Gabriel Morris Kolko (August 17, 1932 – May 19, 2014) was an American historian. His research interests included American capitalism and political history, the

Progressive Era The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...

, and U.S. foreign policy in the 20th century. One of the best-known

revisionist historians In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or time ...

to write about the Cold War, he had also been credited as "an incisive critic of the Progressive Era and its relationship to the American empire." U.S. historian

Paul Buhle Paul Merlyn Buhle (born September 27, 1944) is a (retired) Senior Lecturer at Brown University, author or editor of 35 volumes including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of popular culture, and a series ...

summarized Kolko's career when he described him as "a major theorist of what came to be called

Corporate Liberalism Corporate liberalism is a thesis in United States historiography and a tool for its open door imperialism in which the corporate elite become "both the chief beneficiaries of and the chief lobbyists for the supposedly anti-business regulations". The ...

... nda very major historian of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

and its assorted war crimes."

Background and education

Kolko was of Jewish heritage. He was born in

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest city in and the county seat of Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Kolko attended

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in ...

, where he studied American economic history (BA 1954). Next he attended the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

where he studied American social history (MS 1955). He received his Ph.D. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

in 1962.''Contemporary Authors: First Revision, Volumes 5–8'', p. 655. During these years, Kolko was active in the Student League for Industrial Democracy (SLID). By the time SLID published his first pamphlet, ''Distribution of Income in the United States'', in 1955, Kolko had already completed a stint serving as the league's national vice chairman. Following his graduation from Harvard, he taught at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

and at

SUNY-Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public university, public research university with campuses in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New Yor ...

. In 1970, he joined the history department of

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and sta ...

in Toronto, remaining an emeritus professor of history there until his death in 2014.

Career

According to antiwar activist

Eric Garris Eric Garris (born December 24, 1953) is an activist in the libertarian movement in the United States, reaching back to the Vietnam War. He is the founder and webmaster of a daily nonpartisan, news source Antiwar.com which was launched in 1995. B ...

, Kolko first established his reputation as a historian writing about the "close connection between the government and big business throughout the Progressive Era and the Cold War ..but broke new ground with his analysis of the corporate elite's successful defeat of the free market by corporatism." Early in his career, beginning with his books ''The Triumph of Conservatism'' and ''Railroads and Regulation'', Kolko used a revisionist approach as a way of analyzing history. Soon he was considered a leading historian of the

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights ...

, joining

William Appleman Williams William Appleman Williams (June 12, 1921 – March 5, 1990) was one of the 20th century's most prominent revisionist historians of American diplomacy. He achieved the height of his influence while on the faculty of the department of history at th ...

and James Weinstein in advancing the so-called "corporate liberalism" thesis in American historiography. This was a thesis that disputed the "widely held view that government regulates business, arguing that, instead, business steers government", and Kolko used it to analyze how America's social, economic, and political life was shaped beginning with the Progressive Era (1900-1920). But for Kolko, a social policy of "corporate liberalism" (or what Kolko preferred to call "political capitalism") shaped the mainstream agenda of all that was to follow afterwards in American society, from

The New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

(1930s) through to the post-World War II era of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

(1947-1962), and onwards. Kolko's argument that public policy was shaped by "corporate control of the liberal agenda" (rather than the liberal control of the corporate agenda), revised the old Progressive Era historiography of the "interests" ''versus'' the "people", which was now to be reinterpreted as a ''collaboration'' of "interests" and "people." So too, with this revised version of recent American history, came the tacit recognition that this fulfilled the business community's unspoken, but deliberate, aim of stabilizing competition in the "free market." This was an idea summarized by journalist and internet columnist Charles Burris when he argued that: In retrospect, Kolko summarized this phase of his career when he wrote that: Kolko argued that

big business Big business involves large-scale corporate-controlled financial or business activities. As a term, it describes activities that run from "huge transactions" to the more general "doing big things". In corporate jargon, the concept is commonly ...

turned to the government for support because of its inefficiency and inability to prevent the economy veering between boom and bust, which aroused fears that the concomitant discontent amongst the general public would lead to the imposition of

popular Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group. Popular may also refer to: In sociology * Popular culture * Popular fiction * Popular music * Popular science * Populace, the total ...

constraints upon business. Its embrace of government led to their intertwinement, with business becoming the dominant strand..

Historian of the Progressive Era

Kolko, in particular, broke new ground with his critical history of the

. He suggested that free enterprise and competition were vibrant and expanding during the first two decades of the 20th century; thereafter, however, "the corporate elite—the

House of Morgan J.P. Morgan & Co. is a commercial and investment banking institution founded by J. P. Morgan in 1871. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the company is now a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase, one of the largest banking institutions in ...

, for example—turned to government intervention when it realized in the waning 19th century that competition was too unruly to guarantee

market share Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those units would have a ...

." This behavior is known as

corporatism Corporatism is a collectivist political ideology which advocates the organization of society by corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, on the basis of their common interests. The ...

, but Kolko dubbed it ''political capitalism'', "the merger of the economic and political structures on behalf of the greater interests of capitalism". Kolko's thesis "that businessmen favored government regulation because they feared competition and desired to forge a government–business coalition" is one that is echoed by many observers today. Former Harvard professor Paul H. Weaver uncovered the same inefficient and bureaucratic behavior from corporations during his stint at

Ford Motor Corporation Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobile ...

. Free market economist

Murray Rothbard Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...

thought highly of Kolko's work on the history of relations between big business and government. As one profile, published in ''

The American Conservative ''The American Conservative'' (''TAC'') is a magazine published by the American Ideas Institute which was founded in 2002. Originally published twice a month, it was reduced to monthly publication in August 2009, and since February 2013, it has ...

'', put it:

Historian of U.S. foreign relations and the Vietnam War

Having published on the US domestic scene, Kolko next turned to matters international, beginning in 1968 with ''The Politics of War'', "the most thorough and extensive of the 'revisionist' views of American foreign policy during World War II.". Next up was ''The Roots of American Foreign Policy'' (1969), a book that, according to

Richard H. Immerman Richard H. Immerman (born April 28, 1949) is an American historian and author. He is currently Marvin Wachman Director Emeritus at the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy at Temple University, which he co-founded in 1993 with Russell Weig ...

, "became must reading for a generation of diplomatic historians.". In this work, Kolko contended that the American failure to win the

demonstrated the inapplicability of the US policy of containment. ''The Limits of Power'' (1972), co-authored with his wife, Joyce, looked at US foreign policy in the crucial postwar years, when American power was at its peak, one without historical precedent. ''Limits'' is described by ''The Cambridge History of the Cold War'' (2010), as a]mong the most important analyses of US policy and the origins of the Cold War".. "Even among more traditionally-minded scholars," noted one unsympathetic historian, "the Kolkos have been credited with considerable insight and praised for the breadth of their research." Arch-traditionalist John Lewis Gaddis, for example, conceded that ''The Limits of Power'' was "an important book.". Kolko next moved on to his country's war in Vietnam, a conflagration with which he and Joyce were deeply preoccupied at home and abroad; the couple were in

Huế Huế () is the capital of Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and was the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the old Imperial City and admi ...

when North Vietnamese forces entered

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

, and were granted the privilege of announcing the event over local radio. Kolko would publish two books on the Vietnam War and its aftermath. ''Anatomy of a War'' (1985) looked at the war itself, its prologue and its effects. ''Anatomy'' would place its author alongside the likes of George Kahin as a leading writer of the postrevisionist, or synthesis, school. This group of historians suggested, among other things, that the revisionist school was wrong in speculating that the United States could have won the war. In ''Anatomy'', Kolko became "the first American historian to establish a distinction between Diệm and Thiệu, on the one hand, and the population of the Saigon milieu on the other. It might even be said that he was the first to insist that there was such a milieu and to attempt a systematic study of its inhabitants." Regarding his nation's war in Vietnam, Kolko wrote that t]he United States in Vietnam unleashed the greatest flood of firepower against a nation known to history". One sympathetic reviewer notes that Kolko's work on Vietnam has been relegated to the margins of the Vietnam War literature. ''Vietnam: Anatomy of a Peace'' (1997) cast a look back at developments in Vietnam in the wake of the war, and how the Vietnamese communists ran the country. Kolko's assessment of their efforts was rather less than positive. Kolko was not without his critics.

Gaddis Smith George Gaddis Smith (December 9, 1932 – December 2, 2022) was an American historian who was the Larned Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University and an expert on U.S. foreign relations and maritime history. Biography Born in Newark, New J ...

once described him, along with Williams, as at "the forefront of revisionist scholars" and yet "essentially pamphleteers".. Others said his leftist political sympathies had a "distorting" effect on his work.

Political views

Kolko was a self-declared leftist and an anticapitalist. Nonetheless, Kolko's revisionist historical accounts gained favor with several libertarian capitalists from the United States, often to the chagrin of Kolko, who, at least as late as 1973, actively tried to distance himself from connections to that particular strain of libertarian thinking as it developed in the US. Regarding socialism, Kolko wrote in ''After Socialism'' (2006) that, both as theory and as movement, it is "essentially dead," its analysis and practice have both been failures, and it "simply inherited most of the nineteenth century's myopia, adding to the illusions of social thought". He maintained, however, that capitalism is neither a rational nor a stable basis for a peaceful society: "Given its practice and consequences, opposition to what is loosely termed capitalism—the status quo in all its dimensions—is far more justified today than ever. Precisely because of this, a more durable and effective alternative to capitalism is even more essential." Kolko was described as one of those historians who "wriggle out from the tortuous corridors of history the reasons why humanity behaves in certain ways, usually unwisely." As sociologist

Frank Furedi Frank Furedi ( hu, Füredi Ferenc; born 3 May 1947) is a Hungarian-Canadian academic and emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent. He is well known for his work on sociology of fear, education, therapy culture, paranoid parent ...

has argued: " olko'sscathing condemnation of American foreign policy, like his condemnation of the crudity of Maoist rhetoric, stand as a testimony to his intellectual and political integrity." Georgetown historian David S. Painter similarly wrote that "while very critical of Marxist and Communist movements and regimes, Kolko also counts among the human, social, and economic costs of capitalism the 'repeated propensity' of capitalist states to go to war." Kolko was a strong supporter of

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

, but he was opposed to

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

and

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

and was scathingly dismissive of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

and his thinking. Kolko regarded the result of the creation of Israel as "abysmal". In his view,

Zionism Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

produced "a Sparta that traumatized an already artificially divided region," "a small state with a military ethos that pervades all aspects of t culture, its politics and, above all, its response to the existence of Arabs in its midst and at its borders." Overall, his conclusion was that there is "simply no rational reason" that justifies Israel's creation. "The US has never been able to translate its superior arms into political success, and that decisive failure is inherent in everything it attempts," remarked Kolko in the context of the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

, just after George W. Bush's

Mission Accomplished speech The Mission Accomplished speech (named for a banner displayed above the speaker) was a televised address by United States President George W. Bush on the aircraft carrier USS ''Abraham Lincoln'' on May 1, 2003. Although Bush stated at ...

. He predicted that Iraq's "regionalism and internecine ethnic strife will produce years of instability." Similarly for Afghanistan: "As in Vietnam, the US will win battles, but it has no strategy for winning this war."

Personal life

Amsterdam_-_Wittenburgergracht_79_RM_6440

Kolko married Joyce Manning in 1955, and the couple remained together until her death in 2012. She had been a collaborator in his writings, such as ''The Limits of Power''. Upon retirement, Kolko emigrated to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, where he had a home and continued to work on his historical assessments of modern warfare, particularly the Vietnam War. He was a regular contributor to the political newsletter ''

CounterPunch ''CounterPunch'' is a left-wing online magazine. Content includes a free section published five days a week as well as a subscriber-only area called CounterPunch+, where original articles are published weekly. ''CounterPunch'' is based in the Un ...

'' during the final 15 years of his life. He was interested in

mycology Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans, including as a source for tinder, traditional medicine, food, and entheogen ...

and a fan of Kapsberger. Kolko died aged 81 at his home in Amsterdam at

Oostelijke Eilanden Oostelijke Eilanden (; lit. Eastern Islands), also known as Oostelijke Eilanden en Kadijken (Eastern Islands and Quays), is a neighbourhood in the centre of Amsterdam, Netherlands, consisting of Kattenburg, Wittenburg and Oostenburg. Geography The ...

on May 19, 2014. He was suffering from a degenerative neurological disorder and chose

euthanasia Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eut ...

, permitted under Dutch law. He left a considerable amount of money to the Nederlandse Bachvereniging.https://www.bachvereniging.nl/media/bach_nalaten-broch_online_def.pdf

Selected publications

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * Based on his PhD dissertation''. * * *

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Gabriel Kolko articles at Counterpunch

with electricpolitics.com

with ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

''
The future of the post World War II American Empire
with Scott Horton
2012 interview
with

Antiwar.com Antiwar.com is a website that describes itself as devoted to non-interventionism and as opposing imperialism and war. It is a project of the Randolph Bourne Institute. The website states that it is "fighting the next information war”. Histor ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolko, Gabriel 1932 births 2014 deaths American foreign policy writers American historians American political writers American socialists Cold War historians Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Harvard University alumni Historians of American foreign relations Historians of the United States Jewish American historians American male non-fiction writers New Jersey socialists Ohio socialists Massachusetts socialists Jewish socialists Kent State University alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Historians of the Vietnam War York University faculty