Overview

In the "rediscovery of imperialism," no work has been more important than that done by Harry Magdoff. When initially published, the articles collected in this book aroused enormous interest in the United States and throughout the world. His research, scrupulously performed and soberly presented, documents the existence of an American empire - somewhat different from those of Imperial Britain or Imperial Germany in their pre-World War I heyday, but an empire nonetheless. Harry Magdoff's careful and lucid analysis, done with a wealth of detail and a trained scholar's grasp of the relevant economic categories, is the foundation upon which an entire tradition of Monthly Review authors and their critiques of imperialism rest.

Harry Magdoff (1913-2006) directed studies of productivity for the WPA in the 1930s. Towards the end of the Second World War, he became chief economist in charge of the Current Business Analysis Division at the Department of Commerce where he oversaw publication of the Survey of Current Business. Later, he worked as special assistant to Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace. He is recognized worldwide for his economic analyses of imperialism and was co-editor of Monthly Review from 1969 until 2006.