The Legacy of Empire

In this potentially controversial book, Berch Berberoglu argues that the internationalization of U.S. capital via worldwide expansion of U.S. transnational monopolies has led to the decline of the U.S. domestic economy--bringing about class polarization between labor and capital. The process of decline and polarization was accelerated during the 1980s under the Reagan administration, when a major transfer of wealth from the working class to the wealthy owners of the transnational corporations ushered in a period of irreversible decline and decay. This incisive volume untangles the complex web of social-economic connections that are, at their base, the manifestations of relations of production, distribution, and exchange.

Following a theoretical chapter which outlines the liberal, world system, and class analysis approaches--the three major positions on the rise and fall of global empires--Berberoglu provides an empirical account of the position of the United States in the world political economy in the postwar period. While the bulk of the middle chapters examines this decline and its consequences for the working people of the United States, subsequent chapters address the response of the state and of the labor movement to the social and economic crisis. This highly informative book contains the latest data presented in tables and charts that draw out the most critical elements in the economic and social trends evolving in the United States, and stands alone in its provocative treatment of the current crisis of U.S. capitalism.