Anti-leftist politics in modern world history : avoiding 'socialism' at all costs / Philip B. Minehan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Minehan, Philip B., author.

Contributor:

William E. Lingelbach Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History, Modern--20th century.

History, Modern.

History, Modern--19th century.

Right and left (Political science)--History.

Right and left (Political science).

History.

Socialism--History.

Socialism.

Liberalism--History.

Liberalism.

Imperialism--History.

Imperialism.

Communism--History.

Communism.

Fascism--History.

Fascism.

Neoliberalism--History.

Neoliberalism.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xvi, 267 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

London, UK ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2022.

Summary:

"Systemic and political hostility against the 'left', real and contrived, has been a key, yet under-recognized aspect of the history of the modern world for the past two hundred years. By the 1820s, the new, exploitative and destabilizing character of capitalist industrial production and its accompanying market liberalizations began creating necessities among the working classes and their allies for the new, self-protective politics of 'socialism'. But it is evident that, for the new economic system to sustain itself, such oppositional politics that it necessitated had to be undermined, if not destroyed, by whatever means necessary. Through the imperialism of the later 19th century, and with significant variations, this complex and often highly destructive dialectical syndrome expanded worldwide. Liberals, conservatives, extreme nationalists, fascists, racists, and others have all repeatedly come aggressively and violently into play against 'socialist' oppositions. In this book, Philip Minehan traces the patterns of such hostility and presents numerous crucial examples of it: from Britain, France, Germany and the United States; the British in India; European fascism, the United States and Britain as they operated in China and Indochina; from Kenya, Algeria and Iran; and from Central and South America during the Cold War. In the final chapters, Minehan addresses the post-Cold War, US-led triumphalist wars in the Middle East, the ensuing refugee crises, neo-fascism, and anti-environmentalist politics, to show the ways that the syndrome within which anti-leftist antagonism emerges, in its neoliberal phase since the 1970s, remains as self-destructive and dangerous as ever"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Introduction

Historical Background in Europe to 1871: The Problem of the Left and the Liberal Solutions

pt. 1 The Failed Solutions: Imperialism, the Great War, Fascism, Anti-Bolshevism, and the Second World War

Introduction

1. The Imperial Solution, 1871

1917

The Example of Colonial India and the South Asian Diaspora

2. The Fascist Solution: From Anti-Socialism and Anti-Bolshevism to another World War, 1917

39

3. The Second World War, 1939

45: From Anti-Communism to Anti-Communism

pt. 2 The US-led Global Anti-Communist Solution

4. Soft on Social Democracy, Hard on "Communism": Britain, the United States, Greece, China, Korea, and Indochina

Britain and the United States

Anti-Communism in Greece

Anti-Communism in China, Korea, and Indochina

China

Korea

Indochina

5. Cold War Bipolarities versus Complex Realities: Examples from Africa and the Middle East

British and US Anti-Communism in Parts of Sub-Saharan Africa

Algeria

The Middle East: Fighting the Cold War, Planting Seeds for the "War on Terror"

6. Anti-Leftist Politics in Western Europe, Latin America, and the United States to the 1970s

Western Europe: Anti-Communism and Social Democracy

Latin America: The United States and Anti-Reformist Anti-"Communism"

The Course and Character of Anti-Leftist Politics in the United States to the 1970s

Conflicting Global Currents: Leftist Upsurge, Economic Downturn, and the Shift to Neo-Liberalism

pt. 3 The Neoliberal Solution

7. The Overkill

Neoliberal Rollback in Latin America: Operation Condor and the Contras

Iran, Afghanistan, and the Coming "War on Terror"

The New Model in Full Force: Globalized Capitalist Production and Its Political Consequences

The Collapse of the Soviet Union

Post-Cold War US-led Political and Military Triumphalism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the William E. Lingelbach Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Minehan, Philip B. Anti-leftist politics in modern world history

ISBN:

9781350170643

135017064X

OCLC:

1191190620

Publisher Number:

99989105427