ISBN
9789004201569

Social Democracy to World War I

Translated, edited and introduced by Richard B. Day, University of Toronto, Canada and Daniel Gaido, National Research Council (Conicet), Argentina

The theory of imperialism is usually associated with some of the ‘big names’ in the history of European Marxism, such as Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Rudolf Hilferding and Nikolai Bukharin, alongside whom the English Progressive John Hobson is usually mentioned. However, little is known about the development of Marxist theory on this subject besides the books of these figures. This volume assembles for the first time the main documents of the international debate on imperialism that took place in the Second International during the period 1898–1916. It assesses the contributions of the individual participants to the developing theory of imperialism, placing them in the context of contemporary political debates.

Biographical note

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 co-editor, together with Richard B. Day, of Witnesses to Permanent Revolution: The Documentary Record (Brill, 2009).

Readership

All those interested in Marxist theory, the history of modern imperialism, the outbreak of the First World War and the collapse of the Second International.

Reviews

[Discovering Imperialism] provides major texts from writers in the socialist camp that are very germane to reflection on the nature of the conflict that exploded in 1914, and they are accompanied by an excellent extended introduction from the two editors, Richard B. Day and Daniel Gaido.
R.J.W. Evans, The New York Times Review of Books

Table 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