This is a weekly thread in which we read through books on and related to imperialism and geopolitics. Last week's thread is here.
Welcome to the third week of Michael Hudson's Super Imperialism: The Origin and Fundamentals of US World Dominance! I'm reading the Third Edition, but I imagine most of the information is the same if you have an earlier edition.
We are reading one chapter per week, meaning we will finish in June. Obviously, you are totally free to read faster than this pace and look at my/our commentary once we've caught up to you.
Every week, I will write a summary of the chapter(s) read, for those who have already read the book and don't wish to reread, can't follow along for various reasons, or for those joining later who want to dive right in to the next book without needing to pick this one up too. I will post all my chapter summaries in this final thread, for access in one convenient location. Please comment or message me directly if you wish to be pinged for this group.
This week, we will be reading Chapter 2: Breakdown of World Balance, 1921-1932, which is approximately 25 pages.
I suppose there's never a non-timely place to read this book because it's been pretty relevant for decades.
But given Trump's recent protectionist actions, it's interesting to compare and contrast this early period of America trying to work out how to be the world hegemon and fuck over the Europeans but failing to be truly competent at imperialism (by not providing a way for other countries to earn dollars), and the current period. I do wonder if we're seeing the beginning of the return of the policies of the inter-war period, except because history isn't actually cyclical and global material conditions do develop, there's no way for America to industrialize, and obviously China and friends are generally on the ascension compared to Europe's fall from its world-spanning colonial empires to a mere major economic bloc.
While I was reading the chapter, I kept thinking that there's a similar degree of incompetency at imperial management, even if today's it's more "libertarian failsons who think that reducing government should also happen to key imperialist machinery", as well as the parallels with the rise of fascist governments in Germany, Italy, and Spain and today with places like Hungary.