiscal policies socially linked government capital. In this as underlines conclusion, Marx effectively drafted, outlined theoretical hypothesis formed basis mature reflection pages Capital: “emancipation labour” should thought issue, “neither local nor national, problem.”