Editing J. A. Hobson (section)

==Commentary on Hobson==
[[File:J. A. Hobson A vagyon tudománya.jpg|thumb|220px|right|J. A. Hobson: The Science of Wealth (Hungarian edition)]]

===Critical appraisal===
[[R. H. Tawney]] wrote the following in ''[[q:The Acquisitive Society|The Acquisitive Society]]'' (1920):

<blockquote>
The greater part of modern property has been attenuated to a pecuniary lien or bond on the product of industry which carries with it a right to payment, but which is normally valued precisely because it relieves the owner from any obligation to perform a positive or constructive function. Such property may be called passive property, or property for acquisition, for exploitation, or for power.... It is questionable, however, whether economists shall call it "Property" at all, and not rather, as Mr. Hobson has suggested, "Improperty," since it is not identical with the rights which secure the owner the produce of his toil, but is opposite of them.
</blockquote>

[[Vladimir Lenin|V.I. Lenin]], in ''[[Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism]]'' (1916)—which was probably his most influential work on later Marxian scholarship—made use of Hobson's ''[[Imperialism (Hobson)|Imperialism]]'' extensively, remarking in the preface "I made use of the principal English work, ''Imperialism'', J. A. Hobson's book, with all the care that, in my opinion, that work deserves." In the work itself—despite disagreeing with Hobson's liberal politics—Lenin repeatedly cites Hobson's interpretation of imperialism approvingly; for example:

<blockquote>
We see that Kautsky, while claiming that he continues to advocate Marxism, as a matter of fact takes a step backward compared with the social-liberal Hobson, who more correctly takes into account two "historically concrete" ... features of modern imperialism: (1) the competition between several imperialisms, and (2) the predominance of the financier over the merchant.
</blockquote>

Historians [[Peter Duignan]] and [[Lewis H. Gann]] argue that Hobson had an enormous influence in the early 20th century among people all around the world:

<blockquote>
Hobson's ideas were not entirely original; however his hatred of moneyed men and monopolies, his loathing of secret compacts and public bluster, fused all existing indictments of imperialism into one coherent system....His ideas influenced German nationalist opponents of the British Empire as well as French Anglophobes and Marxists; they colored the thoughts of American liberals and isolationist critics of colonialism. In days to come they were to contribute to American distrust of Western Europe and of the British Empire. Hobson helped make the British averse to the exercise of colonial rule; he provided indigenous nationalists in Asia and Africa with the ammunition to resist rule from Europe.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Peter Duignan|author2=Lewis H. Gann|title=Burden of Empire: An Appraisal of Western Colonialism in Africa South of the Sahara|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RY642QAhLVwC&pg=PT59|year=2013|publisher=Hoover Press|page=59|isbn=9780817916930}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Later historians attacked Hobson and the [[Marxist]] theories of imperialism he influenced. Notably, [[John Andrew Gallagher|John Gallagher]] and [[Ronald Robinson]] in their 1953 article ''[[The Imperialism of Free Trade]]'' argued that Hobson placed too much emphasis on the role of formal empire and directly ruled colonial possessions, not taking into account the significance of trading power, political influence and informal imperialism. They also argued that the difference in British foreign policy that Hobson observed between the mid-19th-century indifference to empire that accompanied free market economics, and the later intense imperialism after 1870, was not real.

Hobson believed "colonial primitive peoples" were inferior. In ''Imperialism'' he advocated their "gradual elimination" by an international organization: "A rational [[stirpiculture]] in the wide social interest might, however, require a repression of the spread of degenerate or unprogressive races". Such a plan should be implemented, according to Hobson, following approval by an "international political organization".<ref name="Feuer">[https://books.google.com/books?id=4uyHHyMoGhMC&dq=%22animus+against+Jews%22+%22colonial+primitive+peoples%22+%22gradual+elimination%22&pg=PA150 Imperialism and the Anti-Imperialist Mind], 1989, Transaction Publishers, [[Lewis Samuel Feuer]], page 150</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=WuQABAAAQBAJ&dq=%22repression+of+the+spread+of+degenerate+or+unprogressive+races%22&pg=PA73 Theories of Imperialism (Routledge Revivals): War, Conquest and Capital], 1984, Norman Etherington, Routledge, page 73</ref> While it can be said the 1902 work reflected the [[Social Darwinism]] trend of the time, Hobson left this section mainly unchanged when he published the third edition in 1938.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=pvvHLe5WVlkC&dq=%22repression+of+the+spread+of+degenerate+or+unprogressive+races%22&pg=PA83 Imperialism and Internationalism in the Discipline of International Relations], 2005, edited by David Long, Brian C. Schmidt, State University of New York Press, pages 83-84</ref>

===Antisemitism===
Hobson's early works were critical of the impact of Jewish immigration and Jewish financiers.<ref name=Allett>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/4467370 New Liberalism, Old Prejudices: J. A. Hobson and the "Jewish Question"] John Allett Jewish Social Studies Vol. 49, No. 2 (Spring, 1987), pp. 99–114</ref><ref name="Cowen">[https://books.google.com/books?id=1Suvgz8BtcUC&dq=%22John+A.+Hobson%22+antisemitic&pg=PA259 Doctrines Of Development], M. P. Cowen, Routledge, page 259, quote:"Rampant anti-Semitism should be recognized, not least because it is John A. Hobson, one of the most rabid anti-Semites of the period, who is the inspiration, alongside Schumpeter and Veblen, for...</ref><ref name="Marks">[https://books.google.com/books?id=-J9ODAAAQBAJ&dq=%22John+A.+Hobson%22+antisemitic&pg=PA10 The Information Nexus: Global Capitalism from the Renaissance to the Present], Cambridge University Press, Steven G. Marks, page 10, quote: "And in England, the Social Democratic Federation newspaper Justice state that "the Jew financier" was the "personification of international capitalism" - an opinion repeated in the anti-Semitic diatribes of John A. Hobson, the socialist writer who wrote one of the earliest English books with "capitalism" in the title and helped to familiarize Britons with the concept"</ref> In the 1890s he argued that large scale Jewish immigration from the [[Russian Partition]] to Western Europe harmed the interests of native workers and advocated limitations on immigration. Writing on the South African war in ''War in South Africa'' (1900), he linked the impetus towards war to "Jew Power" in South Africa and saw [[Johannesburg]] as a "New Jerusalem". Hobson wrote that "[[Antisemitic canard#Controlling the world financial system|Jewish financiers]]", whom he saw as "parasites", manipulated the British government that danced to their "diabolical tune".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Tdn6FFZklkcC&dq=%22John+A.+Hobson%22+antisemitic&pg=PA311 Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution, Volume 1], Richard S. Levy, ABC-CLIO, page 311</ref><ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2708389.pdf?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Mitchell, Harvey. "Hobson revisited." Journal of the History of Ideas (1965): 397-416.]</ref> According to history professor [[Norman Etherington]], the section on financiers in ''Imperialism'' seems irrelevant to Hobson's economic discourse, and was probably included since Hobson truly believed it.<ref name="Etherington">[https://books.google.com/books?id=WuQABAAAQBAJ&dq=Hobson+Imperialism+Jewish+financiers&pg=PA70 Theories of Imperialism (Routledge Revivals): War, Conquest and Capital], Routledge, 1984, Norman Etherington, page 70</ref> Hobson was innovative in tying between 1898 and 1902 the concept of [[modernity]], empire, and Jews together; according to Hobson, the international financiers influenced the government partially through Jewish press ownership in South Africa and London.<ref name="Feldman">[https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/655/2/655.pdf Feldman, David. "Jews and the British Empire c. 1900." History Workshop Journal. Vol. 63. No. 1. Oxford University Press, 2007.]</ref>

Hobson's analysis was widely disseminated by those opposed to the war and received significant attention. Other contemporary anti-war writers also alleged a mainly Jewish "capitalist conspiracy" was taking place.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=HoQuWDqb4nIC&q=Hobson&pg=PA327 Hostages of Modernization: Germany - Great Britain - France], De Gruyter, chapter by [[Colin Holmes (historian)|Colin Holmes]], 1993, pages 326-328</ref> Following Hobson's January 1900 article ''Capitalism and Imperialism in South Africa'', Labour leader [[Keir Hardie]] in February 1900 repeated the same message in paraphrased form accusing "half a dozen financial houses, many of them Jewish" of leading the UK to war.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/4467124?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Hirshfield, Claire. "The British Left and the" Jewish Conspiracy": A Case Study of Modern Antisemitism." Jewish Social Studies 43.2 (1981): 95-112.]</ref> However, as the British working class tended to support the war in South Africa, Hobson's zeal in attacking "Jew Power" in South Africa and manipulation by a secret "racial confederacy" failed to attract popular support in Britain, though "anti-Alien" sentiments continued to be an issue. Among commentators in [[Continental Europe]], in particular France and Germany, the alleged "robbery committed by international Jewry" was frequently linked by right-wing antisemites to "British imperialist piracy" during the Second Boer War.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=yBvt4Fwc5XoC&dq=%22John+Hobson%22+Jewish&pg=PA206 From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews, and Israel], Robert S. Wistrich, University of Nebraska Press, 2012, page 206</ref>