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Selected Writings of John A. Hobson, 1932-1938: The Struggle for the International Mind

This is a Type R - Scholarly edition, given that the research is an introduction and analysis of someone else's (J.A. Hobson's) largely unpublished works. Specifically, it is a co-edited volume (John Hobson and Colin Tyler). However, Part 1 of the book is written solely by John M. Hobson (the REF author). It is pages 1-78 (comprising 5 chapters). So it is this whole section that comprises this REF return item. This item is an original piece of research that draws on new and largely unpublished material of JA Hobson’s – specifically a series of lectures that he gave on IR to the South Place Ethical Society (London) during the last decade of his life in the 1930s. From these JM Hobson develops a unique interpretation of JAH’s thinking on IR which goes well beyond the usual focus on imperialism. The introduction then links these lectures to many arguments that he made in a wide range of previously published books and articles to consolidate this different interpretation (covering the 1898 through 1938 period of his writings). Contrary to the received wisdom, these chapters argue that Hobson’s work went well beyond the analysis of imperialism and they explore his thinking on international government and the role that this should play in world politics, in addition to the point that JAH believed that imperialism, under certain circumstances, could play a positive role in improving the world. And there are other issues that are explored in detail, such as his anti-economic reductionist approach and his analysis of the international mind. Overall, these chapters provide a rigorous interrogation of JAH’s work through a kind of dialogical approach and its significance is that it taps into some of the key debates in the secondary literature on JAH’s thought, while providing a fresh angle to them.