Practice question · True or false
The theories of Hobson and Lenin were influential on policy and public argument even where their proposed mechanism does not fit the evidence.
Hints
- Ask whether a theory has to be correct to have consequences.
- Anti-colonial movements and interwar diplomacy both drew on this framework.
Show the answer
True
Why
True, and the distinction matters. The surplus-capital account shaped how contemporaries and later anti-colonial movements understood empire, and beliefs about motives change what governments do. A historian can therefore treat the theory as an important historical object while judging its central prediction unsupported.
Practise Capitalist Crisis, Colonialism and Imperialism
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More questions on Capitalist Crisis, Colonialism and Imperialism
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