Far-left political ideologies and movements Books

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisNOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Beyond investigates the intersection of the global rise of anti-Olympics activism and the declining popularity of hosting of the Games. The Olympics were once buoyed by myths of luminous prosperity and upticks in tourism and jobs, but in recent years these assurances have been debunked. Now more than ever, it's clear that the Olympics have transmogrified into a political-economic juggernaut that arrives with displacement, expanded policing, and anti-democratic backroom deals. Jules Boykoff - a former professional soccer player who represented the US Olympic soccer team - zooms in on Los Angeles, where the Democratic Socialists of America have launched the NOlympics LA campaign ahead of the 2028 Summer Games. Boykoff shows how DSA-LA's anti-Olympics activism fits with the resurgence of socialism in the US and beyond. Boykoff's research, based on more than 100 interviews with anti-Olympics activists, personal experiences at protests in Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, London, and Tokyo, academic research, mass- and alternative-media coverage, and Olympic archives, is the backbone for this story of activists fighting against the odds and embracing the transformative politics of democratic socialism.Trade ReviewProgressive groups will consider this a useful guide to launching their own anti-Olympic campaigns.--Publishers Weekly "The need for critical writing about the Olympics has never been more important and no one does it more effectively or incisively than Jules Boykoff. Here he shows us not only the potential harm of the LA 2028 Summer Games but the activists who are bringing this reality to light."

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this hugely influential book, Laclau and Mouffe examine the workings of hegemony and contemporary social struggles, and their significance for democratic theory. With the emergence of new social and political identities, and the frequent attacks on Left theory for its essentialist underpinnings, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy remains as relevant as ever, positing a much-needed antidote against 'Third Way' attempts to overcome the antagonism between Left and Right.Trade ReviewA brilliant tour de force of scholarship and argument. * Marxism Today *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs the crisis of capitalism unfolds, the need for alternatives is felt ever more intensely. The struggle between radical movements and the forces of reaction will be merciless. A crucial battlefield, where the outcome of the crisis will in part be decided, is that of theory. Over the last twenty-five years, radical intellectuals across the world have produced important and innovative ideas. The endeavour to transform the world without falling into the catastrophic traps of the past has been a common element uniting these new approaches. This book-aimed at both the general reader and the specialist-offers the first global cartography of the expanding intellectual field of critical contemporary thought. More than thirty authors and intellectual currents of every continent are presented in a clear and succinct manner. A history of critical thought in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is also provided, helping situate current thinkers in a broader historical and sociological perspective.Trade ReviewA dizzying menagerie of anti-capitalist thought. * Pop Matters *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen, in 2013, the Daily Mail labeled Ralph Miliband "The Man Who Hated Britain," a diverse host rallied to his defense. Those who had worked with him - from both left and right - praised his work and character. He was lauded as "one of the best-known academic Marxists of his generation" and a leading figure of the New Left. Class War Conservatism collects together his most significant political essays and shows the scope and brilliance of his thinking. Ranging from the critical anatomy of capitalism to a clear-eyed analysis of the future of socialism in Britain, this selection shows Miliband as an independent and prescient thinker of great insight. Throughout, his writing is a passionate and forcefully argued demand for social justice and a better future.Trade ReviewA veritable giant of a man who had an almost unique capacity to understand-and explain-the world in which we live. -- Tony BennAn inspiring teacher of politics and an internationally renowned figure on the British Left. * Daily Telegraph *A Miliband speech was always a treat; alternately sarcastic and scholarly, witty and vicious. -- Tariq AliA beacon on the international Left. He epitomized what it meant to be a creative and independent socialist intellectual, and he provided consistent leadership in defining the issues for critical engagement. -- Leo PanitchHis whole effort is to render the language of socialism in terms of the needs of the here and now. -- Raphael Samuel

Read more less

Book SynopsisA philosopher and activist, eager to live according to ideals forged in study and discussion, Daniel Bensaïd was a man deeply entrenched in both the French and the international left. Raised in a staunchly red neighbourhood of Toulouse, where his family owned a bistro, he grew to be France's leading Marxist public intellectual, much in demand on talk shows and in the press. A lyrical essayist and powerful public speaker, at his best expounding large ideas to crowds of students and workers, he was a founder member of the Ligue Communiste and thrived at the heart of a resurgent far left in the 1960s, which nurtured many of the leading figures of today's French establishment.The path from the joyous explosion of May 1968, through the painful experience of defeat in Latin America and the world-shaking collapse of the USSR, to the neoliberal world of today, dominated as it is by global finance, is narrated in An Impatient Life with Bensaïd's characteristic elegance of phrase and clarity of vision. His memoir relates a life of ideological and practical struggle, a never-resting endeavour to comprehend the workings of capitalism in the pursuit of revolution.Trade Review"France's leading Marxist public intellectual" -- Tariq Ali"Daniel's death is like a wound, not a sadness--a loss which leaves us heavier. His is a message composed, not with words, but with decisions and acts and injuries." -- John Berger"Daniel Bensaïd was my 'distant companion.' With his disappearance, the intellectual, activist, political, and the 'revolutionary' worlds have all changed." -- Alain BadiouPart autobiography, part activist's logbook, and part political treatise, it's the story of how a working-class boy went on to co-found a party that twice participated in French presidential elections, and became a leader of the Fourth International, the global organisation of Trotskyist followers. * Independent *This absorbing, affecting memoir is a beautiful testament to a richly productive and dignified life . this is an energising book, a book that reminds us of the rightness of refusing the inevitability of capitalism and war, of the promise of international solidarity and socialism, of our responsibility to all those who have made sacrifices in this struggle. -- Dougal McNeill * ISO *Bensaïd crafts each chapter with a painter's hand, stroke by stroke, offering us musings, vignettes, and reflections that are intricately argued, sometimes speculative, and always subtly insightful. -- Alan Wald * International Socialist Review *From love to Leninism, journalism to Jewishness, Bensaïd always has something interesting and original to say. * Ken MacLeod *An honest, and often moving, chronicle of a revolutionary life in unrevolutionary times. -- Marc Mulholland * English Historical Review *

Read more less

Book SynopsisVladimir Ilyich Lenin visited London on six occasions at the beginning of the twentieth century and it was in this city, where Marx wrote Das Kapital, that the roots of Lenin's political thought took shape. This book, from a former curator of the Russian collections at the British Library, tells the story for the first time of Lenin's intriguing relationship with the enigmatic Apollinariya Yakubova – a revolutionary known to her comrades as the 'primeval force of the Black Earth'. The book reveals Lenin's London-based accomplices and political rivals, and sheds new light on his world-view – one which would have such a crucial impact on the twentieth century. This is the first full exploration of the formation of one of the leading political visionaries of his age. Henderson has made a series of stunning archival discoveries, published here for the first time, as well as photographs and details of the Russian revolutionaries (and indeed international police spies) who congregated in the east end of London - known then as the 'Little Russian Island'. Featuring an extraordinary amount of new archival material, this is an essential addition to our knowledge of Lenin the man and of the roots of the Russian revolution.Trade ReviewHenderson has woven his narrative out of a brilliant miscellany of archival sources, with crucial finds in the Hoover Institution's records of the Okhrana, or political police. * Times Literary Supplement *Henderson, a former Russian curator at the British Library, knows everything there is to know about Lenin’s love affair with the BM, and tells it all. This is a level of detailed Leniniana seldom encountered since the demise of the Soviet Union, but even those diligent Soviet researchers who used to track Lenin’s every move and hour didn’t know the BM [British Museum] as Henderson does. It’s what gives his book its charm. * London Review of Books *One hundred fifty years after Lenin’s birth, Henderson’s book does something to bring him back to life. * The Jacobin *Henderson’s revelatory book captures the atmosphere of a time of Jewish idealism preceding that of the horrors of the Gulag. * The Jewish Chronicle *Robert Henderson’s archival snapshots put human flesh on the intellectual and political bones of a figure who remains either revered or hated to this day… [the book] captures the atmosphere of Edwardian London and brings to life many of the players – with its wealth of photographs – in the early moves of a game that would indeed change the world. * Morning Star *Henderson’s book is a very welcome contribution to understanding the role that time spent in London played in the intellectual and practical development of the Russian revolutionary left, especially that of Lenin and his closest comrades. It provides a vivid sense of place and a lot of the human context to a crucially important period in Lenin’s political life. * Counterfire *[A] fascinating and meticulously researched book. As a former curator of the Russian collections at the British Library, Henderson is very well placed to undertake such research. * East-West Review *Henderson’s book should be of interest to Labour historians of the early 20th century. It reveals many of Lenin’s London based political networks and the roots of the politics that continue to influence the party’s left-wing. * Tides of History blog *Henderson has succeeded once again in writing another important and captivating history…Henderson’s book makes an original contribution to our knowledge of Lenin by providing us with a clearer understanding of his activities, the associates with whom he connected and, generally speaking, the milieux in which he moved during his London years. Today this research is invaluable to anyone with an interest in trying to comprehend how Lenin and political émigrés generally perceived their work in exile to make essential contributions to the promotion of revolutionary change in their countries of origin. * European History Quarterly *Based on thorough archival research in Britain, France, Russia, and the USA, the story recreated by the author is presented in an elegant and engaging narrative style, combining meticulous factual accounts with humor, vivid details, and emotional attachment to historical figures. Although the title quite accurately points at the main focus of the book – Lenin’s political activities during the periods when he stayed in London – I would add that Henderson’s narrative can also be described as a chronicle of love and politics that evolved around libraries in the turn of the century London, full of police, radicals, and spies. In this work, Henderson offers up a piece of fascinating historical research, weaving stories of various libraries and their collections into the fabric of his narrative. * Slavic & East European Information Resources *Henderson’s book concentrates on new archival finds and previously unpublished materials. Much of what he uncovers is fascinating and valuable information. * Look Left *[Henderson] makes excellent use of a wide variety of archival sources. * Socialist History *Flawlessly researched, lucidly written, replete with exhaustive archival evidence, including previously undiscovered photographs, Henderson has produced the definitive study of the numerous occasions that Lenin, the world's best known revolutionary, spent in London refining and developing his influential views. * John Gonzalez, author of An Intellectual Biography of N.A. Rozhkov: Life in a Bell Jar (2016) *In this outstanding work Robert Henderson deploys new archival discoveries and a lifetime’s research into the Russian émigré community of the early twentieth century to throw new light upon both the revolutionary and the personal life of one of the towering figures of modern history. One could ask for no more expert or convivial guide to Lenin’s various sojourns on London’s “Little Russian Island” during the birth of Bolshevism. * Dr Jonathan Smele, Queen Mary University of London, UK *Henderson’s book is the product of thirty years of research. Time well spent. Pending future openings of Soviet archives or chance discoveries of unpublished diaries of memoirs, this gripping narrative bids fair to remain the definitive version, in Roman poet Horace’s words, ‘a monument more lasting than bronze’. * The Spokesman *Robert Henderson takes us into the cheap lodgings, much-frequented libraries, packed meeting halls, favourite bars and restaurants which were the backdrops to the intense lives of the Russian revolutionary emigration in London. We become witnesses to their ferocious arguments and observers of their lives, loves and hopes for a better future for their homeland. * Professor Christopher Read, University of Warwick, UK *In this fascinating study, Robert Henderson takes us on a trail through the archives to reconstruct Lenin's life in London: the places he lived, the circles he moved in, and the relationships he built. * Professor Charlotte Alston, Northumbria University, UK *Table of ContentsContents Note on Transliteration and Calendars Acknowledgements Frontispiece Introduction Chapter 1 The Little Russian Island: The First Castaways Chapter 2 'Lirochka' and Lenin – The Spark That Lit the Flame? Chapter 3 1902–1903: Iskra and Shaping the Party Chapter 4 1905: A Congress of Conspirators Chapter 5 The London Congress of 1907 and the Triumph of Bolshevism Chapter 6 Two Last Visits: 1908 and 1911 Postscript Apollinariya's Story Appendix Select Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisFredric Jameson's pathbreaking essay "An American Utopia" radically questions standard leftist notions of what constitutes an emancipated society. Advocated here are-among other things-universal conscription, the full acknowledgment of envy and resentment as a fundamental challenge to any communist society, and the acceptance that the division between work and leisure cannot be overcome. To create a new world, we must first change the way we envision the world. Jameson's text is ideally placed to trigger a debate on the alternatives to global capitalism. In addition to Jameson's essay, the volume includes responses from philosophers and political and cultural analysts, as well as an epilogue from Jameson himself.Many will be appalled at what they will encounter in these pages-there will be blood! But perhaps one has to spill such (ideological) blood to give the Left a chance.Trade ReviewIn An American Utopia, Jameson affirms the critical function of utopian thinking and the efficacies of the form itself. He insists that the fundamental function of utopias is to revive a sense of the future, which requires taking aim at the forces that prevent us from venturing out from the comfortingly familiar confines of the present. -- Kathi WeeksJameson...gives us good reasons to call back utopia from obscurity. * Rain Taxi *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis influential collection explores the pivotal texts and topics in the Marxist tradition. Ranging over questions of social theory, political theory, moral philosophy and literary criticism, it looks at the thought of Marx and Trotsky, Luxemburg, Lenin and Althusser. They include Geras's influential and widely-cited treatment of fetishism in Capital, his comprehensive review of recent debates on Marxism and justice, discussions on political organisation, revolutionary mass action and party pluralism, and a novel analysis of the literary power of Trotsky's writing. In close dialogue with common themes and arguments in the literature of revolutionary Marxism, Geras brings some of his persistent preoccupations to the fore; with the normative foundations and some of the epistemological assumptions of this tradition, with issues of socialist democracy, working class self-education and emancipation.Trade Review[For Marx and Human Nature] This remarkable short book deserves to be widely read and not only by those interested in Marxology. For it achieves something rare in its field: rationally compelling proof. Not only does it conclusively refute a widely current legend about Marx's thought . it does so with striking elegance, economy, and argumentative power. * Times Literary Supplement *[For The Legacy of Rosa Luxembourg] This is a useful and thoughtful book, in which the power and originality of Rosa Luxemburg's thinking emerges." -- E H Carr * Times Literary Supplement *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFew terms are so widely used in the literature of international relations and political science, with so little agreement about their exact meaning, as hegemony.In the first full historical study of its fortunes as a concept, Perry Anderson traces its emergence in Ancient Greece and its rediscovery during the upheavals of 1848-1849 in Germany. He then follows its checkered career in revolutionary Russia, fascist Italy, Cold War America, Gaullist France, Thatcher's Britain, post-colonial India, feudal Japan, Maoist China, eventually arriving at twenty-first-century US geopolitics and Germany's place within an expanded European Union. The result is a surprising and fascinating expedition into global intellectual history.Trade ReviewAnderson's work displays stunning erudition. Part of a larger attempt to explain the forms and transformations of liberal power, The H-Word helps us understand how one hegemony dies and another begins. -- Gavin Jacobson * New Statesman *Fascinating history -- Adam Tooze * FT *If you want to see how hegemony has been transformed from a critical term in the lexicon of leftist scholars and activists to a less critical but increasingly pervasive term in the lexicon of those interrogating late US imperialism, then The H-Word is a book well worth reading. -- Jim Glassman * Antipode *Anderson deploys his formidable erudition to craft short chapters on the conflicting understandings of hegemony among Ancient Greek and Roman historians, Russian revolutionaries, Prussian military theorists, Italian communists (where Gramsci shows up), Anglo-American international relations scholars, Chinese statesmen from Confucius to Mao, post-structuralist Marxists (where Gramsci reappears), and the architects of the European Union. This is accomplished with admirably clear and jargon-free prose, and the book is a pleasure to read. -- Eduardo Frajman, Marx & Philosophy SocietyEngaging -- John Ikenberry * Foreign Affairs *Perry Anderson offers a global intellectual history of the many meanings, applications, and turning points in the use of hegemony as a theoretical tool. The most impressive aspect is the breadth he must operate with in terms of history, disciplines, and geographic contexts beyond Marxist theory and beyond the continent of Europe. -- Chris Hardnack * Socialism and Democracy *

Read more less

Book SynopsisRevolution in the Air is the definitive study of how radicals from the sixties movements embraced twentieth-century Marxism, and what movements of dissent today can learn from the legacies of Lenin, Mao and Che.Trade ReviewIt should be required reading for those interested in the modern history of social movements and for radicals of my generation who are trying to find out what went wrong. * Los Angeles Times *The breadth of Elbaum's knowledge ... marks this book as an absolutely first-rate work of political scholarship. * Village Voice *Truly a superb work of scholarship that raises all the right questions ... * Radical History *If you still believe sixties radicalism was nothing more than youthful middle-class confusion or parochial identity politics, then open these pages and dig. -- Robin D. G. KelleyYou can disagree with almost everything Elbaum writes ... and still value the clarity with which he poses the questions relevant to an effective anti-racist, feminist and class-conscious revolutionary movement in the 21st century. * Marx & Philosophy *

Read more less

Book SynopsisSindhi nationalism is one of the oldest yet least studied cases of identity politics in Pakistan. Ethnic discontent appeared in Sindh in opposition to the rule of the Bombay presidency; to the onslaught of Punjabi settlers in the wake of canal irrigation; and, most decisively, to the arrival of millions of Muhajirs (Urdu-speaking migrants) after Partition. Under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari, the Pakistan Peoples Party has upheld the Sindhi nationalist cause, even while playing the game of federalist politics. On the other side for half a century have been hardcore Sindhi nationalist groups, led by Marxists, provincial autonomists, landlord 'pirs' and liberal intelligentsia in pursuit of ethnic outbidding. This book narrates the story of the Bhutto dynasty, the Muhajir factor, nationalist ideologues, factional feuds amongst landed elites, and the role of violence as a maker and shaper of Sindhi nationalism. Moreover, it examines the role of the PPP as an ethnic entrepreneur through an analysis of its politics within the electoral arena and beyond. Bringing together extensive fieldwork and comparative studies of ethno-nationalism, both within and outside Pakistan, Asma Faiz uncovers the fascinating world of Sindhi nationalism.Trade Review'Through its detailed and multi-level analysis, 'In Search of Lost Glory'... deepens knowledge about Sindh and Pakistan. As such, it is a welcome addition to an ever-increasingly diverse array of scholarship in Pakistan Studies.' -- Bloomsbury Pakistan'A valuable addition to political science literature on ethnic studies [that] sets a good precedent to probe the political aspects of the nationalist discourse.' -- Dawn'In Search of Lost Glory is a comprehensive, all-encompassing take on Sindhi nationalism in the colonial and post-colonial eras. An excellent source of scholarship, it will be of interest to academics, students and the general public alike. Original, compelling and ambitious.' -- Farhan Siddiqi, Associate Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and author of 'The Politics of Ethnicity in Pakistan: The Baloch, Sindhi and Mohajir Ethnic Movements''A well-researched and impartial account of Sindhi cultural politics, from the colonial period till today. Borrowing insights from political science, historiography and anthropology, this book is required reading for everyone interested in the recent history of Sindh and Pakistan.' -- Oskar Verkaaik, Assistant Professor, Research Center for Religion and Society, University of Amsterdam, and author of 'A People of Migrants: Ethnicity, State, and Religion in Karachi''In Search of Lost Glory is an excellent analysis of Pakistan's governance structures and the agency of ethnic nationalism in Sindh. The book's multi-level approach makes it a significant contribution to both the study of Sindh and Pakistan.' -- Matthew A. Cook, Professor of South Asian and Postcolonial Studies, North Carolina Central University'A definitive contribution to the field of ethnicity, it is objective and insightful in explaining the historical and social roots of conflicting identities, violence and contestation for power in Sindh. An intense and rich intellectual engagement--a first of its kind.' -- Rasul Bakhsh Rais, Professor of Political Science, Lahore University of Management Sciences, and editor of 'State, Society and Democratic Change in Pakistan'

Read more less

Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1974, Kojin Karatani's Marx: Towards the Centre of Possibility has been among his most enduring and pioneering works in critical theory. Written at a time when the political sequences of the New Left had collapsed into crisis and violence, with widespread political exhaustion for the competing sectarian visions of Marxism from 1968, Karatani's Marx laid the groundwork for a new reading, unfamiliar to the existing Marxist discourse in Japan at the time.Karatani's Marx takes on insights from semiotics, deconstruction, and the reading of Marx as a literary thinker, treating Capital as an intervention in philosophy that could be read as itself a theory of signs. Marx is unique in this sense, not only because of its importance in post-'68 Japanese thought, but also because the heterodox reading of Marx that Karatani debuts in this text, centred on his theory of the value-form, will go on to form the basis of his globally influential work.Edited, translated, and with an introduction by Gavin Walker.

Read more less

Book SynopsisRed Flag Wounded brings together essays covering the controversies and debates over the fraught history of the Soviet Union from the revolution to its disintegration. Those monumental years were marked not only by violence, mass killing, and the brutal overturning of a peasant society but also by the modernisation and industrialisation of the largest country in the world, the victory over fascism, and the slow recovery of society after the nightmare of Stalinism.Ronald Grigor Suny is one of the most prominent experts on the revolution, the fate of the non-Russian peoples of the Soviet empire, and the twists and turns of Western historiography of the Soviet experience. As a biographer of Stalin and a long-time commentator on Russian and Soviet affairs, he brings novel insights to a history that has been misunderstood and deliberately distorted in the public sphere. For a fresh look at a story that affects our world today, this is the place to begin.Trade ReviewA towering figure in the field of Soviet history, Ronald Suny is a prolific and engaged scholar, who has opened up new fields of research -- notably of nationalism and empire -- and been himself open to new conceptual approaches, while remaining true to perspectives on the Russian Revolution and Stalinism that have stood the test of time. His work combines trenchant analysis with lucid and large-scale synthesis. -- S A Smith, author of Russia in RevolutionWith his lightly-worn erudition, good humour and mastery of the field, Ron Suny is the perfect guide to the big questions in Soviet history. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand Stalinism and its interpreters. -- Sheila Fitzpatrick

Read more less

Book SynopsisAutumn/Winter 2022 issue of Salvage, featuring Richard Seymour, Alva Gotby, Nisha Kapoor, and Eric BlancGive Dust a Tongue includes an essay on class dysphoria by Richard Seymour, and an essay by Jairus Banaji on Russian capitalism today, Nisha Kapoor on data in the landscapes of capital and the state, Alva Gotby on the labour of lesbian life, Tony Wood on the invasion of Ukraine one year on, James Meadway on the end of industrial capitalism, Gargi Bhattacharyya on imperial decay, and Jamie Allinson on fossil sovereignty.With fiction by Gracie Mae Bradley, poetry by Jackqueline Frost and photos by Richard Seymour.

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom 9/11 to the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq, the eurozone crisis to the Brexit vote, the Great Recession to the Arab Spring, the rise of China to the annexation of Crimea, the passage from Obama to Trump and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the London-based New Left Review has offered a series of sharply critical editorials, combining argument with analysis-radical antidotes to the self-serving accounts of the Anglophone press. Contraventions brings together a selection of NLR's key political writings, covering capitalist boom and bust, the changing forms of American hegemony, the combined and uneven development of world powers, the domestic politics of the US and UK and multiple revolts from below, at the ballot box or in the streets. Bookended by broader surveys of the political-intellectual conjuncture, these essays dismantle mainstream narratives and anatomize the ideologies, institutions and on-the-ground operations of liberal-imperial rule.Contraventions includes texts by Perry Anderson, Tariq Ali, Mike Davis, Susan Watkins, Alexander Cockburn, Peter Gowan, Tony Wood, JoAnn Wypijewski, Tom Hazeldine and Dylan Riley.Trade Review"Since its inception, the review has been an invaluable source of reasoned analysis and insight into critical issues of policy, economy, society, and contemporary culture. A proud record to carry forward into difficult times ahead."– Noam Chomsky"The biography of the review cannot be reduced to a formula: its experience so far has been too rich and too contradictory. It is up to date without being merely journalistic; it is scholarly but unscarred by citation-compulsion; and it is analytical about the long-term forces at work in politics rather than obsessed by the spume of the latest wavelet of manoeuvring and posturing. That's what I admire above all about NLR: its intellectual seriousness – its magnificently strenuous attempt to understand, to analyse, to theorise."– Stefan Collini, GuardianTable of ContentsIntroduction by Susan WatkinsI. A GLOBAL HEGEMONY1. Renewals - Perry Anderson2. Our Herods - Tariq Ali3. Testing Formula Two - Perry Anderson4. Flames of New York - Mike Davis5. Force and Consent - Perry Anderson 6. Vichy on the Tigris - Susan Watkins7. Whatever Happened to the Anti-War Movement? - Alexander Cockburn8. US:UN - Peter Gowan9. The Nuclear Non-Protestation Treaty - Susan Watkinsii. CRISIS IN THE HEARTLANDS10. Shifting Sands - Susan Watkins11. Good Riddance - Tony Wood12. On the Concatenation in the Arab World - Perry Anderson13. Spring Confronts Winter - Mike Davis14. Presentism? Reply to T. J. Clark - Susan Watkins15. Annexations - Susan Watkins16. The State of the Union - Susan Watkins17. Passing the Baton - Perry Anderson18. The Politics of Insecurity - JoAnn Wypijewski19. Revolt of the Rustbelt - Tom Hazeldine20. What Is Trump? - Dylan Riley21. America versus China - Susan Watkins22. Five Wars in One - Susan Watkins

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Marx's Literary Style, the Venezuelan poet and philosopher Ludovico Silva argues that much of the confusion around Marx's work results from a failure to understand his literary mode of expression. Through meticulous readings of key passages in Marx's oeuvre, Silva isolates the key elements of his style: his search for an "architectonic" unity at the level of the text, his capacity to express himself dialectically at the level of the sentence, and, above all, his great gift for metaphor. Silva's unique sensitivity to Marx's literary choices allows him to illuminate a number of terms that have been persistently, and fatefully, misunderstood by many of Marx's most influential readers, including alienation, reflection, and base and superstructure. At the heart of Silva's book is his contention that we we cannot hope to understand Marx if we treat him as a scientist, a philosopher, or a literary writer, when he was in fact all three at once. Originally published in 1971, this is a key work by one of the most important Latin American Marxists of the twentieth century. This edition, which marks the first appearance of one of Silva's works in English, features an introduction by Alberto Toscano.Trade ReviewWe've waited a long time for an English-language edition of this brilliant, agenda-setting work. The book is indispensable. To read it is to learn how inadequate it is to describe any metaphor - and certainly any of Marx's - as "mere" ever again. -- China MiévilleSilva demonstrates with wonderful clarity that Marx's literary style - especially his metaphors and his irony - is not merely ornamental but absolutely essential to his argument. -- Michael Hardt, author of The Subversive SeventiesIn this lively, compact, and refreshingly unpretentious study, Ludovico Silva shows how attention to Marx's style not only enhances our pleasure in reading him, but also sharpens our theoretical understanding of his texts. Silva's early analysis of Marx's way of making his thinking "plastically perceived" through the rhythm, tone, and careful patterning of his writing helps us more clearly distinguish Marx's metaphors from his concepts, and in doing so, better understand the dialectical play between them. Marx's Literary Style is a recovered classic. -- Sianne Ngai, author of Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist FormTranslated with gusto by Paco Brito Núñez, to whose initiative anglophone readers owe a debt of gratitude, Marx's Literary Style is one of those short little books that packs a punch far in excess of its diminutive size...It is impossible to read Marx's Literary Style and not emerge with a very different understanding of the literary to that with which one began. -- Daniel Hartley * Jacobin *In 1971 the little booklet of a Venezuelan author, Ludovico Silva, Marx, appeared, published in Italian in 1973 by Bompiani. I believe it can no longer be found and it would be worthwhile to reprint it. Referring to the history of Marx's literary formation (few know that he also wrote poems, albeit very bad ones, in the opinion of the few who have read them), Silva meticulously analyzed all of Marx's work. -- Umberto EcoSilva's long-overdue English debut offers another view on the full, resonant brilliance of Marx's work: how masterfully he harmonized modes of language that ranged from positivist to poetic, and how urgently he sought to identify what hinders our realizing the world of which he dreamed. -- Sam Russek * Protean Magazine *Silva's book, rich with insight regarding Marx's prose, also provides insight into the nature of Marx's economic and political analysis. The reader is able to think dialogically and dialectically along with him. At the same time, he helps the reader do the same with Marx, who Silva convincingly argues is a great stylist. -- Michael Principe * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *

Read more less

Book SynopsisSpring/Summer 2021 issue of Salvage, featuring Kevin Ochieng Okoth, Marianela D’Aprile, Richard Seymour and others.The Disorder of the Future includes an essay on the settler-colonial politics of an airport by Francesco Anselmetti, Kevin Ochieng Okoth on decolonisation and rethinking the cycle of national liberation, Marianela D’Aprile on protesting during a plague, Jonas Marvin and Gary Howe on Brexit, Richard Seymour on fascism, Sharri Plonski on confronting the infrastructural terrain of Gulf-Israel relations, Joseph Tomaras on refusing the tyranny of manhood, and Michael Roberts on modern monetary theory. The artist of this issue is Jesse Darling, and the volume concludes with a short story from Helen Mackreath.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIntended to contribute, in his own words, to a "left-wing critique of Stalinism that would help put some substance back into the revolutionary project here in the West," they are the record of a shared history. At the same time they chart Althusser's critique of the theoretical system unveiled in his own major works, and his developing practice of philosophy as a "revolutionary weapon." Attesting to the unique place which Althusser has occupied in modern intellectual history-between a tradition of Marxism which he sought to reconstruct, and a "post-Marxism" which has eclipsed its predecessor-these texts are indispensable reading.Trade ReviewLouis Althusser influenced so many discourses, actions and existences by the radiant and provocative force of his thought. -- Jacques Derrida (in praise of Louis Althusser)One reads him with excitement. There is no mystery about his capacity to inspire the intelligent young. -- Eric Hobsbawm (in praise of Louis Althusser)

Read more less

Book SynopsisXi Jinping wants to become the world's most powerful leader. To succeed, he must balance Mao's Little Red Book with the Analects of Confucius, and more. For Xi, the task ahead of China is to preserve the guiding ideology of Marxism, while challenging mistaken credos like neoliberalism, constitutional democracy, and 'universal values'. China must have total faith in its own brand of socialism, blended meaningfully with Chinese tradition. And this system must revolve around one man--around Xi and 'Xi-ism'. François Bougon's compelling biography exposes the historical, philosophical, political and personal narratives that Xi has skilfully woven together to create a superpower in his own image. Is Xi's China a land of 'new market totalitarianism'? Will this be the price of the Chinese dream?Trade Review'Bougon . . . peers into the black box of Xi’s ambitions and strategy.’'Compact and accessible.''One of the best features of 'Inside the Mind of Xi Jinping', an information-packed, briskly written and engaging work by François Bougon, is the way it makes sense of contradictions like these.' * Times Literary Supplement *‘[A] livel[y] and … accessible biograph[y] of the Chinese leader.’ -- New Statesman, 'Books of the Year 2022'‘Bougon . . . peers into the black box of Xi’s ambitions and strategy.’' An engaging analysis of Xi’s thinking based on the Chinese leader’s own words . . . it has much to offer as a guide to contemporary Chinese political thought.''A riveting biography, "Inside the Mind of Xi Jinping" delves deep into the mindset of the Chinese President.''An engrossing and vitally significant book.''A rare journalistic attempt . . . refreshing.''French journalist Bougon's compelling account delves deep into the mentality of the Chinese president . . . offer[ing] important insights for anyone interested in understanding the mindset of the current Chinese leader and the implications for China’s prospects. Timely, accessible, and concise.'A succinct account of the Xi Jinping phenomenon by an eyewitness to the key moments of his rise--but with a healthy dose of scepticism. Bougon sheds highly readable, and often humorous, light on China's seemingly omnipotent leader, and on how he is shaping our world. -- Kerry Brown, author of 'The World According to Xi'An excellent account of Xi Jinping's life and career, what drives him, and why he is different from his predecessors. Its range and depth are impressive. -- Jonathan Fenby, author of 'The Penguin History of Modern China'Timely and compact, 'Inside the Mind of Xi Jinping' probes China's current posture through the thinking of its most assured leader since Mao. Unlike his counterparts in the West, Xi emerges as cultured, capable, politically adept and unashamedly authoritarian. The world, no less than China, should take note. -- John Keay, author of 'China: A History'

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe USSR's Writer's Union, a form of cultural and political organization unknown in the West, has ruled every aspect of Russian writers' private and professional lives from the time of Stalin to the present day. This book shows how the union has operated over the last five decades.Table of ContentsOrganising Utopia; whip and gingerbread; party guidance; Soviet Parnassus; crimes and punishments; purity and profit; the threat of glasnost; the promise of perestroika. Appendix: facts and figures.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhat were Socialist Spaces? The Eastern Bloc produced distinctive spaces, some of which were fashioned from ideological templates, such as the monumental parade grounds and Red Squares where communist leaders could receive tributes, or new factory cities with towering chimneys and glittering palaces of culture. But what of the grimy toilet in the communal apartment or the forlorn ruins left after the Second World War?This book explores the representation, meanings and uses of space in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union between 1947 and 1991. The essays - written from different disciplinary perspectives - investigate the extent to which actual spaces conformed to the dominant political order in the region. Should, for instance, the creation of private spaces, such as the Russian dacha and the Czech chata, be understood as acts of appropriation in which lives were fashioned against the collective or, alternatively, as 'gifts' given by the State in return for quiescence? Whilst monuments and public spaces were designed to relay official ideology, one of the most notable features of the events that marked the end of the Bloc was the way that they became sites of dissent. Examining the myriad ways in which space was used and conceived within socialist society, this book makes an essential contribution to Eastern European and Soviet Studies and provides significant new angles on the factors that underpinned socialism's eventual downfall.Table of ContentsContents Notes on Contributors 1. Socialist Spaces: Sites of Everyday Life in the Eastern Bloc, David Crowley and Susan E. Reid 2. Accommodation and Agitation in Sevastopol: Redefining Socialist Space in the Postwar 'City of Glory', Karl D. Qualls 3. Living in the Russian Present with a German Past: The Problems of Identity in the City of Kaliningrad, Olga Sezneva 4. The Role of Monumental Sculpture in the Construction of Socialist Space in Stalinist Hungary, Reuben Fowkes 5. Wandering the Streets of Socialism: A Discussion of the Street Photography of Arno Fischer and Ursula Arnold, Astrid Ihle 6. Soviet Exurbia: Dachas in Postwar Russia, Stephen Lovell 7. Weekend Getaways: the Chata, the Tramp and the Politics of Private Life in post-1968 Czechoslovakia, Paulina Bren 8. Khrushchev's Children's Paradise: The Pioneer Palace, Moscow, 1958@62, Susan E. Reid 9. Warsaw Interiors: The Public Life of Private Spaces, 1949@65, David Crowley 10. Public Privacy in the Soviet Communal Apartment, Katerina Gerasimova 11. Curtains: Decor for the End of Empire, Mark A. Svede Notes on Contributors Paulina Bren Paulina Bren, doctoral candidate at New York University, is currently working on a cultural history of post-Prague Spring Czechoslovakia. She has written extensively on the politics of popular and material culture and its intersections with late communism and ideology in East-Central Europe. David Crowley David Crowley teaches the history of design at the Royal College of Art, London. He is the author of various books including National Style and Nation-state. Design in Poland from the Vernacular Revival (MUP, 1992) and is co-editor, with Susan Reid, of Style and Socialism: Modernity and Material Culture in Postwar Eastern Europe (Berg, 2000). Moving Warsaw, a book on the reconstruction of the Polish capital, will be published by Reaktion Books in 2003. Reuben Fowkes Reuben Fowkes is a doctoral candidate at Essex University, and currently working on art and politics in postwar Eastern Europe. He has written widely on communist-era monumental sculpture in relation to war memorials, the cult of Stalin and the New Man and Woman of the socialist utopia. Katerina Gerasimova Katerina Gerasimova received her candidate degree in sociology from the European University at St Petersburg and is an associated researcher at the European University and researcher in the Centre for Independent Social Research in St Petersburg. She is the author of 'Soviet communal apartment' in J. Smith, ed., Beyond the Limits: The Concept of Space in Russian History and Culture (Helsinki: Studia Historica (62), 1999) and several articles on the history and sociology of housing in St Petersburg in Russian- language journals. Astrid Ihle Astrid Ihle is currently completing her Ph.D. on 'GDR Women Photographers. 1949@1961' at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, England. She worked as assistant to the director of the gallery EIGEN + ART in Berlin from 1995 to 1998. She was curator of Louise Bourgeois. Drawings and Sculptures at the Paula Bottcher Gallery, Berlin, 1999, and is curating an exhibition of photographs by Evelyn Richter at the Goethe-Institut in New York (autumn 2002). Stephen Lovell Stephen Lovell is a lecturer in European history at King's College London. He is the author of The Russian Reading Revolution: Print Culture in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Eras (2000), and of Summerfolk: A History of the Dacha, 1710-2000 (Cornell University Press, forthcoming). Karl D. Qualls Karl D. Qualls received his Ph.D. from Georgetown University and is assistant professor of history at Dickinson College. He is the author of 'Local-Outsider Negotiations in Sevastopol's Postwar Reconstruction, 1944@53', in P

Read more less

Book SynopsisEleanor Marx is one of the most tragically overlooked feminist intellectuals in history, usually overshadowed by her father, Karl Marx. But not only did she edit, translate, transcribe and collaborate with her father, she also spent her extraordinary life putting his ideas into practice as a labour organizer, feminist radical, and Marxist theorist.The outstanding exception to the omission of Eleanor Marx from history is Yvonne Kapp's highly acclaimed biography. First published at the height of feminist organizing in the 1970s, Kapp's work brilliantly succeeds in capturing Eleanor's spirit, from a lively child opining on the world's affairs, to the new woman, aspiring to the stage, earning her living as a free intellectual, and helping to lead England's unskilled workers at the height of the new unionism; being always more than, yet at the same time inescapably, Karl Marx's daughter. It is also, inevitably, an unrivalled biography of the Marx household in Victorian London, of the Marx circle, and of Friedrich Engels, the family's extraordinary mentor.During today's resurgence of feminist writing, organizing, and protesting, Kapp's foundational single-volume biography serves as a crucial corrective to a narrative that puts feminists and marxists on opposing sides of radical history.Trade ReviewOne of the few unquestionable masterpieces of 20th-century biography. * Guardian *A work of scholarship but also a work of art. -- Michael FootA work of vitality and of scholarship. -- E P ThompsonDoes full justice to both [public and private]aspects of Eleanor's difficult life. * New York Times *The 1,000 pages of Eleanor Marx rest onexhaustive and flawless research. -- Eric HobsbawmMasterful. -- Tristram Hunt, author of the Frock-Coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life od Friedrich Engels

Read more less

Book SynopsisPaul Lendvai, born a Hungarian Jew, was arrested by the Nazis as a teenager, became a young communist activist in post-war Budapest, was arrested by the communists, again survived as one of the country's youngest political prisoners, and on his release was blacklisted as a journalist by the communist regime. After fleeing to Vienna following the 1956 Revolution, Lendvai was to become a leading journalist and commentator on eastern Europe. In this prize-winning memoir, he paints a picture of ethnic hatred, political turbulence and murderous anti-Semitism, as well as the swings between treachery and compromise which have characterized the history of 20th-century central Europe. There are descriptions of encounters with killers, torturers, onlookers and victims, traitors and heroes. In preparing the book, Lendvai had access to many previously unseen secret police files of Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Hungary.Table of ContentsPrologue: in the cell - facing the camera. Part 1 The heights and depths of youth: farewell to the "Golden Era"; the road to Purgatory; from Stefan Zweig to Lenin; left-wing socialist illusions; suspicion, fear and show trials; terror and grim humour; my friend the informer; the lost years of a non-person; from crescendo to furioso - October to december 1956; the road to freedom. Part 2 Witness to the cold war: new beginning in Vienna - the birth of Gorgy Hollo, Arpad Becs and Paul Landy, the Financial Times as flagship; the power of striptease; new relations with the east - first return to Budapest; encounters with the Stasi and other services; nationalism and anti-semitism under Communist rule; Bruno Kreisky - orator and communicator. Part 3 An epoch ends: blacklisted; riling the Eastern Bloc; the Waldheim affair; a new lease of life - the past is never dead.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less