The Transition Debate Today Abstract: Spencer Dimmock has produced a convincing restatement, defence and update of Robert Brenner’s influential work on the origin of capitalism in England. The book productively engages with many Marxist and non-Marxist critics of the so-called ‘Brenner Thesis’, and presents fresh secondary and primary evidence in favour of it. This review sketches the theoretical background of Brenner’s intervention, summarizes Dimmock’s take on Brenner and comments on a few notable contemporary critiques of Brenner’s general framework which are not explicitly engaged with by Dimmock. Keywords: transition – Robert Brenner – social-property relations – capitalism – Eurocentrism The Origin of Capitalism in England, 1400–1600 Spencer Dimmock Leiden: Brill, 2014 Explanations of the historical origin of capitalism and the complex process of transition from pre-capitalist societies are a particularly exciting part of the larger historical materialist paradigm. 1 What is particularly exciting about them is that on the one hand they connect, at least implicitly, with many related historical issues, such as famous revolutions, wars, state-building and other epochal events; and on the other 1 The most recent work in this field includes Anievas and Nişancıoğlu 2015; Banaji 2011; Davidson 2012; Heller 2011; Isett and Miller 2017; Post 2012; Žmolek 2013.