Far-left political ideologies and movements Books
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Vulture Capitalism
Book Synopsis*A Foyles Top 10 Read for March and one of Glamour''s Best Books of March*Longlisted for the inaugural Women''s Prize for Non-Fiction''A galvanising takedown of neoliberalism''s free market logic, one rooted in as much history as it is in current events'' NAOMI KLEIN''A must-read for anyone keen to put the demos back in democracy'' YANIS VAROUFAKISEverything you know about capitalism is wrong.Free markets aren't really free. Record corporate profits don't trickle down to everyone else. And we aren't empowered to make our own choices they're made for us every day.In Vulture Capitalism, acclaimed journalist Grace Blakeley takes on the world's most powerful corporations by showing how the causes of our modern crisis are the intended result of our capitalist system. It's not broken, it's working exactly as planned. From JPMorgan to Boeing, Henry Ford to Richard Nixon, Blakeley shows us exactly where late-stage capitalism has gone wrong.Searing, explosive and timely, Vulture Capitalism is the book you need to understand what is happening in the world around you and what you can do to change it.''Read this book if you want to make fundamental changes to the world'' HA-JOON CHANG''If you''ve ever wondered why you (and everyone you know) feel so out of control of the world around you, this book will give you the answer'' ASH SARKAR
£10.44
Verso Books Enshittification
£19.80
Penguin Books Ltd The Communist Manifesto
Book Synopsis''The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.''Marx and Engels''s revolutionary summons to the working classes - one of the most important and influential political theories ever formulated.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin''s 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895). Marx''s works available in Penguin Classics are Capital, Dispatches for the New York Tribune, Early Writings, Grundrisse, The Portable Karl Marx and Revolution and War.
£5.63
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Swimming in the Dark: ‘One of the most
Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI PRIZE 2021 A Guardian Book of the Year ‘The highest talent at work’ Sebastian Barry ‘Beautiful … A masterpiece’ Attitude Poland, 1980. Shy, anxious Ludwik has been sent along with the rest of his university class to an agricultural camp. Here he meets Janusz – and together they spend a dreamlike summer falling in love. But with summer over, the two are sent back to Warsaw. Confronted by the scrutiny, intolerance and corruption of life under the Party, Ludwik and Janusz must decide how they will survive; and in their different choices, find themselves torn apart. ‘An affecting and unusual romance’ Observer ‘A new classic’ Evening Standard ‘A beautiful novel, and at its heart an amazing love story’ BBC Radio 4 Open Book, Editor’s Pick ‘Jedrowski is an authentic new international star’ Edmund White ‘A remarkable, beautiful tale, utterly new and entirely credible ... This book radiates sensuality, humour, and human truths’ Literary Review Trade ReviewMarvellous, precise, poignant writing; the reader is happy to be overwhelmed. The highest talent at work -- SEBASTIAN BARRYAn enthralling debut -- TASH AW * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *A remarkable, beautiful tale ... Utterly new and entirely credible ... This book radiates sensuality, humour, and human truths … Swimming in the Dark is sensual and immersive, and Ludwik’s sentimental education is so well described that the reader is left wanting more. You won’t want to miss it * LITERARY REVIEW *Elegant, compelling and full of melancholy beauty ... I will keep it on my shelves alongside novels by Alan Hollinghurst, Edmund White and other classics in the gay canon * EVENING STANDARD *One of the most astonishing contemporary gay novels we have ever read … extraordinarily beautiful, enrapturing and poignant … Erotic, mesmeric, heart-rending and brutal, this is a masterpiece * ATTITUDE *A young Polish author who writes rather miraculously in English, of which he has magisterial and frankly, Conradian command * Guardian, Books of the Year *New Year, New Writers … Swimming in the Dark is an unforgettable debut about youth, love, and loss - and the sacrifices we make to live lives with meaning -- Foyles.co.ukBeautifully judged, very moving, passionate ... I was completely gripped -- PATRICIA DUNCKERCaptivating both for its shimmering surfaces and its terrifying under-deep. I began reading, and soon realized I wouldn’t be doing anything else that day. I needed to see these boys, these lovers, through to the end. Tomasz Jedrowski is a remarkable writer, alive to the ramifications of history and politics, in which the violence of a corrupt state can never fully stamp out the flourishing of beauty, grace and resistance -- JUSTIN TORRES, bestselling author of We the AnimalsThe surprise of Swimming in the Dark lies in its intimate ambivalence - that it captures the pleasures of everyday life behind the Iron Curtain as well as the privations. A beautiful, captivating love story that deepened my understanding of life in communist era Poland -- Jessica Shattuck, New York Times bestselling author of The Women in the CastleA lyrical exploration of the conflict between gay love and political conformity. Jedrowski is an authentic new international star -- EDMUND WHITE
£9.49
Wordsworth Editions Ltd The Communist Manifesto: The Condition of the
Book SynopsisWith an introduction by Dr. Laurence Marlow. A spectre is haunting Europe (and the world). Not, in the twenty-first century, the spectre of communism, but the spectre of capitalism. Marx's prediction that the state would wither away of its own accord has proved inaccurate, and he did not foresee the tyrannies which have ruled large parts of the globe in his name. Indeed, he would have been appalled if he had witnessed them. But his analysis of the evils and dangers of raw capitalism is as correct now as when it was written, and some of his suggestions (progressive income tax, abolition of child labour, free education for all children) are now accepted with little question. In a world where capitalism is no longer held in check by fear of a communist alternative, The Communist Manifesto (with Socialism Utopian and Scientific, Engels's brief and clear exposition of Marxist thought) is essential reading. The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 is Engels's first, and probably best-known, book. With Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, it was and is the outstanding study of the working class in Victorian England.
£6.83
Penguin Books Ltd The Motorcycle Diaries
Book Synopsis''A Latin American James Dean or Jack Kerouac'' Washington Post''It''s true; Marxists just wanna have fun... a revolutionary bestseller'' GuardianAt the age of twenty-three, Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado set out from their native Argentina to explore their continent, with only a single 1939 Norton motorcycle to carry them, nicknamed La Poderosa (''the powerful one''). They travelled not to visit the usual tourist attractions, but to meet ordinary people and understand Latin American life. In amidst the tales of youthful adventures - of women, wine, thrilling escapes and the power of friendship - the young Che also learns first-hand about poverty, philosophy and philosophy and forms himself into the man who would become the world''s most famous and admired revolutionary and freedom fighter. ''For every comic escapade of the carefree roustabout there is an equally eye-opening moment in the development of the future revolutionary leader. By the end of the journey, a politicized Guevara has emerged to predict his own legendary future'' TimeTrade ReviewIt's true; Marxists just wanna have fun...A revolutionary bestseller * Guardian *For every comic escapade of the carefree roustabout there is an equally eye-opening moment in the development of the future revolutionary leader. By the end of the journey, a politicized Guevara has emerged to predict his own legendary future * Time *The vision of the noble loner, whether freedom-fighter or biker...gives hope to world-weary revolutionaries and non-revolutionaries alike. * Telegraph *A Latin American James Dean or Jack Kerouac * Washington Post *
£9.49
Renard Press Ltd The Communist Manifesto
Book SynopsisWorking men of all countries, unite! First published in 1848, The Communist Manifesto is one of the most influential pieces of writing of all time. Written by two leading German philosophers whose names are now universally known, The Communist Manifesto is a documentation of class struggle and the plight of workers under capitalism, and a call for redress. In it, Marx and Engels lay out a searing account of the damage wrought by capitalism, and set out a route towards an alternative: a society without class, private property or a state. Beating a path for revolution and the overthrow of capitalism, The Communist Manifesto is a stirring call to arms that resounds with truth and power today.Trade Review'As a force for change, its influence has been surpassed only by the Bible. As a piece of writing, it is a masterpiece.' (Guardian) 'The words of The Communist Manifesto flare like the fiery writing on the wall above the crumbling bastions of capitalist society.' (Rosa Luxemburg)
£6.79
Michael O'Mara Books Ltd A Short History of the World in 50 Tyrants
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£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Capital
Book SynopsisThe forgotten second volume of Capital, Marx''s world-shaking analysis of economics, politics, and history, contains the vital discussion of commodity, the cornerstone to Marx''s theories.Table of ContentsCapital Volume 2 IntroductionTranslator's PrefacePreface (Frederick Engels)Preface to the Second Edition (Frederick Engels)Book II: The Process of Circulation of CapitalPart One: The Metamorphoses of Capital and their CircuitChapter 1: The Circuit of Money Capital1. First Stage. M-C2. Second Stage. The Function of Productive Capital3. Third Stage. C'-M'4. The Circuit as a WholeChapter 2: The Circuit of Productive Capital1. Simple Reproduction2. Accumulation and Reproduction on an Expanded Scale3. Accumulation of Money4. The Reserve FundChapter 3: The Circuit of Commodity CapitalChapter 4: The Three Figures of the Circuit(Natural Economy, Money Economy and Credit Economy)(The Matching of Demand and Supply)Chapter 5: Circulation TimeChapter 6: The Costs of Circulation1. Pure Circulation Costs(a) Buying and Selling Time(b) Book-keeping(c) Money2. Costs of Storage(a) Stock Formation in General(b) The Commodity Stock Proper3. Transport CostsPart Two: The Turnover of CapitalChapter 7: Turnover Time and Number of TurnoversChapter 8: Fixed Capital and Circulating Capital1. The Formal Distinctions2. Components, Replacement, Repairs and Accumulation of the Fixed CapitalChapter 9: The Overall Turnover of the Capital Advanced. Turnover CyclesChapter 10: Theories of Fixed and Circulating Capital. The Physiocrats and Adam SmithChapter 11: Theories of Fixed and Circulating Capital. RicardoChapter 12: The Working PeriodChapter 13: Production TimeChapter 14: Circulation TimeChapter 15: Effect of Circulation Time on the Magnitude of the Capital Advanced1. Working Period and Circulation Period Equal2. Working Period Longer than Circulation Period3. Working Period Shorter than Circulation Period4. Results5. Effect of Changes in PriceChapter 16: The Turnover of Variable Capital1. The Annual Rate of Surplus-Value2. The Turnover of an Individual Variable Capital3. The Turnover of Variable Capital Considered from the Social Point of ViewChapter 17: The Circulation of Surplus-Value1. Simple Reproduction2. Accumulation and Expanded ReproductionPart Three: The Reproduction and Circulation of the Total Social CapitalChapter 18: Introduction1. The Object of the Inquiry2. The Role of Money CapitalChapter 19: Former Presentations of the Subject1. The Physiocrats2. Adam Smith(a) Smith's General Perspectives(b) Smith's Resolution of Exchange-Value into v+s(c) The Constant Capital Component(d) Capital and Revenue in Adam Smith(e) Summary3. Later WritersChapter 20: Simple Reproduction1. Formulation of the Problem2. The Two Departments of Social Production3. Exchange Between the Two Departments: I against II4. Exchange Within Department II. Necessary Means of Subsistence and Luxury Items5. The Mediation of the Exchanges by Monetary Circulation6. The Constant Capital in Department I7. Variable Capital and Surplus-Value in the Two Departments8. The Constant Capital in Both Departments9. A Look Back at Adam Smith, Storch and Ramsay10. Capital and Revenue: Variable Capital and Wages11. Replacement of the Fixed Capital(a) Replacement of the Depreciation Component in the Money Form(b) Replacement of the Fixed Capital in Kind(c) Results12. The Reproduction of the Money Material13. Destutt de Tracy's Theory of ReproductionChapter 21: Accumulation and Reproduction on an Expanded Scale1. Accumulation in Department I(a) Hoard Formation(b) The Additional Constant Capital(c) The Additional Variable Capital2. Accumulation in Department II3. Schematic Presentation of Accumulation(a) First Example(b) Second Example(c) The Exchange of II in the Case of Accumulation4. Supplementary RemarksQuotations in Languages Other than English and GermanIndex of Authorities QuotedGeneral IndexNote on Previous Editions of the Works of Marx and EngelsChronology of Works by Marx and Engels
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd The Communist Manifesto
Book SynopsisA rousing call to arms whose influence is still felt today, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels'' The Communist Manifesto is edited with an introduction by Gareth Stedman-Jones in Penguin Classics. Marx and Engels''s revolutionary summons to the working classes, The Communist Manifesto is one of the most important political theories ever formulated. After four years of collaboration, they produced an incisive account of their idea of Communism, in which they envisage a society without classes, private property or a state, arguing that the exploitation of industrial workers will eventually lead to a revolution in which Capitalism is overthrown. This vision provided the theoretical basis of political systems in Russia, China, Cuba and Eastern Europe, affecting the lives of millions. The Communist Manifesto still remains a landmark text: a work that continues to influence and provoke debate on capitalism and class.Gareth Stedman Jones''s extensive and scholarly introduction provides an unique assessment of the place of The Communist Manifesto in history, and its continuing relevance as a depiction of global capitalism. This edition reproduces Samuel Moore''s translation of 1888 and contains a guide to further reading, notes and an index.Karl Marx (1818-1883) was born in Trier, Germany and studied law at Bonn and Berlin. He settled in London, where he studied economics and wrote the first volume of his major work, Das Kapital (1867, with two further volumes in 1884 and 1894). He is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London.Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), as well as his collaboration with Marx, was the author of The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), based on personal observations and research.If you enjoyed The Communist Manifesto, you might like Marx''s Capital, also available in Penguin Classics.''The words of the Communist Manifesto flare like the fiery writing on the wall above the crumbling bastions of capitalist society: socialism or barbarism!''Rosa Luxemburg
£14.24
Verso Books Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and
Book SynopsisWhat if we could do better than the family?We need to talk about the family. For those who are lucky, families can be filled with love and care, but for many they are sites of pain: from abandonment and neglect, to abuse and violence. Nobody is more likely to harm you than your family.Even in so-called happy families, the unpaid, unacknowledged work that it takes to raise children and care for each other is endless and exhausting. It could be otherwise: in this urgent, incisive polemic, leading feminist critic Sophie Lewis makes the case for family abolition.Abolish the Family traces the history of family abolitionist demands, beginning with nineteenth century utopian socialist and sex radical Charles Fourier, the Communist Manifesto and early-twentieth century Russian family abolitionist Alexandra Kollontai. Turning her attention to the 1960s, Lewis reminds us of the anti-family politics of radical feminists like Shulamith Firestone and the gay liberationists, a tradition she traces to the queer marxists bringing family abolition to the twenty-first century. This exhilarating essay looks at historic rightwing panic about Black families and the violent imposition of the family on indigenous communities, and insists: only by thinking beyond the family can we begin to imagine what might come after.Trade ReviewSharp, engaging, and bursting with intellectual energy, Abolish the Family is a triumph. Whether you come to this book as a critic of The Family or as its most ardent supporter, you're sure to find something within its pages to move, challenge, or provoke you. It's a joy to read, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. -- Helen HesterI am consistently dazzled by Sophie Lewis's work, which is both intellectually capacious and heart-expanding. Abolish the Family is a liberatory demand and a world-making project proposed here with revolutionary love and inimitable style. Without fail, Lewis clarifies, disrupts and inspires. -- Natasha Lennard, author of Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist LifeThe idea of family abolition tends to provoke skeptical reactions: Can't families be a source of solidarity? Without families, who would we count on when things get tough? Shouldn't we protect vulnerable families, ostracized families, separated families? Sophie Lewis faces up to the hard questions without flinching, while ultimately steering us towards different ones: How else could we live, and who else could we be? Abolish the Family is a rigorously utopian, radically compassionate, unapologetically revolutionary manifesto, by equal parts thrilling and sobering. We all deserve better than the family, Lewis argues, and it's up to all of us to build new forms of solidarity and care that reach beyond biology or even kin, even if we don't know quite what they'll look like. Abolish the Family will make you want to find out. -- Alyssa BattistoniSophie Lewis once again shines forth as one of the boldest thinkers of our current moment with this highly anticipated sequel to her groundbreaking Full Surrogacy Now. How might we understand caring, sharing, and loving outside the concept of kinship? In this energizing little book - part history and critical analysis, part manifesto - Lewis helps us understand family abolition as world-making rather than as a subtraction of infrastructure, and she does so with remarkable clarity, precision, and wit. -- Sianne Ngai, author of Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist FormWhat would it be like to imagine a communism not just of wealth but also of care, love and belonging? Where the full range of human needs are met without depending on the fragile bubble of the nuclear family? That institution we are all supposed to believe will be there for us - even though so many books and films detail all the ways in which it fails. This is the difficult yet important terrain where Sophie Lewis ventures. Abolish the Family is a short, sharp shock to our assumptions about the good life and how to achieve it. -- McKenzie WarkIn her writing, Lewis shows us the kind of feminist care that is within our reach and the intellectual work we must do to actualise it. Generous, charged and always underpinned by a comradely orientation to its reader, Abolish the Family traverses historical and contemporary arguments for unmaking the bourgeois family and methodically interrogates the idea that it is an unshakeable, ubiquitous institution that must be protected at all costs. Lewis draws on a number of radical political genealogies to say "no" - the nuclear family is a deficient provider of care and resource, a conceptual footstool for the racist nation-state and its many border regimes, a hotbed of gendered exploitation and violence...there are other possibilities! Let's embrace them together! -- Lola OlufemiSophie Lewis and her expansive vision of feminism are desperately needed right now. She makes the work of undoing what 'womanhood' has come to mean look possible and irresistible. -- Melissa Gira Grant, author of Playing the WhoreSophie Lewis is at the top of a new generation of scholars and activists thinking the transformation of gestational labor within contemporary pharmacopornographic capitalism. Neither simply natural nor banally cultural, gestation appears as the unthought core of gender and sexual politics, and the key of a forthcoming womb revolution: trans-Marx meets mammal's politics! -- Paul B. Preciado, author of Testo JunkieA bracing invitation to think beyond an institution that immiserates so many but that, for just as many, remains a fixed point of social possibility. Sophie Lewis is, as always, sharp, bold, compassionate and fearless. -- Amia Srinivasan, author of The Right to SexSophie Lewis is at the forefront of a vital queer, trans, feminist communist movement to create an expansive field of revolutionary theory and strategy for today. Abolish the Family is an important contribution to Lewis's already discourse-shaping body of work, analyzing and seeking ways to move beyond the contradictory and complex function of families under conditions of extreme capital accumulation and capitalist crisis. A call for liberation from the privatization of domestic labor and the cruel scarcities of care under capitalism, Abolish the Family exhorts us toward something so much better than what we've got. -- Jordy Rosenbery, author of Confessions of the FoxA lively, sharp and relatively short primer on family abolition ... Lewis does not pretend to have all the answers, but makes a solid case for joining her in finding them. -- Amy Hall * New Internationalist *Sophie Lewis is our most eloquent, furious and funny critic of how the family is a terrible way to satisfy all of our desires for love, care, nourishment. -- Erin Maglaque * New Statesman *Thrilling. -- Emily Kenway * Refinery29 *A timely provocation. -- Tom Whyman * ArtReview *The manifesto I needed. -- Zakia Uddin * White Review, Best Books 2022 *Anchored in a strikingly hopeful feminist Marxism, Lewis leads the reader through a systematic, didactic introduction to the politics and possibilities of cutting ourselves loose from the constraints and impositions of the traditional patriarchal, capitalist family. -- Hanne Blank * LIBER *Lewis builds a harsh yet well-grounded portrait of familial dysfunction. This provocation stings * Publishers Weekly *
£8.99
Verso Books Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life
Book SynopsisWritten between 1944 and 1947, Minima Moralia is a collection of rich, lucid aphorisms and essays about life in modern capitalist society. Adorno casts his penetrating eye across society in mid-century America and finds a life deformed by capitalism. This is Adorno's theoretical and literary masterpiece and a classic of twentieth-century thought.Trade ReviewA volume of Adorno is equivalent to a whole shelf of books on literature. -- Susan SontagThe best thoughts of a noble and invigorating mind. * Observer *Theodor Adorno's masterpiece of aphorisms and short prose meditations * Time Literary Supplement *
£9.99
Penguin Books Ltd Captive Mind
Book SynopsisWritten in Paris in the early 1950s, this book created instant controversy in its analysis of modern society that had allowed itself to be hypnotized by socio-political doctrines, and to accept totalitarian terror on the strength of a hypothetical future.Table of ContentsThe pill of the Murti-Bing; looking to the West; Ketman; Alpha, the moralist; Beta, the disappointed lover; Gamma, the slave of history; Delta, the troubadour; man, his enemy; the lessons of the Baltics.
£11.69
Verso Books Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Deutscher Memorial Prize 2023Capital is currently cannibalizing every sphere of life-guzzling wealth from nature and racialized populations, sucking up our ability to care for each other, and gutting the practice of politics. In this tightly argued and urgent volume, leading Marxist feminist theorist Nancy Fraser charts the voracious appetite of capital, tracking it from crisis point to crisis point, from ecological devastation to the collapse of democracy, from racial violence to the devaluing of care work. These crisis points all come to a head in Covid-19, which Fraser argues can help us envision the resistance we need to end the feeding frenzy. What we need, she argues, is a wide-ranging socialist movement that can recognize the rapaciousness of capital - and starve it to death.Trade ReviewNancy Fraser is a legendary radical philosopher grounded in the best of the Marxist and feminist traditions yet whose genuine embrace and profound understanding of Black, ecological, immigrant and sexual freedom movements make her a unique figure on the contemporary scene! Cannibal Capitalism is not only a singular gem - it is an instant classic for our bleak times! -- Cornel West, author of Race MattersA brilliant synthesis of Fraser's many pathbreaking contributions to a Marxian theory of capitalism for the twenty-first century, beautifully written. -- Wolfgang Streeck, author of How Will Capitalism End?Cannibal Capitalism conjures up a monster that voraciously consumes the very land, labor and natural world upon which it thrives. With characteristically clear and inventive prose, Nancy Fraser unpacks capitalism's historically shifting, interlaced dynamics, revealing the interrelations between seemingly disparate crises and social violences. Throughout, we see the powerful potential of an anti-racist, eco-social reproduction critique. And we see why the future of the planet and humanity depend upon the socialist left building anti-capitalist struggles that reach across workplaces, streets, forests and oceans. -- Sue Ferguson, author of Women and WorkNancy Fraser has produced the most elegant theory yet of capitalism in our age - capitalism not in the narrow economic sense, but capitalism in the sense of a total omnivore, a system that cannot stop devouring everything around it, destroying the lives of people and nature. This is Marxist theory for our age of crisis - and, we shall hope, of reckoning. -- Andreas Malm, author of How to Blow Up a PipelineShould serve to remind ... that capitalism remains a guzzler of care, and this is an unsustainable position -- Rachel Andrews * White Review, Best Books 2022 *An explicit plea for a political project. The parallels between care and ecology are instructive. -- James Butler * London Review of Books *Fraser captures how gender oppression, racial domination, and ecological destruction are not incidental to capitalism, but structurally embedded in it. -- Rhoda Feng * The Nation *Table of ContentsPreface: Cannibal Capitalism: Are We Toast?1. Omnivore: Why We Need to Expand Our Conception of Capitalism2. Glutton for Punishment: Why Capitalism Is Structurally Racist3. Care Guzzler: Why Social Reproduction Is a Major Site of Capitalist Crisis4. Nature in the Maw: Why Ecopolitics Must Be Trans-environmental and Anti-capitalist5. Butchering Democracy: Why Political Crisis Is Capital's Red Meat6. Food for Thought: What Should Socialism Mean in the Twenty-First Century?Epilogue: Macrophage: Why COVID Is a Cannibal Capitalist Orgy
£9.49
Verso Books The Alibi of Capital
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£23.75
Verso Books Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto
Book SynopsisFully Automated Luxury Communism promises a radically new left future for everyone. New technologies will liberate us from work, providing the opportunity to build a society beyond both capitalism and scarcity. Automation, rather than undermining an economy built on full employment, is instead the path to a world of liberty, luxury and happiness. Solar power will deliver the energy that we need, while asteroid mining will deliver the necessary resources, allowing us to end the devastation of our environment. Innovations in AI, gene editing, food technology will leads us to new ways of living better lives. In his first book, radical political commentator Aaron Bastani conjures a new politics: a vision of a world of unimaginable hope, highlighting how we move to energy abundance, feed a world of nine billion, overcome work, transcend the limits of biology and build meaningful freedom for everyone. Rather than a final destination, such a society heralds the beginning of history.Trade ReviewIn 100 years' time many of the ideas in this book will be mainstream, while kindergarten students laugh at our mainstream economic textbooks. Bastani's genius is to see the future with crisp clarity, unafraid of the consequences of being right -- Paul Mason, author of PostcapitalismOne of the most important books to come out of the British left in recent years. Incredibly ambitious and wide-ranging, but also well-written and readable, it provides a fascinating glimpse into a future beyond scarcity and beyond capitalism. Not simply a set of predictions about an unknowable future, it is a call to action to those seeking to bring an entirely new world into being. -- Grace Blakeley, New StatesmanThe debate is no longer about tinkering with our current broken social order, but replacing it: this fascinating book is an absolutely critical contribution, and a must-read for all those who aspire to build a new society. -- Owen Johns, author of The EstablishmentAt a time when our horizons have shrunk, when instead of striving for a better world we look backward to old comforts, Aaron Bastani calls us to dream and struggle for the type of society finally fit for humanity to live as humans should. -- Bhaskar Sunkara, author of The Socialist ManifestoRousing * Red Pepper *In a world where we are constantly told we have no choice but to accept the status quo his confidence in the possibility of change is refreshing. * Socialism Today *
£9.99
Penguin Books Ltd thecommunistmanifesto
Book Synopsis"The Communist Manifesto" still remains a landmark text: a work that continues to influence and provoke debate on capitalism and class. The author's extensive and scholarly introduction provides an assessment of the place of "The Communist Manifesto" in history, and its continuing relevance as a depiction of global capitalism.Table of ContentsPart 1 Introduction: the reception of the manifesto; the "spectre of communism"; the communist league; Engels' contribution; Marx's contribution - prologue; the young Hegelians; from republicanism to communism; political economy and "the true natural history of man"; the impact of Stirner; communism; conclusion; a guide to further reading. Part 2 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - the communist manifesto: bourgeois and proletarians; proletarians and communists; socialist and communist literature; position of the communists in relation to the various existing opposition parties.
£7.99
Taylor & Francis The Accumulation of Capital
Book SynopsisRosa Luxemburg was a revolutionary socialist who fought and died for her beliefs. In January 1919, after being arrested for her involvement in a workers'' uprising in Berlin, she was brutally murdered by a group of right-wing soldiers. Her body was recovered days later from a canal. Six years earlier she had published what was undoubtedly her finest achievement, The Accumulation of Capital - a book which remains one of the masterpieces of socialist literature. Taking Marx as her starting point, she offers an independent and fiercely critical explanation of the economic and political consequences of capitalism in the context of the turbulent times in which she lived, reinterpreting events in the United States, Europe, China, Russia and the British Empire. Many today believe there is no alternative to global capitalism. This book is a timely and forceful statement of an opposing view.Trade Review'Rosa Luxemburg is one of the really big figures in the history of the international socialist movement and The Accumulation of Capital is unquestionably her magnum opus.' - New Statesman'This book, out of print for decades, is well worth reading ... one of her finest works.' - Labour ResearchTable of ContentsIntroduction to the Routledge Classics Edition, Translator’s Note, A Note on Rosa Luxemburg, Introduction, SECTION I: The Problem of Reproduction, 1. The Object of our Investigation, 2. Quesnay’s and Adam Smith’s Analyses of the Process of Reproduction, 3. A Criticism of Smith’s Analysis, 4. Marx’s Scheme of Simple Reproduction, 5. The Circulation of Money, 6. Enlarged Reproduction, 7. Analysis of Marx’s Diagram of Enlarged Reproduction, 8. Marx’s Attempt to Resolve the Difficulty, 9. The Difficulty Viewed from the Angle of the Process of Circulation, SECTION II: Historical Exposition of the Problem, 10. Sismondi’s Theory of Reproduction, 11. MacCulloch v. Sismondi, 12. Ricardo v. Sismondi, 13. Say v. Sismondi, 14. Malthus, 15. v. Kirchmann’s Theory of Reproduction, 16. Rodbertus’ Criticism of the Classical School, 17. Rodbertus’ Analysis of Reproduction, 18. A New Version of the Problem, 19. Vorontsov and his ‘Surplus’, 20. Nikolayon, 21. Struve’s ‘Third Persons’ and ‘Three World Empires’, 22. Bulgakov and his Completion of Marx’s Analysis, 23. Tugan Baranovski and his ‘Lack of Proportion’, 24. The End of Russian ‘Legalist’ Marxism, SECTION III: The Historical Conditions of Accumulation, 25. Contradictions within the Diagram of Enlarged Reproduction, 26. The Reproduction of Capital and its Social Setting, 27. The Struggle against Natural Economy, 28. The Introduction of Commodity Economy, 29. The Struggle against Peasant Economy, 30. International Loans, 31. Protective Tariffs and Accumulation, 32. Militarism as a Province of Accumulation, Index
£16.40
Penguin Books Ltd Anarchist Communism Peter Kropotkin Penguin Great
Book SynopsisThe humane yet devastating critique of how modern society is organized with the brutal few clinging onto their wealth and privileges at the expense of the manyPeter Kropotkin's anarchist texts had a fundamental impact on 19th and 20th century radicals of all kinds. These essays from The Conquest of Bread are bravura examples of his optimistic and angry vision of a world in which the just actions of the many can destroy the grip of the few.Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives--and upended them. Now Penguin brings you a new set of the acclaimed Great Ideas, a curated library of selections from the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
£7.59
Penguin Books Ltd Stalin Vol. II
Book SynopsisA SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017''A brilliant, compelling, propulsively written, magnificent tour de force'' Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard''The second volume of what will surely rank as one of the greatest historical achievements of our age ... The War and Peace of history: a book you fear you will never finish, but just cannot put down'' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times Well before 1929, Stalin had achieved dictatorial power over the Soviet empire, but now he decided that the largest peasant economy in the world would be transformed into socialist modernity, whatever it took. What it took, and what Stalin managed to force through, transformed the country and its ruler in profound and enduring ways. Rather than a tale of a deformed or paranoid personality creating a political system, this is a story of a political system shaping a personality. Building and running a dictatorship, with power of life or death over hundreds of millions, in conditions of capitalist self-encirclement, made Stalin the person he became.Wholesale collectivization of agriculture, some 120 million peasants, necessitated levels of coercion that were extreme even for Russia, but Stalin did not flinch; the resulting mass starvation and death elicited criticism inside the party even from those Communists committed to the eradication of capitalism. By 1934, when the situation had stabilized and socialism had been built in the countryside too, the internal praise came for his uncanny success in anticapitalist terms. But Stalin never forgot and never forgave, with bloody consequences as he strove to consolidate the state with a brand new elite.Stalin had revived a great power with a formidable industrialized military. But the Soviet Union was effectively alone, with no allies and enemies perceived everywhere. The quest to find security would bring Soviet Communism into an improbable pact with Nazi Germany. But that bargain did not work out as envisioned. The lives of Stalin and Hitler, and the fates of their respective countries, drew ever closer to collision.Stalin: Waiting for Hitler: 1929-1941 is, like its predecessor Stalin: Paradoxes of Power: 1878-1928, nothing less than a history of the world from Stalin''s desk. It is also, like its predecessor, a landmark achievement in the annals of the biographer''s art. Kotkin''s portrait captures the vast structures moving global events, and the intimate details of decision-making.Trade ReviewMasterly, a riveting tale, written with pace and aplomb. [of volume one] * New York Times *Exhilarating, compelling, terrifying and utterly gripping... Stalin emerges from Kotkin's book as that most frightening of figures -- a man of absolute conviction. [of volume one] -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett * New Statesman *Original, engaging, with a sharp, irreverent wit [of volume one] -- Sheila Fitzpatrick * Guardian *
£17.09
Icon Books Traitors Odyssey
£10.44
Verso Books The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View
Book SynopsisIn The Origin of Capitalism, a now-classic work of history, Ellen Meiksins Wood offers readers a clear and accessible introduction to the theories and debates concerning the birth of capitalism, imperialism, and the modern nation state. Capitalism is not a natural and inevitable consequence of human nature, nor simply an extension of age-old practices of trade and commerce. Rather, it is a late and localized product of very specific historical conditions, which required great transformations in social relations and in the relationship between humans and nature.Trade ReviewThe Origin of Capitalism was one of those 'Aha!' moments. Wood was an extraordinarily rigorous and imaginative thinker, someone who breathed life into Marxist political theory and made it speak-not to just to me but to many others-at multiple levels: historical, theoretical, political. -- Corey Robin * Jacobin *The writing is so supple and accessible, and the argument so persuasive, it's like watching a cloudy mixture of ideas being turned into a clear solution. -- Adrienne RichThis extremely valuable book offers an insightful tour of the historical debates surrounding the transition from feudalism to capitalism . a must-read for anyone with even the remotest interest in the origins of capitalism, or economic thought in general, from undergraduates through professionals. * Choice *Brilliant book . Into the central thread of her argument, Ellen Meiksins Wood has woven a wonderfully rich texture of comment on the arguments and debates that preceded her . not just a valuable new interpretation of an old history, it carries important lessons for our own times. * Spokesman *Ellen showed so many of us what it means to be a committed intellectual - that it is possible to be intensely moral and relentlessly analytical; to be passionate but still work with a cool attention to detail; to be profoundly rooted in a movement but maintain one's independent judgment. -- Vivek Chibber * Jacobin *True to her roots as the child of Jewish socialist refugees from Latvia, Ellen proudly positioned herself on the side of the poor and the oppressed, celebrating those who have fought for a more democratic and egalitarian society. -- David McNally * The Guardian *
£9.99
Penguin Books Ltd Capital
Book SynopsisUnfinished at the time of Marx''s death in 1883 and first published with a preface by Frederick Engels in 1894, the third volume of Das Kapital strove to combine the theories and concepts of the two previous volumes in order to prove conclusively that capitalism is inherently unworkable as a permanent system for society. Here, Marx asserts controversially that - regardless of the efforts of individual capitalists, public authorities or even generous philanthropists - any market economy is inevitably doomed to endure a series of worsening, explosive crises leading finally to complete collapse. But healso offers an inspirational and compelling prediction: that the end of capitalism will culminate, ultimately, in the birth of a far greater form of society.Table of ContentsIntroduction by Ernest MandelPreface (Frederick Engels)BOOK III: THE PROCESS OF CAPITALIST PRODUCTION AS A WHOLEPART ONE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF SURPLUS-VALUE INTO PROFIT, AND OF THE RATE OF SURPLUS-VALUE INTO THE RATE OF PROFITChapter 1: Cost Price and ProfitChapter 2: The Rate of ProfitChapter 3: The Relationship between Rate of Profit and Rate of Surplus-ValueChapter 4: The Effect of the Turnover on the Rate of ProfitChapter 5: Economy in the Use of Constant Capital1. General Considerations2. Saving on the Conditions of Work at the Workers' Expense3. Economy in the Generation and Transmission of Power, and on Buildings4. Utilization of the Refuse of Production5. Economy through InventionsChapter 6: The Effect of Changes in Price 1. Fluctuations in the Price of Raw Material; Their Direct Effects on the Rate of Profit2. Revaluation and Devaluation of Capital; Release and Tying-Up of Capital3. General Illustration: The Cotton Crisis 1861-5Chapter 7: Supplementary Remarks PART TWO: THE TRANSFORMATION OF PROFIT INTO AVERAGE PROFITChapter 8: Different Compositions of Capital in Different Branches of Production, and the Resulting Variation in Rates of ProfitChapter 9: Formation of a General Rate of Profit (Average Rate of Profit), and Transformation of Commodity Values into Prices of ProductionChapter 10: The Equalization of the General Rate of Profit through Competition. Market Prices and Market Values. Surplus ProfitChapter 11: The Effects of General Fluctuations in Wages on the Prices of ProductionChapter 12: Supplementary Remarks1. The Causes of a Change in the Price of Production2. The Production Price of Commodities of Average Composition3. The Capitalist's Grounds for CompensationPART THREE: THE LAW OF THE TENDENTIAL FALL IN THE RATE OF PROFIT Chapter 13: The Law ItselfChapter 14: Counteracting Factors1. More Intense Exploitation of Labour2. Reduction of Wages below their Value3. Cheapening of the Elements of Constant Capital4. The Relative Surplus Population5. Foreign Trade6. The Increase in Share CapitalChapter 15: Development of the Law's Internal Contradictions 1. General Considerations2. The Conflict between the Extension of Production and Valorization3. Surplus Capital alongside Surplus Population4. Supplementary RemarksPART FOUR: THE TRANSFORMATION OF COMMODITY CAPITAL AND MONEY CAPITAL INTO COMMERCIAL CAPITAL AND MONEY-DEALING CAPITAL (MERCHANT'S CAPITAL) Chapter 16: Commercial CapitalChapter 17: Commercial ProfitChapter 18: The Turnover of Commercial Capital. PricesChapter 19. Money-Dealing CapitalChapter 20: Historical Material on Merchant's CapitalPART FIVE: THE DIVISION OF PROFIT INTO INTEREST AND PROFIT OF ENTERPRISEChapter 21: Interest-Bearing CapitalChapter 22: Division of Profit. Rate of Interest. "Natural" Rate of InterestChapter 23: Interest and Profit of EnterpriseChapter 24: Interest-Bearing Capital as the Superficial Form of the Capital RelationChapter 25: Credit and Fictitious CapitalChapter 26: Accumulation of Money Capital, and its Influence on the Rate of InterestChapter 27: The Role of Credit in Capitalist ProductionChapter 28: Means of Circulation and CApital. The Views of Tooke and FullartonChapter 29: Banking Capital's Component PartsChapter 30: Money Capital and Real Capital: IChapter 31: Money Capital and Real Capital: II (Continuation)1. Transformation of Money into Loan Capital2. Transformation of Capital or Revenue into Money that is Transformed into Loan CapitalChapter 32: Money Capital and Real Capital: III (Conclusion) Chapter 33: The Means of Circulation under the Credit SystemChapter 34: The Currency Principle and the English Bank Legislation of 1844Chapter 35: Precious Metal and Rate of Exchange1. The Movement of the Gold Reserve2. The Exchange RateChapter 36: Pre-Capitalist Relations PART SIX: THE TRANSFORMATION OF SURPLUS PROFIT INTO GROUND-RENTChapter 37: IntroductionChapter 38: Differential Rent in GeneralChapter 39: The First Form of Differential Rent (Differential Rent I)Chapter 40: The Second Form of Differential Rent (Differential Rent II)Chapter 41: Differential Rent II - First Case: Price of Production ConstantChapter 42: Differential Rent II - Second Case: Price of Production Falling1. With the Productivity of the Extra Capital Investment Remaining Constant2. A Falling Rate of Productivity for the Extra Capital3. A Rising Rate of Productivity for the Extra CapitalChapter 43: Differential Rent II - Third Case: Rising Price of Production. Results Chapter 44: Differential Rent Even on the Poorest Land CultivatedChapter 45: Absolute Ground-RentChapter 46: Rent of Buildings. Rent of Mines. Price of LandChapter 47: The Genesis of Capitalist Ground-Rent1. Introduction2. Labour Rent3. Rent in Kind4. Money Rent5. Share-Cropping and Small-Scale Peasant OwnershipPART SEVEN: THE REVENUES AND THEIR SOURCES Chapter 48: The Trinity FormulaChapter 49: On the Analysis of the Production ProcessChapter 50: The Illusion Created by CompetitionChapter 51: Relations of Distribution and Relations of ProductionChapter 52: ClassesSupplement and Addendum to Volume 3 of Capital (Frederick Engels) 1. Law of Value and Rate of Profit2. The Stock ExchangeQuotations in Languages Other than English and GermanIndex of Authorities QuotedGeneral IndexNote on Previous Editions of the Works of Marx and EngelsChronology of Works by Marx and Engels
£17.09
Penguin Books Ltd Black Marxism
Book Synopsis''A towering achievement. There is simply nothing like it in the history of Black radical thought'' Cornel West''Cedric Robinson''s brilliant analyses revealed new ways of thinking and acting'' Angela Davis''This work is about our people''s struggle, the historical Black struggle''Any struggle must be fought on a people''s own terms, argues Cedric Robinson''s landmark account of Black radicalism. Marxism is a western construction, and therefore inadequate to describe the significance of Black communities as agents of change against ''racial capitalism''. Tracing the emergence of European radicalism, the history of Black African resistance and the influence of these on such key thinkers as W. E. B. Du Bois, C. L. R. James and Richard Wright, Black Marxism reclaims the story of a movement.Trade ReviewA towering achievement. There is simply nothing like it in the history of Black radical thought -- Cornel WestCedric Robinson's brilliant analyses revealed new ways of thinking and acting -- Angela DavisI can say, without a trace of hyperbole, that this book changed my life. -- Robin KelleyBlack Marxism shattered the taken-for-granted of understanding the modern world, allowing us to see the racist nature of capitalism. There are very few books that transform how we have to approach the world and Black Marxism is one of them -- Kehinde AndrewsA handbook for a new generation of radicals and activists ... Robinson's work helpfully points to the tension in Marxism between the march towards progress and the spontaneous character of revolution... offers a sense of belonging and a means of imagining a common future -- Kevin Okoth * London Review of Books *
£12.34
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press Red Star Over China: The Classic Account of the
Book SynopsisThe first Westerner to meet Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communist leaders in 1936, Edgar Snow came away with the first authorised account of Mao's life, as well as a history of the famous Long March and the men and women who were responsible for the Chinese revolution. Out of that experience came Red Star Over China, a classic work that remains one of the most important books ever written about the birth of the Communist movement in China.This edition includes extensive notes on the military and political developments in China, further interviews with Mao Tse-tung, a chronology covering 125 years of Chinese revolution and nearly a hundred detailed biographies of the men and women who were instrumental in making China what it is today.Trade ReviewThe remarkable thing about Red Star Over China was that it not only gave the first connected history of Mao and his colleagues and where they had come from, but it also gave a prospect of the future... This book has stood the test of time on both these counts - as a historical record and as an indication of a trend. * From the Introduction by John K. Fairbank *It truly was a book that shook the world. * China Daily *Irreplaceable... by far the most important single source regarding [Mao's] life * Stuart R. Schram *Scoop of the century * Foreign Affairs *
£12.34
Verso Books Your Party
£9.49
Hardie Grant Books Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert
Book SynopsisSpies and Lies by Alex Joske is a groundbreaking exposé of elite influence operations by China’s little-known Ministry of State Security. Revealing for the first time how the Chinese Communist Party has tasked its spies to deceive the world, it challenges the conventional account of China’s past, present and future. Mere years ago, Western governments chose to cooperate with China in the hope that it would liberalise, setting aside concerns about human rights abuses, expansionism and espionage. But the axiom of China's 'peaceful rise' has been fundamentally challenged by the Chinese Communist Party’s authoritarian behaviour under Xi Jinping. How did we get it wrong for so long? Spies and Lies pierces the Ministry of State Security’s walls of secrecy and reveals how agents of the Chinese Communist Party have spent nearly 40 years manipulating Western leaders’ attitudes – from an Australian prime minister to the US Congress, prominent think tanks and the FBI – about China’s rise. Through interviews with defectors and intelligence officers, classified Chinese intelligence documents and original investigations, the book unmasks dozens of active Chinese intelligence officers along with global MSS fronts including travel agencies, writers associations, publishing houses, alumni associations, newspapers, Buddhist retreats, a record company and charities. Spies and Lies is an extraordinary insight into the most successful influence operation in history, one which has fooled the West for years, and indispensable reading. Trade Review'Mr. Joske’s incisive history and analysis provides a much-needed look inside Beijing’s complex, often ruthlessly effective efforts to shape and soften Western responses to its rapid global ascendance.' – Dan Blumenthal, Wall Street Journal 'The revelations by Joske – an ultra-talented researcher into the Chinese Communist Party’s covert influence ops – will keep you up all night reading, learning and marvelling at how Beijing’s agents pulled the wool over the eyes of the world for so long. A brilliant book.' – Matt Pottinger, former US Deputy National Security Advisor 'Alex Joske is one of the leading researchers on the subject of Chinese Communist Party influence and interference around the world' – Josh Rogin, The Washington Post 'There are only a handful of researchers in Australia of whom it can be said their work has a truly global impact. Alex is one of them.' – Clive Hamilton, author of Silent Invasion 'Fearless and forthright, Alex Joske has for years now been ahead of the media and academic pack in chasing the story of how the Commuinst Party’s intelligence and influence apparatus operates abroad.' – Nick McKenzie, The Age 'Joske, only a couple of years removed from university, has quickly risen to prominence on issues of Chinese government influence.' – David Barboza, The Wire China 'Alex Joske is one of the most innovative and impressive voices on China policy today.' – Mike Gallagher, Member of US Congress Mr. Joske’s incisive history and analysis provides a much-needed look inside Beijing’s complex, often ruthlessly effective efforts to shape and soften Western responses to its rapid global ascendance. * Wall Street Journal *
£15.29
Vintage Publishing Bloodlands
Book SynopsisWhen Timothy Snyder's book Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin was published in 2010, it quickly established its author as one of the leading historians of his generation, a scholar who combined formidable linguistic skills he reads or speaks 11 languages with an elegant literary style, white-hot moral passion and a willingness to start arguments about some of the most fraught questions of the recent past.' New York TimesTimothy Snyder is Levin Professor of History at Yale University, and has written and edited a number of critically acclaimed and prize-winning books about twentieth-century European history: Bloodlands won the Hannah Arendt Prize, the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award in the Humanities and the literature award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Black Earth was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize.Snyder is a frequent contributor to the New York Review ofTrade ReviewA hugely important historian of this nightmarish era. Nobody has explained it this way before -- William Leith * Evening Standard *Table of Contents i: Preface: Europe INTRODUCTION: HITLER AND STALIN 1: THE SOVIET FAMINES 2: CLASS TERROR 3: NATIONAL TERROR 4: MOLOTOV-RIBBENTROP EUROPE 5: THE ECONOMICS OF APOCALYPSE 6: FINAL SOLUTION 7: HOLOCAUST AND REVENGE 8: THE NAZI DEATH FACTORIES 9: RESISTANCE AND INCINERATION 10: ETHNIC CLEANSINGS 11: STALINIST ANTI-SEMITISM CONCLUSION: HUMANITY ii: Numbers and Terms iii: Abstract iv: Acknowledgments v: Bibliography vi: Notes vii: Index
£11.69
Monthly Review Press,U.S. Washington Bullets
Book SynopsisWashington Bullets is written in the best traditions of Marxist journalism and history-writing. It is a book of fluent and readable stories, full of detail about U.S. imperialism, but never letting the minutiae obscure the larger political point. It is a book that could easily have been a song of despair—a lament of lost causes; it is, after all, a roll call of butchers and assassins; of plots against people’s movements and governments; of the assassinations of socialists, Marxists, communists all over the Third World by the country where liberty is a statue. Despite all this, Washington Bullets is a book about possibilities, about hope, about genuine heroes. One such is Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso—also assassinated—who said: “You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.” Washington Bullets is a book infused with this madness, the madness that dares to invent the future.Trade ReviewThis book brings to mind the infinite instances in which Washington Bullets have shattered hope. — Evo Morales Ayma, former President of Bolivia // Like his hero Eduardo Galeano, Vijay Prashad makes the telling of the truth lovable; not an easy trick to pull off, he does it effortlessly. — Roger Waters, Pink Floyd
£14.24
Watkins Media Limited A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of
Book SynopsisThe petty bourgeoisie — the insecure class between the working class and the bourgeoisie — is hugely significant within global politics. Yet it remains something of a mystery. Initially identified as a powerful political force by theorists like Marx and Poulantzas, the petit-bourgeoisie was expected to decline, as small businesses and small property were gradually swallowed up by monopoly capitalism. Yet, far from disappearing, structural changes to the global economy under neoliberalism have instead grown the petty bourgeoisie, and the individualist values associated with it have been popularized by a society which fetishizes "aspiration", home ownership and entrepreneurship. So why has this happened? A Nation of Shopkeepers sheds a light on this mysterious class, exploring the class structure of contemporary Britain and the growth of the petty bourgeoisie following Thatcherism. It shows how the rise of home ownership, small landlordism and radical changes to the world of work have increasingly inculcated values of petty bourgeois individualism; how popular culture has promoted and reproduced values of aspiration and conspicuous consumption that militate against socialist organizing; and, most importantly, what the unstoppable rise of the petit-bourgeoisie means for the left.Trade Review"A brilliant account of how and why “working class” and “middle class” have become such useless labels in the UK, and how we are actually divided."“A Nation of Shopkeepers asks important questions about class composition beyond the urban centres and “the left.” For those serious about making sense of class and the potential for transforming society today, Daniel Evans’ book makes an important contribution.”"A brilliantly readable exploration of the difficulties and the necessity of class analysis for any imaginably successful left politics.”“This is a vivid and passionate account of the renewal of class divisions in British society and the visceral forms they take. Anyone who doubts the relevance of contemporary class divides is encouraged to read this book.”“A fascinating and accessible account of a social class that is too often neglected or misunderstood. This book powerfully makes the case for a sociologically informed analysis of the capitalist class structure today.”“This is a fantastically written romp filled with humour and pathos which takes us through the history and peculiarities of the British Class system and its connections to modern British politics.”"An intriguing, very political, and unexpectedly personal book for those who are obsessed with class and the global failures of the left."“A book of theoretical and political clarity that will help all of us think through the political and economic striation of the petty bourgeoisie.”“A brilliant examination of the life and ideology of the petty bourgeoisie, the silent majority of ‘normal people’ whose safe, suburban, newbuild lifestyle belies their huge political influence and violent history.”"Evans does a terrific job of helping us break out of classic class schemas that are either too abstract to help practical political interventions or have not kept up to date with the evolving and complex developments in the formation of classes in Britain. ""A rigorous and attentive book that will be crucial reading for the contemporary British left."
£12.34
Oxford University Press Marx
Book SynopsisKarl Marx is one of the most influential philosophers of all time, whose theories have shaped and directed political, economic, and social thought for 150 years. Considering Marx''s life and impact, renowned philosopher Peter Singer identifies the central vision that unifies Marx''s thought, enabling us to grasp Marx''s views as a whole. Presenting Marx as a philosopher primarily concerned with human freedom, rather than as an economist or a social scientist, Singer explains Marx''s key ideas on alienation, historical materialism, and the economic theory of Capital, in plain English.In this new edition, Singer explores whether Marx remains relevant to the twenty first century, and if so, how. Does the fact that eight billionaires now own as much as the bottom half of the world''s population give support to Marxist thinking? Does the ease with which conservative politicians can win over working class voters by appealing to nationalism undermines Marx''s view of class struggle and the inevitability of victory for the proletariat? Singer ponders key questions such as these, and also discusses the place of the internet as a ''productive force'' when analysed in Marxist theory. He concludes with an assessment of Marx''s legacy, asking if there is any realistic prospect of replacing capitalism with a better system of production and distribution in the twenty first century.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewAn admirably balanced portrait of the man and his achievement. * The Observer *Table of Contents1: A life and its legacy 2: The young Hegelian 3: From God to money 4: Enter the proletariat 5: The first Marxism 6: Tracing the development of the Materialist theory of history 7: The goal of history 8: Economics 9: Communism and revolution 10: Was Marx right? 11: Is Marx still relevant?Further ReadingIndex
£9.49
Oxford University Press Capital An Abridged Edition Oxford Worlds
Book SynopsisA classic of early modernism, Capital combines vivid historical detail with economic analysis to produce a bitter denunciation of mid-Victorian capitalist society. It has also proved to be the most influential work in social science in the twentieth century; Marx did for social science what Darwin had done for biology. Millions of readers this century have treated Capital as a sacred text, subjecting it to as many different interpretations as the bible itself. No mere work of dry economics, Marx''s great work depicts the unfolding of industrial capitalism as a tragic drama - with a message which has lost none of its relevance today. This is the only abridged edition to take account of the whole of Capital. It offers virtually all of Volume 1, which Marx himself published in 1867, excerpts from a new translation of `The Result of the Immediate Process of Production'', and a selection of key chapters from Volume 3, which Engels published in 1895. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£9.49
Monthly Review Press,U.S. An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl
Book Synopsis
£12.95
Vintage Publishing Mao The Unknown Story
Book SynopsisJung Chang was born in Yibin, Sichuan Province, China, in 1952. She was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen and then worked as a peasant, a 'barefoot doctor', a steelworker and an electrician before becoming an English-language student and, later, an assistant lecturer at Sichuan University. She left China for Britain in 1978 and was subsequently awarded a scholarship by York University, where she obtained a PhD in Linguistics in 1982 - the first person from the People's Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British university. Her award-winning book, Wild Swans, was published in 1991. Jon Halliday is a former Senior Visiting Research Fellow at King's College, University of London. He has written or edited eight previous books.Trade ReviewThe first great political biography of the twenty-first century -- Frank Johnson * Spectator *This is a bombshell of a book... Jung Chang and Jon Halliday have done this extraordinary country a huge service with this book, which will one day be read as widely within China as it will deservedly be in the outside world -- Chris Patten * The Times *Chang and Halliday cast new and revealing light on nearly every episode in Mao's tumultuous life... Magnificent... It is a stupendous work -- Michael Yahuda * Guardian *Devastating... Awesome... Mesmerising... The most powerful, compelling and revealing political biography of modern times. Few books are destined to change history, but this one will -- George Walden * Daily Mail *A triumph. It is a mesmerising portrait of tyranny, degeneracy, mass murder and promiscuity, a barrage of revisionist bombshells, and a superb piece of research. This is the first intimate, political biography of the greatest monster of them all -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Sunday Times *
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd The Man Who Saw Everything
Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019 SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 2019 ''An ice-cold skewering of patriarchy, humanity and the darkness of 20th century Europe'' The Times_________________________________ ''It''s like this, Saul Adler.'' ''No, it''s like this, Jennifer Moreau.'' In 1988, Saul Adler is hit by a car on the Abbey Road. Apparently fine, he gets up and poses for a photograph taken by his girlfriend, Jennifer Moreau. He carries this photo with him to East Berlin: a fragment of the present, an anchor to the West. But in the GDR he finds himself troubled by time - stalked by the spectres of history, slipping in and out of a future that does not yet exist. Until, in 2016, Saul attempts to cross the Abbey Road again . . . _________________________________''A time-bending, location-hopping tale of love, truth and the power of seeing. Thoroughly gripping'' Sunday Telegraph ''Writing so beautiful it stops the reader on the page'' Independent ''Levy splices time in artfully believable, mesmerizing strokes'' Lambda Literary ''Skewering totalitarianism - from the state, to the family, to the strictures of the male gaze - Levy explodes conventional narrative to explore the individual''s place and culpability within history'' Guardian ''An utterly beguiling fever dream'' Daily TelegraphTrade ReviewAn utterly beguiling fever dream of a novel... Its sheer technical bravura places it head and shoulder above pretty much everything else on the [Booker] longlist * Daily Telegraph *Writing so beautiful it stops the reader on the page * Independent *A time-bending, location-hopping tale of love, truth and the power of seeing... Increasingly surreal and thoroughly gripping * Sunday Telegraph *Exquisite... A brilliant Booker nominee... Ultimately, Levy is concerned with power – the forms it takes in our lives, the extent to which it is something we both possess and are subjected to * Guardian *One of the big stories in English fiction this decade has been the return and triumph of Deborah Levy... You would call her example inspiring if it weren't clearly impossible to emulate * New Statesman *An ice-cold skewering of patriarchy, humanity and the darkness of the 20th century Europe * The Times *In one short and sly book after another, she writes about characters navigating swerves of history and sexuality, and the social and personal rootlessness that accompanies both * The Atlantic *Charged with themes spanning memory and mortality, beauty and time, it's as electrifying as it is mysterious * Mail on Sunday *Intelligent and supple...a dizzying tale of life across time and borders * Financial Times *It's clever, raw and doesn't play by any rules * Evening Standard *Superbly crafted, enigmatic, tantalizing... Levy defies gravity in a daring, time-bending new novel... Head-spinning and playful, her writing offers sophistication and delightful artistry * Kirkus (Starred review) *One of the best books I have ever read -- Katherine Angel via Twitterplayful, consistently surprising...Levy brilliantly plumbs the divide between the self and others * Publishers Weekly Best Books 2019 *
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto
Book SynopsisChina Miéville's brilliant reading of the modern world's most controversial and enduring political document: The Communist Manifesto. 'It's thrilling to accompany Miéville... as he wrestles – in critical good faith and incandescent commitment – with a manifesto that still calls on us to build a new world' Naomi Klein 'Read this and be dazzled by its contemporaneity' Mike Davis 'A rich, luminous reflection of and on a light that never quite goes out' Andreas Malm 'Reading with [Miéville] today sharpens our senses to contemporary internationalist movements from below' Ruth Wilson Gilmore '[Written] with diligence and a ruthlessly critical eye worthy of Marx himself' Sarah Jaffe In 1848, a strange political tract was published by two German émigrés. Marx and Engles's apocalyptic vision of an insatiable system, which penetrates every corner of the globe, reduces every relationship to that of profit, and bursts asunder the old forms of production and of politics, remains a picture of our world. And the vampiric energy of that system is once again highly contentious. The Manifesto shows no sign of fading into antiquarian obscurity, and remains a key touchstone for modern political debate. China Miéville is not a writer hemmed in by conventions of disciplinary boundaries or genre, and this is a strikingly imaginative take on Marx and what his most haunting book has to say to us today. Like the Manifesto itself, this is a book haunted by ghosts, sorcery and creative destruction.Trade ReviewThe Manifesto is one of history's most profound prophecies. In Miéville's brilliant interpretation it is like a great comet whose periodic return blinds the sky with its light and urgency. Read this and be dazzled by its contemporaneity -- Mike DavisChina Miéville's elegant book patiently explains composition – style, structure, class – to reveal the Communist Manifesto's spectral energies. Reading with him today sharpens our senses to contemporary internationalist movements from below -- Ruth Wilson GilmoreAn excellent book, very lively and engaging, written in clear and readable prose... For today's readers Miéville does excellent work presenting and reviewing a huge amount of twentieth-century history -- Professor Terrell CarverIt's thrilling to accompany Miéville, one of the greatest living world-builders, as he wrestles – in critical good faith and incandescent commitment – with a manifesto that still calls on us to build a new world -- Naomi KleinVery enjoyable and well done... Properly scholarly and thorough in its apparatus of discussion and issue-identification... Lively, politically driven appreciation -- Professor Gregor McLennanWith diligence and a ruthlessly critical eye worthy of Marx himself, China Miéville expands upon the Communist Manifesto, calling us into renewed struggle for the best of what humanity could be. Against the million little cruelties and death-making of capitalism, this book builds a case for the value of the Manifesto to today's struggles without demanding fealty. It turns long-standing complaints about Marx on their heads to challenge the reader even while seducing with luminous prose. I didn't know I needed this book, but I did -- Sarah JaffeA book about another book might sound boring, but The Communist Manifesto is more than a book: it represents a bulging galaxy of historical struggle, ever moving and shining, even if only on the periphery of our vision. Here, China Miéville opens up the pages of the Manifesto and transmits the energy of communism across the pallid present. Close reading, historical essay, political commentary and a manifesto of sorts: A Spectre, Haunting is a rich, luminous reflection of and on a light that never quite goes out -- Andreas MalmChina Miéville, mind, soul and pen ablaze, guides his readers through Marx and Engels's unignorable, inextinguishable, eternally uncomfortable and always essential Manifesto. This is both a history of critical thought and a magnificent exemplar of reading and thinking critically. Miéville has written a thrillingly lively and lucid exegesis on the Manifesto, its contents and its discontents. He's gathered together an astonishingly heterogenous array of voices and responses, making a case for the Manifesto as a locus of politically engaged analysis and argument for nearly two centuries. Miéville adjudicates and synthesizes with unfailing clarity, wit, courage, decency and passion, writing brilliantly about nationalism, race, gender, literary style, and – my particular favorite section – about the perils and necessity of hate. He gives us a Manifesto that is simultaneously a central artifact of our species and a means for understanding our present, hazardous moment, a historical work that remains absolutely, ferociously alive -- Tony Kushner, author of Angels in AmericaA rare combination, both scholarly and exciting to read * The Prisma *Whatever the reader's position on these questions, A Spectre, Haunting ultimately succeeds. It is a clear, fair, and non-doctrinaire introduction * TLS *
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Verso Books Red Africa: Reclaiming Revolutionary Black
Book SynopsisRed Africa makes the case for a revolutionary Black politics inspired by Marxist anticolonial struggles in Africa. Contemporary debates on Black radicalism and decolonisation have lost sight of the concerns that animated their twentieth-century intellectual forebears. Okoth responds, challenging the claim that Marxism and Black radicalism are incompatible and showing that both are embraced in the anti-imperialist tradition he calls 'Red Africa'. The politics of Black revolutionary writers Eduardo Mondlane, Amílcar Cabral, Walter Rodney and Andrée Blouin gesture toward a decolonised future that never materialised - instead it was betrayed, violently sup- pressed, or erased. We might yet build something new from the ruins of national liberation, something which sustains the utopian promise of freedom and refuses to surrender. Red Africa is a political project that hopes to salvage what remains of this tradition.Trade ReviewProvocative and polemical, Red Africa probes the limits of contemporary discourses of Black Studies and returns to the neglected histories of Marxism on the continent, finding resources for charting new emancipatory futures. -- Adom Getachew, author of Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-DeterminationA fiercely argued case for looking to the anticolonialism and Marxism of Red Africa in our current engagements with decolonisation. Okoth's critical assessment of certain variants of 'decolonial studies' and 'Afro-Pessimism' is welcome. -- Priyamvada Gopal, author of Insurgent EmpireThis is an important defence of the emancipatory politics of Eduardo Mondlane, Amilcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon, and Walter Rodney from the reactionary perspectives of Afro-pessimism and African nationalism, raising the question of whether things might indeed have turned out differently had radical women such as Andrée Blouin been more intimately connected with the struggle for self-determination. -- Firoze Manji, co-editor, Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar CabralIn this rigorous debut, political theorist Okoth revisits the philosophies of mid-20th-century African revolutionaries....Activists and readers interested in leftist political history will be enthralled. * Publishers Weekly *Table of Contents1 Decolonisation and the Decline of the 'Bandung Spirit'2 From Black Studies to Afro-pessimism: The Making of an Anti-politics3 Racial Capitalism and the Afterlives of Slavery4 Négritude and the (Mal)practice of Diaspora5 Whose Fanon? On Blackness and National Liberation6 Neo-colonialism, or, The Emptiness of Bearing One's Flag7 Remnants of Red Africa
£8.99
Verso Books Aesthetics and Politics
Book SynopsisNo other country and no other period has produced a tradition of major aesthetic debate to compare with that which unfolded in German culture from the 1930s to the 1950s. In Aesthetics and Politics the key texts of the great Marxist controversies over literature and art during these years are assembled in a single volume. They do not form a disparate collection but a continuous, interlinked debate between thinkers who have become giants of twentieth-century intellectual history.Trade ReviewThese are key texts in the study of modernism, of expressionist drama and of realism, and of many closesly related general questions. ... It is genuinely an indispensable volume. -- Raymond WilliamsThis is vital reading for anyone concerned with the relationship between art and socialism. -- John FowlesUnlike conventional anthologies of Marxist writings on art, Aestheticand Politics has the form of an intellectual epic, presented as a series of mutual confronations between its protagonists. * Telos *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Communist Manifesto
Book SynopsisKarl Marx was born in Trier, Germany and studied law at Bonn and Berlin. In 1848, with Freidrich Engels, he finalized the Communist Manifesto. He settled in London, where he studied economics and wrote the first volume of his major work, Das Kapital (1867, two further volumes were added in 1884 and 1894). He is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London. Friedrich Engles was born in Barmen, Germany. From 1842 he lived mostly in England.
£7.59
Verso Books October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
In February of 1917 Russia was a backward, autocratic monarchy, mired in an unpopular war; by October, after not one but two revolutions, it had become the world's first workers' state, straining to be at the vanguard of global revolution. How did this unimaginable transformation take place?In a panoramic sweep, stretching from St Petersburg and Moscow to the remotest villages of a sprawling empire, Miéville uncovers the catastrophes, intrigues and inspirations of 1917, in all their passion, drama and strangeness. Intervening in long-standing historical debates, but told with the reader new to the topic especially in mind, here is a breathtaking story of humanity at its greatest and most desperate; of a turning point for civilisation that still resonates loudly today. China Miéville tells the extraordinary story of this pivotal moment in history.
£10.99
Vintage Publishing A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution –
Book SynopsisUnrivalled in scope and brimming with human drama, A People's Tragedy is the most vivid, moving and comprehensive history of the Russian Revolution available today.'A modern masterpiece' Andrew MarrOpening with a panorama of Russian society, from the cloistered world of the Tsar to the brutal life of the peasants, A People's Tragedy follows workers, soldiers, intellectuals and villagers as their world is consumed by revolution and then degenerates into violence and dictatorship. Drawing on vast original research, Figes conveys above all the shocking experience of the revolution for those who lived it, while providing the clearest and most cogent account of how and why it unfolded.Illustrated with over 100 photographs and now including a new introduction that reflects on the revolution's centennial legacy, A People's Tragedy is a masterful and definitive record of one of the most important events in modern history.'The most moving account of the Russian Revolution since Doctor Zhivago' IndependentTrade ReviewA modern masterpiece -- Andrew MarrCombines dramatic power, absorbing narrative and magisterial scholarship – a magnificent tour de force -- Christopher Andrew * Sunday Telegraph *The most moving account of the Russian Revolution since Doctor Zhivago -- Lucasta Miller * Independent *This book is not just a history; it is an item of history -- Neal Ascherson * Independent on Sunday *A People’s Tragedy will do more to help us understand the Russian Revolution than any other book I know -- Eric Hobsbawm * London Review of Books *Orlando Figes’s chronicle of the final days of Tsarism and the violent Bolshevism that arose from its ruins is an epic in size, scope and insight, and a classic in its genre… A People’s Tragedy succeeds most in capturing the sheer popular immensity of the upheavals in 1917-18, with all of Russia rising up first against the Tsar and then, with the onset of civil war, against itself. With its perfect balance of analysis and anecdote, A People’s Tragedy is surely among the most readable books on the Russian Revolution and the decades of tumult that made it possible – or inevitable -- Brad Davies * Independent *
£22.50
Princeton University Press To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause
Book Synopsis
£29.75
Oxford University Press The Condition of the Working Class in England
Book SynopsisThe Condition of the Working Class in England is the best known work of Engels, and still in many ways the best study of the working class in Victorian England. It was the first book written by Engels during his stay in Manchester from 1842 to 1844. Manchester was then at the very heart of the Industrial Revolution, and Engels compiled his study from his own observations and detailed contemporary reports. The fluency of his writing, the personal nature of his insights, and his talent for mordant satire combine to make this account of the lives of the victims of early industrial change into a classic - a historical study that parallels and complements the fictional works of the time by such writers as Gaskell and Dickens. What Cobbett had done for agricultural poverty in his Rural Rides, Engels did - and more - in this work on the plight of industrial workers in England in the 1840s. This edition includes the prefaces to the English and American editions, and a map of Manchester c.1845Table of ContentsIntroduction; Note on the text; Select bibliography; A chronology of Friedrich Engels; Map of Manchester c.1845; The Condition of the Working Class in England; Appendix; The Labour movement in America; Preface to the American edition; Preface to the English edition; Explanatory notes; Index.
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd History of the Russian Revolution
Book Synopsis''The greatest history of an event I know'' - C.L.R. JamesRegarded by many as among the most powerful works of history ever written, The History of the Russian Revolution offers an unparalleled account of one of the most pivotal and hotly debated events in world history. This book presents, from the perspective of one of its central actors, the profound liberating character of the early Russian Revolution.Originally published in three parts, Trotsky''s masterpiece is collected here in a single volume. It is still the most vital and inspiring record of the Russian Revolution ever published.
£19.00
Pan Macmillan The Communist Manifesto & Selected Writings
Book SynopsisDesigned to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure. This edition contains the most salient extracts from Marx's great work, selected and introduced by Hugh Griffith.Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, first printed just before the French revolution of 1848, is his most accessible and famous work. In his powerful call to arms, Marx expounds his famous theory that class struggle is the real determinant of historical change. Next in this volume comes his treatise, Wages, Price and Profit, written in 1865, which serves as an accessible introduction to the ideas which Marx went on to develop in Capital, his masterful, multi-volume analysis of how the world was irreversibly changed by the industrial revolution. Whilst old-style Marxism is now dead and buried, today's conflicts within capitalism are as sharp as ever and Marx’s brilliant, painstaking writings remain incredibly relevant.
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Verso Books History and Class Consciousness
Book SynopsisHistory and Class Consciousness was the most important of Georg Lukács's early theoretical writings, published in Germany in 1923. The subject of high praise and passionate criticism, it had a major impact on all the Marxist debates that followed, introducing key new concepts such as 'totality', 'reification' and 'imputed class consciousness'. This centenary edition, with a new preface by Michael Löwy, comprises a series of essays exploring, among other topics, the definition of orthodox Marxism, the question of legality and illegality, Rosa Luxemburg as a Marxist, the changing function of historic Marxism, and the substantiation and consciousness of the proletariat. This classic book has influenced many key philosophers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including Adorno, Debord, Heidegger, Lefebvre, Merleau-Ponty and Zizek, and it can lay claim to being one of the cornerstones of contemporary thought.Trade ReviewOne of the indispensable works of the twentieth century. -- Raymond WilliamsGeorge Lukács's History and Class Consciousness is a truly extraordinary work, and its English translation, after almost fifty years of neglect by English and American publishers, is a major event. The full quality of Lukács's brilliance is most powerfully manifested in this 'youthful' work (done when merely 38!), where he reveals himself as by far and away the most talented philosopher among 20th-century Marxists, and as their most penetrating critic of contemporary culture. He is a major stimulus in the development of what is certainly the most creative school of social theorists in the 20th century, and of whom Herbert Marcuse is only the best-known member. For all this, then, we owe homage to Georg Lukács. -- Alvin W. Gouldner * New York Times Book Review *Lukacs' book History and Class Consciousness leads Marx back to Hegel to a significant extent, and leads the latter meaningfully beyond himself; here, too, a metaphysics of understanding oneself in existence, of raising our head, our reality above the crooked process, traces its dialectical arcs. -- Ernst BlochHistory and Class Consciousness, a work of genius inseparable from the brief moment when the Bolshevik Revolution seemed to be the beginning of a world revolution. -- Etienne BalibarFor Lukacs, Marxism is, or should be, this integral philosophy without dogma. Weber understood materialism as an attempt to deduce all culture from economics. For Lukacs, it is a way of saying that the relations among men are not the sum of personal acts or personal decisions, but pass through things, the anonymous roles, the common situations, and the institutions where men have projected so much of themselves that their fate is now played out outside them. The exceptional merit of Lukacs-which makes his book, even today, a philosophical one-is precisely that his philosophy was not by implication to be understood as dogma but was to be practiced, that it did not serve to 'prepare' history, and that it was the very chain of history grasped in human experience. His philosophical reading of history brought to light, behind the prose of everyday existence, a recovery of the self by itself which is the definition of subjectivity. -- Maurice Merleau-PontyOn the level of currents of thought we must no doubt go back to Lukacs, whose History and Class Consciousness was already raising questions to do with a new subjectivity. -- Gilles DeleuzeLukács's critique of 'reification' in History and Class Consciousness shows the path toward a philosophy of social praxis, according to which social objectivity must be understood as the creation of human beings themselves in the process of reproducing their material and cultural worlds. -- Seyla BenhabibI can still remember the way that first page of Lukács made my head spin. The cosmic chutzpah of the man was staggering. I'd known plenty of Marxists who were willing to admit that Marx might be wrong about many tjings; in spite of this, they said, he was right about the essential things and that was why they were Marxists. Now here was a Marxist saying that Marx might be wrong about everything, and he couldn't care less, that the truth of Marxism was independent of anything that Marx said about the world, and hence that nothing in the world could ever refute it; and that as the essence not merely of Marxist truth, but of Marxist Orthodoxy. -- Marshall BermanThe charter document of Hegelian Marxism. -- Martin JayTable of ContentsTranslator's NotePreface to the centenary edition (2023)Preface to the new edition (1967)PrefaceWhat is Orthodox Marxism?The Marxism of Rosa LuxemburgClass ConsciousnessReification and the Consciousness of the ProletariatI The Phenomenon of Reifi The Phenomenon of ReificationII The Antinomies of Bourgeois ThoughtIII The Standpoint of the ProletariatThe Changing Function of Historical MaterialismLegality and IllegalityCritical Observations on Rosa Luxemburg's "Critique of the Russian Revolution"Towards a Methodology of the Problem of OrganisationNotes to the English EditionIndex
£16.99
Oxford University Press The Communist Manifesto
Book SynopsisThe Communist Manifesto is one of the most influential pieces of political propaganda ever written. It is a summary of the whole Marxist vision of history and is the foundation document of the Marxist movement.Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were aged 29 and 27 respectively when The Communist Manifesto was published on the eve of the 1848 revolutions. The authors had been close collaborators since 1844, and the Manifesto is a condensed and incisive account of the world-view they had evolved during their hectic intellectual and political involvement of the previous few years.This new edition is critically and textually up to date, and includes the Prefaces written by Marx and Engels subsequent to the 1848 edition. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewAn excellent and scholarly edition with a very useful introduction and notes - very accessible and informative for students with little to no background knowledge. / Rebecca Braun, Lancaster University
£6.23
Penguin Books Ltd Trouble in Paradise
Book SynopsisIn Trouble in Paradise, Slavoj Žižek, one of our most famous, most combative philosophers, explains how by drawing on the ideas of communism, we can find a way out of the crisis of capitalism.There is obviously trouble in the global capitalist paradise. But why do we find it so difficult to imagine a way out of the crisis we''re in? It is as if the trouble feeds on itself: the march of capitalism has become inexorable, the only game in town.Setting out to diagnose the condition of global capitalism, the ideological constraints we are faced with in our daily lives, and the bleak future promised by this system, Slavoj Žižek explores the possibilities - and the traps - of new emancipatory struggles. Drawing insights from phenomena as diverse as Gangnam Style to Marx, The Dark Knight to Thatcher, Trouble in Paradise is an incisive dissection of the world we inhabit, and the new order to come.''The most dangerous philosopher in the West'' - Adam Kirsch, New Republic ''The most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in many decades'' - Terry Eagleton ''Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation'' - New Yorker
£10.44
