2024 is not 1914. Nonetheless, imperialism was the dominant system then, as it is now. A century ago, several neo-mercantilist imperial powers vied to establish primacy over the others. Things have changed. Our era is one of planetary imperialism and globalized capitalism where one power, the U.S., already exercises hegemony over all. No other, including China and Russia, has the need or the capacity to replace it. We are not faced with relatively equal adversaries facing off, as in WW1, but with one hegemonic power trying desperately, by and all means, to cling to its world-wide domination. Herein lies the source of the major tensions and conflicts in the world today.

Samir Saul revisits the notion of imperialism, establishes a typology of imperialisms and shows how relevant the concept is today. Since the fall of the Soviet Bloc, the term “imperialism? has largely disappeared from public discourse, even among left-wing or formerly left-wing authors and publications. Yet reality is relentless, and the issue has returned in full force.

This book attempts to develop a new interpretation of imperialism, based on a historical approach. Highlighting the historical continuity of imperialism, it shows how crucial it is to understanding what is happening today.

Samir Saul's profile page

Samir Saul is a full professor of international history at the Université de Montréal. He has taught and supervised many graduate students for over three decades, with a concentration on modern France and the Arab world. He did his doctorate in history at the University of Paris. Along with dozens of scholarly articles and as many on current world problems for a larger public, he has published two major studies entitled La France et l'Égypte de 1882 à 1914. Intérêts économiques et implications politiques (Paris, 1997) and Intérêts économiques français et décolonisation de l'Afrique du Nord (1945-1962) (Paris, 2016). He is also co-editor of Méditerranée, Moyen-Orient : deux siècles de relations internationales (Paris, 2003). This is his first book to appear in English.

"Samir Saul is one of the very best French-language specialists in international economic relations. He has chosen here to tackle a question that is still debated and that has lost none of its relevance, on the contrary: imperialism. If we weren?t convinced, this book leads us there. (. . . ) a powerful resource." Dominique Barjot, Emeritus Professor of Economic History, Université Sorbonne

"Saul sheds new light on the changing face of imperialism through the ages, from primitive ancestral practices to its more covert contemporary forms in the guise of capitalism." UdeM Nouvelles