Nations and Capital

Capitalism survives by adapting. Marx exposed its reliance on exploiting labour to generate profit. Polanyi warned that its hunger to commodify everythingnature, work, and even human bondsdestroys societies, sparking chaos. Yet capitalism endures, mutating through crises. Why? Nations and Capital reveals the missing mechanism: nationalism. Where Marx saw revolution, and Polanyi foresaw self-destruction as capitalisms endgames, this book uncovers nationalism as the systems ultimate safeguard. When markets erode trust or class conflict threatens profits, nationalism steps inmanufacturing loyalty, dividing the oppressed, and recasting exploitation as collective destiny. Capitalism doesnt merely use nationalism; it depends on it to fragment resistance, privatize solidarity, and keep us fighting each other instead of the system devouring us all. When neoliberalism irreversibly ripped societys fabric, capitalism didnt abandon nationalism: hyper-capitalism, todays system of limitless extraction, abandons democracy instead and turns to authoritarian nationalism. This shift isnt a rupture but a revelation: nationalism was never a phase; it is capitalisms life support, mutating to sustain accumulation, from colonial empires to digital oligopolies. Why does this matter? Because tomorrows crisesglobal economic collapse, the breakup of international order, pandemicswill be met with nationalisms toxic embrace unless we confront its role as capitalisms oxygen. Written from Bosnia and Herzegovinaa periphery where global capital and nationalist oligarchies joined forces to entrench ethnic partitionthis theory of nationalism sees what thinkers in capitalisms core could not: nationalism is not a byproduct of industrial capitalism's need for labours cultural homogeneity (Gellner) or print capitalism's construction of imagined communities (Anderson). It is the lifeblood of a system that cannot survive without converting solidarity into division, belonging into exclusion, and hope into fear. Marx and Polanyi gave us the diagnosis. Nations and Capital completes it: understanding capitalisms survival requires understanding nationalism as the other side of capitalisms coin.