Reviews for The American radio industry and its Latin American activities, 1900-1939

The average rating for The American radio industry and its Latin American activities, 1900-1939 based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-08-02 00:00:00 Andreas Ruckes Topic and scope of the book: Kulikoff, unsatisfied with a history of capitalist transformation broken into warring market history and social history camps, seeks to construct a synthesis based on Marxian economic and class theory. A selection of essays, some previously published, the book is wide-ranging, both in topic and in era; Kulikoff considers topics as diverse as class language, migration, and military service, and time periods from the early 17th century to the early 20th. The center of his investigation, however (as may well be expected) is the small farmer during the period from the Revolution to the Civil War. Thesis: Broadly speaking, Kulikoff’s thesis is that the long history of American agriculture and its relation to capitalism begins with early emigration, which was often driven by a desire to escape the rise of British capitalism, and continues through a “cycle of conquest, colonization, improvement, and migration,” ending, finally, after the disbursement of all arable land. While he accepts much of the work of the social historians—Faragher’s work on Sugar Creek is a good example—he departs from them in suggesting that the situations they examine are not unique, either temporally or geographically, but part of a centuries-long and nationwide trend. Further, he suggests that the discussion of the rise of capitalism must be understood in terms of a specifically Marxian conception of capitalism as a system in which the capitalist class expropriates the excess product of the free laborer’s work. It is this latter claim that is central to much of Kulikoff’s work in the essays composing the bulk of the book. The rural society was not, he argues, entirely free of exchange; however, the exchange itself was oriented toward the subsistence of the household, and not toward the accumulation of profit. Involvement in the market drove some farmers to orient their production toward the market, and divided farmers into market or commercial farmers on the one hand, and yeomen on the other. This divide accelerated the consolidation of land and the resulting emigration. The process, as Kulikoff describes it, is of course more complicated than this, involving the construction of infrastructure by outside capitalists and the formation of class identity—a process of which the members of the nascent classes were often unaware. The relationship between class identity and the rise of capitalism, while obvious in a broad sense, seems unclear in its particulars; this may be due either to the inherent inadequacies of Kulikoff’s studies (inadequacies which he acknowledges in his rather expansive suggestions for further study) or to an insufficient familiarity with Marxian class theory on the part of this reviewer. Author’s point of view: Kulikoff is openly and unapologetically Marxist. While this position allows him to constructing a more coherent synthesis than might otherwise be possible, he often falls into the typical Marxist trap of testing the validity of a theory by its predictive (rather than simply explanatory) power. Use of evidence: As might be expected with a synthesis of this scope, Kulikoff is frequently reliant upon secondary sources. Roughly a sixth of the length of the book is given over to his extensive bibliography, which is itself a rich resource. Contribution to knowledge: Kulikoff offers little in the way of new information, but constructs a theoretical approach and historical synthesis that, while at times unsatisfying, remain formidable and demanding of engagement.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-04-26 00:00:00 Craig Brandt Roy mops the floor with functionalists.