The Theory of Capitalist Development. By Paul M. Sweezy. (Dennis
Dobson. 18s.)
DR. SWEEZY'S publishers claim on his behalf that his book should be " readily intelligible to the interested layman as well as to the specialist in social science." They must be optimists. This is a closely reasoned, ruthlessly compressed, highly technical work at least as difficult as Lord Keynes's General Theory and, alas, less well written. As an attempt to reinstate the whiskered fallacies of the Labour Theory of Value, it is a failure ; the thing cannot be done. As a- discussion of the barriers set to the expansion of capitalism by its own laws of development—which is not at all the same thing—it is often illuminating. There is an interesting analysis of Keynesian theory from the Marxist angle, particularly interesting since Dr. Sweezy admits that there is no theoretical reason why capitalism modified by Keynesian expedients should not succeed ; the impossibility lies in the capitalist ruling class adopting those expedients. It is permissible to hold a different view on the far-sightedness and intelligence of the "ruling class" especially as modified by current developments. Dr. Sweezy's book was written before the end of the war. His final chapter, containing his prophecies of post-war development, is conducive to hollow laughter.
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