Joseph Schumpeter was not a member of the Austrian School, but he was an enormously creative classical liberal, and this 1919 book shows him at his best. He presents a theory of how states become empires and applies his insight to explaining many historical episodes. His account of the foreign policy of Imperial Rome reads like a critique of the US today. The second essay examines class mobility and political dynamics within a capitalistic society. Overall, a very important contribution to the literature of political economy.
![Imperialism and Social Classes by Joseph Shumpeter](https://cdn.mises.org/styles/responsive_6_9_650w/s3/static-page/img/Imperialism_Shumpeter.jpg.webp?itok=9mMryf5e 650w,https://cdn.mises.org/styles/responsive_6_9_870w/s3/static-page/img/Imperialism_Shumpeter.jpg.webp?itok=m46FcxYj 870w,https://cdn.mises.org/styles/responsive_6_9_1090w/s3/static-page/img/Imperialism_Shumpeter.jpg.webp?itok=BKry-qyH 1090w,https://cdn.mises.org/styles/responsive_6_9_1310w/s3/static-page/img/Imperialism_Shumpeter.jpg.webp?itok=mXvtg0QV 1310w,https://cdn.mises.org/styles/responsive_6_9_1530w/s3/static-page/img/Imperialism_Shumpeter.jpg.webp?itok=3sNkzc3V 1530w)
Cleveland, Ohio: A Meridian Book, 1955 (1919, 1927. Print on demand