This paper argues that the interwar Japanese Marxists Miki Kiyoshi and more contemporary Hiromatsu Wataru each moved towards developing this perspective beyond simple distinctions between idealism, which is confined to concepts, and materialism, conceived as presupposing that ideas are determined by matter. Japanese Marxism was in a unique place to affect such a synthesis because of the existence of Kyoto School philosophy, with whom both Miki and Hiromatsu were associated. The proponents of the Kyoto School combined Eastern and Western philosophical perspectives, which had the aim of criticizing modernity. Miki Kiyoshi and other members of the Kyoto School eventually supported Japan's wartime effort, which delegitimized their concerns about modernity during the postwar. However, in postwar Japan, Hiromatsu developed a creative reading of Marx's materialism and in the 1994 surprised everyone by advocating a pan-Asianist critique of modernity. Hiromatsu suggested that despite problems that Miki and the Kyoto School represented, one had to grasp the rational kernel, which could save Marxism from slipping into an equally dangerous modernization theory. This task remains for us today when the dystopia of globalized capitalism seems to have become a reality that threatens the survival of our planet.

In 1829 Pushkin visited his brother and friends in the Caucasus Corps, going on to participate in the capture of Erzurum. This marked a decisive shift in the international balance of power. Victory over Persia in 1827 and Turkey in 1829 transformed Russia into the dominant force in the Middle East for a generation until the Crimean War. Spectacular success was an almost accidental by-product of the 1825 Decembrist Revolt. Many serving Decembrists had been reduced to the ranks and exiled south. A transient, fractious combination of prudent commander and free spirits rose to rare quality of achievement. Pushkin's A Journey to Arzrum (Erzurum) celebrates his friends’ part in delivering for Russia and salutes the Russia they stood for. The literary challenge was steep. Its text had to pass muster with an infuriated Tsar Nicholas, his “personal censor”. Pushkin's skilfully drafted and structured narrative met the test, contriving at the same time to accommodate a pervasive running commentary and political messages about reconciliation, combining the best of Russia's talents and a better future. Typically innovative and beautifully written, the travelogue conducts the reader on a lively tour of the Caucasus with a rich store of incident and issues along the way.

The widely acclaimed Capital and Ideology, though an important contribution to the inequality debates, is limited by its use of secondary sources and fiscal state framework in its historical analysis of China. Its arguments for a Confucian trifunctional society with property rights sacralized by nobles’ and scholars’ regalian functions, and persistently low and stagnant taxation in premodern China overly simplify the historical reality. Using primary Chinese sources, this article highlights the major oversimplifications. The information and issues presented here are also worth considering for similar social and fiscal studies of premodern China.

While processes of land-use change have triggered conflicts across Asia, our knowledge of the responses of affected communities is largely based on case-studies. This review essay addresses this challenge by reviewing and synthesizing 49 studies of conflicts between rural communities and companies in order to identify salient characteristics of anti-corporate activism in Indonesia. We find that, in contrast to the ‘rightful resistance’ observed elsewhere, the strategies employed by rural communities in Indonesia are remarkably “rightless” as both their discourse and their conflict resolution efforts are marked by a remarkable irrelevance of laws, regulations and courts. Communities frame their claims mostly in terms of customary laws while largely relying on informal mediation by local authorities. We attribute this “rightless” character of land-use change conflicts to the weak legal protection of land rights in Indonesia and the relative powerlessness of communities in the face of collusion between authorities and companies.