This year I was fortunate enough to be able to spend two weeks in Brazil. One of my selected holiday books was Lenin’s “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism”, which I’ll be the first to admit isn’t your typical light holiday read.
Although I can’t say I “enjoyed” reading Lenin’s predictions as to the future decay of capitalism in quite the same way I would enjoy a David Mitchell say, I found the book immensely interesting and equally unsettling. Read against the backdrop of one of the world’s fastest growing economies, the book seemed particularly poignant; it felt like Brazil was reinforcing Lenin’s view of capitalism thundering along on its almost predestined path.
With “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism” being my first dip into the history of global economics, I have no doubt that as I become more widely read the fledgling views and theories stated here will seem naïve and childlike when reviewed in the future. This is inevitable; I’m told that even Marx massively contradicts his earlier work as he matures. However, I digress.