ABSTRACT
The classic works on imperialism by J. A. Hobson, Rudolf Hilferding, W. Langer, and Lenin were published around the turn of this century and deal with Europe's colonial expansion in Africa toward the end of the preceding century and the apparent or real division of the world among the national capitalisms and the great joint-stock companies on the eve of the First World War. The theory of imperialism based on Lenin's interpretation as applied to the American diplomacy of 1945 onward has to take account of European decolonization and has consequently radically to dissociate the notions of colonialism and imperialism, as Magdoff does. At first glance, the economic interpretation of American diplomacy comes up against a decisive objection, that no national entity except the Soviet Union appears so nearly self-sufficient as the United States. In certain specific cases the United States subordinated commercial considerations to political or political-military reasons of state.
