Abstract

In addition to its importance in analyzing imperialism, Lenin's Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism is also a key contribution to the Marxian theory of stages of capitalism. Lenin's Imperialism proposes the concept of a new stage of capitalism as the solution to the theoretical crisis within Marxism that emerged with capitalist recovery at the turn of the 20th century. In Lenin's argument, the emergence of monopoly capital resolved the great depression at the end of the 19th century. This conception of imperialism influenced the American monopoly capital school and through it the contemporary social structure of accumulation description of capitalist stages. Lenin's work is also the direct ancestor of Ernest Mandel's concept of the late capitalist stage and of the Japanese Uno School's stage theory.