Marx's Theory of Crisis as a Theory of Class Struggle

Following a survey of Marx and Engels’ major writings on crisis from the early 1840s to the 1860s (Section II) we set out a systematic exposition and interpretation of their theory of capitalist accumulation and its crises (Sections III VIII). Our principal objective is to show, first, how their theoretical work grew out of, and was integral to, their political struggles; second, how they came eventually to formulate their theories of crisis in terms of class conflict. Our systematic exposition of their theories of crisis offers a new interpretation and demonstrates how that interpretation is both internally consistent and semantically meaningful.