The Managerial Revolution

What Is Happening in the World

By: James Burnham

Narrated by: Keith Hahn

"Burnham has real intellectual courage, and writes about real issues." (George Orwell)

Burnham’s claim was not that capitalism was dead, but that it was being replaced not by socialism, but a new economic system he called “managerialism” - rule by managers.

Written in 1941, this is the book that theorized how the world was moving into the hands of the "managers". Burnham explains how capitalism had virtually lost its control, and would be displaced not by labour, nor by socialism, but by the rule of administrators in business and in government.

This revolution, he posited, is as broad as the world and as comprehensive as human society, asking "Why is 'totalitarianism' not the issue?" "Can civilization be destroyed?" and "Why is the New Deal something bigger than Roosevelt can handle?"

In a volume extraordinary for its dispassionate handling of those and other fundamental questions, James Burnham explores fully the implications of the managerial revolution.

Praise for James Burnham:

"The stoic, detached, empirical, hard-boiled, penetrating, realist mind of James Burnham is something to behold, to admire, to emulate." (National Review)

"James Burnham was an astonishing writer. Subtle, passionate, and irritatingly well-read." (New Criterion)

"The immense significance of Burnham’s approach is potential. We can ignore it only at the risk of being disarmed by the future course of events." (Irving Kristol)

James Burnham was an American popular political theorist. Burnham was a radical activist in the 1930s and an important factional leader of the American Trotskyist movement. In later years, as his thinking developed, he left Marxism and turned to conservatism, serving as a public intellectual of the conservative movement. He also wrote regularly for the conservative publication National Review on a variety of topics.

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Read by a computer, interesting theory, not quite accurate.

The worst thing about the book is that it sounds as if it were read by a computer. The idea of the managerial revolution is interesting. I think parts of it played out as the author predicted but a lot of it didn't. (Written in 1941). Although the U.S. does seem to be increasingly run by managers, the societies that were the most managerial in nature (Nazi Germany and The Soviet Union) are no longer present. The capitalist system ultimately won (for now). The prediction that a capitalist economy could not produce war material as fast as a managerial economy turned out to be hilariously false. The military industrial complex is alive and well still to this day. The book is about as dry as Marx Capital but more reasonable in length.

this is a often referenced book but a very dry read

I would say that this book is only marginally good. the big issue with this book in terms of content is that it doesn't really say much 80 years later. what I mean by that is most of the book is describing why capitalism is good and socialism is bad from a 1941 perspective. the rise of the managerial economy and managerial capitalism is extremely interesting and tracks to today but this is the main takeaway from the book. everything else reads as if you're trying to predict the future from the 1940s so it's not terribly interesting. there are technology luminaries that often reference this book which is why I read it but I would not recommend reading it. all I would recommend is you understand that we've moved from feudalism to bourgeois capitalism to managerial capitalism where it's no longer Ford running the Ford company or Carnegie running Carnegie steel, it's more so managers running the economy and capitalism.

one interesting endpoint on the book is they talk about the rise of bureaucratic capitalism which is very interesting. they define this as the non-productive members of society running capitalism. I would say this bureaucratic revolution is almost the next step of managerial capitalism. if bureaucrats weren't powerful they wouldn't be in such high positions today and they would be easily removed. that's not the case. I would love to read a book on the emergence of bureaucratic capitalism in the future but for now this book on managerial capitalism will do.

in terms of story, the reader mispronounces many many words. which generally take you out of the book and make you question what you're hearing. he is mispronouncing many words that are somewhat obvious like "analysis" and many other similar words. I hated hearing this and I remembered to write a comment like this just so the publisher and readers are aware.

overall I don't think you need to read this book you just need to understand the one take away that we're in a phase of managerial capitalism.

acquired taste

the reading pacing is unique, but gets easier as you go through the book. very interesting ideas.

Is the narrator a text-to-speech program?

Terrible performance. I’m wondering now if I can find a better free version somewhere. The narrator sounds like a robot.

Fascinating Book, Mediocre Narration

Very interesting book, worth a listen. The narrator is poor, monotonous and dull. Still, I would recommend the book despite the reading. It is very helpful in breaking out of the capitalist/socialist dialectic.

Must read!

Loved it. What Marx would say if he had a degree and political experience.
Marx is very abstract. Burnham has the benefit of hindsight and experience.

Unbelievably prescient book

Burnham did a solid job in foretelling the developments the consequences of which are in full display in 2022.
The reader of the audiobook was hard to follow due to irrelevant pauses in mid sentences. For continuity of you listening experience, speed up 1.5x.

Great book.

This book has been in my to read list for a long time and I'm glad I finally got to it. A lot of predictions unsurprisingly did not come true but quite a few of them did. The author builds a very interesting framework.

The narrator however was bad, barely tollerable. Any third rate Podcaster willing to look up an occasional pronunciation could have done better. I still finished it but if another recording had been available I would have probably returned it.

Worst book reader in over 100 books

The narrator is terrible but Mr. Burnham’s ideas are very important for the modern reader to understand. He gets many things wrong in detail but so much right in form.

An insightful title of the Managerial Elite

An insightful title of the Managerial Elite. I found it interesting, in context with this book, how Burnham's views changed through his life.