Madhurim GuptaProfessor Alexander R. GallowaySpecial Topics in Critical Theory: MarxMay 14, 2014Qs 3: A number of authors suggest that capitalism in the mid-to-late 20th century was distinctly different from previous phases. How do they describe this particular iteration of the mode of production? What role, if any, do images, spectacle, ideology, machines, or computers play? In his book Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Fredric Jameson, drawing on the work of another Marxist theorist Ernest Mandel, divides capitalism into three periods following "the 'original' industrial revolution of the late 18th century » [emphasis in original] (Jameson 35). Closely linked to the improvement of the means of production, that is to say to technological development, the three stages of the evolution of capitalism according to Jameson and Mandel are: "Market or competitive capitalism" driven by the engines of steam introduced in 1848; “Monopolistic capitalism” supported by large corporations using electric and combustion engines at the turn of the 19th century; and the nuclear and electronic machinery of “late capitalism” which appeared in the aftermath of World War II (Jameson 35-36). Adding nuance to this final phase of late capitalism, David Harvey suggests that late capitalism and its guiding economic logic – Fordism – peaked after World War II, but was able to persist for about a decade until it fell into crisis during the recession of 1973 (Harvey 124). This crisis of Fordism led to the development of a more robust form of capitalism, sometimes called post-industrial or post-Fordist. Harvey describes this new form of capitalism as "flexible accumulation" which is characterized by a new form of capitalism, more global and m...... middle of paper ...... both spending programs social and fiscal and monetary policies that supported aggregate demand (Harvey 205-209). A decade and a half later, after World War II, new technologies and electronic products invented during the interwar period flourished under demand-stimulating regulation from the Keynesian state. Additionally, through the Bretton Woods Accords signed in 1944, the dollar was elevated to the world's preferred reserve currency, ensuring strong links between U.S. fiscal and monetary policy and global economic development. The international spread of the Fordist-Keynesian model occurred within a particular framework of international economic political regulation and geopolitical configuration, and the United States was dominated by a system of military alliances and power relations..