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From 1898-1916 the leading lights of international marxism debated the nature of imperialism. This volume collects and translates these discussions.
List of contents
Editorial Introduction
1. Max Beer, ‘Modern English Imperialism’ (London, November 1897)
2. Max Beer, ‘The United States in 1898’ (New York, 31 December 1898)
3. Max Beer, ‘The United States in 1899’ (New York, 19 November 1899)
4. Paul Louis, ‘Anglo-Saxon Imperialism’ (March 1899)
5. Paul Louis, ‘Imperialism in England and the United States’ (September–December 1900)
6. Karl Kautsky, ‘The War in South Africa’ (November 1899)
7. Karl Kautsky, ‘Germany, England and World-Policy’ (8 and 10 May 1900)
8. Heinrich Cunow, ‘Trade-Agreements and Imperialist Expansion-Policy’ (May 1900)
9. Heinrich Cunow, ‘American Expansionist Policy in East Asia’ (June–July 1902)
10. Eduard Bernstein, ‘Social Democracy and Imperialism’ (May 1900)
11. Theodor Rothstein, ‘The South-African War and the Decadence of English Liberalism’ (July 1901)
12. Max Beer, ‘Reflections on England’s Decline’ (New York, March 1901)
13. Max Beer, ‘Social Imperialism’ (8 November 1901)
14. Max Beer, ‘Party-Projects in England’ (January 1902)
15. Max Beer, ‘Imperialist Policy’ (December 1902)
16. Max Beer, ‘Imperialist Literature’ (December 1906)
17. Paul Louis, ‘An Essay on Imperialism’ (April 1904)
18. Julian Marchlewski-Karski, ‘English Imperialism’ (4 October 1904)
19. Julian Marchlewski-Karski, ‘A Victory of Imperialism’ (10 November 1904)
20. Otto Bauer, ‘On British Imperialism’ (January 1907)
21. Parvus (Alexander Helphand), ‘Before the “Hottentot Elections”’ (January 1907)
22. Parvus (Alexander Helphand), Colonies and Capitalism in the Twentieth Century (June 1907)
23. Rudolf Hilferding, ‘German Imperialism and Domestic Politics’ (October 1907)
24. Otto Bauer, ‘Austria and Imperialism’ (October 1908)
25. Otto Bauer, ‘National and International Viewpoints on Foreign Policy’ (September 1909)
26. Otto Bauer, ‘Imperialism and Socialism in England’ (January 1910)
27. Otto Bauer, ‘Finance Capital’ (June 1910)
28. Julian B. Marchlewski (Karski), ‘Rudolf Hilferding’s Finance Capital: A Study of the Latest Phase of Capitalist Development’ (27 August 1910)
29. Rosa Luxemburg, ‘Peace-Utopias’ (6–8 May 1911)
30. Rosa Luxemburg, ‘Morocco’ (August 1911)
31. Rosa Luxemburg, ‘Petty-Bourgeois or Proletarian World-Policy?’ (19 August 1911)
32. Karl Kautsky, ‘World-Politics, World-War and Social Democracy!’ (August 1911)
33. Rosa Luxemburg, ‘Our Broadsheet on Morocco’ (26 August 1911)
34. Rudolf Hilferding, ‘The Party-Congress and Foreign Policy’ (September 1911)
35. Julian Marchlewski (Karski), ‘Imperialism or Socialism?’ (1912)
36. Karl Radek, ‘German Imperialism and the Working Class’ (March 1912)
37. Karl Radek, ‘Our Struggle against Imperialism’ (May 1912)
38. Paul Lensch, ‘Militia and Disarmament’ (August 1912)
39. Gustav Eckstein, ‘Imperialism and Arms-Limitation’ (September 1912)
40. Karl Radek, ‘Ways and Means in the Struggle against Imperialism’ (14 September 1912)
41. Paul Lensch, ‘Social Democracy and Foreign Policy’ (9 December 1912)
42. SPD Party-Congress at Chemnitz, Debate and Resolution on Imperialism (15-21 September, 1912)
43. Anton Pannekoek, ‘Review of Rosa Luxemburg: The Accumulation of Capital: A Contribution to the Economic Explanation of Imperialism’ (January 1913)
44. Gustav Eckstein, ‘Rosa Luxemburg’s The Accumulation of Capital: A Critique’ (16 February 1913)
45. Otto Bauer, ‘The Accumulation of Capital’ (1913)
46. Franz Mehring, ‘Review of Rosa Luxemburg, The Accumulation of Capital: A Contribution to an Economic Explanation of Imperialism’ (1914)
47. Karl Kautsky, ‘Imperialism’ (September 1914)
48. Anton Pannekoek, ‘The Collapse of the International’ (20–2 October 1914)
49. Karl Kautsky, ‘National State, Imperialist State and Confederation’ (February 1915)
50. Rosa Luxemburg, ‘Perspectives and Projects’ (1915)
51. Karl Radek, ‘The Driving Forces of Imperialism’ (March 1915)
52. Leon Trotsky, ‘The Nation and the Economy’ (July 1915)
53. Anton Pannekoek, ‘The Prehistory of the World-War’ (1915)
54. Anton Pannekoek, ‘Imperialism and the Tasks of the Proletariat’ (January 1916)
Appendix: Rosa Luxemburg and the Accumulation of Capital
References
About the author
Richard B. Day: Ph. D. (1970), University of London, is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Toronto, Canada. He has published extensively on Soviet economic and political history, including Leon Trotsky and the Politics of Economic Isolation (Cambridge, 1973).
Daniel F. Gaido: Ph.D. (2000), University of Haifa (Israel), is a researcher at the National Research Council (Conicet), Argentina. He is the author of The Formative Period of American Capitalism (Routledge, 2006) and is currently working on the history of German Social Democracy.
Summary
Though primarily associated with the most prominent figures in the history of European MarxismLenin, Luxemburg, Hilferding, and Bukharinthe theory of imperialism was actually developed through lively and engaged debates within the Second International from 1898–1916. This volume assembles and translates for the first time the main documents from this debate, and features contributions from Karl Kautsky, Parvus, Otto Bauer, Karl Radek, Anton Pannekoek, and Trotsky, among numerous others.
Foreword
Features in Historical Materialism
Promotion targeting left academic journals
Published to coincide with the annual Historical Materialism conference
Publicity and promotion in conjunction with the author's speaking engagements
Additional text
“[T]his is a really excellent book, which is deeply informative about the development of Marxist ideas about imperialism before Lenin’s famous text
[It] should be as widely read on the left as possible. It opens up a vista of a much more complex debate and development than our ‘traditional’ left narratives of the issue allow us to see.”
Mike Macnair, The Weekly Worker
"Richard B. Day and Daniel Gaido have performed a tremendous service by making available for the first time in english fifty-five articles documenting the debates among socialists (primarily, but not exclusively, within the German socialist movement) with respect to imperialism in the decade and a half leading up to World War I."
International Socialist Review
