Description
John Smith’s book, Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century, is the
inaugural winner of the Paul a. Baran–Paul M. Sweezy Memorial
award. This award, established in 2014, honors the contributions of
the founders of the Monthly Review tradition: Paul M. Sweezy, Paul
a. Baran, and harry Magdoff. it supports the publication in english
of distinguished monographs focused on the political economy of
imperialism. The aim is to make available in english important work
written in the tradition of Paul M. Sweezy, Paul a. Baran, and harry
Magdoff, broadly conceived. it will also apply to writings previously
unpublished in english, and will include translations of new work
first published in languages other than english.
Paul M. Sweezy co-founded Monthly Review in 1949, and, with Paul
a. Baran, developed the fundamental analysis of accumulation under
monopoly capitalism. Baran’s The Political Economy of Growth, published in 1957, set the template for understanding imperialism in the
latter part of the twentieth century—an argument that was to be further developed in Baran and Sweezy’s Monopoly Capital (1966). harry
Magdoff, who would become the co-editor of Monthly Review, carried
this project forward in The Age of Imperialism (1969) by investigating
the historical trajectory of imperialism and tracing the contours of
monopoly capitalism as a world system of exploitation. Their collective effort helped form a current of independent socialist thought of
increasing importance on a global scale.
Today, the struggle continues against a global capitalist system that
has created conditions of increased exploitation in the countries of
the global South, alongside a vast transfer of wealth to imperialist
centers of the global north. while untold profits accrue to imperialism’s ruling elite—the 1 percent of society at home and abroad—the
99 percent of the world’s population experience greater hardship
and misery. The imperial system of the twenty-first century is one
marked by growing uncertainty, instability, and ecological disaster.
The promise of national emancipation through independence has not
been fulfilled in general. Capitalist globalization is in fact imperialism
without colonies.