Imperialism

Lenin, supreme leader of the Soviet Union, wrote this pamphlet as a revolutionary intellectual. He argues that imperialism, far from being simply territorial conquest, is actually the highest stage of capitalism. Paradoxically, he sees capitalism as decaying from competition into monopoly capitalism as exemplified by the trusts that then dominated industry such as Standard Oil. He also observes that these cartels are usually controlled by very few financial magnates and contends that the impulse to monopoly is what drove the great powers to scramble for colonies beginning in the late 19th century.

Lenin's analysis, like that of Marx, is incisive and makes for interesting reading, not least because of his polemical style. And in the middle of a global financial crisis in 2008, perhaps there are lessons to be drawn about the excesses of finance capital. Yet much of his thesis has simply been dismissed by history: capitalism, though wounded, is alive and well; huge corporations exist, but it is hard to say there is no competition; decolonization brought an end to the era of imperialism; and the Soviet Union has long since ceased to exist.