He was a trailblazing critic of imperialism, but chances are you’ve never heard his name. The radical Japanese journalist Kotoku Shusui, who moved from socialism to anarchism, wrote a seminal critique of imperialism — before Hobson and Lenin — and led the movement against empire in Japan. Robert Tierney discusses Kotoku, his classic work Imperialism, and his times.

Resources:

Robert Thomas Tierney, Monster of the Twentieth Century: Kotoku Shusui and Japan’s First Anti-Imperialist Movement UC Press, 2015