The New Imperialism

People around the world are confused and concerned. Is it a sign of strength of or of weakness that the US has suddenly shifted from a politics of consensus to one of coercion on the world stage? What was really at stake in the war on Iraq? Was it all about oil and, if not, what else was involved? What role has a sagging economy played in pushing the US into foreign adventurism and what difference does it make that neo-conservatives rather than neo-liberals are now in power? What exactly is the relationship between US militarism abroad and domestic politics? These are the questions taken up in this compelling and original book. Closely argued but clearly written, David Harvey, a leading social theorist of his generation, builds a conceputal framework to expose the underlying forces at work behind these momentous shifts in US policies and politics. The compulsions behind the projection of US power on the world as a 'new imperialism' are here, for the first time, laid bare for all to see. 'David Harvey has written a profound, and profoundly disturbing, book. For thirty years his writings have taken aim at the complacent conviction that what exists works. Harvey is a scholarly radical; his writing is free of journalistic cliches, full of facts and carefully thought-through ideas. This book is beautifully crafted, its prose accessible, its narrative one of mounting intensity and urgency. The New Imperalism mounts a stunning indictment of our present institutions of power, while offering hopeful insights about how these institutions could be changed.' RICHARD SENNETT, Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics 'Navigating effortlessly between history, economics, geography and politics, with persuasive argument and lucid prose, David Harvey places today's headlines in context and makes sense of the early twenty-first century maelstrom we're all caught up in. His concept of accumulation by dispossession will go far. The New Imperialism is a truly useful book.' SUSAN GEORGE, Associate Director, The Transnational Institute, Amsterdam