Producing Hegemony

This book traces the relationship between American global power and the rise of mass production. The USA was propelled to the apex of global division of labor, ensuring victory in World War II and enabling postwar reconstruction under American leadership. Mark Rupert examines the struggles through which industrial labor was incorporated between 1914 and 1952.

In this book Mark Rupert argues that American global power was shaped by the ways in which mass production was institutionalized in the USA, and by the political and ideological struggles integral to this process. The production of an unprecedented volume of goods propelled the United States to the apex of the global division of labor, ensuring victory in World War II and enabling postwar reconstruction under American leadership. He describes an 'historic bloc' of American statesmen, capitalists and labor leaders who fostered a productivity-oriented political consensus within the USA, and sought to generalize their vision of liberal capitalism around the globe. He focuses on the incorporation of industrial labor as a junior partner in this hegemonic bloc, and argues that the recent erosion of its position under the pressures of transnational competition and the political forces of right wing reaction may open up new possibilities for transformative politics.