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Description of Imperialism and War

With the eruption of American military power after 9/11, the concept of imperialism has reemerged in contemporary political debates. Here, collected in a single volume with annotation, are two foundational texts analyzing imperialism from a Marxist perspective.
In 1914, total war broke out in Europe, as nations vied with one another for dominance on an increasingly competitive world stage. Socialists throughout the world were sharply divided over how to respond. Some parties defended their own nations’ devastating war efforts; others favored pacifist opposition. A third grouping based their opposition to war on the insightful new perspective developed by Lenin and Bukharin: a trenchant critique of the role of militarism and international competition under capitalism.
Here, with critical notes and context, are Lenin's Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism and Bukharin's Imperialism and World Economy. They are essential readings for understanding the nature of imperialism and war historically—and today.

Title Information

ISBN:

9781931859660

Pages:

180 pages

Format:

Paperback

Product Code:

412060

Publisher:

Haymarket Books

Published:

26/08/2010

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About Phil Gasper (Editor)

V.I. Lenin was a leading member of the Bolshevik party in Russia from 1912 until his death in 1924, and is widely considered to have founded a distinct tradition in the struggle for revolutionary socialism, built from below. He is the author of celebrated works of theory such as State and Revolution, as well as widely misunderstood polemics like What is to be Done?

Nikolai Bukharin became editor of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda following the victorious revolution of October 1917, and was the author of the 1920 textbook, ABCs of Communism.

Phil Gasper is professor emeritus at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California. He previously taught at Cornell University, the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Middlebury College, the University of California San Diego, and Stanford University. He currently lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin. Gasper is co-editor of The Philosophy of Science (MIT Press, 1991), and a contributor to Explanation and Its Limits(Cambridge, 1990), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (2nd ed., 1999), The Struggle for Palestine (Haymarket, 2002),Enduring Freedom or Enduring War? (Maisonneuve, 2005), Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice (Sage, 2007),Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Lynne Rienner, forthcoming) and Encyclopedia of Race and Crime (Sage, forthcoming). His academic publications have also appeared in The Philosophical Review, Philosophy of Science, The Radical Philosophy Review of Books and Hypatia. He is a on the editorial board of and writes the bimonthly "Critical Thinking" column for the International Socialist Review, and is a contributor to Socialist Worker, CounterPunch, ZNet, and MRzine.