Paul M. Sweezy

<html> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=7YQSqjSh" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://homepage.newschool.edu:80/~het/profiles/sweezy.htm","20120402130213","https://web.archive.org/","web","https://web-static.archive.org/_static/", "1333371733"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=p7PEIJWi" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <title>Paul M. Sweezy</title> </head> <body background="/web/20120402130213im_/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/back.gif" link="#000080"> <h2>Paul M. Sweezy, 1910-</h2> Paul Sweezy is best known in economics for two not-so-distinct concerns which have dominated his economics: analyzing <a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/schools/imperf.htm">monopolistic</a> competition and updating <a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/schools/marxian.htm">Marxian</a> thought into "<a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/schools/neomarx.htm">Neo-Marxian</a>" economics.  His work on the former is best exemplified by his discovery of the "kinked" demand curve for oligopoly (1939) and his prize-winning study on the English coal industry (1938). Sweezy encountered Marxian theory soon enough and in his majestic 1942 book, Theory of Capitalist Development, helped reintroduce Marxian thought to economics - in particular drawing attention to <a href="marx.htm">Marx's</a> "Transformation Problem" and the theory of crisis. Sweezy subsequently translated <a href="bawerk.htm">B鰄m-Bawerk's</a> classic 1896 critique of Marx as well as <a href="hilferd.htm">Hilferding's</a> response. He also became involved in an infamous debate with <a href="dobb.htm">Dobb</a> on the issue of the transition from feudalism to capitalism (e.g. 1976). It was hardly surprising, then, that this young <a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/schools/harvard.htm">Harvard </a>economist was to became a favorite of <a href="schump.htm">Schumpeter's</a> and an anathema to the American government (Sweezy was summoned and jailed for "contempt" by the McCarthyite New Hampshire legal establishment in 1953 - a conviction only overturned in 1957 by the US Supreme Court (see <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120402130213/http://www.monthlyreview.org/400pms1.htm">statement by Sweezy</a>)). Sweezy was also a proponent of an "underconsumption" interpretation of Marx, a new theory of imperialism rooted in "dependency" and the examination of Keynesian demand management as a life-valve for capitalism - ideas commonly associated with the Monthly Review, which Sweezy helped found in 1949 and which he edited for the rest of his career which was to be highly influential on the emerging "New Left". Sweezy saw these ideas as a way of modernising the Marxian theory of crisis and he set them forth both in his numerous writings in the Monthly Review and, perhaps most famously, in his highly influential Monopoly Capital (1966) written with Paul <a href="baran.htm">Baran</a>. Major works of Paul M. Sweezy <ul> <li>"The Thinness of the Stock Market", 1930, AER. </li> <li>"On the Definition of Monopoly", 1937, QJE. </li> <li>Monopoly and Competition in the English Coal Trade, 1550-1850, 1938. </li> <li>"Demand Under Conditions of Oligopoly", 1939, JPE </li> <li>The Theory of Capitalist Development, 1942. </li> <li>"John Maynard <a href="keynes.htm">Keynes</a>", 1946, Science and Society. </li> <li>Socialism, 1948. </li> <li>The Present as History, 1953. </li> <li>Cuba: Anatomy of a revolution, with L. Huberman, 1960. </li> <li>Monopoly Capital with P. <a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/schools/marxian.htm#baran">Baran</a>, 1966. </li> <li>Socialism in Cuba, with L. Huberman, 1969. </li> <li>On the Transition to Socialism, with C. Bettelheim, 1971. </li> <li>The Dynamics of U.S. Capitalism, with H. Magdoff, 1972. </li> <li>Modern Capitalism and other essays, 1972. </li> <li>The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism, 1976. </li> <li>The End of Prosperity, with H. Magdoff, 1977. </li> <li>The Deepening Crisis of US Capitalism, with H. Magdoff, 1979. </li> <li>Four Lectures on Marxism, 1981. </li> <li>Post-Revolutionary Society, 1981. </li> <li>Stagnation and Financial Explosion, with H. Magdoff, 1987. </li> <li>The Irreversible Crisis, with H. Magdoff, 1989. </li> </ul> Resources on Paul M. Sweezy <ul> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120402130213/http://www.monthlyreview.org/400pms1.htm">"Statement to the New Hampshire Attorney General</a>" by Paul M. Sweezy, 1957</li> <li>"<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120402130213/http://www.monthlyreview.org/400jbf.htm">Monopoly Capital at the Turn of the Millennium</a>" by John Bellamy Foster, 2000, Monthly Review</li> <li>"<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120402130213/http://www.monthlyreview.org/400jjs.htm">Sweezy versus New Hampshire: The Radicalism of Principle</a>" by John J. Simon, 2000, Monthly Review</li> <li>"<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120402130213/http://www.monthlyreview.org/400bday.htm">Happy Birthday Paul!</a>" 2000, Monthly Review, Harry <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120402130213/http://www.monthlyreview.org/nfte400.htm">Magdoff's editorial.</a></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120402130213/http://www.monthlyreview.org/index.html">Monthly Review</a></li> <li>"<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120402130213/http://www.cce.unifi.it/dse/spe/indici/numero36/bonzio.htm">Inflazione, ristagno e crisi dell抏conomia mondiale a partire dagli anni settanta: il contributo di Paul M. Sweezy ed  Harry Magdoff</a>" by Marco Bonzio, 1998, SdPE</li> </ul>   <hr size="5">  <div align="center"><center> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5"> <tr> <td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" width="148" height="37"><a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/home.htm">Home</a></td> <td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" width="148" height="37"><a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/alphabet.htm">Alphabetical Index</a></td> <td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" width="149" height="37"><a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/thought.htm">Schools of Thought </a></td> <td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" width="149" height="37"><a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/essays.htm">Surveys and Essays </a></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" width="148" height="37"><a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/links.htm">Web Links</a></td> <td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" width="148" height="37"><a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/references.htm">References</a></td> <td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" width="149" height="37"><a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/contact.htm">Contact</a></td> <td align="center" bgcolor="#000000" width="149" height="37"><a href="/web/20120402130213/http://homepage.newschool.edu/~het/index.htm">Frames</a></td> </tr> </table> </center></div> </body> </html>

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Paul M. Sweezy