White Light Black Light

by Chris Harman, published by Bookmarks.

Contents Introduction

Part 1: The rise of class societies

Prologue: Before Class The neolithic 'revolution' The first civilisations The first class divisions Women's oppression The first 'Dark Ages'

Part 2: The ancient world

Iron and empires Ancient India The first Chinese empires The Greek city states Rome's rise and fall The rise of Christianity

Part 3: The 'Middle Ages'

The centuries of chaos China: the rebirth of the empire Byzantium The Islamic revolutions The African civilisations European feudalism

Part 4: The great transformation

The conquest of the New Spain Renaissance to Reformation The birth pangs of a new order The last flowering of Asia's empires

Part 5: The spread of the new order

A time of social peace From superstition to science The Enlightenment Slavery and wage slavery Slavery and racism The economics of 'free labour'

Part 6: The world turned upside down

American prologue The French Revolution Jacobinism outside France The retreat of reason The industrial revolution The Birth of Marxism The American Civil War 1848 The conquest of the East The Japanese exception Storming heaven: the Paris Commune

Part 7: The century of hope and horror

The world of capital World war and world revolution Europe in turmoil Revolt in the colonial world The 'Golden Twenties' The great slump Strangled hope: 1934-36 Midnight in the century The Cold War The new world disorder

Conclusion Notes Glossary Further Reading