People around the world are confused and concerned. Is it a sign of strength or of weakness that the US has suddenly shifted from a politics of consensus to one of coercion on the world stage? What was really at stake in the war on Iraq? Was it all about oil and, if not, what else was involved? What role has a sagging economy played in pushing the US into foreign adventurism? What exactly is the relationship between US militarism abroad and domestic politics? These are the questions taken up in this compelling and original book. In this closely argued and clearly written book, David Harvey, one of the leading social theorists of his generation, builds a conceptual framework to expose the underlying forces at work behind these momentous shifts in US policies and politics. The compulsions behind the projection of US power on the world as a "new imperialism" are here, for the first time, laid bare for all to see.

"... he makes an important theoretical contribution to understanding contemporary empires vicissitudes." --The Times Higher

"The New Imperialism, then, merits the widest possible public. David Harvey is a social theorist known for a cool, analytical style born of interdisciplinary inquiry, coupled with a keen feeling for political significance. This book showcases his talent."--Boston Phoenix

'David Harvey has written a profound, and profoundly disturbing, book. For thirty years his writings have taken aim at the complacent conviction that what exists works. Harvey is a scholarly radical; his writing is free of journalistic cliches, full of facts and carefully thought-through ideas. This book is beautifully crafted, its prose accessible, its narrative one of mounting intensity and urgency. The New Imperialism mounts a stunning indictment of our present institutions of power, while offering hopeful insights about how these institutions could be changed."--Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics

"A high accessible and thought-provoking book." --The Professional Geographer

1. All About Oil

2. How America's Power Grew

3. Capital Bondage

4. Accumulation by Dispossession

5. Consent to Coercion

Bibliography

Further Reading

Notes

Index