In a narrative analysis of how capitalism came to be and how the logic of capital accumulation came to dominate the world, Kenny Lake’s With a Few Exceptions, Colonialism Is Over challenges conventional wisdom within Marxism, postmodernism, and neodevelopmentalism. Marxist false optimism in capitalist crisis and the notion that capitalism became imperialist in the late 19th century are subjected to criticism. Postmodernists are excoriated for their failed attempts to analyze contemporary reality through the prism of capitalism’s past use of (settler-)colonialism. Neodevelopmentalists are ridiculed for their faith that capital accumulation in the hands of some power other than the US
will pave the way for liberation.
Lake’s critiques of Marxism, postmodernism, and neodevelopmentalism serve to point out the capitulationist logic behind erroneous analysis of capitalism’s motion and development. With a Few Exceptions, Colonialism Is Over is about knowing our enemy so we can defeat them on the battlefield.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Israel, imperialism’s necessary aberration in a postcolonial world
Part 1: Capitalism in global conquest (1492–1945)
Part 2: Capitalism keeps on rockin’ in the free world (1945–1975)
Part 3: Capitalism in triumph and trepidation (1975–present)
