Far-left political ideologies and movements Books

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book systematically addresses Bourdieuâs key ideas and concepts in the context of Marxist thought. In this book, Bourdieuâs central theoretical points are analyzed within a political, sociological and politico-economic framework which allows for the development of a sequential narrative of his key ideas. Thus, the authors are able to highlight the theoretical consistencies and political conclusions which can be derived from Bourdieuâs work. For example, Bourdieuâs anti-neoliberal narrative is correlated with his analysis of class, and especially with his canonization of the petty bourgeoisie and its strategy for a reformed anti-neoliberal capitalism. The book also analyzes this coherent synthesis of Bourdieuâs work in the context of Marxist political economy, including not only Marx but also Lenin, Althusser and Poulantzas. In this context, the book explores Bourdieuâs work on the state, class strategy, socialism and capitalism. This unique perspective will be of great interest to

Read more less

Book SynopsisObservers from Abroad offers an examination of published and archival images of Soviet Russia, providing a deeper understanding of the complexities and vicissitudes of its political culture.The book argues that photography, when accurately interpreted, can be utilized as primary historical evidence that has the potential to both enhance and counter traditional verbal analysis. Employing a number of images of the Soviet Union captured by gifted documentary photographers from the West, who received visas to work in Moscow from the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 to the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the book also assesses the intentions of the photographers, who acted as conscious observers capturing visual evidence under the restraining conditions of state surveillance. Each chapter provides a closer look at the life and work of these photographers, with a wealth of historical images and discussion.Richly illustrated and engaging, this volume will be ideal for

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Making of a Marxist Philosopher is a revealing and beautifully written memoir and family history from renowned Marxist philosopher Sean Sayers.His father was the son of a Jewish-Irish businessman who was a friend of Michael Collins and other leaders in the Irish struggle for independence. He became a writer who was given his first job by T. S. Eliot, shared a flat with George Orwell, went to America and was blacklisted under McCarthyism. Seanâs mother was the American-born daughter of a world famous Italian American anarchist. She became a communist and lived and worked in China. Sean was born in New York and grew up in London. He studied philosophy in Cambridge and Oxford Universities in the 1960s and has become an internationally known Marxist philosopher. As one of the founders of the journal Radical Philosophy and the creator of the Marx and Philosophy Review of Books, Sayers has been at the centre of the development of philosophy on the left in

Read more less

Book Synopsis'...the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.' The Modern South African Edition of the Communist Manifesto Includes: Leon Trotsky's Afrikaans Introduction to the 1937 edition with an English translation.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDefying the current pessimistic narrative, this book challenges the prevailing assumptions that the political Left is spent, hopeful ideological discourse has collapsed and social media has corroded public debates about politics. Instead, the book argues that ideological activism remains vibrant on the Left, but there is currently no clear way of recognising and analysing this phenomenon. The book fills this gap by first defining what political social media is and then by taking a morphological approach to investigating political ideologies and revealing the ways in which interconnected concepts are arranged. It concludes by coining the term ‘proto-ideologies’ to approach the construction of concepts that generate ideologies in the making.Trade Review"A masterful analysis of left-wing discourse in the age of social media. This book provides an ultimately uplifting account of political social media, contrary to the widespread accusations that it is damaging public debate." Remi Adekoya, University of YorkTable of ContentsPart I 1. Introduction 2. Chaos, Crisis, Decline, Contention 3. ‘A Largeness of Vision and Imagination’: Marxism and Socialism 4. Proto-Ideologies Part II 5. Democratic Marxist Nationalism 6. Identitarian Socialism 7. Contention 8. Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhy would an American girl-child, born into a good, Irish-Catholic family in the thick of the McCarthy era – a girl who, when she came of age, entered a convent – morph into an atheist, feminist, and Marxist? The answer is in Helena Sheehan’s fascinating account of her journey from her 1940s and 1950s beginnings, into the turbulent 1960s, when the Vietnam War, black power, and women’s liberation rocked her bedrock assumptions and prompted a volley of life-upending questions – questions shared by millions of young people of her generation. But, for Helena Sheehan, the increasingly radicalized answers deepened through the following decades. Beginning by overturning such certainties as America-is-the-world’s-greatest-country and the-Church-is-infallible, Sheehan went on to embrace existentialism, philosophical pragmatism, the new left, and eventually Marxism. Migrating from the United States to Ireland, she became involved with Irish republicanism and international communism in the 1970s and 1980s. Sheehan’s narrative vividly captures the global sweep and contradictions of second-wave feminism, anti-war activism, national liberation movements, and international communism in Eastern and Western Europe – as well as the quieter intellectual ferment of individuals living through these times. Navigating the Zeitgeist is an eloquently articulated voyage from faith to enlightenment to historical materialism that informs as well as entertains. This is the story of a well-lived political and philosophical life, told by a woman who continues to interrogate her times.Trade Review“An uncompromisingly honest and utterly fascinating memoir from the drowned continent that was once western communism.” —Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz and Planet of Slums

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Long Night of the Watchman brings into English translation the writings of the renowned Czech anti-Communist dissident and Catholic thinker Vaclav Benda (1946-1999). An early signatory of Charter 77, the Czechoslovak human rights association, Benda would twice serve as a spokesman. He was a founding member of VONS (the Czech acronym for the Committee to Defend the Unjustly Persecuted) and served a four-year prison sentence for his dissident activities. Benda was a keen analyst of Communist totalitarianism who was heavily involved in many facets of resistance. The writings collected in this volume thus offer a unique perspective on life under a Communist regime. Readers are given eyewitness accounts of crucial, yet little known events such the Christian pilgrimage to Velehrad in 1985. We are also transported back into Benda’s workplace as the repercussions of his signing of Charter 77 unfold. And Benda’s extended reflections on topics such as the family and totalitarianism and the fate of the Catholicism under Communism display his subtle and exacting mind. The volume is divided into three sections. “Reflections” is comprised of relatively brief texts usually prompted by some event or action, while “Reports and Defenses” is made up of short documents written for a specific purpose and often related to the regular work of Charter 77. The middle section, “Essays and Inquiries,” contains Benda’s longer pieces of a more philosophical character. With The Long Night of the Watchman, Vaclav Benda’s deeply humane voice and his unbending mind come to the attention of English readers. Index Trade Review“Among those who maintained the spirit of the Czech and Slovak people in the last decades of communist oppression, none was more obstinate in his convictions, or more resolute in his conduct, than Václav Benda. He did not court publicity, was hardly known in the West, and had no glamorous ‘dissident’ profile. But he was a deep and serious thinker, a humble Christian in his private life who also carved out a role for himself as an inspiring teacher of the young. This fascinating collection of his essays sheds a unique light on the Charter 77 movement which, by refusing to accept dictatorship and upholding the rule of law, sounded the death-knell for the Czechoslovak Communist Party.” – Sir Roger Scruton, author of innumerable works, including, from St. Augustine’s Press: The Meaning of Conservatism, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Modern Culture, On Hunting, Art and Imagination, Aesthetic Understanding, Politics of Culture and Other Essays, “Most people in the West have never heard of Václav Benda. That is about to change. Benda, a believing Catholic among Vaclav Havel's dissident circle, offers a distinctly Christian humanist vision for how to live faithfully, responsibly, and communally in a time of dispossession, oppression, and powerlessness. The West is now waking up to the shocking fact that we have more in common than we thought with those who endured the yoke of Marxist materialism. How do we then live? This book of Benda's essays could not possibly have come to us at a more crucial moment.” – Rod Dreher, author, The Benedict Option. “Václav Benda was one of the unsung heroes of the Revolution of 1989, a bear of a man who combined intellectual distinction with deep Catholic piety and personal charm. This collection of his essays should help acquaint the generation that knew not Joseph (Stalin) with what was really at stake in the Cold War, and how the victory over communism was won by those who, like Benda, chose to live in the truth, regardless of the cost. – George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies Ethics and Public Policy Center Table of ContentsTable of Contents Acknowledgments Editor’s Introduction Part I: Reflections A Small Lesson in Democracy From My Personnel File They Did Not Pass! Why Hesitate Over a Final Solution? One Year After Orwell Concerning Politically Motivated Repressions The Church Militant Three Important Memoranda from the Czech Primate A Call from Bratislava The People’s Party: Problems and Hopes Part II: Essays and Inquiries The Parallel Polis Catholicism and Politics: The Situation Today, its Roots and Future Possibilities Comments on Some Frequently Heard Comments The Ethics of Polemics and The Necessary Measure of Tolerance A Letter to Roger Scruton Not Only Moral Problems Back to Christianity and Politics: How to Continue after Velehrad? Concerning Responsibility in Politics and for Politics The Meaning, Context and Legacy of the Parallel Polis The Family and the Totalitarian State Prospects for Political Development in Czechoslovakia and the Potential Role of Charter 77 The Spiritual Renewal of the Nation: A Way Out of the Crisis? Inherent Risk Part III: Reports and Defenses The Prosecution of Two Roman Catholic Clergymen in Slovakia Poland and Us Information on the Activity of Charter 77 Spokespersons and Forthcoming Materials I Do Not Share Your Conviction… I Turn to You with an Urgent Appeal Notification of Criminal Activity A Besieged Culture Concerning the Imprisonment of Juveniles A Critique of “The Idea of a Christian state” The Unlawful Practices of State Security A Pilgrimage to the Blessed Agnes of Bohemia The Prague Demonstration of August 21, 1988 Do Not Create a False Image of Us Notes on the Individual Texts Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe memoir of Gwendolyn Midlo Hall offers today's activists and readers an accessible and intimate examination of a crucial era in American radical history. Born in 1929 New Orleans to left-wing Jewish parents, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall's life has spanned nearly a century of engagement in anti-racist, internationalist political activism. In this moving and instructive chronicle of her remarkable life, Midlo Hall recounts her experiences as an anti-racist activist, a Communist Party militant, and a scholar of slavery in the Americas, as well as the wife and collaborator of the renowned African-American author and Communist leader Harry Haywood. Telling the story of her life against the backdrop of the important political and social developments of the 20th century, Midlo Hall offers new insights about a critical period in the history of labor and civil rights movements in the United States. Detailing everything from Midlo Hall's co-founding of the only inter-racial youth organization in the South when she was 16-years-old, to her pioneering work establishing digital slave databases, to her own struggles against cruel and pervasive sexism, Haunted by Slavery is a gripping account of a life defined by profound dedication to a cause.Trade Review“What a refreshing book! Gwendolyn Midlo Hall’s spunky, riveting, chronicle of a life of political activism and groundbreaking historical scholarship reminds us of the Left’s crucial role in the Black struggle against White supremacy and of her own revolutionary use of digital technology in the remaking of American history.” —Nell Irvin Painter, author of The History of White People and Southern History Across the Color Line“Gwen Midlo Hall is a people's historian in the best sense of that term. Her scholarship, informed by a deep commitment to the struggle for freedom, maps the lives and struggles of oppressed and enslaved people over time and place. In her newest work, she traces her own freedom journey and offers insight into the making of a white radical anti-racist historian, whose life and work as a scholar, left wing organizer, daughter, wife and mother reveal the breadth of her humanity and remarkable accomplishments.” —Barbara Ransby, author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement“In Haunted by Slavery, renowned scholar and activist Gwendolyn Midlo Hall tells her remarkable life story with the same passion, conviction, depth and beauty that has guided her work for decades. Drawing on her personal experiences and extensive knowledge of history and politics, Midlo Hall’s memoir lays bare the intricacies of race, gender, class and power.” —Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom“Haunted by Slavery gives us a rare, up-close look at the Black freedom struggle across the twentieth century and the massive repression of Black and white radicals, encountered by a white freedom fighter-scholar who throughout her life refused to be a 'good girl.’” —Jeanne Theoharis, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College, author of A More Beautiful and Terrible History“Haunted by Slavery is a magnificent account of the revolutionary life of a southern Jewish woman who fought racial inequalities during one of the most dreadful times in US history. When women's fate was to be confined to the domestic space, Gwen became a militant who challenged gender norms, escaped anti-Communist persecution, married a prominent African American activist, and raised her children across several states and countries. This memoir is an inspiring testament written by one of the most esteemed historians of slavery in the United States, who dedicated her entire life to fight for social justice, a strive that persists today.” —Ana Lucia Araujo, Professor of History, Howard University“In the overwhelmingly male-dominated, historically conservative field of southern history, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall has been a trailblazer. As an inspiration to countless women historians as well as scholar activists, Midlo Hall’s Haunted by Slavery is an intensely intimate—and at times disarmingly honest—memoir. It offers a glimpse into the life of a white Jewish woman in the Deep South, complicating our prejudices about both the region and its people. Haunted by Slavery is a must-read for anyone interested in questions of race, gender, class, and power in America. Midlo Hall is a national treasure.” —Keri Leigh Merritt, author of Masterless Men“Part autobiography, part narrative of the lived experience of class conflict and anti-fascist solidarity against the deprivations and injustice of racial oppression, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall’s Haunted by Slavery recounts the long and tumultuous history of twentieth century America. Throughout this epoch, from the enduring legacy of slavery, refashioned under Jim Crow in 1930s New Orleans, to the hysteria of the Red Scare, FBI surveillance and harassment, to the historic engagements and tensions in the 1960s between the Communist Party, Civil Rights and Black Nationalist movements, Hall—woman, spouse, mother, historian, and “Red”—is as much a protagonist as raconteur, interweaving her own story and these defining moments of American history. We are indebted to her principled stand and courage in the project of worldmaking to which Haunted by Slavery is yet another remarkable contribution.” —Eileen Julien, founding director of the West African Research Center, Dakar, Senegal (1993-95) and author of Travels with Mae: Scenes from a New Orleans Girlhood“Like Dr. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, this book is bold and engaging. As this white woman from the South recounts her life, we learn how she shaped history as an unrelenting civil rights activist and rewrote history as a path-breaking scholar of slavery in the Americas. All along, Dr. Midlo Hall urges us to fight for justice, seek education, and teach others. There can be no doubt that the world would be a better place if we followed her lead.” —Walter Hawthorne, Professor of African History, Michigan State University“Dr. Hall’s memoir offers a thorough and necessary exploration of the misinformation, violence, and fear that create the circumstances for white Southerners—white Southern women and girls, in particular—to participate in segregation and enclosure even when it is against their own interests. Luckily, Hall also provides a recipe for fighting that—grit, truth, and the defiance to face down the family you are born into in order to form a more inclusive family of your own creation. Hall’s book charts a path for not just understanding Southern white identity, but a reminder that the most toxic parts of that world can be excised and new lines of relation with Black, immigrant, poor, and other dispossessed people can by drawn—if you’ve the courage to try!” —Jessica Marie Johnson, author of Wicked Flesh“Haunted By Slavery is a beautifully written memoir. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall offers an inspiring life story, detailing her lifelong commitment to upending racism and white supremacy, sexism, labor exploitation and global oppression. Midlo Hall’s fascinating and engrossing personal histories illuminate the makings of a ‘revolutionary internationalist,’ radical, intellectual, and activist-historian. It provides a firsthand and fresh perspective on some of the most important political and social justice movements of the mid-to-late twentieth century. A wide-ranging political autobiography, this remarkable narrative is an intimate account of an activist’s interior life.” —LaShawn Harris, author of Sex Workers, Psychics, and Numbers Running“In this gripping memoir of a radical American life, the pathbreaking historian Dr. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall draws on almost a century of living memory to tell a story that races from New Orleans to Paris, New York, Mexico, Detroit, North Carolina, New Jersey, Mississippi, and more. It’s all here. Her presence at W.E.B. Dubois’s ‘Behold the Land’ speech in 1946. Her arrest at an ‘interracial’ party in 1949. A frank account of her 30-year marriage to the brilliant and troubled Black revolutionary Harry Haywood. Her friendship with Mabel and Robert Williams. Her struggle to survive and grow as a professional historian in a bluntly sexist society. Her years-long harassment by the FBI. Her painstaking archival and pioneering database work to restore the historical identities of enslaved Africans and Black Americans. It’s not a story you’ve heard before, and it’s one you won’t forget.” —Ned Sublette, co-author of The American Slave Coast“Dr. Midlo Hall's memoirs tell an intriguing story of survival. It is a love story about heartbreak, courage, and scholarship. As an awarded professor with over seventy years of study in courthouses and archives, Dr. Midlo-Hall has helped countless students and scholars understand the history of Africans in Louisiana through her slave database. For the first time, readers will learn the secrets behind the life of this scholar, who as a teenager started her work as a civil rights activist and freedom fighter while working in her father's law office in New Orleans.” —Kathe Hambrick, Founder, River Road African American Museum and Dir. of Interpretation, West Baton Rouge Museum“The ‘Allées Gwendolyn Midlo Hall’ is a memorial built at the Whitney Plantation Museum of slavery near New Orleans and dedicated to remembering and honoring all the people who were enslaved in Louisiana. This book allows everybody to understand why the name of its author was chosen in the naming of the said memorial.” —Dr. Ibrahima Seck, director of research, Whitney Plantation Museum of Slavery“Those who know historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall from her pathbreaking research on the lives of enslaved Africans and their descendants might be surprised to learn of all the activist trailblazing she did as a young woman—building interracial coalitions against segregation in her hometown of New Orleans in the 1940s and organizing for workers’ rights through the Communist Party, all the while struggling against the sexism that kept women from positions of leadership and careers of their own. But as her fascinating memoir Haunted by Slavery makes clear, the whole of her life’s work, as an activist and a scholar, has been in the service of fighting injustice and broadcasting the stories of the oppressed, past and present.” —Mary Niall Mitchell, Ethel & Herman L. Midlo Endowed Chair in New Orleans Studies, University of New Orleans“This autobiography is an inspiring example of the convergence of political commitment and scholarly contribution. The author’s life coincides, in youth, with the Civil Rights movement and, in the half-century that followed, with the persistence of systematic racism in the United States. Daughter of an East European immigrant who became a Civil Rights lawyer in segregated New Orleans, wife of a black Communist militant, mother of an activist physician in Mexico, she describes her fight for social justice and racial equality throughout her life. In the last five decades at Rutgers and more recently at Michigan State University, not only has she written prize-winning books and articles reflecting the paradigm shift from slaves as silent victims to resilient and resourceful actors in history, but she has also led major projects in comparative and digital history. Recounting how all this has been achieved against constraints of gender convention, racial prejudice, and petty FBI harassment makes for fascinating reading about segregated New Orleans and Louisiana, the Communist Party in postwar America, and much else besides appreciation of the noteworthy persona who is the memoir’s principal subject.” —Paul Lachance, Professor of History, University of Ottawa“Part feminist memoir, part labor philosophy, part Louisiana history, part Civil Rights chronicle, part the academic genealogy of an African diaspora historian: Haunted by Slavery is all that one might expect of the autobiography of one of the most distinguished scholars of several generations--and in its intricate and fearless writing, the book is even more.” —Laura Rosanne Adderley, Associate Professor, Department of History, Tulane University“Deeply moving and exceptionally current. Professor Hall has kindly opened a window and allowed us to peer through into her extraordinary life. A life full with both joys and sorrows, but more than anything, signalled by her unwavering commitment to make our world a better place.” —Manuel Barcia, Chair of Global History, University of Leeds

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn The Unity of the Capitalist Economy and State, Geert Reuten offers a systematic exposition of the capitalist system, showing that the capitalist economy and the capitalist state constitute a unity. In its critique of contemporary economics, the book argues that in order to comprehend the capitalist system, one requires a full synthetic exposition of the economic and state institutions and processes necessary for its continued existence. A synthetic approach also reveals a range of components that are often obscured by partial analyses. In its systematic character, Reuten's work takes inspiration from Marx's provisional outline of the capitalist system in Capital, while also addressing fields that Marx left unfinished—such as the capitalist state.Table of ContentsSystematic-dialectical exposition by chapter PrefaceGeneral introductionPart 1 The capitalist economy1 The capitalist mode of production – the capitalist economy in general 2 Accumulation of capital 3 Finance of enterprises – the macroeconomic pre-validation and validation of production 4 Market interaction and stratified production 5 The cyclical over-accumulation and destruction of capital – business cyclesPart 2 The capitalist stateIntroduction to part two: the capitalist state 6 The granting of capitalist economic rights – the capitalist state in general 7 Furthering the conditions for the accumulation of capital 8 State expenditure and its finance – effects on macroeconomic surplus-value and on the distribution of income and wealth 9 The imposition of competition 10 The reach of the capitalist statePart 3 The international capitalist system11 The international capitalist systemPart 4 Summary and additions12 General summary and conclusions 13 Synopsis of the main systematic moments of the capitalist system 14 An outline of systematic dialectics – General appendixBibliography List of symbols, abbreviations, signs and equations Glossary of field-specific terms Index of names Index of subjects Index of main empirical graphs and tables

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune, leftist writers Olivier Besancenot and Michael Löwy offer a deeply informed, and eminently enjoyable, imagined history of what might have been if Karl Marx and his eldest daughter, Jenny, had travelled to Paris during the heady weeks of April 1871. In disguise, employing imperfect but serviceable French, Karl and Jenny encounter and debate many important figures of the movement, including Leó Frankel, Eugène Varlin, Charles Longuet, Elisabeth Dmitrieff, and Louise Michel, eventually returning to England with a profoundly changed sense of political possibility.Trade Review“Far more than most dare admit, history and historians mix fact and fiction. The two were and are always inseparably intertwined. The 1871 Paris Commune – when a proletariat took political power from a bourgeoisie – transformed the social movement to do better than capitalism. Marx assessed the strengths and weaknesses of that transformative moment to advance that movement. Inspired by Marx’s analysis, Lenin did likewise. This book adds to the tradition evolving since Marx and Lenin. Remarkably accessible, it refreshes, provokes, and thereby develops that movement still further.” —Richard Wolff, author of Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism “Michael Löwy and Olivier Besancenot ‘discovered’ a manuscript written by Jenny, Marx’s daughter, revealing a secret visit of her father to Paris as it was besieged during the fateful weeks of the Commune. Their book is not an exercise in counter-factual history – a ‘what if...’ – but rather an original and inventive form of history writing. They describe the Commune by emphasizing its greatness, pointing out its limitations, and assessing its historical legacy in a pleasant and vigorous literary account. Thus, Marx dons the habit of a hidden observer who, alongside the voice of his daughter, guides us through the labyrinth of a revolutionary experience in the making. Marx becomes a ‘witness’ and the Commune a living experience. This fictional account is a remarkable piece of historical criticism and revolutionary imagination.” —Enzo Traverso, author of Revolution: An Intellectual History “The authors embarked on an imaginary visit to the Paris Commune seen through the eyes of Karl Marx and his daughter Jenny, and the result is as true as real. Readers will learn more – and with great pleasure at that – from reading this well-researched little book of historical fiction than they would learn from reading a thick academic volume.” —Gilbert Achcar, author of Marxism, Orientalism, Cosmopolitanism

Read more less

Book SynopsisLelio Basso was a major thinker and political leader of Italian socialism. In this volume, his writings are presented for the first time in English translation. They document his anti-fascist work from the 1920s to the 1940s, his short-lived leadership of the Socialist Party, his internationalist work in the 1970s, his rediscovery of Rosa Luxemburg and more. The texts collected in this book provide an original contribution to the renewal of Marxism in Europe and an example of political practice rooted in mass mobilisation and international solidarity, with major lessons for the contemporary left.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Rethinking Marxist Theories of Transition, Onur Acaroglu traces the concept of transition across the tracts of Classical and Western Marxism. Rarely directly invoked, transition between different societies appears as an imminent social reality, and a useful conceptual tool for critical social theory. Transitions as qualitative shifts between societies are often considered as eventual historical stages, or effaced altogether. Theorising transition in a new direction, Onur Acaroglu elaborates a theory of temporal dislocation. Considering transition through a framework of out-of-joint temporalities, the notion comes through as an undervalued tendency in social reproduction.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThrough extensive archival research in eight different languages, Revolutionary Social Democracy introduces readers to the politics and practices of socialists in Tsarist Russia's imperial borderlands. These parties fought for democracy and workers' power across the entire span of the Russian Empire—from the factories of Warsaw, to the oil fields of Baku, to the autonomous parliament of Finland. Eric Blanc's incisive study of these parties shows that the Russian Revolution was far less Russian than is commonly assumed. And the implications of this discovery challenge the long-held assumptions of historians, sociologists, and activists about the dynamics of revolutionary change under both autocratic and democratic conditions.Trade Review"Eric Blanc's remarkable new book should revolutionize the way scholars and activists think about the Russian Revolution. By looking not just at Petrograd or Russia but at the entire Russian Empire—including Finland, Ukraine, and Poland—Blanc's pathbreaking comparative analysis examines how and why revolutionary processes diverge under parliamentary and autocratic regimes. Drawing on far-flung sources in eight languages, Blanc breaks with the Russocentrism of earlier accounts and effectively deprovincializes the revolution. Among other things, he demonstrates that Lenin and the Bolsheviks were not nearly as exceptional as is often thought. This book is an extraordinary achievement." —Jeff Goodwin, New York University "Anyone interested in the Russian Revolution will need to read this outstanding contribution. Puncturing myths, cliches, and unsupported interpretations, Eric Blanc explores a forgotten historical reality—revolutionary social democracy—by vividly documenting the actual strategic outlooks and local practices of Second International Marxists across the Russian Empire, as well as Germany, the homeland of this political current. An impressively wide reading in sources from many languages allows Blanc to demonstrate the importance of borderland socialists in the revolutionary drama, bringing to life activists at all levels of party organizations throughout imperial Russia and challenging us to rethink long-held assumptions about major figures such as Lenin and Kautsky." —Lars T. Lih, author Lenin Rediscovered "Through impressive research and erudite argumentation, this monumental study of the broad array of 'revolutionary social democratic' parties that operated in the non-Russian borderlands of the Tsarist Empire in the decades leading to 1917 definitively shows why there was no 'one-size-fits-all' revolutionary practice and why there is no reason to overgeneralize the international relevance of the form taken by the October Revolution. A tour de force which provides strong historical foundations for all those today working to develop an anticapitalist, democratic socialist political strategy for renewed working-class formation and state transformation." —Leo Panitch, former editor Socialist RegisterTable of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Tables Introduction  1  Bringing in the Borderlands  2  Strategic Continuities and Ruptures  3  Method, Structure, Sources 1 The Social Context  1  The Workers’ Movement  2  The Unique Impact of Orthodox Marxism  3  Socialist Political Cultures 2 Revolutionary Social Democracy: An Overview  1  The ABC s of Revolutionary Social Democracy  2  Strategy and Tactics in Germany and Russia 3 Intellectuals and Workers  1  Intellectuals and the Tensions of Class Formation  2  Intellectuals and Workers (1905–17) 4 Organisation, Mass Action, and Electoral Work  1  Socialist Organisation in Finland  2  Illegal Organising in Tsarist Russia  3  The Bolshevik-Menshevik Split  4  The First Mass Strike Debates (1903–04)  5  Mass Action and Organisation in 1905  6  Party Organisation and Mass Action (1906–14)  7  War and Revolution  8  Mass Organisation and Action in Finland: 1917–18 5 Working-Class Hegemony  1  Analysing Liberalism  2  Tactics Towards Liberals  3  The Bund versus Zionism (1897–1904)  4  The PPS and the National Democrats Before 1905  5  Class Independence in Finland  6  Early Russian Marxism and Liberals  7  Working-Class Hegemony (1905–16)  8  Proletarian Hegemony and Liberals (1906–16) 6 Working-Class Unity  1  United Front Practices Before 1905  2  Workers’ Unity and the 1905 Revolution  3  Implementing the United Front (1906–18)  4  Disunity in Europe and Poland 7 The Party Question  1  The German SPD Model  2  Finland’s Social Democracy  3  The Normalcy of Splits in Underground Russia  4  The Split of Polish Socialism  5  The Bolshevik-Menshevik Split 8 Democracy, the State, and the Finnish Revolution  1  Critique of Bourgeois Democracy  2  The Socialist Revolution  3  The State and Revolution in Finland (1917–18) 9 The Autocratic State and Revolution: 1905  1  State Power and Marxist Strategy in 1905  2  The Practice of Revolutionary Government in 1905  3  Socialist Transformation in Russia  4  International Revolution 10 The State and Revolution in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland: 1917–19  1  Moderate Socialists and Dual Power in 1917  2  Moderates Join the Government  3  Russian Moderate Socialists in the October Revolution  4  Moderate Socialists in Ukraine: 1917–18  5  Moderate Socialism in Poland: 1918–19  6  Bolsheviks and State Power: February–March 1917  7  Breaking with the Bourgeoisie: April–October Epilogue: An International Revolution Defeated  1  Civil War and Authoritarianism  2  International Revolution  3  Impasse in the Imperial Periphery Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn 1961, the prolific French intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre was invited to give a talk at the Gramsci Institute in Rome. In attendance were some of Italy's leading Marxist thinkers, such as Enzo Paci, Cesare Luporini, and Galvano Della Volpe, whose contributions to the long and remarkable discussion that followed are collected in this volume, along with the lecture itself. Sartre posed the question "What is subjectivity?" - a question of renewed importance today to contemporary debates concerning "the subject" in critical theory. This work includes a preface by Michel Kail and Raoul Kirchmayr and an afterword by Fredric Jameson, who makes a rousing case for the continued importance of Sartre's philosophy.Trade ReviewSartre, political activist, playwright, novelist, existentialist philosopher, biographer and literary critic, was considered one of the leading interpreters of the post-war generation's world view. * Guardian *Long regarded as one of France's reigning intellectuals, Sartre contributed profoundly to the social consciousness of the post-World War II generation. * New York Times *One of the most brilliant and versatile writers as well as one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century. * Times *A valuable contribution to Sartre studies and contemporary Marxism, this text warrants serious consideration as more than merely a historical artifact: it offers an important view that continues to be relevant to contemporary philosophy and social theory. -- J.A. Simmons, Furman University * Choice *

Read more less

Book SynopsisKarl Marx has fascinated and inspired generations of radicals in the past 200 years. In this new, definitive biography, Sven-Eric Liebman makes his work live once more for a new generation. Despite 200 years having passed since his birth, his burning condemnation of capitalism remains of immediate interest.Now, more than ever before, Marx's texts can be read for what they truly are. In addition to providing a living picture of Marx the man, his life, and his family and friends - as well as his lifelong collaboration with Friedrich Engels - Sweden's leading intellectual historian Sven-Eric Liedman, in this major new biography, shows what Karl Marx the thinker and researcher really wrote, demonstrating that this giant of the nineteenth century can still exert a powerful attraction for the inhabitants of the twenty-first.Trade ReviewLiedman's strength is as a political philosopher and he is superbly well-equipped to take us on a tour of Marx's intellectual workshop. As Sven-Eric Liedman shows in his landmark anniversary biography, A World to Win, the quest to understand contemporary reality by way of the forces of production, class relations, and the structures of politics, law and culture built on them would occupy Marx for the rest of his life. As Liedman shows, from the 1840s, these were the threads that Marx followed into "the labyrinths of the age he lived in". -- Adam Tooze * Financial Times *A lucid, scholarly guide. Those searching for a truly detailed discussion of Marx should turn here. -- Andrew Stuttaford * Wall Street Journal *A World to Win is well worth consulting by those who want to understand Marx. It provides a clear and scholarly analysis, which can be read with pleasure even by those unsympathetic to its main argument. -- Vernon Bogdanor * Jewish Chronicle *Sven-Eric Liedman's new biography of Karl Marx aims to provide the reader with a nuanced and detailed account of the intellectual giant's life and thought. The book's greatest achievement lies in its compelling demonstration of the continued relevance of Marx's critique of capitalism. In a post-Soviet era, where capitalist liberalism is supposed to have triumphed once and for?all and where bourgeois economists and politicians routinely label Marxism as obscure and antiquated, Liedman is able to show that the contradictions of capitalism identified by Marx are as present as ever. -- Carlos Martinez * Morning Star *Liedman's book has a lot to recommend it. Genuinely original and enlightening. -- David McLellan * Marx and Philosophy Society *Neoliberalism is increasingly exposed as a failed experiment and many people are now exploring the tradition of radical politics for solutions to the challenges we now face. This book brings to life the early history of the socialist tradition. -- John McDonnell, MP Shadow Chancellor of the ExchequerMakes clear that Marx's ideas, going on two centuries old, still have meaning in the present. Outstanding. A book to turn to for reference and deeper insight. * Kirkus (starred review) *Liedman is convinced that we live in a period of striking similarity to Marx's own, and therefore his analysis of society and history are still appropriate. Unlike many other biographies of Marx, the present volume combines in-depth personality narrative and significant comments on Marx's own works. This analysis not only looks at the social and political context of the early industrial revolution Europe, but also takes into consideration the intellectual environment of the time, German philosophy, and socialist and liberal ideas. Highly recommended. * Choice *

Read more less

Book SynopsisCommunism was destroyed not from without, but from within--by a persistent failure to make its economic theories work in practice. But what exactly did go wrong with its central planning? Until the last moment, top western economists claimed that Communism was superior to western models. Even now, centralised Marxist planning retains its admirers, especially among the young. With the benefit of new archival research, we can finally grasp how falsified and manipulated statistics blindfolded Communist governments and confused western leaders, leading to staggering errors of judgement. Both sides believed that East Germany had a stronger economy than West Germany; that North Korea would overtake South Korea; that Mao's China was a paradise for its starving peasants. Those who warned that a dearth of reliable economic data would condemn central planning to irrational misallocation of investment and labour were ignored or belittled. But, ultimately, they were vindicated. Jasper Becker answers the big question: what accounts for the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union, China and everywhere else? And why don't present debates acknowledge that failure? This unconventional history of Communism and the Cold War explains why the same old clash of theories is continuing to shape the world today.Trade Review'If you want to understand how communism turned from vision to nightmare--and why Western students and intellectuals still cling to the idea--you need look no further than this useful book.' -- Eamonn Butler, Director, Adam Smith Institute'Communism has made an unlikely comeback as a "hip" youth movement: it is now considered "cool" to be a communist. Supporters of capitalism need to learn how to re-fight the old battles that we wrongly thought we had won. This book shows us how to do that.' -- Kristian Niemietz, Head of Political Economy, Institute of Economic Affairs'At a time when capitalism faces increasing scrutiny for its undeniable flaws, Becker's book on the failures of communism starkly reminds us that there is no better alternative.' -- Edoardo Campanella, Research Director of the Taskforce on Global Capitalism in Transition, Trilateral Commission

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe launch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958 signalled the first modern protest movement in Britain. Martin Shaw details CND''s rise, the activists involved, the tensions with the Committee of 100 around direct action, and the culture, radicalism and social groups that were mobilized to "ban the bomb".The book discusses how a new movement in the 1980s, led by European Nuclear Disarmament and the Greenham women?s peace camp, helped remove cruise missiles from Europe and end the Cold War. It examines how the campaign influenced ? and was influenced by ? antiwar movements from Vietnam to Iraq and Gaza, as well as the environmental and women?s movements.As the nuclear threat returns in the 2020s, this study shows that the antinuclear movement?s ideas and the non-violent direct action it pioneered still reverberate in the campaign against the UK?s "nuclear deterrent" ? and in protest movements from Stop the War to Extinction Rebellion.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHenri Lefebvre saw Marx as an 'unavoidable, necessary, but insufficient starting point', and always insisted on the importance of Hegel to understanding Marx. Metaphilosophy also suggested the significance he ascribed to Nietzsche, in the 'realm of shadows' through which philosophy seeks to think the world. Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche: or the Realm of the Shadows proposes that the modern world is, at the same time, Hegelian in terms of the state, Marxist in terms of the social and society and Nietzschean in terms of civilisation and its values. As early as 1939, Lefebvre had pioneered a French reading of Nietzsche that rejected the philosopher's appropriation by fascists, bringing out the tragic implications of Nietzsche's proclamation that 'God is dead' long before this approach was followed by such later writers as Foucault, Derrida and Deleuze. Forty years later, in the last of his philosophical writings, Lefebvre juxtaposed the contributions of the three great thinkers, in a text that's themes remain surprisingly relevant today.Trade ReviewOne of the great French intellectual activists of the twentieth century. -- David HarveyThe last great classical philosopher. -- Fredric JamesonIt is not excessive to claim that he is the ecophilosopher of the twenty-first century. -- Stanley AronowitzThe most prolific of French Marxist intellectuals * Radical Philosophy *Highly commendable and should be read alongside Lefebvre's theoretical works to afford the reader a richer understanding of the origin and theoretical background of his philosophy. -- Kaiyue He * Marx & Philosophy *

Read more less

Book SynopsisSeventy years after the Chinese Revolution of 1949, what remains of Mao's communist legacy?Afterlives of Chinese Communism comprises essays from over fifty world-renowned scholars in the China field, from various disciplines and continents. It provides an indispensable guide for understanding how the Mao era continues to shape Chinese politics today. Each chapter discusses a concept or practice from the Mao period, what it attempted to do, and what has become of it since. The authors respond to the legacy of Maoism from numerous perspectives to consider what lessons Chinese communism can offer today, and whether there is a future for the egalitarian politics that it once promised. A joint publication between Verso Books and ANU Press.Trade ReviewAll of the essays are well worth reading, teasing out the theory and reality of a different Maoist concept. -- John Gittings * LA Review of Books *

Read more less

Book SynopsisRaymond Williams was a pioneering scholar of cultural and society, and one of the outstanding intellectuals of the twentieth century. In this, a collection of difficult to find essays, some of which are published for the first time, Williams emerges as not only one of the great writers of materialist criticism, but also a thoroughly engaged political writer.Published to coincide with the centenary of his birth and showing the full range of his work, from his early writings on the novel and society, to later work on ecosocialism and the politics of modernism, Politics and Culture shows Williams at both his most accessible and his most penetrating.An essential book for all those interested in the politics of culture in the twentieth century, and the development of Williams's work.Trade Review“The left's foremost cultural historian and critic... an acute and perceptive political commentator.”– Comment“Williams is the Western thinker who, along with Antonio Gramsci, has done most to enlarge our understanding of the political complexities of culture.”– Village Voice

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis Historians of immigration and ethnicity in the United States have typically devoted little attention to Greek Americans, while popular narratives depict them as indifferent or hostile to political and social radicalism. From acclaimed historian Kostis Karpozilos, Red America provides an alternative narrative of the Greek American experience. Focusing on the history of the Greek American Left from the beginning of the twentieth century to the Cold War, this volume uncovers the threads that bound notions of radical social change to everyday immigrant life, tracing ethnic radicalism from the boundaries of a specific community to the epicenter of American social and political history.Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Radicals of Two Worlds Workers of the World Workers of the World, Unite! Tsars, Slaves, and American Flags Radical Diaspora Organōsis: Socialism as Education Ē Phonē tou Ergatou: Waiting for the Revolution Great Expectations, Lost Illusions Chapter 2. Americanizing Communism “Be American!” Diasporic Communism Party Life “Taxisyneidēsia”: Greek-American Class Consciousness Organizing the Unorganizable Fur Workers or Greek Fur Workers? Non-Revolutionary Times Chapter 3. Crisis and Revolution The Arthritis Doctrine Community Troubles Drachmas, Dollars, and Bank Panics Hungry Revolutionaries: The Unemployed Councils Workers’ Mutual Aid Soviet America The New Deal The Great Turmoil Chapter 4. Turmoil and Compromise Red, American and Greek Flags The Greek-American Popular Front Working-Class Stories Furs: A Greek-American story A Bitter End Chapter 5. Planning the Future America Needs Me, I Need America Visions of a New World Remnants of the “Old World” Double Ambassadors The Unpredictability of History Chapter 6. Cold War Nation The Great Transition Liberals in Crisis Under Surveillance Anticommunist International Greek-American Anticommunism The Last Page Conclusion Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisNo other art movement has so profoundly influenced radical politics as the Situationist International. But beyond the clichés about its purported leader Guy Debord, the "society of the spectacle," détournement and dérive, lies a more complex story about key historical shifts in the composition of capital, work, labor, art, and revolutionary theory during the 1950s and 60s.With and Against reframes the history of the Situationist International as a struggle to come to terms with the then-emerging ideologies of cybernetics and automation. Through each of the book's four chapters, Dominique Routhier dissects Situationist pamphlets, documents, artworks, and objects that refract elements of a "cybernetic hypothesis": the theoretically hyperbolic belief that technological progress, computers and automation make class struggle and the idea of revolution obsolete. With equal attention to aesthetic detail and to the broader contours of political economy, this book serves as a critical intervention in art history as well a call to reconsider, more broadly, the contemporary lessons of the most political of all artistic avantgardes.Trade ReviewEvincing a breathtaking command of the broader historical context that informed the rise of the Situationist International during the age of automation and the birth of cybernetics, Dominique Routhier's innovative analysis transcends the discipline of art history, allowing us to link early 20thcentury avant-garde struggles against the alienated separation of art and labour with all the nuances of the SI imperative. Given our anxieties today about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on labour and art, Routhier's study could not be more timely. -- Abigail Susik, Willamette University, author of Surrealist Sabotage and the War on WorkThe situationists once described themselves as racing against the police for control of the technologies of modern conditioning. In With and Against, Dominique Routhier provides us with a stunningly insightful commentary on that race's progress over the course of the 1950s and '60s, from the rooftop of Le Corbusier's apartment block in Marseille to the classrooms of Nanterre's university. Drawing our attention to the SI's previously neglected struggle over the postwar world's latest "science of control and communications," cybernetics, he argues persuasively that this last avant-garde of the 20th century was precociously engaged with a key technology of the 21st. With and Against is a vital contribution, not only to our understanding of the SI, but also of our own moment as it has been shaped by the "cybernetic hypothesis." -- Tom McDonough, Professor of Art History at Binghamton University, Author of "The Beautiful Language of My Century": Reinventing the Language of Contestation in Postwar France, 1945–1968Dominique Routhier has written a hugely important work of historical retrieval combining theoretical finesse with important archival findings supplying us with a new understanding of the Situationists' anti-artistic and anti-political endeavor. With and Against maps the emergence of the cybernetic paradigm and a whole new ensemble of forms of domination the Situationists fought fiercely against. These forms of domination have only been further augmented and we have unfinished revolutionary business to do. Routhier's book is both a pivotal contribution to the historical analysis of the Situationist project as well as a necessary tool in the coming struggles against an ever-refined architecture of separation. -- Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, Professor of Political Aesthetics, University of CopenhagenRouthier's freshly researched account of the beginnings and elaboration of the SI across Europe offers detailed insight at amolecular level into the last and most radical iteration of the avant-garde, setting it into dialectical relation with the emergence of a technocratic society of control. Attending to the co emergence of automation and computing as forms of capitalist social subsumption, With and Against proposes a sense of what motivated the SI's specific gestures, tactics and language. This is no simple social context, but a historicist theory of forms of real resistance against the runaway autonomy and indifference of capital to social relations in a proto digitalized world hostile to human human freedom. -- Jaleh Mansoor, University of British Columbia, author of Marshall Plan Modernism: Italian Postwar Abstraction and the Beginnings of Autonomia, published by Duke University Press (September 2016)Table of ContentsIntroduction1 Refusal and Withdrawal: Histoire marseillaise2 Secret Fascination: Unitary Urbanism3 With and Against: Fin de Copenhague4 Rage Against the Machine: L'Opération robot and May '68Conclusion

Read more less

Book Synopsis Countless studies have assessed the dramatic reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, but their analysis of the impact on European communism has focused overwhelmingly on the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc nations. This ambitious collection takes a much broader view, reconstructing and evaluating the historical trajectories of glasnost and perestroika on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Moving beyond domestic politics and foreign relations narrowly defined, the research gathered here constitutes a transnational survey of these reforms’ collective impact, showing how they were variably received and implemented, and how they shaped the prospects for “proletarian internationalism” in diverse political contexts.Trade Review “Written by well-known historians and political scientists, the book addresses an underexplored topic in detail and therefore will be of interest to specialists of communism, party politics, and the political Left in Europe.” • Choice “…a generally strong…and substantial collective contribution to the historiography of Communism.” • H-Diplo “Perestroika and the Party gives a comprehensive look at how different national parties reacted to Mikhail Gorbachev’s program of reform. Its case studies are fascinatingly detailed and make useful additions to the larger historical literature.” • Edward Cohn, Grinnell CollegeTable of Contents Introduction: Perestroika or about the Demise of the Communist World? Francesco Di Palma PART I: EASTERN EUROPE Chapter 1. The Impact of Perestroika and Glasnost on the CPSU's Stance toward the “Fraternal Parties” in the Eastern Bloc Peter Ruggenthaler Chapter 2. Soviet Society, Perestroika, and the End of the USSR Mark Kramer Chapter 3. Perestroika Made in Hungary? The HSWP’s Approach to the Soviet Reform of the Late-1980s Tamás Péter Baranyi Chapter 4. Yugoslavia and Perestroika 1985-1991: Between Hope and Disappointment Petar Dragišić Chapter 5. The Polish United Workers Party and Perestroika Wanda Jarząbek Chapter 6. SED and Perestroika: Perceptions and Reactions Hermann Wentker Chapter 7. Between External Constraint and Internal Crackdown: Romania’s Non-Reaction to Soviet Perestroika Stefano Bottoni PART II: WESTERN EUROPE Chapter 8. Parallel Destinies: The Italian Communist Party and Perestroika Aldo Agosti Chapter 9. “I felt as if I was faced with a French Honecker”: The French Communist Party Confronted with a World that was Falling Apart (1985-1991) Dominique Andolfatto Chapter 10. A Dialogue of the Deaf: The CPGB and the SED during the Gorbachev Era (1985-1990) Stefan Berger and Norman LaPorte Chapter 11. Premature Perestroika: The Dutch Communist Party and Gorbachev Gerrit Voerman Chapter 12. The Perestroika and the Greek Left Andreas Stergiou Chapter 13. The Austrian Communists and Perestroika Maximilian Graf Chapter 14. The Spanish Communist Party and Perestroika Walther L. Bernecker Afterword: Gorbachev and the End of International Communism Silvio Pons Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisVolume 40 explores themes related to various trajectories of declining and destructive capitalism within the framework of contemporary Marxism. Social scientists from ten countries at various stages of their careers work to strengthen Marxism, applying methods to the interpretation and, above all, the transformation of the world.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWalter Benjamin was fascinated by the impact of new technology on culture, an interest that extended beyond his renowned critical essays. From 1927 to '33, he wrote and presented something in the region of eighty broadcasts using the new medium of radio. Radio Benjamin gathers the surviving transcripts, which appear here for the first time in English. This eclectic collection demonstrates the range of Benjamin's thinking and his enthusiasm for popular sensibilities. His celebrated "Enlightenment for Children" youth programs, his plays, readings, book reviews, and fiction reveal Benjamin in a creative, rather than critical, mode. They flesh out ideas elucidated in his essays, some of which are also represented here, where they cover topics as varied as getting a raise and the history of natural disasters, subjects chosen for broad appeal and examined with passion and acuity.Delightful and incisive, this is Walter Benjamin channeling his sophisticated thinking to a wide audience, allowing us to benefit from a new voice for one of the twentieth century's most respected thinkers.Trade ReviewA complex and brilliant writer. -- JM CoetzeeWalter Benjamin was one of the unclassifiable ones... whose work neither fits the existing order nor introduces a new genre. -- Hannah ArendtBenjamin buckled himself to the task of revolutionary transformation. his life and work speak challengingly to us all. -- Terry EagletonThere has been no more original, no more serious critic and reader in our time. -- George SteinerHe drew, from the obscure disdained German baroque, elements of the modern sensibility: the taste for allegory, surrealist shock effects, discontinuous utterance, a sense of historical catastrophe. -- Susan SontagWalter Benjamin is the most important German aesthetician and literary critic of the twentieth century. * Sunday Times *Radio Benjamin could hardly be bettered... There really is no parallel for what Benjamin did in these talks. Imagine a particularly engaging episode of Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time narrated by Alan Bennett - if Bennett were more profoundly steeped in Marx and politically engaged by the revolutionary potential of the medium of radio - and you have something of their allure. -- Stuart JeffriesThis collection shows a lighter - though entirely characteristic - side to this most influential of 20th-century thinkers. -- Jonathan Gibbs * Independent *Walter Benjamin, one of the first theorists to ponder the social impact of mass media [...] was equally entranced by the way thin air mysteriously transmits radio waves. In 1927, five years before he exiled himself from Germany in advance of the Nazi putsch, Benjamin began a series of experimental broadcasts on this new medium. -- Peter Conrad * Observer *

Read more less

Book SynopsisDuring the 1960s and 1970s, Workerism and Autonomia were prominent Marxist currents. However, it is rarely acknowledged that these movements inspired many visual artists such as the members of Archizoom, Gordon Matta-Clark and Gianfranco Baruchello. This book focuses on the aesthetic and cultural discourse developed by three generations of militants (including Mario Tronti, Antonio Negri, Bifo and Silvia Federici), and how it was appropriated by artists, architects, graphic designers and architectural historians such as Manfredo Tafuri. Images of Class signposts key moments of this dialogue, ranging from the drawings published on classe operaia to Potere Operaio's exhibition in Paris, the Metropolitan Indians' zines, a feminist art collective who adhered to the Wages for Housework Campaign, and the N group's experiments with Gestalt theory. Featuring more than 140 images of artworks, many published here for the first time, this volume provides an original perspective on post-war Italian culture and new insights into some of the most influential Marxist movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries worldwide.Trade ReviewA tremendous achievement: through critically exploring what it terms "visual practices and communicative strategies", Images of Class uncovers crucial, hitherto ignored dimensions of the workerist adventure. -- Steve Wright, author of Storming Heaven Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist MarxismThe 1970s in Italy were a decade of social conflicts and intense cultural and aesthetic innovation, but only now, thanks to the Galimberti's book we can have a glimpse of the visual dimension of the movement of Autonomia and of the cultural field that is generally known as "operaismo". -- Franco "Bifo" BerardiMasterful in sweep and molecular in detail, Jacopo Galimberti's volume draws upon thorough archival work and a nuanced understanding of Italy's post-war extraparliamentary left. As the book's incisive case studies reveal, the period's proliferating images of class were matched by an assault upon established classes of imagery. The defiance of capitalist wage relations found an equivalent not merely in the iconography of social contestation, but new formats and forums, new means of circulation and dissemination, from architectural interventions to graphic novels to ephemera which refused institutionalization. Galimberti shows us a time and place when the collective "class vernacular" of operaismo and autonomia had not yet ceded to something else. We can still rail against that something else, in Italy and elsewhere: urban gentrification, critical grandstanding, a bloated art market, the aesthetic apotheosis of the individual. But this book helps us remember what came first and what might, one day, come again. -- Ara H Merjian, New York UniversityRich in innovative insights, Images of Class proposes a fresh approach to a tumultuous historical period that generated original political theories and social movements. This inspiring and beautiful volume is a must-read. -- Leopoldina Fortunati, author of The Arcane of ReproductionA very significant contribution in the English language to the historicization of operaismo...Images of Class performs novel research on the development of these Marxian and dissident tendencies alongside visual, literary, and architectural production and theory. -- Andreas Petrossiants * Social Text *

Read more less

Book SynopsisSince Plato, philosophers have dreamed of establishing a rational state ruled through the power of language. In this radical and disturbing account of Soviet philosophy, Boris Groys argues that communism shares that dream and is best understood as an attempt to replace financial with linguistic bonds as the cement uniting society. The transformative power of language, the medium of equality, is the key to any new communist revolution.Trade ReviewOne of the most astute commentators on the art scene today. * New Left Review *Groys combines revelatory analysis with philosophical questions that go to the heart of cultural production today. -- Iwona BlazwickA timely intervention in present debates about the legacy of communism [and] a provocative addition to Groys' brilliantly paradoxical body of work. * Art Review *Groys has claimed a defining role in the reception of the Russian avant-garde ... The Communist Postscript presents Groys's attempt to advocate the communist idea against its own historic assumptions. * Radical Philosophy *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAfter being widely rejected in the late 20th century the work of Karl Marx is now being reassessed by many theorists and activists. Karl Marx, Anthropologist explores how this most influential of modern thinkers is still highly relevant for Anthropology today. Marx was profoundly influenced by critical Enlightenment thought. He believed that humans were social individuals that simultaneously satisfied and forged their needs in the contexts of historically particular social relations and created cultures. Marx continually refined the empirical, philosophical, and practical dimensions of his anthropology throughout his lifetime.Assessing key concepts, from the differences between class-based and classless societies to the roles of exploitation, alienation and domination in the making of social individuals, Karl Marx, Anthropologist is an essential guide to Marx's anthropological thought for the 21st century.Trade Review"This is a timely reminder of both the Enlightenment background and holistic nature of Marx'' anthropology, which concerns not merely understanding classical industrial capitalism but also such diverse issues as the modern age of empire, human origins and non-Western political systems. - Dr Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov, University of Cambridge Evenhanded and clearly written, this book presents a direct engagement and extended dialogue with Karl Marx's works of social theory over time. Valuable for students, especially those unfamiliar with his writings. - J. D. Smith, CHOICE magazine"Table of ContentsPreface Chronology Introduction Polemics, Caveats, and Standpoints Organization of the Book Ch. 1 The Enlightenment and Anthropology Early Enlightenment Thought The World Historicized The New Anthropology of the Enlightenment Rousseau's Historical-Dialectical Anthropology The Scottish Historical Philosophers The Institutionalization of Anthropology Kant's Pragmatic Anthropology Herder's Historical-Dialectical Anthropology Göttingen: Beyond "Anthropology for Doctors and Philosophers"Hegel's Critical-Historical Anthropology Ch.2 Marx's Anthropology What are Human Beings? The Corporeal Organization of Human Beings "Ensembles of Social Relations" and Human Beings as Social Individuals History Truth and Praxis Ch. 3 Human Natural Beings Charles Darwin and the Development of Modern Evolutionary Theory Darwin's Metaphors and Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection The Problems of Variation and Inheritance The Modern Synthesis and Beyond Human Natural Beings: Bodies That Walk, Talk, Make Tools,and Have Culture Engels's "The Part Played by Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man" Fossils and Proteins Demography and Population Structure Marx on the Naturalization of Social Inequality Ch. 4 Anthropology, History, and Social Formation Marx's Historical-Dialectical Conceptual Framework Pre-Capitalist Modes of Production Primitive Communism The Asiatic Mode of Production and the Slavonic Transition The Ancient Mode of Production The Germanic Mode of Production The Feudal Mode of Production Societies and Cultures Pre-Capitalist Societies: Limited, Local, and Vital Human History Is Messy Ch. 5 Capitalism and the Anthropology of the Modern World The Transition to Capitalism and its Development The Articulation of Modes of Production Property, Power, and Capitalist States Ch. 6 Anthropology for the Twenty-First Century Social Relations and the Formation of Social Individuals Alienation Domination, Exploitation, and Forms of Social Hierarchy Resistance and Protest Anthropology: "The Study of People in Crisis by People in Crisis"Notes Bibliography

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisFew island nations have stirred the soul like Cuba. From Hemingway’s intoxicating Havana to Ry Cooder’s Buena Vista Social Club, outsiders have persistently been fascinated by Cuba for its music (jazz to rumba), its rich literature, its art and dance (danzón to mambo) and perhaps above all for its bold experiment of a socialist revolution in action. Antoni Kapcia shows how the thaw in relations between Cuba and the USA now makes a fresh appraisal of the country and its modern history essential. He authoritatively explores the ‘essence’ of the Cuban revolution, revealing it to be a maverick phenomenon tied not so much to socialism or Communism for their own sakes but instead to an idealistic vision of postcolonial nationalism. Reassessing the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the author examines the central personalities: not just the famous trio of Che Guevara, Fidel and Raúl Castro in shaping the ideas of the revolution but, still further back, the visionary ideology of José Martí. Kapcia’s book reflects on the future of the revolution as Raúl and his government begin to cede power to a new generation.Trade ReviewAs with all the work that Antoni Kapcia has produced on Cuba “A Short History of the Cuban Revolution. Revolution, Power, Authority and the State” is excellent, superbly researched and highly nuanced in its approach. Kapcia both charts Cuban history from the colonial period, while also addressing the enduring nature of the Cuban Revolution. In doing this Kapcia contests many long-held assumptions concerning the Cuban Revolution and expertly examines the myriad of actors within the Cuban decision-making process with its vertical structures of power, participation and governance and horizontal processes of negotiation and consultation. Kapcia also examines the evolution of the word “revolution” within Cuba and its significance for Cuban history since January 1959. In sum, this work is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Cuba. * Mervyn Bain, Professor of International Relations, University of Aberdeen, UK *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe "structuralist" theories of power show that the subject is produced and reproduced by the investment of power: but how then can we think of the subject's resistance to power? Based on this fundamental question, Power and Resistance interprets critically the (post-)structuralist theory of power and resistance, i.e., the theories of Foucault, Deleuze/Guattari, Derrida and Althusser. It analyses also the mechanism of power and the strategies of resistance in the era of neoliberalism. This meticulous analysis that completely renewed the theory of power is already published in French, Japanese, and Korean with success.Trade ReviewConceptually dense and philosophically masterful, Yoshiyuki Sato's Power and Resistance ranges widely across the work of Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, and Althusser (with Lacan as the 'silent partner' of the text), in pursuit of how the structuralist (non)dialectic of power and resistance comes to be underpinned by this aporetic subject that must be both the product of the social structure, yet also that which furnishes the force of resistance to its reproduction, demonstrating precisely that the "thought of the subject" is nothing other than a theory of how the 'outside' relates to the interiority of the structure. Refusing the now-widespread reception of post-68 French thought as having 'done away with' the category of the subject, Sato shows ably and with real mastery of the literature, why we must instead consider these thinkers to be precisely 'theoreticians of the subject'. In our current conceptual conjuncture, this important book has reemerged in English after its French and Japanese editions to provide the thought of a transformation beyond that dialectic of subjection and resistance which merely reinforces the social closure, giving proof positive for the politicality and living force of this set of figures so crucial to twentieth century thought. -- Gavin WalkerThe author is to be commended for his ability to pose problems clearly, for his very thorough and convincing argument, and for his enlightening and stimulating reading of the main authors he discusses, namely: Freud, Lacan, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, Derrida, and finally Althusser. -- Jacques-Louis Lantoine * Acta fabula *Sato has taken on the impressive task of isolating, with analytical precision, the sources of resistance within generally conceived structuralist theory. His thesis offers a masterful and erudite reading of Foucault, Freud, Deleuze, Lacan, Derrida, and Althusser, among others. His explanation of a sample of texts by these authors is quite illuminating. Indeed, Sato succeeds in showing that the theory of the subject, if understood in its relation to a constitutive death drive, carries with it the possibility of resisting the cruelty of the law and providing the basis for a general theory of resistance. He further shows that structuralism should not be seen as a 'static' description of social and linguistic structures, and that what is needed is rather a diachronic view of structures that takes into account - without domesticating - the forces of contingency. Starting from the death drive and the contingency of structures, and through an argument that is as erudite as it is enlightening, Sato constructs an explanation of resistance in structuralism (but also for it and its future), thus reviving a debate that has unfortunately been bogged down for some time in clichés and misconceptions. -- Judith ButlerWith unusual clarity, Yoshiyuki Sato reconstructs the relations of appropriation, exclusion and interaction that allow us to speak of a structuralist moment defined by the conjunction of Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida and Althusser. He explores the encounters that took place around the notion of power and, with it, the forms of its internalization: the subject, subjection and subjectivity. Sato shows us the multiple dialogues that took place between these very different thinkers, not in spite of their divergent lexicons, but because of them, and how the questions surrounding power led to an examination of the concept of resistance and its functions in fields as diverse as physics, biology, psychoanalysis and politics. Sato's rigor, his refusal to blur the distinctions between the philosophers in question and his insistence on staying close to their actual texts, sets this study apart from the common interpretations of structuralism and the structuralist moment. It provides a new foundation for the study of French philosophy of the sixties and seventies. -- Warren MontagSato's book brilliantly testifies to the acuteness, depth and originality of the readings of French philosophy of the twentieth century which are carried out today by young foreign philosophers, especially Japanese. Through them is brought a new freshness, a re-perspective and re-questioning, and therefore these are the conditions for a relaunch of previously passionate debates which reaches us at the opportune moment. As a participant, along with some others, in these debates in which I - quite wrongly - believed to have travelled all avenues, it is with great pleasure that I welcome this critical return and this relaunch. -- Etienne Balibar

Read more less

Book SynopsisDuring the last fifty years, the writing of history underwent two massive transformations. First, powered by Marxism and other materialist sociologies, the great social history wave instated the value of social explanation. Then, responding to new theoretical debates, the cultural turn upset many of those freshly earned certainties. Each challenge was profoundly informed by politics - from issues of class, gender, and race to those of identity, empire, and the postcolonial. The resulting controversies brought historians radically changed possibilities - expanding subject matters, unfamiliar approaches, greater openness to theory and other disciplines, a new place in the public culture. History Made Conscious offers snapshots of a discipline continuously rethinking its charge. How might we understand "the social" and "the cultural" together? How do we collaborate most fruitfully across disciplines? If we take theory seriously, how does that change what historians do? How should we think differently about politics?Trade ReviewThere is no better guide to the debates over politics and history writing in our times than Geoff Eley. His deep knowledge of US, British and German historiography enables him to make a compelling case that different questions demand different theories. -- Catherine HallIn History Made Conscious, Geoff Eley covers great sweeps of the history of history since the 1960s. His work is marked by insightful observations on the circumstance which have sparked shifts in emphasis and a stimulating openness to influences from myriad intellectual currents, including the Marxist new left, feminism, cultural studies and ant-imperialism. -- Sheila RowbothamHistory cannot but benefit from entering into dialogue with other disciplines and confronting the challenges of politics. Permanently putting itself into question is the key to its renewal and vibrancy. Nearly two decades since A Crooked Line, Geoff Eley unveils the complex relationship between historical studies and politics. Global in scope, critical and nuanced in spirit, and illuminating from one end to the other, History Made Conscious is indispensable reading for anyone interested not only in the past, but also in the way history is written and interpreted in our time. -- Enzo TraversoSo, this is where we've been, historians and history, over the past fifty years. Geoff Eley is an informed, good-tempered and unfailingly courteous-sometimes very funny-guide to the vast landscape of post-colonial and Atlantic world-historiography, showing us the distressing wranglings of scholars, the aggressive battles of the books, all over the desolate terrain of Theory. He steers us to the future, so that by seeing what has been we may become better writers and readers of history. -- Carolyn Steedman

Read more less

Book SynopsisFocusing on Marxism and Rawlsian liberalism, G. A. Cohen argues that egalitarian justice is not only a matter of rules that define the structure of society, but also a matter of personal attitude and choice. Personal attitude and choice are, moreover, the stuff of which social structure itself is made.Trade ReviewThese nine engaging and searching lectures, an unorthodox mixture of intellectual autobiography and philosophical argument, fall into two parts. In the first, [Cohen] describes the leading features of the Marxism in which he once believed. In the second, he explains why he remains critical of the sort of left-wing liberalism that would seem to be Marxism's natural alternative. -- Ben Rogers * The Observer *Some titles carry the author's voice...Surely If You're an Egalitarian, How Come You're So Rich? does. Cohen is much the funniest living Anglophone political philosopher of any note, as well as perhaps the cleverest. Many of his best comic effects depend on the tone of voice, and some are clearly intended simply for fun. But it is always dangerous to assume that the jokes do not carry a point...[Cohen's book is] a strikingly personal address, fusing autobiography and the history of ideas with political philosophy, and ending not only with the weighty issue of how far personal attitudes must feature within the subject matter of justice itself, but with the more disconcerting question of how far the disciplines of living effectively under capitalism are bound to prove lethal for the soul...At one level, Cohen's book is largely an ingenious and agreeably frank casuistry of the ethics of professorial income management, but at another and more consequential level, it is a most imaginative deployment of personal ethical discomfort to pin down, and press home, a deep evasion at the center of this majority vision of social justice under capitalism. Its source may be merely the externalization of a private disquiet; but its force at the point of impact is as public as any philosopher could wish. -- John Dunn * Times Higher Education Supplement *This is an unusual book, a remarkably successful blend of autobiography, intellectual history and moral philosophy that reflects the author's distinctive outlook and background … [It] presents, I believe, the most important contemporary challenge to the egalitarian form of liberalism...The questions he asks are the ones we should all be worrying about. -- Thomas Nagel * Times Literary Supplement *It would be difficult to over-praise this wonderful book. It is profound, humane, witty, erudite, and often deeply personal. Though presented as something of an intellectual memoir, Cohen provides us with more food for thought than has been available in any book on egalitarian political philosophy in recent memory. -- Daniel Weinstock * Philosophy in Review *Table of ContentsPreface Prospectus 1. Paradoxes of Conviction 2. Politics and Religion in a Montreal Communist Jewish Childhood 3. The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science 4. Hegel in Marx: The Obstetric Motif in the Marxist Conception of Revolution 5. The Opium of the People:God in Hegel, Feuerbach, and Marx 6. Equality: From Fact to Norm 7. Ways That Bad Things Can Be Good: A Lighter Look at the Problem of Evil 8. Justice, Incentives, and Selfishness 9. Where the Action Is: On the Site of Distributive Justice 10. Political Philosophy and Personal Behavior Envoi Notes Bibliography Credits Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisBranko Milanovic charts 200 years of the fascinating history of the discourse on inequality through portraits of six key economists, from Quesnay to Kuznets. In their work and lives, we see how differently each conceived of inequality, and how the subject, prominent in their times, was eclipsed during the Cold War and has become central once again.Trade ReviewA timely book that brings the weight of the past to bear on one of the most pressing issues of our time…Milanovic is a clear and direct writer, unafraid of making strong judgements and with an idiosyncratic eye for detail. That makes for original, and sometimes amusingly wry, revelations. -- Darrin M. McMahon * Literary Review *Inequality is back, as a political topic and as a focus of study. In this fascinating book, Milanovic, one of the world’s most influential scholars of inequality, examines what leading economists of the past have had to say on this issue. -- Martin Wolf * Financial Times *A history of the changing ways economists have broached the subject [of inequality] since the French Revolution…[Milanovic] describes how Western economists were in thrall to an unholy combination of extremely simplistic assumptions and extremely complex mathematical models. -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times *For anybody interested in inequality—and we all should be—anything by Milanovic is an essential read…This book is a great scene setter for the modern debate, not least in illustrating the link between ideas of inequality and the times in which ideas are formed. -- Diane Coyle * Enlightened Economist *An in-depth contextual analysis of how economic minds from Adam Smith to Karl Marx have shaped our understanding of class, income and wealth…This is a vital reference for the economic and philosophical theories underpinning our understanding of inequality today. -- Tej Parikh * Financial Times *An absorbing account of how thinking about inequality has evolved…Milanovic mixes his methodical examination of the evolution of economic thought about inequality with fascinating portraits of great economists and the society and polity of their times. -- Zia Qureshi * Finance & Development *A captivating journey through the time of ideas, with an impact on current events. -- Julien Damon * Les Echoes *A noted economist examines the thinking of six of his predecessors on how income is distributed and the conditions that favor or hinder the accumulation of wealth. * Kirkus Reviews *[A] sweeping survey of more than 200 years of philosophical thought about inequality. * Publishers Weekly *Fascinating and often surprising, offering new insight into iconic figures like Smith and Marx and unexpected perspectives on their work. Branko Milanovic shows that the writings of centuries past have much to teach us about inequality, especially about class and power. A truly important book. -- Angus Deaton, Nobel Laureate in Economic SciencesWhat do we talk about when we talk about economic inequality? To those who came of age after the 2008 financial crisis and Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century—an era marked by a widening fracture between rich and poor, especially within Western nations—the question might seem obvious. But as Branko Milanovic shows in his indispensable chronicle of the concept, we underestimate just how young, limited, and fraught our current understanding of inequality is—and how diverse its range of forebears. Researched with forensic thoroughness, and hardly shy about its political implications, Visions of Inequality presents a rare and rewarding combination of economic and conceptual history. -- Anton Jäger, Catholic University of LeuvenA fascinating journey across the history of economic thought through the lens of inequality. Milanovic’s erudite and thought-provoking exploration casts new light both on the analysis of income concentration and on the ideological travails of economics as a discipline. -- Ingrid Bleynat, King's College LondonImagine being able to ask Smith, Marx, and Pareto round for dinner and a chat about how each of them sees inequality. In effect, that’s what Branko Milanovic does in this new book. As he shows, economists’ interest in the subject is by no means a new phenomenon—but what counts, and who counts, in any analysis of inequality has varied dramatically over time. Recognizing this fact should make us reflect on how our own contemporary assays of inequality are more limited than we think. Taking us on an eye-opening tour from Quesnay to Kuznets, Milanovic shows us how inequality and capitalism have always intertwined. -- Mark Blyth, Brown University

Read more less

Book SynopsisVietnam focuses on how the country's governance shapes its politics, economy, social development, and international relations, as well as on the reforms required if it is to become a sustainable and modern high-income nation in the coming decades. This book features work by scholars from Vietnam, North America, and Europe.Trade ReviewIf you are going to read only one book on Vietnam to get up to speed with the state of scholarship on the country, this should be the one. A stellar cast of scholars looking at Vietnam from the rise of the party-state to its socioeconomic and diplomatic evolution gives readers an admirable compendium. -- Nayan Chanda, Ashoka University, former editor of Far Eastern Economic Review This volume is essential reading for anyone interested in how Vietnam transitioned from a poor, isolated country one generation ago to a rising Asian success story. Contributions cover both the economics and the politics of this ongoing transformation. -- David Dollar, Brookings Institution, former World Bank country economist for Vietnam and China This compilation provides a penetrating ringside glimpse into how Vietnam transitioned from a crippled centrally-planned economy into a global trading powerhouse and from a diplomatic pariah into a close partner of the U.S. and the West. The authors, including Vietnamese practitioners in and foreign advisers to the country's remarkable reform, detail the challenges Vietnam faces along the road to becoming a high-income nation, including a rigid political system, rampant corruption, growing economic inequality, serious environmental degradation, and a weak secondary education system. It is an invaluable read for anyone trying to understand this complex and dynamic country. -- Murray Hiebert, Center for Strategic and International Studies, author of Under Beijing's Shadow: Southeast Asia's China Challenge This is a critically important book that will be embraced by scholars of Vietnam and economic/political development more generally. The editors have assembled an astounding group of experts in a range of specialties from political science to economics to health to diplomatic history. Each chapter provides new insights that will enrich the knowledge of even long-term students of the country. -- Edmund Malesky, Duke University How can a communist party state coexist with a plural society? Read this book to find out! -- Stein Tonnesson, Peace Research Institute Oslo

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Financial Times Best History Book of the Year 2021""A Telegraph Best Book of the Year 2021""Books of this quality and significance are rare. Haslam has mined the archives of all the main players to produce an excellent, game-changing thesis that is as convincing as it is original."---Saul David, The Times"It may be a cliché to say this is a book every intelligent person ought to read, but it really is."---Simon Heffer, The Telegraph"Anyone interested in global tensions in the interwar period will learn much from the latest book of Jonathan Haslam. . . . He draws on a lifetime of expertise on the Soviet Union and Russian foreign policy to explain how fear of communism permeated international relations after 1917."---Tony Barber, Financial Times"Drawing on sources in English, French, Russian, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish from archives across Europe (and beyond), The Spectre of War is full of fascinating stories that offer a unique glimpse into the tormented world on the eve of the Second World War. Elegantly crafted, it offers the reader the knowledge of a scholar who has worked in the field for decades."---David Motadel, Times Literary Supplement"2021’s most impressive work of history pulls together hidden threads to show how fear of Bolshevism poisoned international relations between the wars." * A Telegraph Best Book of the Year *"One of the year’s most impressive pieces of research."---Simon Heffer, A Telegraph Best New History Book

Read more less

Book SynopsisA guide about how Marxist theory can illuminate media studies.Table of ContentsPreface: From the small screen to the big picture. 1. Class and Creative Labour. 2. Mode of Production: Technology and New Media. 3. The Powers of Capital: Hollywood’s Media-Industrial Complex. 4. The State. 5. Base and Superstructure: Reconstructing the Political Unconscious. 6. Signs, Ideology and Hegemony. 7. Commodity Fetishism and Reification: The World Made Spectral. 8. Knowledge, Norms and Social Interests: Dilemmas for Documentary. 9. Conclusion: Reflections on Key Concepts and Contemporary Trends. Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis invaluable text, written by one of the world's most influential black scholars, re-imagines the communal ideal from a broader perspective that transcends modernity, industrialisation and capitalism. Following his death there has been a huge surge of interest in Cedric J Robinson and in this, his only book focusing on European radicalism.Trade Review'Before the movement for black lives made black radicalism cool for millennials, Cedric Robinson did the work of excavating an intellectual history we rely upon today' -- The Root 'Like W. E. B. Du Bois, Michel Foucault, Sylvia Wynter, and Edward Said, Robinson was that rare polymath capable of seeing the whole - its genesis as well as its possible future. No discipline could contain him. No geography or era was beyond his reach.... He left behind a body of work to which we must return constantly and urgently' -- Robin D.G. Kelley, author of 'Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination' 'Cedric Robinson was a great and wonderful man and a brilliant scholar. Everything he wrote is of incalculable value and 'An Anthropology of Marxism' is no exception' -- Fred Moten, New York UniversityTable of ContentsNew Foreword by H.L.T. Quan Preface by Avery Gordon 1. Coming to Terms with Marxian Taxonomy 2. The Social Origins of Materialism and Socialism 3. German Critical Philosophy and Marx 4. The Discourse on Economics 5. Reality and its Representation Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisExplores the impact of digital technologies on the logic of cultural capitalismTrade Review'Chanan's rich historical investigations of the evolving technologies of artistic production provide a fascinating new basis for a politics of culture' -- Michael Hardt, author of 'The Subversive 70s''Drawing on nearly fifty years of writing and teaching about the media and making films, Michael Chanan presents us with a series overlapping histories of different media technologies, which is both authoritative and original' -- Julian Petley, Honorary and Emeritus Professor of Journalism at Brunel University, London'Michael Chanan's brilliant synthesis, replete with fascinating detail, both boggles the mind and deeply educates' -- Claudia Gorbman, Professor Emerita of Film Studies at the University of Washington TacomaTable of ContentsSeries Preface Preface 1. Autonomy of the Aesthetic 2. The Changing Logic of Artistic Production 3. Cultural Commodification 4. Countercurrents 5. From Analog to Digital 6. Creativity Reconsidered Bibliography Notes

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe classic text on the history and theory of fascism, revised for the twentieth anniversary of its first publicationTrade Review'David Renton's thoughtful and open-minded study shines a light on this often misunderstood political current and contains vital lessons for anti-fascists today' -- Daniel Trilling, author of 'Lights in the Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe''An invaluable book showing us again why and how Marxists have been the best interpreters and fighters against fascism. Renton's updates make this even more urgent reading for taking on the return of fascist ideas in our time' -- Bill V. Mullen, author of 'James Baldwin: Living in Fire''This book is so much more than a historical survey because Renton’s detailed description of the development, growth and successful establishment of pre-war fascist regimes chimes worryingly with contemporary times' -- Morning Star'Fascism: History and Theory not only remains a thorough account of interwar Marxism’s understanding of fascism, but also provides a strong argument for a vital understanding of fascism, both in analysis and as practice' -- ROAR'A nuanced and intelligent discussion of what constitutes fascism' -- CounterpunchTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Anti-Fascist Wager 1. Interwar Fascism 2. An Alternative Method 3. Marxists against Mussolini and Hitler 4. Benjamin, Gramsci, Trotsky 5. Beyond 1933 6. Marxists and the Holocaust Conclusion: A Specific Form of Reactionary Mass Movement Notes Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less