The Managerial Revolution

Have you ever bought a book sight unseen in terms of knowing what it’s about before you buy it? I have that’s what happened when I bought, The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World, by James Burnham in 2013. This book sat on my shelf for the next year. Not because I wasn’t interested, rather it was marinating for the right time for me to read it. But boy, would this book change my entire outlook on the world once I did read it.

You see, The Managerial Revolution is not just a book. It is a time capsule, a prediction machine, and a hauntingly accurate guide all in one. As mentioned in my critique article, The Managerial Revolution, looks at the conflict between Fascism, Communism, and the New Deal. It is from the last one that the book takes its name. As in the book, Burnham turns to calling The New Deal “Managerialism.” I don’t believe that anyone, Burnham included, could see how accurately his description of how the fight between Fascism, Communism, and Managerialism would play out.

Despite what people want to believe about their religious text or the writings of Nostradamus, this book accurately predicts as well as anyone could how the three sides of World War II would interact with each other during the war. And how they would continue to interact after the war.

What Burnham discusses is not just what part of each system appeals to the masses, but rather how and why each of these sides could or would work together. It looks at what each eutopia purports to promise the world, while realpolitik turns every consideration they have into a utopia for the people of the world.

This is because, as Burnham recognized, two of the sides would join together to destroy the other. However, when they were done, the two “winning” sides would immediately split back off into their factions, and become bitter rivals for world dominance.

We saw the naked truth of this sentiment playout twice during World War II. First, when the fascist government of Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union to divide Eastern Europe between them. However, the Germans chose to overplay their hand with Operation Barbarossa in 1941, which sent the Soviets looking for new partners. While ideologically divided, the Soviet Union would find their partners in Imperial Britain and the Managerialist United States.

Fresh off the destruction wreaked by the Great Depression, no nation was prepared to fight the Fascists’ advance across Europe. This was especially true in countries where the Fascists had either homegrown or implanted allies sympathetic to their cause. This was true in both Britain and the US. The British were contending with Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists. Meanwhile the US had the German American Bund and the Silver Legion to fight at home. Thus, the Allies formed, and would go on to fight the war together. And in the process, well theoretically, crushing their Fascist foes.

As anyone that lived through the latter half of the twentieth century, the fragile alliance between the US, UK, and USSR did not last long past the end of World War II, as the Managerlists represented chiefly by the US and Communists by the USSR would quickly go on to continue the fight for global dominance. This would play out over the majority of the rest of the twentieth century. Despite the veneer of winning their battle against the Fascists, both sides would find uses for the vestigial Fascists governments. While remaining more true to their ideology, the Communists were less reliant on former Fascists in their quest for world dominance. However, the USSR did use the captured German scientists, factories, and other vestiges they brought back from the Third Reich to rebuild after the war.

The Managerialists were less concerned with ideology than winning the Cold War at any cost, thus they brought in many former German Fascists, those of their own country that had been friendly to the Third Reich before the war but had not been so boisterous about such things in public, as well as working with the remaining Fascist governments of the world in addition to creating a few new ones along the way.

As unfortunate as it is to say, it was the Managerialists model that worked out in the end. Why was this? Was it their superior ideology?

No, it was in fact a hollowing out of the system created by the initial Managerialists over the following decades, and slowly adopting the intelligence models created by the fascists that allowed for their slow, but Pyrrhic victory.

So, what has been the lasting legacy of The Managerial Revolution on me? Well, it led me to want to understand geopolitics and systems of power more. While not the leading cause of me seeking my degree in history, that was planned from childhood, it has shaped my approach to the kind of history I study. In addition, it has caused me to think deeply of how the world could have been different from now, and how it can be different in the future. It made me think about the long term effects of certain actions. Or, as happens sometimes, inaction on those that have the power to make the world a better place.

The influence of The Managerial Revolution on me doesn’t stop with my degree or the kind of history I study. No, it has been a driving factor behind the series, Phantom Shift, that I have been writing on Vocal. While I plan to explore the concept more later in an academic environment, this series is an exploration of a concept I call the Ecology of History. What is the Ecology of History? The Ecology of History is looking at historical events, and how they interact with each other. It relies on the idea that nothing in history is for certain, but rather is influenced by every decision or indecision that people have made.

When looking at the world through the lens of an Ecology of History, one must discard the “Great Man” theory, as history and world events can be influenced by the seemingly smallest things in our world. A slip of surgeon's scalpel. A disease infested gnat that bites or does bite a major figure, either saving them to or condemning them to certain death. And in turn, changing every historical event they would touch down the line.

Thank you for reading my work. If you enjoyed this story, there’s more below. Please hit the like and subscribe button, you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @AtomicHistorian, and if you want to help me create more content, please consider leaving a tip or become a pledged subscriber.

Photo sources:

Fasci Italiani di Combattimento

New Deal

What Is Communism? Definition and Examples

More from this author: