This volume gathers the work of leading left-wing analysts of imperialism to examine the burning question of our time–the nature and prospects of the U.S. imperial project currently being given shape by war and occupation in the Middle East.
Noam Chomsky, Immanuel Wallerstein, Peter Gowan, and others discuss the dynamics at work behind the War on Terrorism. Their analyses locate recent developments within a longer historical arc, and set out the central questions for research and debate: Is U.S. unilateralism and militarism a sign of the increasing strength of the world’s only remaining superpower? Or a desperate response to the erosion of the strategy it developed for ensuring its leadership over the advanced capitalist world during the Cold War? Essays by Barbara Epstein, Amiya Kumar Bagchi and others also examine the prospects for the resistance to imperialism in the United States and globally. Pox Americana brings together a range of insights and perspectives that were originally presented at a conference in Burlington, Vermont, to honor Harry Magdoff on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday. It is a fitting tribute to Magdoff’s pioneering analyses of U.S. imperialism and a testimony to the resilience and fruitfulness of the radical tradition.