Chapter 9 Summary

In critiquing the thought of James, Orwell examines some of his writings, including The Managerial Revolution," which created a ripple of interest in the U.S. and Great Britain. The essence of Burnham's argument in that popular book was that capitalism is dying, but is not being replaced by Socialism, but by a new breed of managers, whether called business executives or technicians, who essentially control the means of production. The result will be a new type of social pyramid with the managers at the top and a mass of semi-slaves on the bottom.

In his next book, The Machiavellians, Burnham takes the argument a step farther, basically representing the new class of managers as inevitable players in the next stage of history. As a modern Machiavellian, Burnham is influenced by the original Machiavelli, author of The Prince, and his disciples, like Mosca...