Far-left political ideologies and movements Books

Book SynopsisThe political ambitions of the movement behind Bernie Sanders have never been limited to winning the White House. Since Bernie first entered the presidential primaries in 2016, his supporters have worked to organize a revolution intended to encourage the active participation of millions of ordinary people in political life. That revolution is already underway, as evidenced by the massive growth of the Democratic Socialists of America, the teachers Bernie motivated to lead strikes across red and blue states, and the rising new generation of radicals in Congress-led by AOC and Ilhan Omar-inspired by his example.In Bigger than Bernie, activist writers Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht give us an intimate map of this emerging movement to remake American politics top to bottom, profiling the grassroots organizers who are building something bigger, and more ambitious, than the career of any one candidate. As participants themselves, Day and Uetricht provide a serious analysis of the prospects for long-term change, offering a strategy for making "political revolution" more than just a campaign slogan. They provide a road map for how to entrench democratic socialism in the halls of power and in our own lives.Bigger than Bernie offers unmatched insights into the people behind the most unique campaign in modern American history and a clear-eyed sense of how the movement can sustain itself for the long haul.Trade ReviewMeagan Day and Micah Uetricht are two of the most brilliant and courageous intellectuals organically grounded in the marvelous militancy of the Sanders Movement. This indispensable book is a powerful, pioneering analysis of these new radical times, and a compelling vision of where it all might be going. -- Cornel West, author of Races MattersHannah Arendt said we should 'think what we are doing.' And that is what Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht have done here. Their book not only examines all that democratic socialists have achieved in the past few years but also gives an exhilarating account of what we'll be doing in the coming years. Anyone who thinks, with dread or relief, that the work comes to an end after Election Day in 2020 will think again. As Day and Uetricht show, the fight for democratic socialism has only just begun, and I'm going to keep coming back to them and their book in order to understand where and how it goes in the future. -- Corey Robin, author of The Enigma of Clarence ThomasBigger Than Bernie is a comprehensive and necessary read for those longing for a more humane country, and as someone who has been up close in many of our current fights for justice, I can attest to the power of its analysis. The authors champion non-reformist reforms that arise from and propoel social movements, and provide an essential roadmap for achieving permanent change. An energizing and instructive account that brings socialism into the present tense. -- RoseAnn DeMoro, former head of National Nurses UnitedPart history lesson, part guide book; this is a love letter to the everyday people and movements who transformed this country and who continue to declare that our lives have meaning, and our future is worth fighting for. Bigger than Bernie, isn't about the man who's spent the majority of his political career on the fringes. It's about fighters. It's about thinkers. It's about love. It's about US. -- Phillip Agnew, Co-founder of the Dream DefendersAn indispensable guide to 21st century socialism from the view of clear eyed, sharp witted, smart, funny authors who lay bare the past failures of angry, narrow sectarianism, and offer a bold, dynamic vision for using the Sanders moment to build a stronger left. These authors, like the magazine they write for, give me hope! -- Jane McAlevey, author of A Collective BargainBigger Than Bernie offers an important contribution to the urgent debates about rebuilding the American Left. Leading members of the Democratic Socialists of America, Megan Day and Micah Uetricht link that process to the improbable emergence of Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign and his insistence on "Not me, Us." Day and Uetricht put flesh on Sanders's call for a "political revolution" which they see as not only critical to the success of Sanders' campaign, but the revitalization of class struggle politics and organizing in the U.S. Buy, read, discuss and debate this book! -- Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation

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Book SynopsisA new take on a powerful and revolutionary movementTrade Review'I do not know of any other book that so effectively explains socialist feminism and brings it into conversation with global social movements. At a time when feminism is under fire, Afary has given us a powerful teaching tool!' -- Rosemary Hennessy, author of 'Materialist Feminism and the Politics of Discourse''A powerful critique of authoritarianism, capitalism, sexism, racism and other forms of tranny. Afary unpacks the complicated plethora of gender, race and class theories to show us the way toward a contemporary approach to socialist feminism that is revolutionary' -- Romarilyn Ralston, Black feminist abolitionist and Executive Director of Project Rebound at California State Fullerton'I highly recommend this very readable yet highly rigorous retelling and refiguring of socialist feminism. Afary's claim that humanism is far more flexible than the version that was dismissed in the 1980s is provocative and compelling' -- Judith Grant, Emerita Professor at Ohio University in Athens'When many of us are feeling discouraged with the state of our countries and of the world, Frieda Afary's timely book shows the way to understanding, consciousness, and activism. This book can help prepare young people to improve societies. As the grandmother of two African-American females, I am profoundly grateful for this amazing volume' -- Mary Elaine Hegland, Professor of Anthropology at Santa Clara University'Frieda Afary has dared to challenge the world of intellectuals to define a new action paradigm. How do women protect themselves? Afary debunks the distortions in the 'self to other' relationships, and critically analyses the conditions leading us toward peril and destruction. Whether you read this book all at once or in small settings with friends, you will be better prepared to live within the 21st century' -- Wonda Powell, Emerita Professor of History, Los Angeles Southwest College'Afary's work is important because it goes beyond theoretical inquiry to also include how the clashes of important powers impact the struggles of many people in their everyday lives today, particularly women and people of colour' -- Lisbeth Gant-Britton, author of 'Holt African American History'Table of ContentsIntroduction: Rethinking Socialist Feminism to Find a Pathway Out of Authoritarian Capitalism and Develop a Humanist Alternative 1. The Pandemic, the #MeToo Movement, and Contradictory Developments in Gender Relations 2. Distinctive Features of Authoritarian Capitalism/Imperialism Today and the New Challenges of Black Lives Matter and Global Uprisings 3. Women, Reproductive Labor, and Capital Accumulation: Theories of Social Reproduction 4. Alienated Labor and How It Relates to Gender Oppression 5. Black Feminism and Intersectionality 6. Queer Theories 7. Theorizing a Socialist Humanist and Feminist Alternative to Capitalism 8. Overcoming Domination: Reconceptualizing the Self-Other Relationship Conclusion: Socialist Feminist Revolutionary Organizing in the Twenty-First Century

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Book SynopsisRising prosperity was supposed to bring democracy to China, yet the Communist Party’s political monopoly endures. How? Minxin Pei looks to the surveillance state. Though renowned for high-tech repression, China’s surveillance system is above all a labor-intensive project. Pei delves into the human sources of coercion at the foundation of CCP power.Trade ReviewAn authoritative study of China’s surveillance system and its ability to strangle any possible dissent…Pei reveals the vast machinery of surveillance and repression in China, fueled by leaders’ fear, distrust, and paranoia. * Kirkus Reviews *Pei ably untangles and demystifies the Chinese surveillance system: for all its obscure and sinister aura, he paints it as the work of harried bureaucrats who struggle with glitchy equipment and unproductive employees…It adds up to a clear-eyed account of China’s surveillance crusade. * Publishers Weekly *An instant classic, offering a peerless and encompassing explanation for a great puzzle of the twenty-first century: How did China’s autocratic regime outlast its peers? Through painstaking research, Minxin Pei has reverse-engineered the hidden system of preventive repression, exposing a world that is essential to understanding China’s past and, indeed, its future. -- Evan Osnos, author of the National Book Award–winning Wildland: The Making of America’s FuryA brilliantly researched and eye-opening masterpiece on modern China’s subtle power dynamics. Shining a light on the masterful strategy of ‘preventive repression,’ Pei offers a riveting exploration of China’s covert surveillance mechanisms. -- Yuhua Wang, author of The Rise and Fall of Imperial China: The Social Origins of State DevelopmentA timely, important book on a subject that has received little attention in Western literature. Pei offers both an illuminating analysis of the surveillance state’s historical evolution and a broad overview of its operations across different sectors in contemporary China. Theoretically informed and empirically rich, this is a welcome contribution. -- Lynette Ong, author of Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary ChinaChina’s development of high-tech surveillance is crucial to understanding Beijing’s domestic aims and international goals, yet it is still poorly understood. Pei brings together sharp and cogent analysis with deep research to illuminate one of the most important issues of today. -- Rana Mitter, author of China’s Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New NationalismAn incisive analysis of a remarkably durable system of state power. Pei argues that China’s already formidable apparatus of political control, augmented with new resources and cutting-edge technologies, has become the most effective surveillance state in history. -- Andrew G. Walder, author of Agents of Disorder: Inside China’s Cultural Revolution

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Book SynopsisRed Africa makes the case for a revolutionary Black politics inspired by Marxist anticolonial struggles in Africa. Contemporary debates on Black radicalism and decolonisation have lost sight of the concerns that animated their twentieth-century intellectual forebears. Okoth responds, challenging the claim that Marxism and Black radicalism are incompatible and showing that both are embraced in the anti-imperialist tradition he calls 'Red Africa'. The politics of Black revolutionary writers Eduardo Mondlane, Amílcar Cabral, Walter Rodney and Andrée Blouin gesture toward a decolonised future that never materialised - instead it was betrayed, violently sup- pressed, or erased. We might yet build something new from the ruins of national liberation, something which sustains the utopian promise of freedom and refuses to surrender. Red Africa is a political project that hopes to salvage what remains of this tradition.Trade ReviewProvocative and polemical, Red Africa probes the limits of contemporary discourses of Black Studies and returns to the neglected histories of Marxism on the continent, finding resources for charting new emancipatory futures. -- Adom Getachew, author of Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-DeterminationA fiercely argued case for looking to the anticolonialism and Marxism of Red Africa in our current engagements with decolonisation. Okoth's critical assessment of certain variants of 'decolonial studies' and 'Afro-Pessimism' is welcome. -- Priyamvada Gopal, author of Insurgent EmpireThis is an important defence of the emancipatory politics of Eduardo Mondlane, Amilcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon, and Walter Rodney from the reactionary perspectives of Afro-pessimism and African nationalism, raising the question of whether things might indeed have turned out differently had radical women such as Andrée Blouin been more intimately connected with the struggle for self-determination. -- Firoze Manji, co-editor, Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar CabralIn this rigorous debut, political theorist Okoth revisits the philosophies of mid-20th-century African revolutionaries....Activists and readers interested in leftist political history will be enthralled. * Publishers Weekly *Table of Contents1 Decolonisation and the Decline of the 'Bandung Spirit'2 From Black Studies to Afro-pessimism: The Making of an Anti-politics3 Racial Capitalism and the Afterlives of Slavery4 Négritude and the (Mal)practice of Diaspora5 Whose Fanon? On Blackness and National Liberation6 Neo-colonialism, or, The Emptiness of Bearing One's Flag7 Remnants of Red Africa

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Book SynopsisIn communities across our country, Americans are debating Critical Race Theory, vaccine mandates, tax increases, rising inflation, online censorship, and a host of other important issues. We have serious decisions to make about the future of our nation. Do we want big government, or limited government? Do we want to work hard and keep what we earn, or do we want government to decide how our money is spent? Do we want our children to learn how to think in school, or be told what to think? Do we want to make our own decisions about health care, or should the federal government dictate our treatments? Should American companies compete on a level playing field, or should Washington decide who wins and loses? Speaker Gingrich analyzes these questions, describes the polling that shows what the American Majority wants, and illustrates how we can create a safer, more prosperous, and secure future for America. In Defeating Big Government Socialism, best-selling author and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich explains how Americans must confront Big Government Socialism, which has taken over the modern Democratic Party, big business, news media, entertainment, and academia. He also offers strategies and insights for everyday citizens to save America's future and ensure it remains the greatest nation on earth.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"In his monumental Central Asia, Adeeb Khalid puts the region at the 'crossroads of history'. A laboratory of colonialism, revolution, nation building and telescoped social and cultural transformation, it has experienced 'every achievement of modernity and every one of its disasters'."---Daniel Beer, Times Literary Supplement"Khalid presents a masterful history of modern Central Asia which is at once scholarly, analytical and wonderfully accessible. . . .Adeeb Khalid deserves our gratitude for producing a path-breaking study of modern Central Asian history. One hopes it will pave the way for more."---Scott C. Levi, History Today ​​​​​​​"The book is successful in revealing the two centuries of political, social and cultural history of the peoples of Central Asia, and serves to further progress knowledge about this region."---Mirzokhid Askarov, Ethnic and Racial Studies"One of the newest and comprehensive studies on the region. It is a very broad and, at the same time, concise introduction to Central Asian history."---Marat Iliyasov, The Rest Journal"Formidably detailed, Central Asia is ideal for upper-level students wondering how a chronically misunderstood region has been shaped by broad currents and dominant powers of modern world history, in concert with local actors."---Andrew M. Wender, World History Connected

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Book SynopsisDrawing on newly-declassified government documents and international archives in Spain and beyond, this book explores the many ways in which Scots responded to the Spanish Civil War (1936-9).

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Book Synopsis...Clifford is a talented storyteller who has met some of Hong Kong's quirkier personalities. -- Peter Baehr, Times Literary SupplementTrade ReviewPowerful, comprehensive and poignant, this book offers a truthful and balanced overview of events in Hong Kong over the past three decades or more. As someone who has lived and breathed much of what Mark Clifford writes, I identify with it and endorse it totally. If you want to understand Hong Kong, the Chinese Communist Party and the threat to freedom itself, you must make it a top priority to read this book -- Benedict Rogers, co-founder and Chief Executive of Hong Kong WatchGripping and powerfully written … Tells us much about the growing threat China's top leaders pose to global freedoms … Clifford pulls in the reader through a vivid account of Hong Kong's history and on-the-ground reporting on the students, business tycoons and politicians central to this disturbing drama … He taps into his deep experience running Hong Kong's top English language newspaper, directing the business association representing the region's most powerful companies, his close contacts with senior Hong Kong officials, and his crucial role as a director for Hong Kong's once most independent media company, whose destruction is central to this modern tragedy. Clifford, who has spent most of his adult life in Hong Kong, is uniquely suited to tell this sad story ... A must-read account on the ongoing destruction of Hong Kong and why it matters to the world -- Dexter Roberts, author of The Myth of Chinese CapitalismMark Clifford has written a riveting and passionate account of China's attack on Hong Kong and its broader implications. Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World parts the curtains on what every informed citizen should know and be thinking about -- Jeffrey E. Garten, Dean Emeritus, Yale School of ManagementThe world has usually viewed Hong Kong as either a last gasp of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European colonialism or, more recently, as a buzzing beehive of modern capitalism. Neither image captures the surprising phenomenon that Mark Clifford details in this masterly study. Hong Kong has now become a front line in the worldwide quest for human freedom. Pursuit of it has spouted like a geyser from Hong Kong wellsprings that are located neither in national pride nor in appetite for lucre but in human nature itself – in the desire to be master of one's own life. The Communist Party of China's repression of Hong Kong is both fierce and unscrupulous, and the world ignores this stand-off at its peril. As Václav Havel has taught us, an assault on human dignity anywhere is an assault on it everywhere -- Perry Link, author of An Anatomy of Chinese

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Book SynopsisIn this provocative and now-classic work, Friedrich Engels explores the interrelated development of the family and the state from ancient society to the Victorian era. Drawing on new anthropological theories of his time, Engels argued that matriarchal communal societies had been overthrown by class society and its emphasis on private, not communal, property and monogamous, rather than polygamous, sexual organization. This historical development, Engels argued, constituted "the world-historic defeat of the female sex." A masterclass in the application of materialist thought to history and anthropology, and touching on love, monogamy, property, and the development of the human, this landmark work is still foundational in Marxist and socialist feminist theory.

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Book SynopsisMy Uncle Zhou Enlai paints a candid and heartwarming picture of one of China’s most beloved leaders and its first premier, Zhou Enlai (1898-1976). Written by his nephew, Zhou Erliu, who found himself at the heart of the political turmoil of the 20th century, this deeply moving and personal account is at once a touching family portrait of the Zhou clan and a comprehensive overview of China’s modern political history.Through personal anecdotes, letters, poems, photographs and other relics from the premier’s epoch-making life, the reader gets up close and personal with Zhou Enlai as never before and gets an intimate peek at life in China during these turbulent times.This book interweaves the fascinating life story of its author, from his childhood in Shanghai’s French concession through his involvement with the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the years of war and revolution up to the present day, and the story of his ‘Qi Ba’, the prominent CPC leader who was at the forefront of major events such as the founding of the PRC, the Cultural Revolution, the Nanchang Uprising, the Chinese Civil War and US president Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1971, yet always found time to advise his beloved nephew about work, life, love and politics.My Uncle Zhou Enlai aims to set straight the historical facts and to convey the great impact Zhou Enlai had on Chinese and international politics, which paved the way for China’s re-entry into the international community. Always honest, wise, humble and kind, Zhou Enlai is warmly remembered by millions of people today both within and outside China, and this book serves as a testament by a close relative to the many Chinese and foreign lives he touched. A must-read for anyone interested in China’s history and cultural landscape, its gradual opening-up to the rest of the world, and its notable leaders and key figures.

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Book SynopsisThis book reinterprets the history of nineteenth and twentieth-century revolutions by composing a constellation of "dialectical images": Marx's "locomotives of history," Alexandra Kollontai's sexually liberated bodies, Lenin's mummified body, Auguste Blanqui's barricades and red flags, the Paris Commune's demolition of the Vendome Column, among several others. It connects theories with the existential trajectories of the thinkers who elaborated them, by sketching the diverse profiles of revolutionary intellectuals-from Marx and Bakunin to Luxemburg and the Bolsheviks, from Mao and Ho Chi Minh to José Carlos Mariátegui, C.L.R. James, and other rebellious spirits from the South-as outcasts and pariahs. And finally, it analyzes the entanglement between revolution and communism that so deeply shaped the history of the twentieth century. This book thus merges ideas and representations by devoting an equal importance to theoretical and iconographic sources, offering for our troubled present a new intellectual history of the revolutionary past.Trade ReviewOffering one of the most unsentimental yet non-reactionary meditations on revolution ever written, Traverso comes not to bury or praise the earthly drive to "take heaven by storm" but to understand it anew. Enriched by a lifelong study of historiography and politics, immense historical knowledge, theoretical polyamory, and a compelling artistic eye, this book also features splendid humility in exploring its slippery, complex and important subject. For those who long to craft a different order of things, Traverso's account is essential. For those who want to ponder what spirits revolutions or makes shipwrecks of them, this rare work roams the globe and the library, reflecting on Phnom Penh and Havana, not only Paris and Moscow, and thinking with Weber, Arendt, Fanon and Constant, not only Trotsky, Lenin and Mao. -- Wendy Brown, author of In the Ruins of NeoliberalismThis brilliant essay on the images of revolutions is a unique experiment, which has no equivalent in the vast historiographic literature on the subject. Inspired by Marx, Trotsky ,and Walter Benjamin, it is built as a montage of dialectical images, which function as lamps that illuminate the past. Enzo Traverso, probably the most gifted historian of his generation, does not hide his hostility to what he calls the "octopus of universal commodity reification"; without idealizing the past revolutions , he wants to preserve, in this fascinating and heterodox piece of research, the memory of historical experience. Quoting Benjamin: we cannot ignore the claim that the past has on us. * Michael Löwy *A perfect partnering of author and subject! Enzo Traverso is the Marxist scholar most gifted to present us with a masterfully articulated appraisal of the perplexing presence of concepts and images of revolutions in the political imagination. His astonishing scholarly expertise is on display with stunning elegance to reveal a rich tapestry of material from the 19th and 20th centuries, along with a multitude of riveting actors and thinkers. Revolution is a monumental advance in its sophisticated and supple interpretations; it is also a virtuoso performance in the art of refreshingly precise, rigorously compact exposition, complemented by a novelist's flair for narrative power and dramatic verve. -- Alan Wald, H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus, University of MichiganBrilliant and beautiful. Now this book exists, it's hard to know how we did without it. -- China MiévilleVividly written, full of sparkling details and sharp theoretical insights... -- Hannah Proctor * Radical Philosophy *Something for every revolutionary. * Socialist Worker *

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Book SynopsisWalter Benjamin is one of the most fascinating and enigmatic intellectual figures of this century. Not only was he a thinker who made an enormous impact with his critical and philosophical writings, he shattered disciplinary and stylistic conventions. This collection, introduced by Susan Sontag, contains the most representative and illuminating selection of his work over a twenty-year period, and thus does full justice to the richness and the multi-dimensional nature of his thought. Included in these pages are aphorisms and townscapes, esoteric meditation and reminiscences of childhood, and reflections on language, psychology, aesthetics and politics.Trade ReviewThe most important German aesthetician and literary critic of this century -- George SteinerBenjamin was one of the unclassifiable ones ... whose work neither fits the existing order nor introduces a new genre. -- Hannah ArendtBenjamin was the interlocutor of all the demons and angels of storytelling. And this is why he knew its endless secrets. Listen to him. -- John BergerA complex and brilliant writer * J. M. Coetzee *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewVivid and compelling * Economist *Guevara was a figure of epic proportions. These diaries, stark and moving, will be his most enduring monument * Observer *

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Book SynopsisMarxist economic thought has had a long and distinguished history in Japan, dating back to the First World War. When interest in Marxist theory was virtually nonexistent in the United States, rival schools of thought in Japan emerged, and brilliant debates took place on Marx’s Capital and on capitalism as it was developing in Japan. Forty years ago, Makoto Itoh’s Value and Crisis began to chronicle these Japanese contributions to Marxist theory, discussing in particular views on Marx’s theories of value and crisis, and problems of Marx’s theory of market value. Now, in a second edition of his book, Itoh deepens his study Marx’s theories of value and crisis, as an essential reference point from which to analyze the multiple crises that have arisen during the past four decades of neoliberalism. One contribution of the original Value and Crisis was to bridge Japan and the world in the field of Marxian political economy. Itoh’s second edition demonstrates an even wider-ranging familiarity with major schools of Marxist thought, summarizing and assessing viewpoints of such theorists as Hilferding, Bauer, Kautsky, Bukharin, Luxemburg, Grossman, Sweezy, the Japanese Marxist Kozo Uno, together with the relevant parts of Capital and a section on the 1930’s Great Depression. Given today’s current emergencies of world capitalism and socialism, says Itoh, we need to work together to resolve new global problems, articulating new issues of Marx’s theories of value and crisis. The promise of Marx’s theories has not waned. If anything – given the failure of Soviet-style socialism and the catastrophe of neoliberalism – it grows daily.Trade ReviewThis is one of the most important books in Marxist political economy of the last several decades. With exemplary clarity, Makoto Itoh has built a bridge between the Uno tradition of Japan and the Marxism of Europe and the USA. Fresh material on crisis and the transformation of contemporary capitalism ensure that this new edition will be vital to Marxism in years to come. —Costas Lapavitsas, Professor of Economics at SOAS, University of London; author, The Left Case Against the EU and Profiting Without Producing

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"2019 War on the Rocks Holiday Reading List"

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Book SynopsisA free ebook version of this title is available throughLuminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visitwww.luminosoa.orgto learn more. This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Librariesand the generous support of the University of California, Davis. Learn more at theTOME website, available at:openmonographs.org. Creating the Intellectual redefines how we understand relations between intellectuals and the Chinese socialist revolution of the last century. Under the Chinese Communist Party, the intellectual was first and foremost a widening classification of individuals based on Marxist thought. The party turned revolutionaries and otherwise ordinary people into subjects identified as usable but untrustworthy intellectuals, an identification that profoundly aTrade Review"[A]n illuminating approach, which shifts the study of intellectuals from the study of a social group to the construction of the concept itself . . ." * Modern Chinese Literature and Culture *"This well-researched and well-argued book makes a significant contribution to scholarship and will appeal to a wide audience in the China field, including graduate students of history, politics, sociology, and comparative communist studies." * China Quarterly *"An informative and incisive study with theoretical significance and current relevance." * American Journal of Sociology *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations 1. Reexamining the Intellectual and Chinese Communism 2. The Birth of a Classification 3. Visible Subjects in the Countryside 4. The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of a Registration Drive 5. Classification and Organization in a School System 6. An Open Struggle of Redefinition 7. Ugly Intellectuals Everywhere 8. The Intellectual and Chinese Society: From Past to PresentCharacter Glossary Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisNo other country and no other period has produced a tradition of major aesthetic debate to compare with that which unfolded in German culture from the 1930s to the 1950s. In Aesthetics and Politics the key texts of the great Marxist controversies over literature and art during these years are assembled in a single volume. They do not form a disparate collection but a continuous, interlinked debate between thinkers who have become giants of twentieth-century intellectual history.Trade ReviewThese are key texts in the study of modernism, of expressionist drama and of realism, and of many closesly related general questions. ... It is genuinely an indispensable volume. -- Raymond WilliamsThis is vital reading for anyone concerned with the relationship between art and socialism. -- John FowlesUnlike conventional anthologies of Marxist writings on art, Aestheticand Politics has the form of an intellectual epic, presented as a series of mutual confronations between its protagonists. * Telos *

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Book SynopsisA timely and provocative account of the fall of New Labour, the rise of Corbyn, and what it means for the left in Britain.Lewis Goodall is one of the most exciting voices in British politics right now' Emily MaitlisHugely illuminating, thought-provoking and moving in its seriousness and optimism' Lord Andrew AdonisESSENTIAL READING DURING LABOUR'S LEADERSHIP CAMPAIGN.In the 21st Century the Labour Party has undergone the most extraordinary transformation in its history. After more than a decade of political dominance, the party lost two consecutive general elections and found its leadership usurped by the obscure far-left MP Jeremy Corbyn. As Britain voted to leave the EU, Labour seemed destined for long term irrelevance.In Left for Dead? journalist Lewis Goodall tells the full story of this political journey with unprecedented access to all its key players, from Blair to Corbyn. Weaving together personal memoir, exclusive interviews, juicy gossip and incisive critique, he travels fromTrade Review‘Lewis Goodall is one of the most exciting voices in British politics right now – and this book shows clearly why he is worth listening to. Profoundly, exquisitely funny, Left for Dead is that rare gem – acute political observation told through intensely personal story’ Emily Maitlis ‘Lewis Goodall’s brilliant book is part memoir, part portrait of Labour and the Britain he grew up in under Blair. It is the best work I have read of his generation, which thank God is replacing mine. Hugely illuminating, thought-provoking and moving in its seriousness and optimism’ Lord Andrew Adonis ‘I cannot recommend Lewis Goodall’s book enough. I’m loving every page. It’s not just politically powerful but far more emotional to read than I’d expected’ Matt Forde ‘A rip-roaring ride, sparky and sharp … Goodall explores Labour’s story with rigour’ Daily Telegraph ‘An excellent new book on Corbynism, and where it stands in Labour’s history’ Andrew Sparrow, Guardian ‘Lewis Goodall argues compellingly that the 2017 general election didn’t change British politics, it revealed profound shifts that had been taking place for years. Goodall challenges the most entrenched assumptions and reveals a Britain utterly changed. This is big picture journalism informed but up close and intimate detail. Goodall’s reporting is energetic, astute, eloquent. His voice rings with a decency and respect for others that is often missing in an increasingly polarised and bitter political discourse – and left me feeling, by the end, surprisingly hopeful about the future’ Allan Little ‘Impassioned and insightful, this is the best book on Labour to appear in years. Lewis Goodall combines the precision of an expert analyst with the raw emotion that comes from growing up in a family rooted in the Labour Party’s past traditions’ Professor Marc Stears, Director, Sydney Policy Lab, University of Sydney (Formerly chief speechwriter to Ed Miliband MP)

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Book SynopsisThe author attacks American liberals as naive and disingenuous in their dealings with the world, accusing them of rewriting history to portray themselves as "Cold Warriors" along with conservatives.

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Book SynopsisFrom longtime labor organizer Jane McAlevey, a vital call-to-arms in favor of unions, a key force capable of defending our democracyFor decades, racism, corporate greed, and a skewed political system have been eating away at the social and political fabric of the United States.Trade Review“An introduction to the world of unions and their enemies. . . . McAlevey’s writing is an attempt to circulate organizers’ skills, breathing life into the long-quiescent labor movement. . . . A Collective Bargain, like the rest of McAlevey’s work, is indispensable.” —Alex Press, Bookforum — Alex Press, Bookforum “Incisive, brilliant, combined with trenchant strategic analysis. If we had more organizers like Jane McAlevey, we’d be winning.” — Van Jones, CNN host and author of Beyond the Messy Truth “A half century ago, the Koch family targeted workers’ collective power with so-called right-to-work laws. Now they and their allies have expanded their agenda to shackling democracy writ large... McAlevey shows us how workplaces provided a laboratory for this audacious project of domination—and better still, she explains how following the strategies and tactics of savvy union organizers could help save America from an ever more ruthless right...This empowering book could not be more timely.” — Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America “Jane McAlevey has devoted her life to reigning the destructive power of concentrated wealth and she is consumed with one over-arching question: How do we win? In this essential book, she draws on decades of organizing experience to make an overwhelming case that the new face of working-class power is female and fiercely feminist. It’s past time to listen up.” — Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything “Jane McAlevey is a brilliant strategist, rousing organizer, and razor-sharp critic inside the labor movement. In this critical moment when labor is resurgent, McAlevey’s small “d” democratic spirit, and her humane, and deeply informed reporting and analysis is needed more than ever.” — Katrina vanden Heuval, Editorial Director & Publisher, The Nation “Read this book! It’s full of effective strategies for overcoming voter suppression against even the stiffest odds. Jane McAlevey is the type of experienced organizer the current White House fears.” — Benjamin Todd Jealous, Former National President and CEO of the NAACP “A battle cry for union rights in a time hostile to labor organizations.” —Kirkus — Kirkus Reviews “Labor activist McAlevey delivers a persuasive argument that the power of ‘strong, democratic’ trade unions can fix many of America’s social problems in this timely cri de coeur. . . . She offers a useful primer on how labor organizing works, and effectively refutes common assumptions about unions. . . . McAlevey’s . . . humor and contagious confidence in the efficacy of organized labor give this succinct volume an outsize impact.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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Book SynopsisJung Chang was born in Yibin, Sichuan Province, China, in 1952. She was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen and then worked as a peasant, a 'barefoot doctor', a steelworker and an electrician before becoming an English-language student and, later, an assistant lecturer at Sichuan University. She left China for Britain in 1978 and was subsequently awarded a scholarship by York University, where she obtained a PhD in Linguistics in 1982 - the first person from the People's Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British university. Her award-winning book, Wild Swans, was published in 1991. Jon Halliday is a former Senior Visiting Research Fellow at King's College, University of London. He has written or edited eight previous books.Trade ReviewThe first great political biography of the twenty-first century -- Frank Johnson * Spectator *This is a bombshell of a book... Jung Chang and Jon Halliday have done this extraordinary country a huge service with this book, which will one day be read as widely within China as it will deservedly be in the outside world -- Chris Patten * The Times *Chang and Halliday cast new and revealing light on nearly every episode in Mao's tumultuous life... Magnificent... It is a stupendous work -- Michael Yahuda * Guardian *Devastating... Awesome... Mesmerising... The most powerful, compelling and revealing political biography of modern times. Few books are destined to change history, but this one will -- George Walden * Daily Mail *A triumph. It is a mesmerising portrait of tyranny, degeneracy, mass murder and promiscuity, a barrage of revisionist bombshells, and a superb piece of research. This is the first intimate, political biography of the greatest monster of them all -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisFor the first time, here is the extraordinary true story of one of the most powerful men, and ruthless dictators, who ever lived. Mao Zedong had control over more people for a longer period than any other leader in history. In this intimate biography we learn not only about the imperial grandeur of his life in a country racked by poverty and the vicious infighting at his court, but also about his extraordinary personal habits that equal those of deceased Korean supreme leader, Kim Jong Il, another infamous and idiosyncratic dictator, equally deified and worshipped by his followers: Mao''s teeth turned black because he would only brush them with tea; he hardly ever bathed but then received Krushchev in his swimming pool where he obliged the Soviet President to join him. Li''s revealing account also chronicles Mao''s voracious sexual appetite that led to the seduction of thousands of peasant women because he believed in the mythical healing power of sex. Zhisui Li spent more time with Mao than perhaps any other person. He witnessed first-hand the catastrophic events that Mao''s dotage and paranoia sparked in a country that revered him as a demi-god. The Private Life of Chairman Mao is a landmark biography, as fascinating as it is important to the understanding of modern China, and a must buy for fans of Wild Swans.Trade ReviewLi is Mao's Boswell * Irish Times *A unique political and historical autobiography of inestimable worth, an astounding chronicle of human weakness, political intrigue and corruption and the near destruction of a great nation by a great ego -- Martin BoothOne of the most vivid descriptions of a dictator ever written * The Times *A classic . . . I see Dr. Li as the Tacitus of modern China -- Hugh Trevor-Roper

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Book SynopsisThe forgotten second volume of Capital, Marx''s world-shaking analysis of economics, politics, and history, contains the vital discussion of commodity, the cornerstone to Marx''s theories.Table of ContentsCapital Volume 2 IntroductionTranslator's PrefacePreface (Frederick Engels)Preface to the Second Edition (Frederick Engels)Book II: The Process of Circulation of CapitalPart One: The Metamorphoses of Capital and their CircuitChapter 1: The Circuit of Money Capital1. First Stage. M-C2. Second Stage. The Function of Productive Capital3. Third Stage. C'-M'4. The Circuit as a WholeChapter 2: The Circuit of Productive Capital1. Simple Reproduction2. Accumulation and Reproduction on an Expanded Scale3. Accumulation of Money4. The Reserve FundChapter 3: The Circuit of Commodity CapitalChapter 4: The Three Figures of the Circuit(Natural Economy, Money Economy and Credit Economy)(The Matching of Demand and Supply)Chapter 5: Circulation TimeChapter 6: The Costs of Circulation1. Pure Circulation Costs(a) Buying and Selling Time(b) Book-keeping(c) Money2. Costs of Storage(a) Stock Formation in General(b) The Commodity Stock Proper3. Transport CostsPart Two: The Turnover of CapitalChapter 7: Turnover Time and Number of TurnoversChapter 8: Fixed Capital and Circulating Capital1. The Formal Distinctions2. Components, Replacement, Repairs and Accumulation of the Fixed CapitalChapter 9: The Overall Turnover of the Capital Advanced. Turnover CyclesChapter 10: Theories of Fixed and Circulating Capital. The Physiocrats and Adam SmithChapter 11: Theories of Fixed and Circulating Capital. RicardoChapter 12: The Working PeriodChapter 13: Production TimeChapter 14: Circulation TimeChapter 15: Effect of Circulation Time on the Magnitude of the Capital Advanced1. Working Period and Circulation Period Equal2. Working Period Longer than Circulation Period3. Working Period Shorter than Circulation Period4. Results5. Effect of Changes in PriceChapter 16: The Turnover of Variable Capital1. The Annual Rate of Surplus-Value2. The Turnover of an Individual Variable Capital3. The Turnover of Variable Capital Considered from the Social Point of ViewChapter 17: The Circulation of Surplus-Value1. Simple Reproduction2. Accumulation and Expanded ReproductionPart Three: The Reproduction and Circulation of the Total Social CapitalChapter 18: Introduction1. The Object of the Inquiry2. The Role of Money CapitalChapter 19: Former Presentations of the Subject1. The Physiocrats2. Adam Smith(a) Smith's General Perspectives(b) Smith's Resolution of Exchange-Value into v+s(c) The Constant Capital Component(d) Capital and Revenue in Adam Smith(e) Summary3. Later WritersChapter 20: Simple Reproduction1. Formulation of the Problem2. The Two Departments of Social Production3. Exchange Between the Two Departments: I against II4. Exchange Within Department II. Necessary Means of Subsistence and Luxury Items5. The Mediation of the Exchanges by Monetary Circulation6. The Constant Capital in Department I7. Variable Capital and Surplus-Value in the Two Departments8. The Constant Capital in Both Departments9. A Look Back at Adam Smith, Storch and Ramsay10. Capital and Revenue: Variable Capital and Wages11. Replacement of the Fixed Capital(a) Replacement of the Depreciation Component in the Money Form(b) Replacement of the Fixed Capital in Kind(c) Results12. The Reproduction of the Money Material13. Destutt de Tracy's Theory of ReproductionChapter 21: Accumulation and Reproduction on an Expanded Scale1. Accumulation in Department I(a) Hoard Formation(b) The Additional Constant Capital(c) The Additional Variable Capital2. Accumulation in Department II3. Schematic Presentation of Accumulation(a) First Example(b) Second Example(c) The Exchange of II in the Case of Accumulation4. Supplementary RemarksQuotations in Languages Other than English and GermanIndex of Authorities QuotedGeneral IndexNote on Previous Editions of the Works of Marx and EngelsChronology of Works by Marx and Engels

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Book SynopsisUnfinished at the time of Marx''s death in 1883 and first published with a preface by Frederick Engels in 1894, the third volume of Das Kapital strove to combine the theories and concepts of the two previous volumes in order to prove conclusively that capitalism is inherently unworkable as a permanent system for society. Here, Marx asserts controversially that - regardless of the efforts of individual capitalists, public authorities or even generous philanthropists - any market economy is inevitably doomed to endure a series of worsening, explosive crises leading finally to complete collapse. But healso offers an inspirational and compelling prediction: that the end of capitalism will culminate, ultimately, in the birth of a far greater form of society.Table of ContentsIntroduction by Ernest MandelPreface (Frederick Engels)BOOK III: THE PROCESS OF CAPITALIST PRODUCTION AS A WHOLEPART ONE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF SURPLUS-VALUE INTO PROFIT, AND OF THE RATE OF SURPLUS-VALUE INTO THE RATE OF PROFITChapter 1: Cost Price and ProfitChapter 2: The Rate of ProfitChapter 3: The Relationship between Rate of Profit and Rate of Surplus-ValueChapter 4: The Effect of the Turnover on the Rate of ProfitChapter 5: Economy in the Use of Constant Capital1. General Considerations2. Saving on the Conditions of Work at the Workers' Expense3. Economy in the Generation and Transmission of Power, and on Buildings4. Utilization of the Refuse of Production5. Economy through InventionsChapter 6: The Effect of Changes in Price 1. Fluctuations in the Price of Raw Material; Their Direct Effects on the Rate of Profit2. Revaluation and Devaluation of Capital; Release and Tying-Up of Capital3. General Illustration: The Cotton Crisis 1861-5Chapter 7: Supplementary Remarks PART TWO: THE TRANSFORMATION OF PROFIT INTO AVERAGE PROFITChapter 8: Different Compositions of Capital in Different Branches of Production, and the Resulting Variation in Rates of ProfitChapter 9: Formation of a General Rate of Profit (Average Rate of Profit), and Transformation of Commodity Values into Prices of ProductionChapter 10: The Equalization of the General Rate of Profit through Competition. Market Prices and Market Values. Surplus ProfitChapter 11: The Effects of General Fluctuations in Wages on the Prices of ProductionChapter 12: Supplementary Remarks1. The Causes of a Change in the Price of Production2. The Production Price of Commodities of Average Composition3. The Capitalist's Grounds for CompensationPART THREE: THE LAW OF THE TENDENTIAL FALL IN THE RATE OF PROFIT Chapter 13: The Law ItselfChapter 14: Counteracting Factors1. More Intense Exploitation of Labour2. Reduction of Wages below their Value3. Cheapening of the Elements of Constant Capital4. The Relative Surplus Population5. Foreign Trade6. The Increase in Share CapitalChapter 15: Development of the Law's Internal Contradictions 1. General Considerations2. The Conflict between the Extension of Production and Valorization3. Surplus Capital alongside Surplus Population4. Supplementary RemarksPART FOUR: THE TRANSFORMATION OF COMMODITY CAPITAL AND MONEY CAPITAL INTO COMMERCIAL CAPITAL AND MONEY-DEALING CAPITAL (MERCHANT'S CAPITAL) Chapter 16: Commercial CapitalChapter 17: Commercial ProfitChapter 18: The Turnover of Commercial Capital. PricesChapter 19. Money-Dealing CapitalChapter 20: Historical Material on Merchant's CapitalPART FIVE: THE DIVISION OF PROFIT INTO INTEREST AND PROFIT OF ENTERPRISEChapter 21: Interest-Bearing CapitalChapter 22: Division of Profit. Rate of Interest. "Natural" Rate of InterestChapter 23: Interest and Profit of EnterpriseChapter 24: Interest-Bearing Capital as the Superficial Form of the Capital RelationChapter 25: Credit and Fictitious CapitalChapter 26: Accumulation of Money Capital, and its Influence on the Rate of InterestChapter 27: The Role of Credit in Capitalist ProductionChapter 28: Means of Circulation and CApital. The Views of Tooke and FullartonChapter 29: Banking Capital's Component PartsChapter 30: Money Capital and Real Capital: IChapter 31: Money Capital and Real Capital: II (Continuation)1. Transformation of Money into Loan Capital2. Transformation of Capital or Revenue into Money that is Transformed into Loan CapitalChapter 32: Money Capital and Real Capital: III (Conclusion) Chapter 33: The Means of Circulation under the Credit SystemChapter 34: The Currency Principle and the English Bank Legislation of 1844Chapter 35: Precious Metal and Rate of Exchange1. The Movement of the Gold Reserve2. The Exchange RateChapter 36: Pre-Capitalist Relations PART SIX: THE TRANSFORMATION OF SURPLUS PROFIT INTO GROUND-RENTChapter 37: IntroductionChapter 38: Differential Rent in GeneralChapter 39: The First Form of Differential Rent (Differential Rent I)Chapter 40: The Second Form of Differential Rent (Differential Rent II)Chapter 41: Differential Rent II - First Case: Price of Production ConstantChapter 42: Differential Rent II - Second Case: Price of Production Falling1. With the Productivity of the Extra Capital Investment Remaining Constant2. A Falling Rate of Productivity for the Extra Capital3. A Rising Rate of Productivity for the Extra CapitalChapter 43: Differential Rent II - Third Case: Rising Price of Production. Results Chapter 44: Differential Rent Even on the Poorest Land CultivatedChapter 45: Absolute Ground-RentChapter 46: Rent of Buildings. Rent of Mines. Price of LandChapter 47: The Genesis of Capitalist Ground-Rent1. Introduction2. Labour Rent3. Rent in Kind4. Money Rent5. Share-Cropping and Small-Scale Peasant OwnershipPART SEVEN: THE REVENUES AND THEIR SOURCES Chapter 48: The Trinity FormulaChapter 49: On the Analysis of the Production ProcessChapter 50: The Illusion Created by CompetitionChapter 51: Relations of Distribution and Relations of ProductionChapter 52: ClassesSupplement and Addendum to Volume 3 of Capital (Frederick Engels) 1. Law of Value and Rate of Profit2. The Stock ExchangeQuotations in Languages Other than English and GermanIndex of Authorities QuotedGeneral IndexNote on Previous Editions of the Works of Marx and EngelsChronology of Works by Marx and Engels

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Book SynopsisKarl Marx was born in Trier, Germany and studied law at Bonn and Berlin. In 1848, with Freidrich Engels, he finalized the Communist Manifesto. He settled in London, where he studied economics and wrote the first volume of his major work, Das Kapital (1867, two further volumes were added in 1884 and 1894). He is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London. Friedrich Engles was born in Barmen, Germany. From 1842 he lived mostly in England.

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Book SynopsisFriedrich Engels is one of the most attractive and contradictory figures of the nineteenth century. Born to a prosperous mercantile family in west Germany, he spent his career working in the Manchester cotton industry, riding to the Cheshire hounds, and enjoying the comfortable, middle-class life of a Victorian gentleman. Yet Engels was also the co-founder of international communism - the philosophy which in the 20th century came to control one third of the human race. He was the co-author of The Communist Manifesto, a ruthless party tactician, and the man who sacrificed his best years so Karl Marx could write Das Kapital. Tristram Hunt relishes the diversity and exuberance of Engels''s era: how one of the great bon viveurs of Victorian Britain reconciled his raucous personal life with this uncompromising political philosophy.Trade ReviewBeautifully written and consistently engaging * Independent *An excellent book ... Hunt has a mastery of 19th-century British culture and European political thought -- Robert Service * Sunday Times *Thoughtful and engaging * Telegraph Review *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY 2017''A deeply original and illuminating account of Marx''s journey through the intellectual history of the nineteenth century... a profound reappraisal and a gripping read'' Christopher Clark, author of The SleepwalkersAs the nineteenth century unfolded, its inhabitants had to come to terms with an unparalleled range of political, economic, religious and intellectual challenges. Distances shrank, new towns sprang up, and ingenious inventions transformed the industrial landscape. It was an era dominated by new ideas about God, human capacities, industry, revolution, empires and political systems - and above all, the shape of the future.One of the most distinctive and arresting contributions to this debate was made by Karl Marx, the son of a Jewish convert in the Rhineland and a man whose entire life was devoted to making sense of the hopes and fears ofTrade ReviewExhaustive and staggeringly well-researched -- Oliver Bullough * The Observer *Vast, dense and intellectually formidable -- Dominic Sandbrook * The Sunday Times *Rich and deeply researched -- John Gray * Literary Review *Superb ... so long as we persist in our tendency to hive off the study of economics from politics, philosophy and journalism, Marx will remain the outstanding example of how to overcome the fragmentation of modern social thought and think about the world as a whole for the sake of its betterment. And this book will be an admirable guide to how he did it. * Financial Times *An intellectual history of impeccable scholarship... the book is superb... for those interested in Marx's thinking, Stedman Jones's book is a treat * The Telegraph *There is no better guide to Marx than Gareth Stedman Jones * Economist *'A deeply original and illuminating account of Marx's journey through the intellectual history of the nineteenth century. Stedman Jones explores the friendships, affinities, rivalries and hatreds that shaped Marx's life with elegance and analytical brilliance. He anchors his narrative in a startlingly textured account of the society and politics of Marx's era. Most important of all, he brings to life the thoughts of a plethora of other writers, showing how Marx's engagements with the thoughts of others enabled him to navigate a course that often had little or nothing to do with the Marxism of the twentieth century. A profound reappraisal and a gripping read.' -- Christopher Clark (author of The Sleepwalkers)

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Book SynopsisA daring critique of communism and how it had gone wrong behind the Iron Curtain, Camus' essay examines the revolutions in France and Russia, and argues that since they were both guilty of producing tyranny and corruption, hope for the future lies only in revolt without revolution. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

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Book SynopsisA rousing call to arms whose influence is still felt today, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels'' The Communist Manifesto is edited with an introduction by Gareth Stedman-Jones in Penguin Classics. Marx and Engels''s revolutionary summons to the working classes, The Communist Manifesto is one of the most important political theories ever formulated. After four years of collaboration, they produced an incisive account of their idea of Communism, in which they envisage a society without classes, private property or a state, arguing that the exploitation of industrial workers will eventually lead to a revolution in which Capitalism is overthrown. This vision provided the theoretical basis of political systems in Russia, China, Cuba and Eastern Europe, affecting the lives of millions. The Communist Manifesto still remains a landmark text: a work that continues to influence and provoke debate on capitalism and class.Gareth Stedman Jones''s extensive and scholarly introduction provides an unique assessment of the place of The Communist Manifesto in history, and its continuing relevance as a depiction of global capitalism. This edition reproduces Samuel Moore''s translation of 1888 and contains a guide to further reading, notes and an index.Karl Marx (1818-1883) was born in Trier, Germany and studied law at Bonn and Berlin. He settled in London, where he studied economics and wrote the first volume of his major work, Das Kapital (1867, with two further volumes in 1884 and 1894). He is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London.Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), as well as his collaboration with Marx, was the author of The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845), based on personal observations and research.If you enjoyed The Communist Manifesto, you might like Marx''s Capital, also available in Penguin Classics.''The words of the Communist Manifesto flare like the fiery writing on the wall above the crumbling bastions of capitalist society: socialism or barbarism!''Rosa Luxemburg

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Book Synopsis''In the craven world of architectural criticism Hatherley is that rarest of things: a brave, incisive, elegant and erudite writer, whose books dissect the contemporary built environment to reveal the political fantasies and social realities it embodies'' Will SelfDuring the course of the twentieth century, communism took power in Eastern Europe and remade the city in its own image. Ransacking the urban planning of the grand imperial past, it set out to transform everyday life, its sweeping boulevards, epic high-rise and vast housing estates an emphatic declaration of a non-capitalist idea. Now, the regimes that built them are dead and long gone, but from Warsaw to Berlin, Moscow to post-Revolution Kiev, the buildings, their most obvious legacy, remain, populated by people whose lives were scattered and jeopardized by the collapse of communism and the introduction of capitalism.Landscapes of Communism is an intimate history of twentieth-century communist EuropTrade ReviewCan one talk yet of vintage Hatherley? Yes, one can. Here are all the properties that have made him one of the most distinctive writers in England - not just 'architectural writers', but writers full stop: acuity, contrariness, observational rigour, frankness and beautifully wrought prose. This is a tempered love letter to eastern Europe and a fullblown love letter to an eastern European woman. I can't think of anything remotely akin -- Jonathan MeadesThe latest heir to Ruskin. -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *Hatherley is the most informed, opinionated and acerbic guide you could wish for. -- Hugh Pearman * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisIn Trouble in Paradise, Slavoj Žižek, one of our most famous, most combative philosophers, explains how by drawing on the ideas of communism, we can find a way out of the crisis of capitalism.There is obviously trouble in the global capitalist paradise. But why do we find it so difficult to imagine a way out of the crisis we''re in? It is as if the trouble feeds on itself: the march of capitalism has become inexorable, the only game in town.Setting out to diagnose the condition of global capitalism, the ideological constraints we are faced with in our daily lives, and the bleak future promised by this system, Slavoj Žižek explores the possibilities - and the traps - of new emancipatory struggles. Drawing insights from phenomena as diverse as Gangnam Style to Marx, The Dark Knight to Thatcher, Trouble in Paradise is an incisive dissection of the world we inhabit, and the new order to come.''The most dangerous philosopher in the West'' - Adam Kirsch, New Republic ''The most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in many decades'' - Terry Eagleton ''Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation'' - New Yorker

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Book Synopsis ''The superb, funny, fascinating story of Lenin''s trans-European rail journey and how it shook the world'' Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard, Books of the Year''Splendid ... a jewel among histories, taking a single episode from the penultimate year of the Great War, illuminating a continent, a revolution and a series of psychologies in a moment of cataclysm and doing it with wit, judgment and an eye for telling detail'' David Aaronovitch, The TimesBy 1917 the European war seemed to be endless. Both sides in the fighting looked to new weapons, tactics and ideas to break a stalemate that was itself destroying Europe. In the German government a small group of men had a brilliant idea: why not sow further confusion in an increasingly chaotic Russia by arranging for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the most notorious of revolutionary extremists, currently safely bottled up in neutral Switzerland, to go home?Catherine Merridale''s Lenin on the Train recreates Lenin''s extraordinary journey from harmless exile in Zurich, across a Germany falling to pieces from the war''s deprivations, and northwards to the edge of Lapland to his eventual ecstatic reception by the revolutionary crowds at Petrograd''s Finland Station.With great skill and insight Merridale weaves the story of the train and its uniquely strange group of passengers with a gripping account of the now half-forgotten liberal Russian revolution and shows how these events intersected. She brilliantly uses a huge range of contemporary eyewitnesses, observing Lenin as he travelled back to a country he had not seen for many years. Many thought he was a mere ''useful idiot'', others thought he would rapidly be imprisoned or killed, others that Lenin had in practice few followers and even less influence. They would all prove to be quite wrong.Trade ReviewTwice I missed my stop on the Tube reading this book... this is a jewel among histories, taking a single episode from the penultimate year of the Great War, illuminating a continent, a revolution and a series of psychologies in a moment of cataclysm and doing it with wit, judgment and an eye for telling detail... Catherine Merridale, who won the Wolfson history prize for Red Fortress, her 2013 book about the Kremlin, is one of those historians whose work allows you to understand something more about the world we inhabit now. -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *'A detailed look at the famous train journey... fascinatingly realist... [Merridale] is good at capturing the frankly dodgy atmosphere of high politics and low motives that swirled around post-abdication Russia... Merridale can bring humour into the most gruesome moments. -- André Van Loon * Spectator *Catherine Merridale is one of the foremost foreign historians of Russia, combining wry insights with deep sympathy for the human beings suffering the tragedies she writes about... It combines diplomatic intrigue, spycraft, towering personalities, bureaucratic bungling, military history and ideology. Ms Merridale neatly unites background and foreground, and deftly evokes the atmosphere of the time... excellent * Economist *Praise for RED FORTRESS: 'Magnificent ... [a] a superbly written book' Telegraph 'A zingy, razor-keen history of the Kremlin' Spectator Books of the Year 'Exhilarating' * Guardian *A brisk and often witty overview for the lay reader of the circumstances leading up to the February and October revolutions. -- Helen Rappaport * The Sunday Times *With a novelists' readability and a fertile imagination... Merridale retraces his week-long journey... At the same time, she skilfully weaves into the story the unfolding revolution * Observer Review *With the 100th anniversary of the two Russian revolutions of 1917 around the corner... surely no author will give a better account than Merridale of how, in that fateful year, Lenin made his way with German help from exile in Switzerland to Russia. * Financial Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR *Fills a lacuna in the canonical record of Soviet communism.... A superbly written narrative history that draws together and makes sense of scattered data, anecdotes, and minor episodes, affording us a bigger picture of events that we now understand to be transformative * Kirkus Reviews *Merridale corrects factual errors made by predecessors and opens a fresh interpretive perspective. Personal reenactment of Lenin's eight-day train-and-ferry journey gives force to materials uncovered through assiduous research in newly opened archives as Merridale resolves perplexities long surrounding the political gambles, devious espionage, and shadowy financing that transport Lenin through Germany on a sealed train bound for a land tempestuously shedding its czarist past and desperate for a leader to guide it into an uncharted future. . . . History recovered as living drama * Booklist *A colorful, suspenseful, and well-documented narrative * Publishers Weekly *[This] remarkable account recaptures the idealism that filled this ragtag band of revolutionaries with the desperate belief that their leader would bring a "springtime of hope" to their divided and brutalised country. This is a revealing portrait of Lenin and his fellow travellers at a crucial turning point in world history. -- PD Smith * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis''Masterfully opens up a little explored realm: how the quest for religion and spirituality drives hundreds of millions of Chinese'' Pankaj Mishra''A fascinating odyssey ... a nuanced group portrait of Chinese citizens striving for non-material answers in an era of frenetic materialism'' Julia Lovell, Guardian ''The reappearance and flourishing of religion is perhaps the most surprising aspect of the dramatic changes in China in recent decades...this is a beautiful, moving and insightful book'' Michael SzonyiIn no society on Earth was there such a ferocious attempt to eradicate all trace of religion as in modern China. But now, following a century of violent antireligious campaigns, China is awash with new temples, churches, and mosques - as well as cults, sects, and politicians trying to harness religion for their own ends. Driving this explosion of faith is uncertainty - over what it means to be Chinese, and how to live aTrade ReviewIan Johnson has long been a resourceful and bracing guide to the biggest national transformation of modern history. In The Souls of China he masterfully opens up a little explored realm: how the quest for religion and spirituality drives hundreds of millions of Chinese -- Pankaj MishraJohnson succeeds in having produced a nuanced group portrait of Chinese citizens striving for non-material answers in an era of frenetic materialism. -- Julia Lovell * Guardian *Extraordinarily rich and intimate... This vividly written, deeply researched book will be the primary work about religious faith in China for years to come. -- Leslie T. ChangThis entrancing and engaging book challenges the modern assumption that religion is a thing of the past -- Karen ArmstrongIan Johnson breaks new ground with a brilliant approach, mixing theoretical explorations with real life vignettes from a convincing insider-outsider-combined perspective, making them commenting each other, illuminating in the same way as through the traditional Chinese criticism paradigm of 'I commentate the six classics which commentate me.' The Souls of China is a must read for an understanding of China -- Qiu Xiaolong * author of The Inspector Chen Novels *The great Chinese writer Lu Xun once wrote that when many men pass along the same way, a new road is made. The Souls of China shows us how the Chinese people, some with heroic steps and others with hesitant ones, are making a new road for Chinese religion in the twenty-first century. The reappearance and flourishing of religion is perhaps the most surprising aspect of the dramatic changes in China in recent decades. With great sensitivity Ian Johnson guides us on a tour of the rituals, festivals, and above all some of the remarkable characters who make up this new Chinese religious world. This is a beautiful, moving and insightful book -- Michael Szonyi * author of Cold War Island *The Souls of China is a rich, informative, and timely book, which explores a major aspect of Chinese life. Ian Johnson carries erudition lightly and describes the people and events with deep insights and personal involvement. Section by section, the writing shows long-term dedication and meticulous research. At heart this is also a personal book, full of feelings and exuberance. It's a tremendous accomplishment -- Ha JinHis tripartite masterpiece Wild Grass and his newest book, The Souls of China, are the most remarkable works to come from a western author in the past two decades. -- Liao Yiwu * exiled Chinese author of God is Red: The Secret Story of How Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China *Through interviews conducted with a wide variety of practitioners, Johnson paints a vivid picture of the diversity of Chinese religious life....He provides a fascinating account of how traditional activities recovered after enduring severe repression during China's Cultural Revolution (1966-76). An excellent work that is highly recommended for readers interested in Chinese culture or religion * Library Journal *

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Book SynopsisAfter three decades of "reform and opening up," China is closing its doors, clamping down on Western influence in the economy, media, and civil society. At the same time, President Xi Jinping has emerged as a champion of globalization, projecting Chinese power abroad and seeking to reshape the global order. Herein lies The Third Revolution.Trade ReviewThe Third Revolution is an excellent example of high-quality academic research on China * Tian He, Pacific Affairs *One of Iolitico's "Ten Names That Matter on China Policy"How should observers, especially those in Washington, assess Xi's China? In The Third Revolution, Elizabeth Economy offers a nuanced, persuasive answer: while China's heft in world affairs is growing rapidly, so too are the contradictions inherent in the attempt of an authoritarian country to shape what remains a predominantly liberal world order. * Global Asia *Economy . . . offers an engaging look at how areas such as internet regulation, reform of state-owned enterprises, and foreign policy are evolving under Xi's leadership. * Reuters Breakingviews *To understand and navigate China in the coming years, this is the book to read. At the heart of doing business in this opaque and contradictory country is understanding Xi Jinping, a masterful and complex politician. Elizabeth Economy's exceptionally clear account gives you the tools to do just that. * Fred P. Hochberg, Former Chairman and President, Export-Import Bank of the United States *The Third Revolution is enormously valuable for anyone seeking to understand the ways in which China is changing (and not changing) under Xi's leadership, and how the U.S. should best approach its relationship with China. Essential. * Robert E. Rubin, Former Secretary of the Treasury *The one book that tells you all you need to know about how China has changed under Xi Jinping. A clear-eyed, richly researched, and engaging account by one of America's most knowledgeable China experts. * Susan L. Shirk, University of California, San Diego *Timely and sobering analysis of the profound * and disturbingpolitical change that has occurred since the rise of Xi Jinping. This is by far the most insightful and illuminating study of China's new political landscape, and should be required reading for those concerned with China's future under strongman rule.Minxin Pei, Author, China's Crony Capitalism *Leading China expert Elizabeth Economy provides a clear-eyed net assessment of China under Xi Jinping: its global ambitions, domestic limitations, and the paradox of its external hubris and internal insecurities. Thoroughly researched and engagingly written, The Third Revolution should become staple reading for all who want to understand China today and where it is headed in the future. The findings are both illuminating and disturbing." * David Shambaugh, George Washington University and author of China Goes Global *Americans are slowly realizing that they live in a bipolar world with China, a nation that is incontrovertibly rising despite the destabilizing effects of serial self-reinvention. The advent of the latest progenitor of rejuvenation, Xi Jinping, has raised a host of vexing questions, but Economy's wonderfully lucid and well-researched book fills in many of the blanks regarding Xi's strengths and weaknesses. * Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director, Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations *For the first time in modern history, we have a communist country poised to be the biggest and most important driver of the global free market. That's astonishing. And we still don't know what makes China's political leadership and Xi Jinping in particular tick. If that freaks you out (and it should), Liz Economy's book is the place to start. * Ian Bremmer, President and Founder, Eurasia Group *The timing of The Third Revolution is impeccable. Economy convincingly demonstrates how Beijing has used its heft to influence technological and political standards." - The Financial TimesA work of cool-headed analysis." - Foreign Affairs14/01/2019Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Heart of Darkness Chapter 3: Chinanet Chapter 4: The Not-So-New Normal Chapter 5: Innovation Nation Chapter 6: War on Pollution Chapter 7: The Lion Awakens Chapter 8: The Road Forward

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Book SynopsisIt is by no means absurd to say that Engels invented Marxism. His work did more than Marx to make converts of the most influential political movement of modern times. He was not only the father of dialectical and historical materialism, the official philosophies of history and science in many communist countries; he was also the first Marxist historian, anthropologist, philosopher, and commentator on early Marx.In his later years Engels developed his materialist interpretation of history, his chief intellectual legacy, which has had revolutionary effects on the arts and social sciences. Terrell Carver traces its source and its effect on the development of Marxist theory and practice, assesses its utility, and discusses the difficulties which Marxists have encountered in defending it. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition 'combines a lucid introduction to the thinker with a genuine introduction to scholarly discussion' * British Book News *Table of Contents1. Engles and Marx ; 2. Journalist ; 3. Communist ; 4. Revolutionary ; 5. Marxist ; 6. Scientist ; 7. Engles and Marxism ; Further reading

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