Re: [Marxism] J.A. Hobson's Imperialism in the news

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

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I read the review and wondered "what the Hell was anyone complaining
about"?   -- having read the "complaint" about Corbyn's review I suppose
from now one whatever one is writing, one MUST say, -- "of course, I
condemn racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, homophobia, etc. even though I
am trying to write about some other issue" --- in the case of Corbyn's
review, imperialism ...

Eugene Genovese once wrote a long "appreciation" of Ulrich B. Phillips'
rather disgusting book praising slavery, US style -- he began the review by
noting that the racist description of African societies would be better off
"burned" than read -- BUT, that the book about US slavery had important
insights that are worth remembering despite Phillips' racism  Maybe
Corbyn should have done that -- but he's not a one man ADL --- he was
writing an introduction to a book about imperialsm in an era of a "new
imperialism" --

I think (without much detailed knowledge -- just a "smell test") that the
attacks on Corbyn for anti-semitic "insensitivity" is just power politics --

On Sat, May 4, 2019 at 5:21 PM Rebecca Ruth Gould via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
> *
>
> I'm not sure if list members will have seen this controversy linked to
> Corbyn and his foreword to Hobson's *Imperialism*, but since the book has
> been mentioned on the list before perhaps it will be of interest.
>
> one report (lots out there but this seems the most objective):
> https://www.ft.com/content/ac5670ec-6c2f-11e9-80c7-60ee53e6681d
>
> Corbyn's forward:
>
> http://spokesmanbooks.blogspot.com/2015/11/jeremy-corbyn-internationalist-at-work.html?m=1
>
> Exchange between Corbyn and the Board of Jewish Deputies:
>
> https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/jeremy-corbyn-claims-i-endorsed-book-s-antisemitic-content-are-politically-motivated-1.483756
>
> An interesting exchange of letters regarding Hobson from two historians:
>
> https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/may/02/jeremy-corbyn-hobsons-imperialism-and-antisemitism
>
>
> https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/may/03/hobson-corbyn-and-antisemitic-tropes
>
> --
>
> Rebecca Ruth Gould 
>
> Professor, Islamic World & Comparative Literature
>
> College of Arts & Law | University of Birmingham
>
> Author, Writers and Rebels
> <
> https://www.amazon.com/Writers-Rebels-Literature-Insurgency-Caucasus/dp/0300200641
> >
> (Yale
> UP, 2016)
>
> Director, "Global Literary Theory: Caucasus Literatures Compared
> <
> https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/lcahm/departments/languages/research/projects/globallit/index.aspx
> >
> "
>
> University Profile
> 
> Website  Twitter
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Re: [Marxism] J.A. Hobson's Imperialism in the news

[Jim Farmelant via Marxism]

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The first thing that can be said about John Hobson was that he did articulate 
antisemitic sentiments, but mostly in his earlier writings, particularly in his 
writings about the Boer War, which he seemed to blame on the machinations of 
Jewish financiers. Having said that, that sort of antisemitic conspiracy 
mongering is largely absent from Imperialism: A Study.


In the case of Imperialism: A Study, there is one passage where he does make 
one oblique reference to Jews:

"If the special interest of the investor is liable to clash with the public 
interest and to induce a wrecking policy, still more dangerous is the special 
interest of the financier, the general dealer in investments. In large measure 
the rank and the of the investors are, both for business and for politics, the 
cat’s-paws of the great financial houses, who use stocks and shares not so much 
as investments to yield them interest, but as material for speculation in the 
money market. In handling large masses of stocks and shares, in floating 
companies, in manipulating fluctuations of values, the magnates of the Bourse 
find their gain. These great businesses – banking, broking, bill discounting, 
loan floating, company promoting – form the central ganglion of international 
capitalism. United by the strongest bonds of organisation, always in closest 
and quickest touch with one another, situated in the very heart of the business 
capital of every State, controlled, so far as Europe is concerned, chiefly by 
men of a single and peculiar race, who have behind them many centuries of 
financial experience, they are in a unique position to control the policy of 
nations. No great quick direction of capital is possible save by their consent 
and through their agency. Does any one seriously suppose that a great war could 
be undertaken by any European State, or a great State loan subscribed, if the 
house of Rothschild and its connections set their face against it?"

And that's about it.

A couple of paragraphs later, Hobson writes:

"The public financial arrangements for the Philippine war put several millions 
of dollars into the pockets of Mr. Pierpont Morgan and his friends; the 
China-Japan war, which saddled the Celestial Empire for the first time with a 
public debt, and the indemnity which she will pay to her European invaders in 
connection with the recent conflict, bring grist to the financial mills in 
Europe; every railway or mining concession wrung from some reluctant foreign 
potentate means profitable business in raising capital and floating companies. 
A policy which rouses fears of aggression in Asiatic states, and which fans the 
rivalry of commercial nations in Europe, evokes vast expenditure on armaments, 
and ever-accumulating public debts, while the doubts and risks accruing from 
this policy promote that constant oscillation of values of securities which is 
so profitable to the skilled financier. "


Apparently, Daniel Finkelstein in his London Times column, "Corbyn’s praise for 
deeply antisemitic book" got a little confused because he cited a part of the 
above mentioned paragraphs in support of his claim that the Imperialism book 
was presenting an antisemitic argument. But to my knowledge, J. P. Morgan was 
not Jewish and I doubt that very many of his friends were Jews either.



""

Jim Farmelant
http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
http://www.foxymath.com 
Learn or Review Basic Math


-- Original Message --
From: Rebecca Ruth Gould via Marxism 
To: Jim Farmelant 
Subject: [Marxism] J.A. Hobson's Imperialism in the news
Date: Sat, 4 May 2019 22:20:18 +0100

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I'm not sure if list members will have seen this controversy linked to
Corbyn and his foreword to Hobson's *Imperialism*, but since the book has
been mentioned on the list before perhaps it will be of interest.

one report (lots out there but this seems the most objective):
https://www.ft.com/content/ac5670ec-6c2f-11e9-80c7-60ee53e6681d

Corbyn's forward:
http://spokesmanbooks.blogspot.com/2015/11/jeremy-corbyn-internationalist-at-work.html?m=1

Exchange between Corbyn and the Board of Jewish Deputies:
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/jeremy-corbyn-claims-i-endorsed-book-s-antisemitic-content-are-politically-motivated-

[Marxism] J.A. Hobson's Imperialism in the news

[Rebecca Ruth Gould via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
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*

I'm not sure if list members will have seen this controversy linked to
Corbyn and his foreword to Hobson's *Imperialism*, but since the book has
been mentioned on the list before perhaps it will be of interest.

one report (lots out there but this seems the most objective):
https://www.ft.com/content/ac5670ec-6c2f-11e9-80c7-60ee53e6681d

Corbyn's forward:
http://spokesmanbooks.blogspot.com/2015/11/jeremy-corbyn-internationalist-at-work.html?m=1

Exchange between Corbyn and the Board of Jewish Deputies:
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/jeremy-corbyn-claims-i-endorsed-book-s-antisemitic-content-are-politically-motivated-1.483756

An interesting exchange of letters regarding Hobson from two historians:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/may/02/jeremy-corbyn-hobsons-imperialism-and-antisemitism

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/may/03/hobson-corbyn-and-antisemitic-tropes

-- 

Rebecca Ruth Gould 

Professor, Islamic World & Comparative Literature

College of Arts & Law | University of Birmingham

Author, Writers and Rebels

(Yale
UP, 2016)

Director, "Global Literary Theory: Caucasus Literatures Compared

"

University Profile

Website  Twitter

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