Absence of feudal legacy sedimentations drove American capital accumulation more than natural wealth

Evidence

America does not have “great historical and cultural traditions”; but neither does it have this leaden burden to support. This is one of the main reasons (and certainly more important than its so-called natural wealth) for its formidable accumulation of capital which has taken place in spite of the superior living standard enjoyed by the popular classes compared with Europe. The non-existence of viscous parasitic sedimentations left behind by past phases of history has allowed industry, and commerce in particular, to develop on a sound basis. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1064

Categorization

• XREF: This is the scaffolding for how ‘hegemony born in the factory’ differs from European hegemony rooted in sedimented traditions — directly relevant to later analyses of how new nations forge hegemony without historical traditions.