Empire of Capital

by Wood, Ellen Meiksins

• ISBN13: 9781844675180
• ISBN10: 1844675181
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-17
• Publisher: Verso

Summary

Capitalism makes possible a new form of domination by purely economic means, argues Ellen Meiksins Wood. So, surely, even the most seasoned White House hawk would prefer to exercise global hegemony in this way, without costly colonial entanglements. Yet, as Wood powerfully demonstrates, the economic empire of capital has also created a new unlimited militarism. By contrasting the new imperialism to historical forms such as the Roman and Spanish empire, and by tracing the development of capitalist imperialism back to the English domination of Ireland and on the British Empire in America and India, Wood shows how today's capitalist empire, a global economy administered by local states, has come tom spawn a new military doctrine of war without end, in purpose or time.

Author Biography

Ellen Meiksins Wood, for many years Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto, is the author of many books, including Democracy Against Capitalism and, with Verso, The Pristine Culture of Capitalism, The Origin of Capitalism, Peasant-Citizen and Slave, Citizens to Lords, Empire of Capital and Liberty and Property.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. 1
Preface	p. 9
Introduction	p. 26
The Detachment of Economic Power	p. 44
The Empire of Property	p. 73
The Empire of Commerce	p. 89
A New Kind of Empire	p. 118
The Overseas Expansion of Economic Imperatives	p. 143
The Internationalization of Capitalist Imperatives	p. 169
'Surplus Imperialism', War Without End	p. 177
Notes
Index
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