Debating imperialism in the Anglophone world: Gaylord Wilshire and Wilshire’s Magazine,1900–1915

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of Gaylord Wilshire’s (1861–1927) political thought on imperialism through an analysis of Wilshire’s Magazine between 1900 and 1915. While his pamphlet Trusts and Imperialism (1901) is recognized as one of the earliest socialist formulations on the causes of imperialism, this study shows how Wilshire continued engaging with the topic in subsequent years. It argues that his reflections on this subject developed through a broader transatlantic exchange with British radicalism. These intellectual contacts contributed to significant shifts in his political outlook, leading him to endorse militarism, advance his own scheme of an Anglo-American Imperial Federation, and later move toward revolutionary syndicalism. Wilshire’s trajectory illuminates the tensions faced by pre–First World War socialists when analyzing imperialism, particularly between their commitment to internationalism and peace and the practical question of how socialism could be achieved, within a political context deeply shaped by racism, nationalism, and imperial rivalry.