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The Lesser Evil? The Left and the Democratic Party

“In the summer before the 1984 presidential elections, Michael Harrington and Irving Howe, in a widely noted interview in the New York Times Magazine, boasted that ‘by now practically everyone on the left agrees that the Democratic Party, with all its faults, must be our main political arena’. . . .” read more

'Resurgent Democracy': Rhetoric and Reality

“During the past year Reagan administration officials and the us press have pointed with frequency and enthusiasm to a resurgence of democracy in Latin America. Secretary of State George Schultz, for example, has spoken of ‘more people voting in more elections in more countries than ever before . . .” read more

Reaganomics' Magical Mystery Tour

“The re-election of Ronald Reagan will unleash new debate on the causes of the continuing conservative ascendancy in North America and Western Europe. Following in the well-worn grooves of discussions in 1980–1, some will stress the renewed importance of a reactionary-populist social discourse centred on ‘right to life’, . . .” read more

Jackson and the Rise of the Rainbow Coalition

“The 1984 presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson represented a new stage of development in Afro-Americans’ struggle for equality in the context of us bourgeois democracy. Even white American political analysts unsympathetic with the Jackson campaign recognized this, and groped for words to define Jackson’s achievement. After Jackson . . .” read more

Surrealism and Patriotism: The Education of an American Novelist

“Would you tell us something about the influences which have formed you as a writer?” read more

The Political Economy of Late-Imperial America

“Conventional definitions of American post-war ‘hegemony’ have focused on the sheer preponderance of economic and military power concerted through an atomic-military monopoly, monetary sovereignty, overseas investment, and historic differentials of productivity and mass consumption. Accordingly, from a baseline in the late 1940s when the conjunction of all these . . .” read more

The American Connection: The Masculine Style in Popular Fiction

“In recent years the growth of oral history projects in many countries testifies to the importance now given to popular experience, memory and activity recoverable through personal interviews. Many of these projects have concentrated on experiences of working life, family life, women’s work and political activity, the struggle . . .” read more

The Freeze Movement Versus Reagan

“Although of very recent origin, the ‘freeze’ movement in the United States has already stimulated the first successful rebellion against a major weapons programme in American history. Prior to December 1982, when Congress turned down Reagan’s request for the immediate manufacture of the mx missile, no modern . . .” read more

The AFL-CIO’s Second Century

“The American Federation of Labor celebrated its centenary last year. It is one of the world’s great conservative institutions, with a stability of internal rule and ideology that might make even the Bank of England gasp. Although the United States has had nineteen presidents since the founding of . . .” read more

'The Dollar and Its Rivals'

“The 1980s will be a decade of escalating conflict between Western Europe, the United States and Japan over trade, financial and monetary policies. This heightened economic competition has already revived one of the most long-standing debates in Marxism—the polemic between Lenin and Kautsky on ‘ultra-imperialism’. It will be . . .” read more

The American Road to Capitalism

“This essay is an attempt to examine the theoretical and historiographic debates on the development of capitalism in the United States between 1790 and 1877. The realization of the necessary conditions for capitalist production in the United States took place through the articulation, expanded reproduction and transformation of . . .” read more

The New Right’s Road to Power

“The worst nightmares of the American left appear to have come true. Like the beast of the apocalypse, Reaganism has slouched out of the Sunbelt, devouring liberal senators and Great Society programmes in its path. With the fortieth President’s popularity-rating soaring above eighty percent (partially thanks to an . . .” read more

Sociology, Liberalism and the Radical Right

“Ronald Reagan is the first American president of the twentieth century whose political origins do not lie in the broad consensual centre of American politics. Only time will tell whether Reagan will remain true to his oft-expressed conservative beliefs or whether, for the sake of political peace, his . . .” read more

The Barren Marriage of American Labour and the Democratic Party

“On the eve of the New Deal’s inauguration in the winter of 1933 the auto industry in Detroit was stunned by an energetic and well-planned walkout at the Briggs Auto plant. Following three and a half years of nearly catastrophic unemployment and paralyzed inaction by the American Federation . . .” read more

Why the US Working Class Is Different

“In 1828—as Karl Marx once reminded his readers—a group of Philadelphia artisans organized the first ‘Labour Party’ in world history. Now, one hundred and fifty years later, a television news camera depicts a group of modern Philadelphia workers arguing in their local tavern over the candidates in the . . .” read more

Reply to Critics

“Albert Szymanski’s attempted refutation of our thesis on the reconsolidation of us imperialism presents a ‘summary’ which does not in fact correspond to what we actually argued; offers statistical data that is largely irrelevant to the issues at stake; ignores important aspects of our position; and is . . .” read more

Is US Imperialism Resurgent?

“The Petras and Rhodes article in nlr 97, ‘The Reconsolidation of us Hegemony’ argues that, contrary to the view of many, the United States is not on the decline as a world power. It states: 1. that although the usa suffered some relatively minor setbacks . . .” read more

US Imperialism--a Reply to Petras and Rhodes

“The article by James Petras and Robert Rhodes (‘The Reconsolidation of us Hegemony’, nlr 97) makes an important point in criticizing some interpretations of the decline of United States hegemony. However, their attempt to provide an alternative analysis ignores a number of important recent developments in . . .” read more

The Reconsolidation of American Hegemony

“During the early part of this decade, a number of writers asserted that we were entering a new historical period marking the end of us world supremacy. Mustering an impressive set of dramatic events, the argument against the American century was quite convincing. In the so-called third . . .” read more

The Politics of Subjectivity

“The intensive and extensive interest in psychology is too vast to characterize; it includes those who seek relief from a malaise with society as well as disenchanted radicals who seek an alternative to the impoverishment of past political praxis; and this only begins the list. The very size . . .” read more

Eskimo Politics: the Threat from the South

“Over the past 25 years the marginal lands of extractive industry have extended to the world’s remotest regions, with the accelerated spread of large-scale international corporations, the extension of us economic imperialism and the growing tendency of corporations to collaborate on specific resource development projects. Against a . . .” read more

Japan and America: Antagonistic Alliance

“The ‘Nixon Shocks’ of 1971, which announced the opening of relations between the us and China and initiated a series of measures to protect the us economy, had an immense combined impact in Japan. As America’s main economic rival, Japan was the most threatened of all . . .” read more

Washington v.Tokyo: Wall Street v. Marunouchi

“In November last year the us House of Representatives passed a protectionist trade bill, by 215 to 165 votes, which was condemned inside and outside the usa as the worst of its kind since the Smoot-Hawley Bill of 1930. The bill was blocked in the Senate . . .” read more

The Specificity of US Imperialism

“Since the Russian Revolution, the rulers of America have been increasingly concerned to justify their imperial system against revolutionary attack. They have employed two constant methods to maintain their domination. The first has been physical—the proliferation of us bases, the mobility of the American fleet, the alertness . . .” read more

The Universal Contradiction

“Messengers of revolution are always welcome. Ernest Mandel’s thesis in ‘Where Is America Going?’ (NLR 54) that a socialist revolution within the United States is on the agenda of the next decade or two is an important corrective to the more gloomy theses being advanced from other quarters. . . .” read more

The Laws of Uneven Development

“Before answering Martin Nicolaus’s critique of ‘Where is America going?’, the origins and intended function of that article should be explained. It is the transcript of a speech given to a seminar of Finnish students at Helsinki, in the framework of a symposium on ‘American imperialism today’. It . . .” read more

Resolution on Black Panther Party

“Resolution passed by the SDS national council meeting in Austin, Texas, on March 30 1969.” read more

Strike Against Imperialism

“On March 3rd, after 8 weeks of bitter struggle, the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers (ocaw) voted to go back to work at the Standard Oil refinery at Richmond. They didn’t get everything they wanted—certainly not everything that is coming to them—but almost to a man they . . .” read more

The People v.Standard Oil

“A strike, when it is not a token tactical ploy in ‘labour-management relations’, is in many ways like a miniature revolution. Struggle, instead of collaboration, is the order of the day. The old individualistic ways of solving, blunting, or avoiding contradictions and confrontations give way to collective ways . . .” read more

Where Is America Going?

“Today, profound forces are working to undermine the social and economic equilibrium which has reigned in the United States for more than 25 years, since the big depressions of 1929–32 and of 1937–38. Some of these are forces of an international character, linked with the national liberation struggles . . .” read more

S.F. State: History takes a leap

“No previous American university struggle has been as long, violent and bitter as the strike now being fought at San Francisco State College. None has sent shock waves through so much of the society, or created as deep a polarization. Only in American colonies and dependencies abroad, or . . .” read more

'The Special Relationship'

“‘When those states which have been acquired are accustomed to live at liberty under their own laws, there are three ways of holding them. The first is to despoil them; the second is to go and live there in person; the third is to allow them to live . . .” read more

Kennan’s Memoirs

“George Kennan prefaces his remarkable memoirs with an exemplary self-critical account of his background and early environment, with its attendant psychological effects. Historically and socially, George Kennan was an ‘outsider’, ill at ease in the 20th century, and ill at ease with its ideas, particularly marxism (‘something to . . .” read more

The Americans Are Not Invincible

“When did you go to North Vietnam, how long did you stay, and how widely did you travel?” read more

Some Encounters with the Culturally Free

“In 1963, Encounter issued a commemorative anthology entitled Encounters to mark its tenth year of publication. I reviewed this in the New Statesman. My review may be found in my book, Writers and Politics. In the review I questioned certain rash assertions made by Sir Denis Brogan in . . .” read more

The Big Fist

“Arms and Influence presents an American view of present international relationships. It is a world of a permanent contest of nerves, in which nations have to use all methods at their disposal to persuade other nations to behave in desirable ways; a world potentially without rules, but from . . .” read more

'Pioneer America'

“John R. Alden: Pioneer America Hutchinson. 30s.” read more

Reporters and Liberals

“This linked-up anthology of New York Times news reports and magazine articles was published in the United States in 1964. It has, of course, already ‘dated’; but while the present edition makes no effort to offset this, Anthony Lewis supplies a new foreword, the point of which seems . . .” read more

Berkeley and the New Conservative Backlash

“The University of California at Berkeley, which has been ranked as one of the foremost educational establishments in the world has recently been the scene of a prolonged and massive confrontation between the students and administration with a great majority of the faculty siding with the students. Many . . .” read more

The High Cost of Dissent in the USA

“A us intellectual is free to hold whatever opinions he likes on Vietnam, Cuba, the Congo, or other foreign policy issues, but his freedom to express these views publicly is often limited in several subtle ways. The most effective of these is money. From grants, subsidies, and . . .” read more

The Myths of Counter-Insurgency

“More myths and fantasies seem to have arisen in regard to guerrilla warfare than about any other aspect of contemporary history. For many revolutionaries it has assumed a positively romantic aura, particularly since the bearded ones of the 26th of July Movement swept with dash and verve out . . .” read more

'The Peculiar Institution'

“The Peculiar Institution. Kenneth M. Stampp. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 35s.” read more

'A History of the USA'; 'A History of the USSR'

“A history of the USA. André Maurois. Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 36s.” read more

Cut Off from the Sun

“Kennedy came into office denouncing the missile gap. The only gap turned out to be that between the bogies created by Kennedy’s campaign team and reality. It was quickly realised that America had, and would retain in any forseeable future, an overwhelming superiority in nuclear strike power.” read more

Guerilla Warfare

“One has become familiar with the demented logic and the deadened language of prominent American nuclear strategists. This book initiates us into a new branch of military mythology: “counter-guerilla warfare” and its associated techniques. It proves almost as frightening as the theory of nuclear strategy proper, since it . . .” read more

John Glenn: The Hero and America 1962

“Spring came early in a special way to America when Marine Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn stepped aboard the destroyer Noa, remarked of his just-vacated capsule, “it was hot in there,” and began sipping a glass of iced tea. It seemed that the frenetic search for a national . . .” read more

C.Wright Mills

“I mourn the death of C. Wright Mills, bitterly and personally. We had, in the last five years of his life, become close friends. I am not minded to write a detached appraisal of his work and thought. But I think I can write about the man he . . .” read more

Cuba: America’s Lost Plantations

“This long extract is taken from two articles which originally appeared in the American magazine, Liberation. They are by one of its editors, Dave Dellinger, who spent some time recently in Cuba, and who discusses, in this article, both the exciting achievements of the Cuban Revolution and the . . .” read more

What the Hell Is Happening?

“Michael Harrington has written filling in the background to the American political scene, much of which finds no reflection in the Presidential campaigns.” read more

The Democratic Convention

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