(This was originally posted to the Introduction to Marxism mailing list
on Yahoo.)
In a little while I will be posting the preface to Andre Gunder Frank’s
1967 “Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America: Historical
Studies of Chile and Brazil,” a book that is clearly indebted to Paul
Baran’s “Political Economy of Growth,” a key chapter of which was posted
here the other day. [This is now available at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxism_class/message/265.] As is the case
with Baran, there simply is noting available on the Internet that
captures their contributions to “dependency theory” so once again I am
resorting to my trusty Epson scanner.
Once you have had a chance to digest this introduction and Frank’s
preface, I will post 3 excerpts from “Capitalism and Underdevelopment in
Latin America”, either this evening or tomorrow:
1. The opening pages of Section One, “Capitalist Development of
Underdevelopment in Chile”.
2. Section two, “On the ‘Indian Problem’ in Latin America
3. The opening pages of Section Four, “Capitalist and the Myth of
Feudalism in Brazil”
Frank’s preface begins with this acknowledgement of Baran: “I believe,
with Paul Baran, that it is capitalism, both world and national, which
produced underdevelopment in the past and which still generates
underdevelopment in the present.” Furthermore, the book introduces the
formulation that virtually defined dependency theory: the development of
underdevelopment.
Although I am by no means an expert on Andre G. Frank’s evolution as a
political thinker, it is safe to say that the concerns that were present
in his work from the 1960s to the 1980s soon gave way to a new approach,
namely “World Systems”, an academic cross-discipline associated with
Immanuel Wallerstein. No longer would Frank focus on class relationships
in semi-colonial societies in Latin America. He became preoccupied with
“long waves” in history of the sort that made Anglo-American imperialism
hegemonic at one time and that would now put Asia in the driver’s seat
once again. His last book “Re-Orient” displayed not the slightest
interest in socialism, but only the deep social and economic forces that
would make China a hegemonic world power once again.
Many of Frank’s articles can be read at an archive maintained by
Róbinson Rojas, but virtually nothing from the 1960s and 70s when he was
writing book after book detailing the impact of imperialism in Latin
America. You will find much more in this vein: The Five Thousand Year
World System in Theory and Praxis. When one adopts time frames of 5,000
years, it is difficult to reconcile that with the urgent task of
socialist revolution. This is not to say, however, that A.G. Frank was
reconciled to the status quo. Until his death of cancer 3 years ago at
the age of 76, Frank remained committed to opposing American imperialism
even if he seemed to have lost sight of the agency that might have had
the power to stop it dead in its tracks, namely the working-class.
full:
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/an-introduction-to-andre-gunder-frank/
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