Firearms & the Fortress

Karl Marx’s so-called theory of historical materialism has been one of the most influential social and political ideas in human history, but what if it missed something crucial? Science - even in the loose sense in which it applies to sociology - is never complete, and occasionally, a new insight may reveal the need for a thoroughgoing revision. Firearms & the Fortress argues that the means of production - the most basic ’level’ in Marx’s schema - can only be predicated on the basis of something even more fundamental: ’the means of securitisation.’ Along the way, we get an overview of recent critical theory and an attempt to map out a road to a better world.