The Debate on Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital

Vivek Chibber’s Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital was hailed on publication as “without any doubt … a bomb,” and “the most substantive effort to dismantle the field through historical reasoning published to date.” It immediately unleashed one of the most important recent debates in social theory, ranging across the humanities and social sciences, on the status of postcolonial studies, modernity, and much else. This book brings together major critics of Chibber’s work to assess the adequacy of his argument from differing perspectives. Also included are Chibber’s own spirited responses and reformulations in light of these criticisms.

With contributions by Partha Chatterjee, Gayatri Spivak, Bruce Robbins, Ho-fung Hung, William H. Sewell, Bruce Cumings, George Steinmetz, Michael Schwartz, David Pederson, Stein Sundstol Eriksen, and Achin Vanaik.