Richard Lachmann | SUNY: University at Albany (original) (raw)
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Journalism and Analysis by Richard Lachmann
Counterpunch, Jul 15, 2015
Why is President Obama’s deal to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—a plan also suppor... more Why is President Obama’s deal to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—a plan also supported by all the other major world powers—arousing such opposition in the United States and Israel? The reasons given by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the war hawks in the U.S. Senate are bogus, rejected even by U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies. This latest “great debate” is only nominally about nukes; it is really another chapter in the longstanding effort of the United States (and junior partner Israel) to establish dominance in the Middle East. This episode focuses on finding an effective strategy for removing or domesticating the Islamist regime in Iran, and on which of the countries in the region will be the on-site agent of U.S. hegemony.
Papers by Richard Lachmann
Comparative Studies in Society and History
I review and critique three important recent books to clarify the ways in which empires amass ter... more I review and critique three important recent books to clarify the ways in which empires amass territories, dominate the peoples within them, and sooner or later decline and disappear. I review definitions of empires and contrast empires with nation-states. Empires succeed to the extent to which they manage differences among subjects, and I examine explanations for empires’ varying strategies for accomplishing that necessary task. I examine how empires both suppress and inadvertently foster nationalism. Imperial dynamics were influenced by competition with rival empires even as empires learned from each other's successes and failures. Throughout the modern era ancient Rome was a model and a caution. I identify the ways in which wars led to imperial expansion and moments when wars weakened or fatally undermined empires. I contrast ancient and modern and European and Asian empires. Finally, I look at the nineteenth-century expansion and twentieth-century collapses of modern empires...
Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas
This article identifies the long-term bases of Republican electoral dominance. It then highlights... more This article identifies the long-term bases of Republican electoral dominance. It then highlights the specific factors that allowed Trump to win in 2016. Third, it enumerates the policies that Trump and Congressional Republicans will be able to implement because they control the Federal government. Finally, it discusses the opportunities for opposition to Trump and speculates on the likelihood that those efforts will be successful and how unanticipated events might strengthen or undermine Republican power.
Sociologica, 2013
L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personal... more L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personale, senza scopo di lucro e senza fini direttamente o indirettamente commerciali. Salvo quanto espressamente previsto dalla licenza d'uso Rivisteweb,è fatto divieto di riprodurre, trasmettere, distribuire o altrimenti utilizzare l'articolo, per qualsiasi scopo o fine. Tutti i diritti sono riservati.
Sociologica, 2014
L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personal... more L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personale, senza scopo di lucro e senza fini direttamente o indirettamente commerciali. Salvo quanto espressamente previsto dalla licenza d'uso Rivisteweb,è fatto divieto di riprodurre, trasmettere, distribuire o altrimenti utilizzare l'articolo, per qualsiasi scopo o fine. Tutti i diritti sono riservati.
Sociologia Problemas E Praticas, Jan 31, 2014
Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas, 2014
I compare ancient with modern empires and show why hegemony beyond the militaryrealm is possible ... more I compare ancient with modern empires and show why hegemony beyond the militaryrealm is possible only in the modern capitalist world. I examine Germany, Spain and France, whichfailed to achieve hegemony, along with the three successive hegemons: the Netherlands, Britain,and the United States. I identify the elites that were created and strengthened by their homepolity’s empire or hegemony, and enumerate the factors that allowed some colonial elites to achievehigh levels of autonomy. Colonial elite autonomy or high levels of elite unity in the metropoleprevented or undermined hegemony.
Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas, 2013
Contemporary Sociology, 1987
Contemporary Sociology, 2003
Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas, 2013
American Historical Review, 1990
American Historical Review, 1991
American Sociological Review, 1990
An elite conflict model is compared to past work on elites and to a variety of Marxist ex-planati... more An elite conflict model is compared to past work on elites and to a variety of Marxist ex-planations for the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Elites are defined by their control over organizational apparatuses for appropriating resources from non-elites. An elite in pursuit of its interests ...
American Historical Review, 1991
Richard Lachmann's work offers a new explanation for the origins of nation-states and cap... more Richard Lachmann's work offers a new explanation for the origins of nation-states and capitalist markets in early modern Europe. Comparing regions and cities within and across England, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries, Lachmann shows how conflict among feudal elites---landlords, clerics, kings and officeholders---transformed the bases of their control over land and labor,
Counterpunch, Jul 15, 2015
Why is President Obama’s deal to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—a plan also suppor... more Why is President Obama’s deal to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—a plan also supported by all the other major world powers—arousing such opposition in the United States and Israel? The reasons given by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the war hawks in the U.S. Senate are bogus, rejected even by U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies. This latest “great debate” is only nominally about nukes; it is really another chapter in the longstanding effort of the United States (and junior partner Israel) to establish dominance in the Middle East. This episode focuses on finding an effective strategy for removing or domesticating the Islamist regime in Iran, and on which of the countries in the region will be the on-site agent of U.S. hegemony.
Comparative Studies in Society and History
I review and critique three important recent books to clarify the ways in which empires amass ter... more I review and critique three important recent books to clarify the ways in which empires amass territories, dominate the peoples within them, and sooner or later decline and disappear. I review definitions of empires and contrast empires with nation-states. Empires succeed to the extent to which they manage differences among subjects, and I examine explanations for empires’ varying strategies for accomplishing that necessary task. I examine how empires both suppress and inadvertently foster nationalism. Imperial dynamics were influenced by competition with rival empires even as empires learned from each other's successes and failures. Throughout the modern era ancient Rome was a model and a caution. I identify the ways in which wars led to imperial expansion and moments when wars weakened or fatally undermined empires. I contrast ancient and modern and European and Asian empires. Finally, I look at the nineteenth-century expansion and twentieth-century collapses of modern empires...
Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas
This article identifies the long-term bases of Republican electoral dominance. It then highlights... more This article identifies the long-term bases of Republican electoral dominance. It then highlights the specific factors that allowed Trump to win in 2016. Third, it enumerates the policies that Trump and Congressional Republicans will be able to implement because they control the Federal government. Finally, it discusses the opportunities for opposition to Trump and speculates on the likelihood that those efforts will be successful and how unanticipated events might strengthen or undermine Republican power.
Sociologica, 2013
L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personal... more L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personale, senza scopo di lucro e senza fini direttamente o indirettamente commerciali. Salvo quanto espressamente previsto dalla licenza d'uso Rivisteweb,è fatto divieto di riprodurre, trasmettere, distribuire o altrimenti utilizzare l'articolo, per qualsiasi scopo o fine. Tutti i diritti sono riservati.
Sociologica, 2014
L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personal... more L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personale, senza scopo di lucro e senza fini direttamente o indirettamente commerciali. Salvo quanto espressamente previsto dalla licenza d'uso Rivisteweb,è fatto divieto di riprodurre, trasmettere, distribuire o altrimenti utilizzare l'articolo, per qualsiasi scopo o fine. Tutti i diritti sono riservati.
Sociologia Problemas E Praticas, Jan 31, 2014
Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas, 2014
I compare ancient with modern empires and show why hegemony beyond the militaryrealm is possible ... more I compare ancient with modern empires and show why hegemony beyond the militaryrealm is possible only in the modern capitalist world. I examine Germany, Spain and France, whichfailed to achieve hegemony, along with the three successive hegemons: the Netherlands, Britain,and the United States. I identify the elites that were created and strengthened by their homepolity’s empire or hegemony, and enumerate the factors that allowed some colonial elites to achievehigh levels of autonomy. Colonial elite autonomy or high levels of elite unity in the metropoleprevented or undermined hegemony.
Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas, 2013
Contemporary Sociology, 1987
Contemporary Sociology, 2003
Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas, 2013
American Historical Review, 1990
American Historical Review, 1991
American Sociological Review, 1990
An elite conflict model is compared to past work on elites and to a variety of Marxist ex-planati... more An elite conflict model is compared to past work on elites and to a variety of Marxist ex-planations for the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Elites are defined by their control over organizational apparatuses for appropriating resources from non-elites. An elite in pursuit of its interests ...
American Historical Review, 1991
Richard Lachmann's work offers a new explanation for the origins of nation-states and cap... more Richard Lachmann's work offers a new explanation for the origins of nation-states and capitalist markets in early modern Europe. Comparing regions and cities within and across England, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries, Lachmann shows how conflict among feudal elites---landlords, clerics, kings and officeholders---transformed the bases of their control over land and labor,
Sociology of Education, May 31, 2014
How have U.S. high school textbook depictions of World War II and Vietnam changed since the 1970s... more How have U.S. high school textbook depictions of World War II and Vietnam changed since the 1970s? We examined 102 textbooks published from 1970 to 2009 to see how they treated U.S. involvement in World War II and Vietnam. Our content analysis of high school history textbooks finds that U.S. textbooks increasingly focus on the personal experiences of soldiers, rather than presenting impersonal accounts of battles, and are increasingly likely to focus on soldiers' suffering rather than glorify combat. This shift is greater for Vietnam than for World War II. We also find increasing attention in textbooks to the fact, but not the substance, of protests against the Vietnam War. These changes provide more support for theories that view textbooks as sites of contestation or expressions of a world culture of individualism rather than purveyors of a hidden curriculum of nationalistic militarism. Future research on textbook production and comparisons of U.S. versus other countries' textbooks might show how much of the change is particular to the United States, perhaps due to the Vietnam War, or attributable to global changes in military conscription, tolerance for casualties, and attitudes toward individual rights and group obligations.
It is no surprise that Donald Trump is eager to cancel the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, one of th... more It is no surprise that Donald Trump is eager to cancel the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, one of the few Obama policies that increased the prospects for world peace. Trump is closely allied with the extreme right of the Republican Party, which opposed the deal from the start and which is eager to eliminate the Islamist government in Iran either through a direct U.S. invasion or by outsourcing the deed to Israel.
The surprise is that most of the U.S. foreign policy establishment wants to preserve the deal and lobbied hard, though unsuccessfully, to push Trump to recertify Iranian compliance. The future of the deal is now in the hands of Congress under the terms of the legislation that allowed Obama to suspend the sanctions. Sanctions will be reimposed only if majorities in the House and Senate vote to do so. We can expect intense lobbying from the military, from former diplomats, and behind the scenes from the State Department to prevent Congress from acting. Important U.S. business interests have also signaled their opposition to sanctions. This split among elites over Iran policy is longstanding, but since 2015 has matured into more institutionalized form.
Studying the Power Elite: Fifty Years of Who Rules America (New York, Routledge, 2017),: , 2017
G. William Domhoff's arresting biography of his masterwork, Who Rules America details the connec... more G. William Domhoff's arresting biography of his masterwork, Who Rules America details the connecting links and evolving analysis perfected in the new editions – and later additions – that comprise the corpus of Domhoff's power structure research. Such a comprehensive review of key ideas invites the respondents in this volume to point towards related work that extends and enriches the bedrock analysis that Domhoff has constructed. I
If Domhoff’s perspective is to remain useful in understanding 21st century dynamics, it must be extended to encompass semi-autonomous elites within the U.S. state system and beyond the U.S. territorial limits, and understand the leverage applied by mobilized publics within the United States as well as the global venues of U.S. economic and military aggression. Domhoff’s achievements in historical and sociological explanation demonstrate the intellectual importance of this task of extension and clarification. The moral crisis created by neoliberalism and dangerously deepened by the 2016 U.S. Presidential election underscores the urgency of this work.
TomDispatch, Dec 10, 2020
Climate and Indigenous organizers have been attacking Big Energy companies and their investors, u... more Climate and Indigenous organizers have been attacking Big Energy companies and their investors, using economic pressure, boycotts, lawsuits, and disruptive direct-action tactics to impede drilling, interrupt the transportation of oil and gas, and choke off the flow of financing to, and insurance for, such projects. This multipronged strategy has been so surprisingly successful that investors have begun divesting from fossil-fuel extraction and infrastructure. Understanding the largely unnoticed success of recent resistance movements is crucial if we hope to prevent total ecological collapse.