Economic Geography

The revival of political economy in the civil rights 
and Vietnam war era
In the United States, and also in Europe, grand historical events in the post
World War II era produced social and political movements that revitalized and
transformed elements of Marxist political economy as an alternative to the cold
war battle between communist and capitalist ideologies and blocs. Nineteenth
century Marxism had embraced the labour theory of value of the classical econ-
omists but built a theory that depicted owners of capital as exploiting labour and
creating systemic tendencies towards overproduction and crisis in the economic
system as a whole. The strange marriage of communism with totalitarianism in
the Soviet Union, with its terrible human cost and slower economic growth,
discredited Marxist theories of exploitation and visions of socialism, even though
they inspired widespread, successful unionization and enduring political parties
in parts of Europe, Asia and Latin America. The Marxist theory of crisis was
given a new face with a Keynesian twist, the under-consumptionist view and the
extraordinary practical success of Keynesian macro-economic policies from the
1930s to the 1970s. The successful recovery of the US, European and Japanese
economies following World War II further diminished the draw of Marxist 
political economy, which fell into disarray in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Beginning in the 1960s, three broad social and economic phenomena led to a
resurgence of interest in Marxist thought among social scientists and philosophers.
First, in the United States in particular, the civil rights movement underscored the
persistent racism and exploitation of the poorest urban and rural citizens, discred-
iting a 1950s view that a rising economy lifted all boats. The rapid movement of
better-off white majorities to suburban and sunbelt regions created growing inner
city malfunctions, while some rural regions continued to fall behind (e.g. Appalachia).
New debates mushroomed on the causes and solutions for poverty in an explic-
itly urban and rural framework. Second, the United States involvement in the
Economic geography and political economy
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Vietnam War set off a powerful, youthful movement against government policy
that propelled intellectuals and students to search for better explanations of world
economic and political disorder. Third, the increased integration of the world
economy, accelerating in the 1970s and inducing plant closings and negative job
growth in many more developed regions of Europe and the United States,
produced movements of blue collar workers and communities that challenged
mainstream economic and social thinking. Each of these fed into a rediscovery
of Marxist political economy and its refashioning as American radical political
economy and European counterparts.