In his principal work, published in 1929, Henryk Grossman identified both the fundamental mechanism involved in capitalism’s tendency to break down, at the heart of capital accumulation, and the weaknesses in other Marxist explanations of economic crises.

He used evidence from Australia, amongst other places, to justify his arguments about the motives behind imperialism.

How does that evidence stack up against more recent studies?

Do flaws in his sources’ analyses about the white Australia policy undermine his own conclusions?

Rick Kuhn is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Sociology, ANU. His Henryk Grossman and the Recovery of Marxism won the 2007 international Deutscher Prize. He edited Class and Struggle in Australia (2010)and has published widely on political economy and Australian society. He is currently editing and introducing four volumes of Grossman’s works, many never previously translated into English.