Far-left political ideologies and movements Books

Book SynopsisAt the outset of Marx for Cats, Leigh Claire La Berge declares that “all history is the history of cat struggle.” Revising the medieval bestiary form to meet Marxist critique, La Berge follows feline footprints through Western economic history to reveal an animality at the heart of Marxism. She draws on a twelve-hundred-year arc spanning capitalism’s feudal prehistory, its colonialist and imperialist ages, the bourgeois revolutions that supported capitalism, and the communist revolutions that opposed it to outline how cats have long been understood as creatures of economic critique and liberatory possibility. By attending to the repeated archival appearance of lions, tigers, wildcats, and “sabo-tabbies,” La Berge argues that felines are central to how Marxists have imagined the economy, and by asking what humans and animals owe each other in a moment of ecological crisis, La Berge joins current debates about the need for and possibility of eco-sociaTrade Review“Marx for Cats is an undomesticated and indefinable meow de coeur. You can open this book anywhere---it's a Marxist Choose Your Own Adventure---and come away as unsettled, possessed, and reflective as any transportative encounter with a cat might leave you.” -- Jordy Rosenberg, author of * Confessions of the Fox *“Who knew that following cats could open up history and enliven Marxism? This delightful archive of the feline in class struggle reminds us that cats are our comrades. Hand in paw, we have a world to win!” -- Jodi Dean, author of * Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Cat out of the Bag 1 Part I. Menace and Menagerie: The Feudal Mode of Production and Its Cats, 800–1500 1. Lion Kings 25 Intermezzo 1. The Lion-Cat Dialectic 53 2. The Devil’s Cats 58 Part II. The Feline Call to Freedom: Slavery and Revolution in the Age of Empire, 1500–1800 3. Divine Lynxes 95 Intermezzo 2. The Tiger-Tyger Dialectic 125 4. Revolutionary Tigers 129 Part III. Our Dumb Beasts: The Rise of the Bourgeoisie and Its Appropriation of Cats, 1800–1900 5. Wildcats 177 Intermezzo 3. The Cat-Mouse Dialectic 207 6. Domestic Cats, Communal and Servile 212 Part IV. Every Paw Can Be a Claw: Revolutions with Cats, Revolutions Against Capitalism, 1900–2000 7. Sabo-Tabbies 251 Intermezzo 4. The Cat-Comrade Dialectic 288 8. Black Panthers 294 Epilogue. Pussy Cats 329 Notes 339 Bibliography 363 Index 383

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Book SynopsisIn the most rigorous articulation of his philosophical system to date, Slavoj Žižek provides nothing short of a new definition of dialectical materialism.In forging this new materialism, Žižek critiques and challenges not only the work of Alain Badiou, Robert Brandom, Joan Copjec, Quentin Meillassoux, and Julia Kristeva (to name but a few), but everything from popular science and quantum mechanics to sexual difference and analytic philosophy. Alongside striking images of the Möbius strip, the cross-cap, and the Klein bottle, Žižek brings alive the Hegelian triad of being-essence-notion. Radical new readings of Hegel, and Kant, sit side by side with characteristically lively commentaries on film, politics, and culture.Here is Žižek at his interrogative best.Trade Review[This] is certainly the best organized and clearly structured of the author's “big” books … Žižek's writing style is much clearer (relatively speaking) than it was in earlier works and thus reflects the fact that many careless readers have (mis)read him simplistically … Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. * CHOICE *Few thinkers illustrate the contradictions of contemporary capitalism better than Slavoj Žižek. * John Gray, New York Review of Books *Like Socrates on steroids ... breathtakingly perceptive. The most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged in many decades * Terry Eagleton *The excitable fluency, ursine congeniality and gleeful readiness to provoke and offend all feed the sense of authentic sponanaeity and energy that has made Žižek somethig like European philosophy’s punk icon, packing out auditoriums around the world. * Josh Cohen, New Statesman *A gifted speaker—tumultuous, emphatic, direct—he writes as he speaks. * Jonathan Rée, Guardian *The most dangerous philosopher in the West * Adam Kirsch, New Republic *Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation * New Yorker *A penetrating new study that redefines a term that most would be wary of returning to: dialectical materialism. What the feeling of déjà vu in reading Sex and the Failed Absolute does come from is the re-experiencing of the excitement that characterised reading his first book back in 1989. * Scottish Left Review *a relentless iconoclast, a restless wordsmith, an inventive thinker with a hatred of received wisdom, an underminer of conventionally acknowledged truths. * Bookforum *Sex and the Failed Absolute is to Žižek’s corpus what Malevich’s Black Square was to his artistic oeuvre. In this watershed book, interweaving the odd couple of quantum physics and sexuality, Žižek offers readers the distilled essence of a new dialectical materialism. This reinvents the very foundations of Žižekian ontology * Adrian Johnston, Professor and Chair of Philosophy, University of New Mexico, U.S.A *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION: THE UNORIENTABLE SURFACE OF DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM THEOREM I: THE PARALLAX OF ONTOLOGY Modalities of the Absolute—Reality and Its Transcendental Supplement – Varieties of the Transcendental in Western Marxism - The Margin of Radical Uncertainty COROLLARY 1: INTELLECTUAL INTUITION AND INTELLECTUS ARCHETYPUS: REFLEXIVITY IN KANT AND HEGEL Intellectual Intuition from Kant to Hegel—From Intellectus Ectypus to Intellectus Archetypus SCHOLIUM 1.1: BUDDHA, KANT, HUSSERL SCHOLIUM 1.2: HEGEL’S PARALLAX SCHOLIUM 1.3: THE “DEATH OF TRUTH” THEOREM II: SEX AS OUR BRUSH WITH THE ABSOLUTE Antinomies of Pure Sexuation—Sexual Parallax and Knowledge—The Sexed Subject - Plants, Animals, Humans, Posthumans COROLLARY 2: SINUOSITIES OF SEXUALIZED TIME Days of the Living Dead – Cracks in Circular Time SCHOLIUM 2.1: SCHEMATISM IN KANT, HEGEL… AND SEX SCHOLIUM 2.2: MARX, BRECHT, AND SEXUAL CONTRACTS SCHOLIUM 2.3: THE HEGELIAN REPETITION SCHOLIUM 2.4: SEVEN DEADLY SINS THEOREM III: THE THREE UNORIENTABLES Möbius Strip, or, the Convolutions of Concrete Universality—The “Inner Eight”—(((Suture Redoubled)))—Cross-Capping Class Struggle—From Cross-Cap to Klein Bottle—A Snout in Plato’s Cave COROLLARY 3: THE RETARDED GOD OF QUANTUM ONTOLOGY The Implications of Quantum Gravity—The Two Vacuums: From Less than Nothing to Nothing – Is the Collapse of a Quantum Wave Like a Throw of Dice? SCHOLIUM 3.1: THE ETHICAL MOEBIUS STRIP SCHOLIUM 3.2: THE DARK TOWER OF SUTURE SCHOLIUM 3.3: SUTURE AND HEGEMONY SCHOLIUM 3.4: THE WORLD WITH(OUT) A SNOUT SCHOLIUM 3.5: TOWARDS A QUANTUM PLATONISM THEOREM IV: THE PERSISTENCE OF ABSTRACTION Madness, Sex, War— How to Do Words with Things—The Inhuman View – The All-Too-Close In-Itself COROLLARY 4: IBI RHODUS IBI SALTUS! The Protestant Freedom—Jumping Here and Jumping There—Four Ethical Gestures SCHOLIUM 4.1: LANGUAGE, LALANGUE SCHOLIUM 4.2 - PROKOFIEV’S TRAVELS SCHOLIUM 4.3: BECKETT AS THE WRITER OF ABSTRACTION

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Book SynopsisCrowds and Party channels the energies of the riotous crowds who took to the streets in the past five years into an argument for the political party. Rejecting the emphasis on individuals and multitudes, Jodi Dean argues that we need to rethink the collective subject of politics. When crowds appear in spaces unauthorized by capital and the state-such as in the Occupy movement in New York, London and across the world-they create a gap of possibility. But too many on the Left remain stuck in this beautiful moment of promise-they argue for more of the same, further fragmenting issues and identities, rehearsing the last thirty years of left-wing defeat. In Crowds and Party, Dean argues that previous discussions of the party have missed its affective dimensions, the way it operates as a knot of unconscious processes and binds people together. Dean shows how we can see the party as an organization that can reinvigorate political practice.Trade ReviewIn this enthralling and exhilarating book, Jodi Dean shows that, contrary to neo-anarchist cliche, the party form and class struggle are very far from being outmoded. The revival of the party has produced a surge of enthusiasm in contemporary left politics-an enthusiasm that Crowds and Party both explains and stokes up. -- Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist RealismJodi Dean's new book isn't just a timely reminder that to change our thoroughly and deliberately atomized society demands collective action and militant organization; it is also a passionate analysis of the fractured passion of shared political commitment, linking the enthusiasm of group experience with the sustained and steady discipline of popular empowerment. -- Peter Hallward, author of Damming the FloodWritten clearly, forcefully, and passionately, Dean gives us-the Left-not just a diagnosis of our defeat but, more importantly, a way out: the communist Party. -- Derek R. Ford * The Hampton Institute *Dean has a powerful point to make: political movements have to move beyond immediate expression-the crowd-and embrace long-term organization-the party. -- Matt Ray * Open Letters Monthly *Jodi Dean's book rejects those who invest positively in the individual or the multiple per se and instead asks for a new and more subversive collective subject of politics. From real crowds like the Occupy Movement to the theoretical conceptions of crowds and mobs, Dean's book interrogates the role of the crowd and the party in an attempt to provide a way forward politically. -- Alfie Bown * Hong Kong Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisAssembles some of the top secret Soviet documents, from the era of Stalin's purges. This title includes the dossiers, police reports, private letters, secret transcripts, and other documents that expose the hidden inner workings of the Communist Party and the dark inhumanity of the purge process.Trade Review"'This book will be of great value to students of the Terror and... the material, such as Bukharin's last letter, is astounding.' Michael J. Ybarra, Wall Street Journal 'It will be indispensable for all historians and researchers of communism, the USSR, and Stalinism for many decades to come.' Roy A. Medvedev, author of Let History Judge"

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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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Book SynopsisAndrei Lankov has gone where few outsiders have ever been. A native of the former Soviet Union, he lived as an exchange student in North Korea in the 1980s. He has studied it for his entire career, using his fluency in Korean and personal contacts to build a rich, nuanced understanding. In The Real North Korea, Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this opaque police state. After providing an accessible history of the nation, he turns his focus to what North Korea is, what its leadership thinks, and how its people cope with living in such an oppressive and poor place. He argues that North Korea is not irrational, and nothing shows this better than its continuing survival against all odds. A living political fossil, it clings to existence in the face of limited resources and a zombie economy, manipulating great powers despite its weakness. Its leaders are not ideological zealots or madmen, but perhaps the best practitioners of Machiavellian politics that can be found in the modern world. Even though they preside over a failed state, they have successfully used diplomacy-including nuclear threats-to extract support from other nations. But while the people in charge have been ruthless and successful in holding on to power, Lankov goes on to argue that this cannot continue forever, since the old system is slowly falling apart. In the long run, with or without reform, the regime is unsustainable. Lankov contends that reforms, if attempted, will trigger a dramatic implosion of the regime. They will not prolong its existence.Based on vast expertise, this book reveals how average North Koreans live, how their leaders rule, and how both survive.Trade ReviewIn his accessible and refreshingly fair-minded new book, Andrei Lankov does a fine job of making sense of the worlds most inscrutable state. ... Fizzing with anecdotes and insights, many of them provided by Lankovs countless contacts, it is a commanding overview of the countrys politics and society, and a significant contribution to policy debates in the United States and South Korea. * Francis Grove-White, International Affairs *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Introduction ; Transcription ; CHAPTER 1 The Society Kim Il Sung Built and How He Did It ; Captain Kim Returns Home ; The War and What came after ; Between Moscow and Beijing: The Foreign Policy of Kim Il Sung's North Korea ; Dealing with the South ; The Command Society ; A Country of Camps ; The World According to Kim Il Sung ; The Silver Lining in a Social Disaster ; The Birth of Juche, the Rise of the Son, and the Slow-Motion Demise of a Hyper-Stalinist Economy ; CHAPTER 2 Two Decades of Crisis ; And Then the World Changed ; Capitalism Reborn ; The State Withers Away ; Taking the Exit Option: Not an Exodus Yet, But ... ; Arrival in Paradise, aka Capitalist Hell ; Changing Worldviews ; CHAPTER 3 The Logic of Survival (Domestically) ; Reform as Collective Political Suicide ; Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle: (Not-So-Successful) Crackdowns on Market Activity ; A Disaster That Almost Happened: The Currency Reform of 2009 ; Still Poor and Malnourished, but Starving No More ; CHAPTER 4 The Supreme Leader And His Era ; The Belated Emergence of a <"Young General>" ; The Sudden Dawn of a New Era ; Collapse of the old guard ; The New Policy ; The New Logic ; Tensions with the South ; CHAPTER 5 Survival Diplomacy ; Playing the Nuclear Card ; Aid-Maximizing Diplomacy ; Meanwhile, in South Korea ... (the Rise of 386ers and Its Consequences) ; A Decade of Sunshine ; The Sun Sets ; The Entry of China ; Interlude The Contours of a Future: What Might Happen to North Korea in the Next Two Decades ; CHAPTER 6 What to Do about the North? ; Why Sticks Are Not Big Enough ; Why the Carrots Are Not Sweet Enough (and Why <"Strategic Patience>" Is Not a Great Idea, Either) ; Thinking Long Term ; The Hidden Benefits of Engagement ; Reaching the People ; Why They Matter: Working with the Refugees in South Korea ; CHAPTER 7 Being Ready for What We Wish For ; A Perfect Storm ; A Provisional Confederation as the Least Unacceptable Solution ; Something about Painkillers ... ; Conclusion ; Notes ; Index

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Book SynopsisReligion in China survived the most radical suppression in human history--a total ban of any religion during and after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1979). All churches, temples, and mosques were closed down, converted for secular uses, or turned to museums for the purpose of atheist education. China remains under Communist rule. But in the last three decades, religion has revived and thrived. Christianity has been the fastest growing religion for decades. Many Buddhist and Daoist temples have been restored. The state even sponsors large Buddhist gatherings and ceremonies to venerate Confucius and the legendary ancestors of the Chinese people. Traditional Chinese temples have sprung up in some areas. On the other hand, quasi-religious qigong practices, once ubiquitous in public parks throughout the country, are now rare. All the while, the authorities have carried out waves of atheist propaganda, anti-superstition campaigns, severe crackdowns on the underground Christian churches and vTrade ReviewYang's book Religion in China has brilliant chapters, some controversial but all provacative and worth considering. * The New York Review of Books *Table of ContentsPreface ; Chapter One: Explaining Religious Vitality ; Chapter Two: A Definition of Religion for the Social Scientific Study of Religion ; Chapter Three: Chinese Marxist Atheism and Its Policy Implications ; Chapter Four: Regulating Religion under Communism ; Chapter Five: The Red, Black, and Gray Markets of Religion ; Chapter Six: The Shortage Economy of Religion under Communism ; Chapter Seven: Oligopoly Dynamics: China and Beyond

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Book SynopsisJohn Gooding, Honorary Fellow in History, University of Edinburgh, ScotlandTrade Review'This excellent book will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable textbook for undergraduate students.' British East-West Journal 'Very readable, without any compromise in the quality of its scholarship.' British East-West Journal 'An outstanding book...Gooding has mastered the enormous literature on 19th and 20th century Russian history...A masterful presentation of material and interpretations familiar to those already working in the field.' Slavic and East European Journal '...a very competent and readable history of the last two centuries.' The Historical Association

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Book SynopsisGramsciâs Prison Notebooks are one of the most important and original sources of modern political philosophy but the Prison Notebooks present great difficulties to the reader. Not originally intended for publication, their fragmentary character and their often cryptic language can mystify readers, leading to misinterpretation of the text. The Routledge Guidebook to Gramsciâs Prison Notebooks provides readers with the historical background, textual analysis and other relevant information needed for a greater understanding and appreciation of this classic text. This guidebook: Explains the arguments presented by Gramsci in a clear and straightforward way, analysing the key concepts of the notebooks. Situates Gramsciâs ideas in the context of his own time, and in the history of political thought demonstrating the innovation and originality of the Prison Notebooks. Provides critique and analysis of Gramsciâs conceptualisation of politics and histoTrade Review"Schwarzmantel (Univ. of Leeds, UK) explains more fully the place of the 1971 Selections in the notebooks as a whole, relates them to the historical and political context in which they were written, and examines their influence on later thinkers and political developments. Schwarzmantel's explanation of Gramsci's main concepts and arguments, their relation to the controversies within the revolutionary movement of his day, and the ways in which they have been carried forward to the present are all excellent. Some critiques (e.g., that today's parties cannot play the role of the modern prince seem shallow), but overall, the book will be of great use to anyone interested in Gramsci and his thought." - J. C. Berg, CHOICE, Feb 2016 "This Guidebook will definitely become a most useful resource for Gramscian studies. John Schwarzmantel has achieved his aims, as formulated in his book's Preface, as the Guidebook 'introduces readers to Gramsci's highly original and exciting reflections on politics, history, philosophy and culture, which can help us make sense of our present epoch, different though it is in crucial aspects from the era in which Gramsci wrote his notes in the cell of a fascist prison'." Marx & Philosophy, Jan 2016 Table of Contents1. Gramsci before the Prison Notebooks 2. Nature and structure of the Prison Notebooks 3. Intellectuals and Education 4. History and Modernity 5. Politics, State, and Civil Society 6. Philosophy and Marxism 7. The afterlife and influence of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks

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Book SynopsisA modern take on a revolutionary icon, by an acclaimed scholar of communist historyTrade Review'A welcome gift: guidance from a generous, experienced, and wise comrade when we need it most. Highlighting Lenin's flexibility and cultivation of collective leadership, Le Blanc brings out the practical activism, principled politics, and revolutionary patience crucial to organizing the oppressed on a rapidly over-heating planet.' -- Jodi Dean, author of 'Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging''Crackling with intellectual life … Paul confronts opposing views, brings in evocative quotations from dead witnesses and living scholars, and wrestles with the most difficult interpretive questions. Don’t read this book to learn ‘the truth about Lenin’, read it to enter into Lenin’s world and to face the choices that he too faced.' -- Lars T. Lih, author of 'Lenin Rediscovered''This fresh and nuanced examination … is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Lenin's historical role and his relevance to today's movements for transformative change.' -- Ian Angus, author of 'The War Against the Commons: Dispossession and Resistance in the Making of Capitalism''A wonderful sketch of Lenin’s life and times, illustrating both Lenin’s complex personality and his remarkable insights ... With an excellent timeline, biographic sketches of the main characters, and a thorough bibliography ... this book is perhaps the best introduction to Lenin available in English.' -- Michael D. Yates, Director of Monthly Review Press and author of 'Can the Working Class Change the World?''Well-researched and dutifully contextualized, Le Blanc paints a striking portrait of Lenin as an unwavering champion of democracy.' -- Cliff Connolly, 'Cosmonaut''Fantastic, very interesting and important for our times.' -- Tamás Krausz, author of 'Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography''Brilliant … a tireless catalogue on the past and future of Lenin, Leninism, and revolution, offering indispensable insights into what is to be done amid the cascading catastrophes of today and tomorrow.' -- Ankica Čakardić, author of 'Like a Clap of Thunder: Three Essays on Rosa Luxemburg''Historian and activist Paul Le Blanc considers what the author of 'What is to be Done' has to say to today's radicals. What emerges are valuable contributions to the struggle against the ongoing catastrophes of war, poverty and climate chaos.' -- Alex de Jong, co-director of International Institute for Research and Education, Amsterdam'In lucid, jargon-free prose, Paul Le Blanc forces us to question what we thought we knew about the great revolutionary. Unpicking tenacious myths in a reasoned and discriminating tone, 'Lenin' is un-hagiographic and sometimes even impious. The result is a Lenin ripe for rediscovery, whose ideas are less distant than we might think.' -- Alan Wald, H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan'An incisive, engaging overview of Lenin and his revolutionary ideas.' -- Eric Blanc, author of 'Revolutionary Social Democracy: Working-Class Politics Across the Russian Empire, 1882-1917''From feminists to environmental activists, from trade unionists to those active in the movement for Black Lives, or justice for Trans, there's something here for all who believe that forging revolution and transformation of society will be necessary to … win liberation for all humanity.' -- Linda Loew, longtime socialist, feminist and union activist'Produced, with great skill – a compressed and very readable account of Lenin's life and ideas which is honest, attractive, and non-hagiographical.' -- Mike Taber, editor, 'Under the Socialist Banner: Resolutions of the Second International, 1889-1912''With great power of synthesis, the book addresses and clarifies fundamental issues of the Leninist struggle and is indispensable reading for the international left.' -- Flo Menezes, Brazilian composer, musical scholar, and revolutionary militantTable of ContentsPrologue: What’s the Point? 1. Who was Lenin? 2. Theory, Organization, Action (1901-1905) 3. The Revolutionary Explosion of 1905 4. Comrades and Coherence (1905-1914) 5. Engaging with Catastrophe (1914-1917) 6. The 1917 Revolution 7. Revolutionary Internationalism (1882-1922) 8. Besieged Fortress (1918-1922) 9. Unexplored Mountain (1922-1923) 10. Commit Yourself and Then See… Chronology of Lenin’s Life Biographical Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisA stunning edition of Marx and Engels' classic manifesto with an introduction by Jodi Dean and afterword by David Harvey.Trade Review'As a force for change, its influence has been surpassed only by the Bible. As a piece of writing, it is a masterpiece' -- GuardianTable of Contents1. Introduction by Jodi Dean 2. Manifesto of the Communist Party I. Bourgeois and Proletarians II. Proletarians and Communists III. Socialist and Communist Literature IV. Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties 3. Appendix: Prefaces to Various Language Editions 4. Afterword: Introduction to the 2008 Edition by David Harvey

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Book SynopsisThis is the sixth and final volume of L&W's comprehensive history of the British Communist Party, covering the debates of the last years - a period of accelerated change and reassessment, and ultimately dissolution. The book begins by situating the CPGB within the major social and cultural changes of the 1960s, and documents the hopes for renewal that were symbolised by the new social movements associated with May 68, and the Prague spring. It ends with the collapse of the party and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Despite all the new thinking and idealism, the party could not hold together. The book covers the Young Communist League's engagement with popular culture in the 1960s; the influence of the new social movements, especially feminism; the party's strong presence in the trade unions; CPGB relations with the Labour Party and labour movement; the increasing influence of Gramsci within the party, especially among a new generation of intellectuals; the Communist Universities of London;

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Book SynopsisErnest Mandel’s book is a study of Eurocommunism unlike any other. Written in the polemical tradition of Trotsky, its sweep extends well beyond the immediate prospects of the Communist Parties of Western Europe. Mandel traces the long historical process which has transformed the once embattled detachments of the Third International into the constitutionalist formations of “historic compromise” and “union of the people” today. He then goes on to argue that the national roads to socialism of contemporary Eurocommunism are the “bitter fruits of socialism in one country” in the USSR.Mandel’s book contains trenchant and documented criticisms of the ideas of Santiago Carrillo in Spain, the economic policies of the PCI in Italy, and the PCF’s theories of the State in France. But it also sets these Western developments in the context of European politics as a whole—discussing the Russian response to Carrillo, the organizationa

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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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 *

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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 *

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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

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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.

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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 *

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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 *

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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

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