New Left Review 36, November-December 2005

VIVEK CHIBBER

CAPITAL OUTBOUND

The ‘short’ twentieth century is often held to have begun with the First World War, and ended with the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991. But there is another way of looking at the last hundred years or so, that would see its principal story as the continuous growth of an American empire that not only overtook its English predecessor, but also contributed in no small way to the erasure of the Soviet experiment. Such a perspective is not altogether novel—after all, belief in the ‘American century’ was common among Cold War liberals even when the ussr seemed at the peak of its power. Since the end of the Cold War, however, it has not only gained momentum within the establishment, but its shadow can be discerned across the entire intellectual spectrum, from Left to Right. Intellectually and politically speaking, it is the juggernaut of American imperialism, not the lost promise of socialism, that commands attention today.

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