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The USA Crisis: The Away View

Social theories spring from conviction, grounded in the language of what is real and commonplace. Reality challenges the theorist to channel the gist of the social mechanisms at work, away from a vast interplay of interests, time horizons and perspectives. However, abstract theorizing can only grope for so long beyond our line of sight: cradled in concrete times and circumstances, social theories will highlight different sides of the same process at work. Sometimes, it will take will and conviction to tie what appears to be wholly unrelated. Perspective matters in understanding. And given the momentous changes experienced in the USA and elsewhere, the theoretical and geographical vantage point matters even more. The last installment of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences working group on US affairs led by Marco Gandásegui and Dídimo Castillo is a case in point. As editors, they collected their valuable exchanges in the book The United States: Beyond the Crisis to understand the challenges and alternatives faced by the USA and global capitalism after 2008. The originality of Beyond the Crisis is not fenced around the exposition of theories and empirical discussions already at the fore in Marxist and non-Marxist debates. Its most important feature is a critical ‘away’ perspective to understand what happened then and today unfolds in the USA. For these authors, the best way to understand the USA and the challenges faced by contemporary capitalism is not via another treatment of the USA as the hegemonic, stand-alone power; but through a deep engagement with the USA as seen and understood from Latin America. Many works have taken great care to understand this crisis by delving into the intricacies of the American financial system and its leading role in world capitalism, but few have stressed how analytical vantage points shape our understanding of the crisis. Great wisdom resides in this methodological subtlety.