The Dispossessed Karl Marx's Debates on Wood Theft and the Right of the Poor

"In 1842, the young Karl Marx analyzed the consequences of capitalist rural enclosures in Rhineland. Today, patent rights, biotechnologies, and different forms of intellectual property, Daniel BensaÏd convincingly argues, are means of dispossession of human beings exactly as the land enclosures of almost two centuries ago had been a crucial moment in the process of the accumulation of capital. Far from being 'neutral' or 'natural,' market society was-and still remains-built as a planned dispossession. This is a timely and highly original essay by a towering figure of French critical thought."-Enzo Traverso, author of Left-Wing Melancholia: Marxism, History, and Memory

"Within a single volume, this book makes available to English-language readers for the first time not only fresh translations of Marx's 'wood theft articles' but also Daniel BensaÏd's lucid and incisive commentary on these pieces. BensaÏd's short book brings the Marx articles alive for contemporary audiences and demonstrates their enduring relevance for longstanding debates about law, property, and rights."-Samuel A. Chambers, Johns Hopkins University

"BensaÏd's essay, as contextualized in this volume by Nichols, successfully pushes, especially those of a Marxist orientation, to make the idea of dispossession more central to their theoretical and practical work."-Marx & Philosophy