Bauer traced a direct intellectual line from Hobson to Lenin to Nkrumah to totalitarianism

Evidence

Bauer’s commitment to a form of Hayek’s ‘Road to Serfdom’ thesis meant he saw little meaningful distinction between reformist socialism and totalitarianism: J. A. Hobson’s Imperialism (1902) led directly to Lenin’s Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916), he argued, then on to the denunciation of neocolonialism penned by Nkrumah, and ultimately to the totalitarian state. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 433

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors and reverses the standard Marxist lineage; connects to reader’s understanding of how ideological genealogies are weaponized in the ethics-of-markets debate. — connects to: Liberal ideas evolved into totalitarianism through logical stages governed by external circumstances and emotions. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2337
• SEED: Potential essay angle: how both left and right construct intellectual genealogies of empire/totalitarianism that erase empirical nuance.

Broader Connections

• Liberal ideas evolved into totalitarianism through logical stages governed by external circumstances and emotions. #expands (0.80) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2337