Empire of Capital

Ellen Meiksins Wood gives us a genealogy of empire in order to make her point that imperialism as practiced today—the empire of capital, with the US at the head—is a relatively new development. For those less interested in history than current affairs the last two chapters, "The Internationalization of Capital," and "'Surplus Imperialsm' or War Without End" will be the most compelling. It will be obvious to anyone with eyes to see that war is essential to the health of capitalsm. Wood helps us understand what underlies this dynamic.