Left-of-centre democratic ideologies and movements Books

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Book SynopsisWith a combined focus on social democrats in Northern and Southern Europe, this book crucially broadens our understanding of the transformation of European social democracy from the mid-1970s to the early-1990s.In doing so, it revisits the transformation of this ideological family at the end of the Cold War, and before the launch of Third Way politics, and examines the dynamics and power relations at play among European social democratic parties in a context of nascent globalisation. The chronological, methodological and geographical approaches adopted allow for a more nuanced narrative of change for European social democracy than the hitherto dominant centric perspective. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of social democracy, the European Centre-left, political parties, ideologies and more broadly to comparative politics and European politics and history.The Introduction chapter of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open ATable of ContentsIntroduction: North and South in European and Global Social Democracy 1. The Socialist International as a Transnational Political Actor, 1950–1970 2. From Democratic Socialism to Neoliberalisation: Political and Ideological Evolution of Nordic Social Democrats and Portuguese Socialists After the Economic Crisis of the 1970s 3. Put (Southern) Europe To Work: The Nordic Turn of European Socialists in the Early 1990s 4. Social Democracy, Globalisation and the Ambiguities of "Europeanisation": Revisiting the Southern European Crises of the 1970s 5. Logics of Influence: European Social Democrats and the Iberian Transition to Democracy 6. Radicalism and Reformism in Post-war Italian Socialism: A Comparative View 7. Cultural Affinity and Small-State Solidarity: Sweden and Global North–South Relations in the 1970s 8. Looking South: The Role of Portuguese Democratisation in the Socialist International’s Initiatives Towards Latin America in the 1970s 9. Contribution to the Critique of "Social Democracy in One Country": The Case of Sweden 10. Defining Progress in Post-war Mediterranean: Communist Movements and their Influence in Algeria and Egypt after 1945. Epilogue: North-South and Social Democratic Transformations in Europe and Beyond

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Book SynopsisThe idea of socialism has given normative grounding and orientation to the outrage over capitalism for more than 150 years, and yet today it seems to have lost much of its appeal. Despite growing discontent, many would hesitate to invoke socialism when it comes to envisioning life beyond capitalism. How can we explain the rapid decline of this once powerful idea? And what must we do to renew it for the twenty-first century? In this lucid, political-philosophical essay, Axel Honneth argues that the idea of socialism has lost its luster because its theoretical assumptions stem from the industrial era and are no longer convincing in our contemporary post-industrial societies. Only if we manage to replace these assumptions with a concept of history and society that corresponds to our current experiences will we be able to restore confidence in a project whose fundamental idea remains as relevant today as it was a century ago – the idea of an economy that realizes freedom in solidarity. The Idea of Socialism was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the Political Book of 2015. Trade Review"Axel Honneth explores the contemporary meaning of the socialist ideal. Drawing on Hegel, Dewey, Marx, and the utopian socialist tradition, Honneth argues – with great power – that socialism is about harmonizing ideals of freedom and solidarity, creating institutions of social freedom that more fully realize the Enlightenment’s normative project. Creating that order will require socialists to think beyond economy and social class, to imagine a form of democratic society animated by an experimental spirit – a society that expands the scope of problem-solving through free communication among equals. I hope this important and illuminating book gets the wide readership it deserves."Joshua Cohen, Stanford University"Axel Honneth makes a lucid and compelling case for renewing the utopian impulse of the early Marx in the context of the present. In this quite remarkable book, Honneth asks why various contemporary forms of discontent do not easily transform into a vision of the future. He returns to the early documents of socialism in order to mark their limits and to formulate a more substantial account of social freedom. The great ambition of this small book is to show that a more robust understanding of social freedom, cooperative life, and ideals of solidarity, can be derived from a reformulated account of the social sphere. In his view, freedom only makes sense on the basis of cooperative orientations. This early ideal can, and must, be renewed in light of the contemporary differentiation of needs, and the contemporary political demands on communication and recognition. Mindful of what remains vibrant in the past and imperative for the future, Honneth deftly shows how the ideal of socialism can orient our thought and action in the contemporary political world."Judith Butler, University of California

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Book SynopsisA philosophical consideration of Soviet Socialism that reveals the hidden desire for capitalism in contemporary anticapitalist discourse and theory This book, a philosophical consideration of Soviet socialism, is not meant simply to revisit the communist past; its aim, rather, is to witness certain zones where capitalism’s domination is resisted—the zones of countercapitalist critique, civil society agencies, and theoretical provisions of emancipation or progress—and to inquire to what extent those zones are in fact permeated by unconscious capitalism and thus unwittingly affirm the capitalist condition. By means of the philosophical and politico-economical consideration of Soviet socialism of the 1960 and 1970s, this book manages to reveal the hidden desire for capitalism in contemporaneous anticapitalist discourse and theory. The research is marked by a broad cross-disciplinary approach based on political economy, philosophy, art theory, and cultural theory that redefines old Cold War and Slavic studies’ views of the post-Stalinist years, as well as challenges the interpretations of this period of historical socialism in Western Marxist thought.Trade Review"This ambitious work proposes to reveal how anti-capitalist critique and institutions of civil society ‘are in fact permeated by an unconscious form of capitalism and thus unwittingly affirm the capitalist condition.’"—The Russian Review "A stimulating introduction into Soviet Marxism and a persuasive critique of contemporary anti-capitalism’s thirst for acceleration, atomization, and alienation... Practicing the Good is an invaluable read for anyone interested in how Soviet Marxism of the 1960-70s can re-evaluate our view on contemporary capitalism."—Marx & Philosophy"It is to be counted as one of the most important publications for leftist self-criticism in recent years. "—Radical Philosophy

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Book SynopsisThis volume of essays constitutes the first history of Labour and left-wing politics in the decade when Margaret Thatcher reshaped modern Britain. Leading scholars explore aspects of left-wing culture, activities and ideas at a time when social democracy was in crisis. There are articles about political leadership, economic alternatives, gay rights, the miners’ strike, the Militant Tendency and the politics of race. The book also situates the crisis of the left in international terms as the socialist world began to collapse. Tony Blair's New Labour disavowed the 1980s left, associating it with failure, but this volume argues for a more complex approach. Many of the causes it championed are now mainstream, suggesting that the time has come to reassess 1980s progressive politics, despite its undeniable electoral failures. With this in mind, the contributors offer ground-breaking research and penetrating arguments about the strange death of Labour Britain.Trade Review‘This volume is a reappraisal of the 1980s as not a time of political failure but also ‘a creative decade for the left. Victories may have been few but there was no lack of energy’ (p. 2). It claims that if the right won the economic argument of this period, the left helped set the social and moral agenda of the twenty-first century.’Twentieth Century British History ‘An illuminating book and always a serious one, offering the reader a number of full and useful discussions.’Cercles Revue‘This book reassesses both the Labour Party and the wider left in the 1980s, suggesting that this was a more creative and exciting period than has often been assumed. … The wide-ranging chapters map out important themes in the study of Labour and the left in the 1980s, and set new agendas for research.’ — English Historical Review -- .Table of ContentsForeword by Peter TatchellIntroduction: new histories of Labour and the left in the 1980s – Jonathan Davis and Rohan McWilliamPart I: The crisis of the Labour Party1 Retrieving or re-Imagining the past? The case of 'Old Labour', 1979–94 – Eric Shaw 2 Leading the Labour Party in the 1980s – Martin Farr 3 Labour's liberalism: gay rights and video nasties – Paul Bloomfield 4 Responsible capitalism: Labour’s industrial policy and the idea of a National Investment Bank during the long 1980s – Richard Carr Part II: The British Left in a global context5 Neil Kinnock's perestroika: Labour and the Soviet influence – Jonathan Davis 6 The international context: end of an era – John Callaghan Part III: Currents of the Wider Left7 Militant’s laboratory: Liverpool City Council's struggle with the Thatcher government – Neil Pye8 ‘Fill a Bag and Feed a Family': the miners’ strike and its supporters – Maroula Joannou 9 'Race Today cannot fail': black radicalism in the long 1980s – Robin Bunce Index

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the impact that nostalgia has had on the Labour Party’s political development since 1951. In contrast to existing studies that have emphasised the role played by modernity, it argues that nostalgia has defined Labour’s identity and determined the party’s trajectory over time. Jobson outlines how Labour, at both an elite and a grassroots level, has been and remains heavily influenced by a nostalgic commitment to an era of heroic male industrial working-class struggle.This commitment has hindered policy discussion, determined the form that the modernisation process has taken and shaped internal conflict and cohesion. More broadly, Labour’s emotional attachment to the past has made it difficult for the party to adjust to the socioeconomic changes that have taken place in Britain. In short, nostalgia has frequently left the party out of touch with the modern world. In this way, this study offers an assessment of Labour’s failures to adapt to the changing nature and demands of post-war Britain and will be of interest to both students and academics working in the field of British political history and to those with a more general interest in Labour’s history and politics.Trade Review‘The struggle to try and get the Labour Party “face the future”, as our 1945 manifesto was titled, has — irony of ironies — its own rich history. Richard Jobson's fascinating study, Nostalgia and the post-war Labour Party, documents this thoroughly.’Bridget Phillipson MP, New Statesman‘A serious contribution to the understanding of struggles within the Labour Party [which] raises significant questions about how parties engage with their own past to their advantage and disadvantage and how the past informs and sometimes perhaps restricts current politics. Most importantly, it shows that nostalgia is not simply an issue for the right, for Brexit and Trump voters, but is a charge that the left too has to deal with.’Tobias Becker, History Workshop Journal -- .Table of Contents1 Introduction - Labour, nostalgia and 'nostalgia-identity'2 Revisionism and the battle over clause IV - 1951-633 White heat and the Labour party 1963-704 Labour's alternative economic strategy 1970-835 Reinventing the Labour party 1983-926 The New Labour era 1992-20107 Back to the past? 2010 to the present8 ConclusionBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisWaiting for the revolution is a volume of essays examining the diverse currents of British left-wing politics from 1956 to the present day. The book is designed to complement the previous volume, Against the grain: The far left in Britain from 1956, bringing together young and established academics and writers to discuss the realignments and fissures that maintain leftist politics into the twenty-first century. The two books endeavour to historicise the British left, detailing but also seeking to understand the diverse currents that comprise ‘the far left’. Their objective is less to intervene in ongoing issues relevant to the left and politics more generally, than to uncover and explore the traditions and issues that have preoccupied leftist groups, activists and struggles. To this end, the book will appeal to scholars and anyone interested in British politics.Table of ContentsIntroduction: The continuing importance of the history of the British far left – Evan Smith and Matthew Worley 1 Revolutionary vanguard or agent provocateur: students and the far left on English university campuses, c. 1970–90 – Jodi Burkett2 Not that serious? The investigation and trial of the Angry Brigade, 1967–72 – J. D. Taylor3 Protest and survive: the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Labour Party and civil defence in the 1980s – Jacquelyn Arnold4 Anti-apartheid solidarity in the perspectives and practices of the British far left in the 1970s and ‘80s – Gavin Brown5 ‘The Merits of Brother Worth’: the International Socialists and life in a Coventry car factory, 1968–75 – Jack Saunders6 Making miners militant? The Communist Party of Great Britain in the National Union of Mineworkers, 1956–85 – Sheryl Bernadette Buckley7 Networks of solidarity: the London left and the 1984–85 miners’ strike – Diarmaid Kelliher8 ‘You have to start where you’re at’: politics and reputation in 1980s Sheffield – Daisy Payling9 Origins of the present crisis? The emergence of ‘left-wing’ Scottish nationalism, 1956–79 – Rory Scothorne and Ewan Gibbs10 A miner cause? The persistence of left nationalism in postwar Wales – Daryl Leeworthy11 The British radical left and Northern Ireland during ‘the Troubles’ – Daniel Finn12 The point is to change it: a short account of the Revolutionary Communist Party – Michael Fitzpatrick13 The Militant Tendency and entrism in the Labour Party – Christopher Massey14 Understanding the formation of the Communist Party of Britain – Lawrence ParkerIndex

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Book SynopsisThis book explores how the East German Writers Union became a site for the contestation of writers' roles in GDR society with consequences well beyond the literary community. In the German Democratic Republic words and ideas mattered, both for legitimizing and criticizing the regime. No wonder, then, that the ruling SED party created a Writers Union to mold what writers publicly wrote and said. Its chief task was ideological: creating a socialist and antifascist culture. But it was also supposed to advance its members' professional interests and enable them to act as public intellectuals with a say in the direction of socialism. Many writers demanded that it pursue this second function as well, which brought it into conflict with the SED. This book explores how the union became a site for the contestation of writers' roles in GDR society with consequences well beyond the literary community. Union leaders, pressured by the SED or the secret police, usually acquiesced in enforcing regime demands, but by the 1980s many authors had adapted to the rules of the game, exploiting theirunion membership to insulate themselves from reprisal for their carefully worded critiques and in so doing beginning to break down limitations on public speech. The book explores how and why in the 1970s the Writers Union helped normalize relations between writers and state, yet over the course of the 1980s inadvertently aided the expansion of permissible speech, ultimately helping destabilize the East German system. Thomas W. Goldstein is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Central Missouri.Trade ReviewAn account of the complex and evolving relationship between the ruling party, the Stasi and the Writers Union. * EUROPEAN HISTORY QUARTERLY *Goldstein expertly picks apart the East German Writers Union during the GDR . . . . * H-NET SOCIALISMS *[A] strong contribution to our understanding of cultural politics in the GDR. . . . Goldstein's book is a nuanced addition to the scholarship on the role of intellectuals and everyday life in East Germany. A great resource for graduate students and, because of Goldstein's admirably declarative prose, undergraduate students trying to get a basic sense of current research. . . . [W]ell researched, thorough, and judicious . . . . -- Curtis Swope * GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW *An intriguing read. The diversity of perspectives is a commendable achievement, and the range of meaningful and fruitful discussions of mostly uncanonical materials proves that there is a lot still to discover even for an academic target audience that already has a substantial knowledge of the GDR and its cultural sphere. * JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES *Goldstein comes to the important and reasonable conclusion that it was not socialism that caused the collapse of East Germany, but governmental intolerance of voices suggesting how better to achieve a socialist state. . . . Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction German Writers Associations through 1970 Socioeconomic Functions The Era of No Taboos? 1971-75 A Disciplining Instrument, 1976-79 Defending Peace, Defining Participation, 1979-83 Years of Resignation, 1983-85 Glasnost in the GDR? 1985-89 Coming Full Circle, 1989-90 Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis After the breakdown of socialist and communist systems in the East, it had become fashionable to declare the so-called "end of utopia" ("end of history," "end of narratives"). The authors of this volume do not share this view but think that it is time to rehabilitate utopian thought. The political concept of Utopia that has given its name to these transcendental projections onto the world has been too narrow to describe and analyze the moving forces of the mind perceiving human existence beyond reality. By broadening the perspectives of utopian studies, these essays enable the reader to reconstruct scholarly paradigms and strategies of utopian, complex and holistic thinking in modern cosmology, philosophy, sociology, in literary, historical and political sciences, and to compare traditions and ways of Western utopian thought to the practice in the East.Trade Review “…a highly readable and structured discussion about utopian thinking at the beginning of the 21st century…It is indeed fortunate that political scientists, historians, philosophers, art critics, and literary theorists have come together to share their thinking on utopia and utopian thought at this disastrous moment of human history, when many are asking if there is a future to which to look forward.” · European LegacyTable of Contents List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction Jörn Rüsen, Michael Fehr and Thomas W. Rieger Chapter 1. The Necessity of Utopian Thinking: A Cross-National Perspective Lyman Tower Sargent PART I: POLITICS, CONSTRUCTION AND FUNCTIONS OF UTOPIAN THINKING Chapter 2. Aspects of the Western Utopian Tradition Krishan Kumar Chapter 3. Visions of the Future Michael Thompson Chapter 4. Utopia, Contractualism, Human Rights Richard Saage Chapter 5. On the Construction of Worlds: Technology and Economy in European Utopias Wolfgang Pircher PART II: ARTIFICIAL WORLDS AND THE 'NEW MAN' Chapter 6. Bodies in Utopia and Utopian Bodies in Imperial China Dorothy Ko Chapter 7. Science, Technology and Utopia: Perspectives of a Computer-Assisted Evolution of Humankind Klaus Mainzer Chapter 8. ‘Thinking about the Unthinkable’: The Virtual as a Place of Utopia Claus Pias Chapter 9. Natural Utopianism in Everyday Life Practice – An Elementary Theoretical Model Ulrich Oevermann PART III: MUSEUM AS UTOPIAN LABORATORY Chapter 10. Haunted by Things: Utopias and Their Consequences Donald Preziosi Chapter 11. Art – Museum – Utopia: Five Themes on an Epistemological Construction Site Michael Fehr Chapter 12. Art, Science, Utopia in the Early Modern Period Wolfgang Braungart Chapter 13. Utopiary Rachel Weiss PART IV: UTOPIA AS A MEDIUM OF CULTURAL COMMUNICATION Chapter 14. The Utopian Vision, East and West Zhang Longxi Chapter 15. Trauma: A Dystopia of the Spirit Michael S. Roth Chapter 16. From Revolutionary to Catastrophic Utopia Slavoj Zizek Chapter 17. The Narrative Staging of Image and Counter-Image: On the Poetics of Literary Utopias Wilhelm Vosskamp Chapter 18. Rethinking Utopia: A Plea for a Culture of Inspiration Jörn Rüsen Notes on Contributors Index

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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 SynopsisEugene V. Debs exploded upon the national scene in 1894 as the leader of a sensational strike by his American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Parlor Car Company—a job stoppage which paralyzed the country's transportation network for nearly two weeks. On January 1, 1897, the polarizing public figure Debs declared his allegiance to international socialism, emerging as the most widely recognized socialist in America. He would thereafter tour the country relentlessly, speaking to large audiences and writing hundreds of articles on political and economic themes over the ensuing three decades. Debs almost singlehandedly established a new political party, the Social Democracy of America, in the summer of 1897, building upon the remnants of the depleted ARU. The organization advanced a double agenda, seeking to promote both electoral politics and the construction of socialist colonies on the frontier—a dual focus which led to internal tensions and a bitter split. In 1898 Debs cast his lot with Milwaukee publisher Victor L. Berger in a new organization dedicated to political action, the Social Democratic Party of America. After a split of the older and larger Socialist Labor Party of America in 1899, protracted unity discussions between the Debs group and an organized body of former SLP dissidents ensued. This unity effort was marked by Debs's first run for president of the United States on a joint Social Democratic ticket in November 1900. After heated on-again off-again negotiation between the two groups, a marriage was finally brokered in the summer of 1901 and the Socialist Party of America was launched. The party would soon grow to become the third biggest in American politics, with Debs enthusiastically heading the Socialist ticket in 1904 in the second of his five runs for the presidency.Trade Review"There is too much richness here to describe, so much more that the reader will discover. Read entry after entry or skip through and look for items of particular interest. Any method will satisfy curiosity about Debs and the particular era and will warm the heart of any socialist. But the final word on this volume, like its predecessors, belongs to the exquisite care for historical detail. Extensive footnotes follow many entries, explaining and exploring topics as no Introduction could do. Although the footnotes are ostensibly a sidebar, in them the editors have written a deep scholarly volume about Debs and his world." —Paul Buhle, Democratic Left "Gene Debs tirelessly urged the self-organization of working people in the United States as their only sure road to freedom. His role in the formation of the Socialist Party particularly provides lessons for our day." —Mark Lause "The United States has a rich tradition of democratic socialism, and Eugene Debs — defender of freedom, foe of despotism — is one of its most important figures. With their brilliant work of excavation, Tim Davenport and David Walters have restored socialism and Debs to their rightful place in the pantheon of US working-class politics." –Shawn Gude, Jacobin senior editor

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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 SynopsisThe late-Victorian and Edwardian East End was an area not only defined by its poverty and destitution, but also by its ethnic and religious diversity. In the neighbourhoods of East London diasporic communities interacted with each other and with the host society in a number of different contexts. In Socialism and the Diasporic ‘Other’ Daniel Renshaw examines the sometimes turbulent relationships formed between Irish Catholic and Jewish populations and the socialist and labour organisations agitating in the area. Employing a comparative perspective, the book analyses the complex relations between working class migrants, conservative communal hierarchies and revolutionary groups. Commencing and concluding with waves of widespread industrial action in the East End, where politics were conflated with ethnic and diasporic identity, this book aims to reinterpret the attitudes of the turn-of-the-century East London Left towards ‘difference’. Concerned with both protecting hard-won gains for the industrial proletariat and championing marginalised minority groups, the ‘correct’ path to be taken by socialist movements was unclear throughout the period. The book simultaneously compares the experiences of the Irish and Jewish working classes between 1889 and 1912, and the relationships formed, at work, at worship, in political organisations or at school, between these diasporic groups.Trade ReviewReviews 'By looking at the strong currents of anti-Semitism and anti-Catholic/Irish sentiment that ran through different strands of pre-1914 British socialism and trade unionism, this book makes a significant contribution to the revitalisation of British labour history.' Dr Jon Lawrence, University of Cambridge‘This is a very thorough study of radical Irish Catholic and Jewish migrants in East London between 1889 and 1912 and their wider relationships.’ Mike Davis, ChartistTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1 Diaspora, Migration, and Irish–Jewish Interactions in London, 1800–1889 2 Socialist Ideology, Organisation, and Interaction with Diaspora and Ethnicity 3 Socialism and the Religious ‘Other’ 4 Concerns of the Communal Leaderships 5 Grass-roots Interactions in the Diasporic East End 6 Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFrom the moment Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader, Corbynism has been dismissed, derided or romanticised, but rarely taken seriously as a set of ideas on its own terms. This book critically outlines the shared understanding of capitalism and its alternatives that unites the component parts of the Corbyn movement. It decodes the central tenets of the Corbynist worldview, showing their coherence with contemporary political-economic shifts and conspiratorial understandings of global capitalism as a 'rigged system' common to populist nativism in an age of Trump and Brexit.Trade Review"Using Marxist critical theory, this timely and courageous book analyses Corbyn's left populism as significantly diverging from the key traditions of the class struggle and democratic left." -- Dr David Hirsh * University of London *"This book is much needed . . . it cuts through the fog of uncritical adulation and unthinking hostility toward Jeremy Corbyn to shine a light on the origins and dynamics of this often misunderstood part of modern British politics." -- Professor Paul Thompson'In Corbynism: A Critical Approach Bolton and Pitts have produced the most thorough and alarming overview of the Corbyn worldview to date….Corbynism: A Critical Approach, is the best book on the phenomenon of Corbynism by some distance because it slots the movement firmly within this camp of moralising and intolerant populism. In doing so it ought to free up space on the broader Left for a more critical approach to the Corbyn project, not least because it is written by two activists who have by their own admission long-yearned for “the Left to take the reins.' -- James Bloodworth, Unherd'In a fascinating critique from the anti-capitalist left, Matt Bolton and Frederick Harry Pitts argue that Corbynism’s big move is away from seeing capitalism as a system with its own unalterable dynamics, compelling all within it to operate according to its own logic, to seeing its cruelties instead as the work of malign individuals.' -- Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian'A fascinating new book, Corbynism: A Critical Approach, by two Marxist academics, Matt Bolton and Frederick Harry Pitts, argues that Mr Corbyn’s brand of socialism is a breeding ground for conspiracy theories. The essence of Corbynism is the belief that a “cosy cartel” of capitalists have constructed a “rigged system” for their own benefit.' -- Bagehot, The Economist'Anyone who wants to understand what a Corbyn government would be like might be better off studying the movement, rather than the man. Corbynism: A Critical Approach, a recent study by Matt Bolton and Frederick Harry Pitts, both former Corbynistas steeped in leftwing thought, provides several interesting insights. The authors argue convincingly that the Labour leader’s image as a moral paragon has been crucial to his rise — as has the argument that “Jeremy” has always been on the right side of history.' -- Gideon Rachman, The Financial Times'Matt Bolton and Frederick Harry Pitts’ Corbynism: A Critical Approach is a rare left-wing critique by authors who are virtual Marxists. Inevitably, it has been all but ignored, which is a fault that needs remedying as this rich and urgent work deserves better than that…Bolton and Pitts’ are worth reading because theirs is an explanation not just of the Corbyn Labour party but of the post-crash West.' -- Nick Cohen, The Spectator'Jeremy Corbyn…He really means it. His position is ideological and you have to understand his ideology. A recent book, Corbynism: A Critical Approach by Matt Bolton and Frederick Harry Pitts, makes this effort. The authors are two Marxist academics who argue that Mr Corbyn’s view of the single market is an expression of his particular brand of socialism…It is not, however, necessary to have an opinion on this to grasp the authors’ central and powerful point. Corbynism, they suggest, is a version of socialism derived from one understanding of Marx in which the role of class is replaced by “the elite” and “the people.' -- Daniel Finkelstein, The Times'In a recent book ostensibly focused on Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party, but partly about recent British political history, the academics Matt Bolton and Frederick Harry Pitts explain the last decade in terms of “austerity populism”. Cuts, welfare crackdowns and the case for leave, they explain, were all sold to the public via the exclusion of supposedly unproductive undesirables: “scroungers” in the austerity narrative; “migrants” in the stories that swirled around the 2016 referendum.' -- John Harris, The GuardianTable of ContentsIntroduction: Taking Corbynism SeriouslyChapter 1. Explaining 2017: The Strange Death of the Deficit Chapter 2. Taking Back Control: From Bennism to Corbynism Chapter 3. The Rigged Economy? Capitalism and Conspiracy Theory Chapter 4. The Making of a Saint: Corbynism as Moral Community Chapter 5. International Corbynism: Nation, State and People Conclusion: A Critical Marxist Alternative

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Book SynopsisJeremy Corbyn's rapid ascent to the leadership of the Labour Party, driven by a groundswell of popular support particularly among the young, was met at the time by a baffled media. Just where did Jeremy Corbyn come from? In Searching for Socialism, Leo Panitch and Colin Leys argue that it is only by understanding Corbyn's roots in the Bennite Labour New Left's long struggle to transcend the limits of 'parliamentary socialism' and democratise the party, as a precondition for democratising the state, can you understand his surge to become leader of the party.Closely analyzing the forces inside the party aligned against Corbyn's leadership, Panitch and Leys explain what happened between the validation of the Corbyn project in the 2017 election, while advancing an ambitious programme of democratic socialist measures unmatched anywhere since the 1970s, and the electoral defeat amidst the Brexit conjuncture of 2019. They argue that while this defeat marked the farthest point to which the generation formed in the 1970s was able to carry the Labour new left project, it seems unlikely that the new generation of activists will quickly see any other way forward than continuing the struggle inside the Labour Party, so as to fundamentally change it. In the face of the contradictions being generated by twenty-first-century capitalism, and the need for discovering and developing new political forms adequate to addressing them, this book is required reading for democratic socialists, not just in Britain but everywhere.Trade ReviewSearching for Socialism will be extremely useful to socialists and Labour members for years to come. It will be required reading for those new to socialist politics. -- Elliot Dugdale * The World Transformed *Panitch and Leys have understood a lot of what happened and what went wrong - including the dysfunction at the very top, the full story of which has yet to be told. -- Mike Phipps * Labour Hub *Leo Panitch and Colin Leys ... confront the weaknesses of Corbynism against the background of the strengths which it shares with Bennism and which distinguish both from the previous experiences of more traditional Labour lefts. -- Stephen Marks * Labour Briefing *Throughout the book the authors emphasise the importance of extending democracy both within the Labour Party and in society, and in this they are to be applauded. -- David Lane * LSE Review of Books *Searching for Socialism is extremely articulate and well researched. It should be widely read by socialists both within the Labour Party and outside. -- Camilla Royle * Socialist Review *

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Book SynopsisBritish politics is in an extraordinary place. Grace Blakeley introduces an indispensable collection of analysis and comment.In Futures of Socialism, Sam Gindin and James Meadway reassess socialist strategy after the coronavirus; Dalia Gebrial and Siân Errington debate austerity and precarity; Joshua Virasami and Simukai Chigudu explore anti-racism and the legacy of Empire; and Leo Panitch and Momentum co-founder James Schneider probe the limits of parliamentary socialism. Chris Saltmarsh assesses the prospects for an eco-socialist Green New Deal and Cat Hobbs argues for the ongoing centrality of public ownership to socialist policy.Futures of Socialism takes an in-depth look at the reasons for Labour's 2019 election defeat, with Unite's Andrew Murray on Labour's Brexit position, Tom Mills on the British media, Gargi Bhattacharyya and Jeremy Gilbert on better ways to build a political project, and Keir Milburn on generation left. The anthology also compares the fortunes of the British left with socialist movements overseas, in despatches from Europe and America.Blakeley draws on the talents of all sections of the post-Corbyn left to survey the prospects of 'a movement that has dominated the horizons of our lives'.Trade ReviewOne of the most inspiring, thought-provoking and insightful voices on the left offers a route map out of this crisis - a must read for anyone who wants to change the world. -- Owen Jones (for Stolen)This collection, assembled by the formidable Grace Blakeley, mixes humility, urgency and scholarship to map a viable path forward for socialists in the UK and around the world -- Rob Delaney, co-creator of CatastropheA timely intervention, and an impressive collection ... For the British left, Futures of Socialism provides a much-needed tonic in these ill times. * Bright Green *

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Book SynopsisA new progressive generation is on the rise in the United States, reflected in the mushrooming rolls of the Democratic Socialists of America (90,000 mostly twentysomething members), Marxist explainers in Teen Vogue, and perhaps most famously of all, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.The Rise of a New Left is the first book to look closely at this new politics. Propelled by interviews with AOC and the other key figures and organizations who have shaken up American politics, the book includes portraits of groups like the Democratic Socialists of America, the Sunrise Movement, and Justice Democrats, explaining who they are, where they come from, and what they want. Investigating the panoply of strategies employed by the new movements and their relationship to politicians from Bernie Sanders to Nancy Pelosi, the book describes how the generational focus on insurgent electoral campaigns both aims to transform the Democratic Party and threatens to be captured by it.Written with panache by a member of this rising generation, this book immerses the reader in a youth culture the likes of which hasn't been seen since the Sixties.Trade ReviewThe Rise of a New Left is an engrossing behind-the-scenes account of our decade's breakout political movement. It is also an invaluable second draft of history that readers and scholars will consult for many years to understand the opportunities and challenges of socialist organizing in the first decades of the 21st century. -- Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, author of The Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global CitizenI was on the verge of getting sad about politics, again. Then I picked up The Rise of a New Left, I was reminded of all the energy on the young left, and I started feeling hope again. If you don't know this movement, you could find no better way to learn about it than this book. -- Doug Henwood, host, Behind the News, KPFAAn exceptionally well-informed report from the ranks of the most dynamic, constructive movement in contemporary American politics. Few books can be profitably read as history, journalism, and political field manual, but this one succeeds on all three fronts. -- Patricia O'Toole, author of The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He MadeAn important primer on the young activists and politicians whose mandate is nothing less than saving our country. -- Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends: A NovelAn insider's account of how young progressives are influencing American politics and culture...an inspirational introduction to young progressives and the causes they're fighting for. * Publishers Weekly *A well-reported introduction to a growing, controversial movement among the younger electorate. * Kirkus *A sobering yet inspirational record of what leftists have been up to post-Bernie....by highlighting the work of a diverse array of left organizations and their leaders, most of whom are women, Lipsitz does justice to the Left as a whole. -- James J. Jackson * Democratic Left *Lipsitz's The Rise of a New Left: How Young Radicals Are Shaping the Future of American Politics is the best book I've read on the evolution of radical politics in recent years. -- John Nichols * Cap Times *

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Book SynopsisIn an uprising heard around the world, people in Argentina took to the streets on December 19th & 20th, 2001, shouting “¡Qué se vayan todos!” These words (All of them out!), and the thousands of people banging pots and pans, opened a period of intense social unrest and political creativity that led to the collapse of government after government. Neighborhoods organized themselves into hundreds of popular assemblies across the country, the unemployed workers movement acquired a new visibility, workers took over factories and businesses. Deeply involved in these movements were the activists who made up Colectivo Situaciones. With the embers of that December’s aftermath still burning, Colectivo Situaciones militantly researched and wrote 19 and 20. Locating themselves among the “horizontally organized subjectivities that insisted on not being represented by politicians but maintaining and developing their own powers of political expression” that Micheal Hardt notes in his introduction, Colectivo Situaciones gathers, interrogates, and offers forth the words of unemployed workers, factory occupiers, insurgent intellectuals, and children of the disappeared. From their investigations is revealed the birth of a new social protagonism and the de-institutional power (potencia) they wield. 19 and 20 has been praised as this generation's 18th Brumaire and as Marx’s analysis of that struggle helped set the stage for, twenty years later, the Paris Commune we find ourselves here. Revisiting and exploring the forms of counterpower that emerged from the shadow of neoliberal rule we find the book's potencia has only grown. In the intervening years the analysis of Colectivo Situaciones has been passed from hand to hand and multitudes of citizens from different countries have learned their own ways to chant ¡Qué se vayan todos!, from Iceland to Tunisia, from Spain to Greece, from Tahrir Square to Black Lives Matter. Colectivo Situaciones’ practice of militant research--of engaging with movements’ own thought processes--resonates with everyone seeking to think current events and movements, and through that to gather the foundation of a commune for the 21st century.Trade Review“19 & 20 is a book-event that has become a key for social movements around the world. In it, Colectivo Situaciones practice militant research as an act of listening (escucha) and experimentation that translates the powerful mobilizations that took the streets to end neoliberal plundering (saqueo) into an inspiring and crucial praxis of thinking. Learning from the events instead of imposing old categories on their singularities, this book is a crucial source of inspiration on militant research and situated thinking. A singular work of pedagogy from below, this new edition comes in a timely moment where the deepening of the neoliberal expropriation of life that the pandemic has made so explicit meets with the tenth anniversary of the global uprisings of 201. Today, once again, 19 & 20 offers a crucial map for experimenting in the situated praxis of political thought.” —Susana Draper, coeditor of Femincide and Global Accumulation and author of Afterlives of Confinement and 1968 Mexico“Assemblies may become thinking machines. And experiments of resistance may give rise to alternative experiences of sociability. Colectivo Situaciones develops out of these findings, that emerged within the 2001 resurrection in Argentina, a powerful reflexive research: a truly magnificent effort to explore the potentialities of a future beyond capitalism.”—Stavros Stavrides, author of Towards the City of Thresholds “This is a book born in the barricades, neighborhood assemblies, and factory occupations of Argentina’s 2001 uprising against neoliberalism. Written by movement participants, it’s an inspiring account of the rebellion and a grassroots model of how to research and theorize a movement that forged a new way of doing politics from below. The English translation of such a classic book that’s been passed around revolutionary circles for decades is a cause for celebration and hitting the streets!”—Benjamin Dangl, author of The Five Hundred Year Rebellion: Indigenous Movements and the Decolonization of History in Bolivia “Twenty years ago, Argentina erupted in blockades and assemblies, occupations, demonstrations, and communal kitchens. In both its circumstances and forms, the 2001 uprising presaged the protests of 2011 and the struggles of our time. Colectivo Situaciones’ 19 & 20 provided both the sharpest analysis of that moment and a model of theoretical practice: nimble, dialogical, embedded in the movements with whom it thought, made in common. To rediscover it today is to do more than reconnect with the recent past; it is inevitably also to ask how it illuminates what we have lived since, and how we can continue to extend its lessons into the future.”—Rodrigo Nunes, author of Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organization “A long decade before Occupy Wall Street, Argentineans poured into the streets to reject austerity and short the circuits of neoliberal capitalism, proving that state violence was no match for popular refusal. But this is not a book about Argentina or even Latin America as a whole, a brutal laboratory where neoliberalism was imposed in blood and fire. It's about a way of thinking that is also a doing, about what the concrete experience of rebellion teaches us about how the world moves, and how to turn that movement into thought. Find yourself in this book.”—Geo Maher, author of Building the Commune and A World Without Police The 2001 uprising in Argentina is a major flashpoint in a wave of popular struggles that repudiated the neoliberal capitalist order and authored new forms of non-capitalist social construction. Colectivo Situaciones gives us important analyses of the uprising and its legacies, the roots of Argentina’s financial and political crisis, and changes in contemporary forms of anticapitalist mobilization and resistance. Their close attention to grassroots practices of resistance, political organizing, and world-making is emblematic of their method of militant research, which itself has been an inspiration to so many. Those interested in contemporary social movements, political theory, and the history of Argentina and the region will find much to appreciate in this wonderful new edition.—Jennifer S. Ponce de León, author of Another Aesthetics Is Possible: Arts of Rebellion in the Fourth World WarTable of ContentsTranslator’s Preface by Nate Holdren & Sebastian Touza Preface by Michael HardtThe Ballad of Buenos Aires by toni negriIntroduction to the 20th Anniversary Edition by Marcello Tarì Introduction by Colectivo Situaciones The Great TransformationFrom the Market as Utopia to BiopowerThe New Social Protagonism: An Ethical Operation December 19th and 20th, 2001: A New Type of Insurrection Insurrection Without a SubjectWords and Silences: From Interpretation to the UnrepresentableRupture of the Chain of TerrorDe-instituent InsurrectionProblems and ChallengesThe Positive “No”IrreversibilityInsurrectional ViolenceIn the Streets Situational Thought in Market ConditionsThought and ConsciousnessKnowing and ThinkingQuestions of Visibility Multiplicity and Counterpower in the Piquetero Experience The Roadblock as PrecedentThe Conjuncture and the Options of ThoughtRepresentation The Inclusion of the Excluded ... As ExcludedPiqueteros as a Political IllusionFrom Multiplicity to CounterpowerThinking the Radicality of StruggleThe Case of the MTDs (Unemployed Workers’ Movement)Identity as CreationThe 19th and 20th Looting, Social Bond, and the Ethic of the Teacher-MilitantLiberation and Dependency?LootingAt School Expression and RepresentationAnother Logic: ExpressionThat Obscure Object of DesireA Paradoxical Situation: the Negation of Representation from RepresentationShortcuts Neighborhood AssembliesFrom 19th and 20th to the AssemblyThe Neighborhood as Space of SubjectificationPolitical DesperationBeing ThereAssemblies and PiquetesMemory and Nation The Diffuse Network: From Dispersion to MultiplicityConsensus and HegemonyThe Neoliberal RevolutionExplicit Network and Disconnection (The Barter Club)The Norm and the Ethic of Self-AffirmedMarginalizationFrom Dispersion to MultiplicityDiffuse NetworkSituational Knowledges (The Escraches)Counterpower Epilogue Appendix 1: On the Barter Club Appendix 2: Causes and Happenstance: Dilemmas of Argentina’s New Social ProtagonismThe Surprise (Rupture, De-institution and Visibility)Phenomenology of an Apparent ReconstructionThe Ballot Boxes and the StreetsPhenomenology of Counterpower Appendix 3: That December Two Years from the 19th and 20th Afterword: Disquiet in the ImpasseImpasse: Time SuspendedGovernmentality and New GovernanceNew Governance and Good GovernmentLatin America: Traversing the CrisisMythologiques the Crafts of Politics

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Book SynopsisAnglo-American relations, the so-called ‘Special Relationship’, reached a new era with the rise of New Labour and the New Democrats in the late-1980s and early-1990s. Richard Carr reveals the untold story of the transatlantic ‘Third Way’­ by analysing how Tony Blair and Bill Clinton won power and ultimately how they lost it. Using newly unearthed archives and interviews with key players, he investigates the relationship between the administrations and sheds new light on big events such as the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, the handover to George W. Bush, and the controversial Iraq War.Trade ReviewMarch of the Moderates is grounded in a detailed analysis of the New Labour/New Democrats' legacy. It sheds new light on the relationship between Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, and unearths unpublished information on figures such as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Neil Kinnock. As such it provides a valuable record of a slice of history. * Cambridge Independent *Carr’s story makes engaging history. * The Herald *Engaging … 7/10. * The Irish Times *A convincing case is made for progressive pragmatism, as the academic Richard Carr traces how New Labour and the US Democratic Party found their way out of such political wilderness. * The i *A vivid, accessible, detailed account of a key moment in the Left ... Full of illuminating detail and revealing vignette, allowed by the author’s huge range of interviews, correspondence and archival research. As the Left again struggles in the wilderness, it should be required reading for Democrats and Labour members seeking a leader and a programme. * Journal of Contemporary History *An engaging history. * Western Daily Press *Timely ... An insightful guide to the benefits of the centre-left working together on both sides of the Atlantic. * Tides of History Books of 2019 *March of the Moderates is an authentic and clear-eyed analysis of Anglo-American politics in the eighties and nineties. Readers may not agree with all its conclusions, but its commentary should make all rethink their perspectives on this vital period. * Dick Gephardt, Democratic Minority/Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, 1989-2003, and Presidential Primary Candidate, 1988 and 2004 *March of the Moderates is a clear, informed and informative account of the ways in which Bill Clinton’s ‘New Democrats’ and Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’ were able to build successful political movements of the centre left. It has much to consider for British and American audiences alike - and offers insights into both the policies and the personalities. * Charles Clarke, former British Home Secretary and distinguished visiting fellow at the Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California *March of the Moderates is a well-researched, illuminating analysis of the realignment of progressive politics in the US and UK. Anyone looking to understand how Bill Clinton and the New Democrats and Tony Blair and New Labour regained their electorates’ trust and, ultimately, managed to change their countries for the better would do well to read it. * Al From, founder of the Democratic Leadership Council and author of The New Democrats and the Return to Power *An engrossing account of the journey to power for inspirational leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. It shows how they crafted a new future for their countries, charting both the successes and the failures. This readable book brings it home that vision and courage are needed to unlock opportunity for those who are so frequently overlooked. A timely reminder that progressive politics is about building opportunity for all, and that there is no crime in aspiration. * Baroness Helen Liddell, former Secretary of State for Scotland *At a time when trust in politics and hope for a better future is ebbing away, this book shows it is worth a trip back to the 1990s to remind ourselves how the New Democrats and New Labour built up that trust, won five elections between them and then used that power to build a more optimistic and equal society. Of course, mistakes were made - and we should learn from them - but Blair and Clinton were the most successful centre-left leaders since FDR in the US and Attlee in the UK. * Rachel Reeves MP, Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, and author of Women of Westminster *The book is absolutely brilliant. It’s not just for those who are into that sort of thing, but if you are into relatively recent British and American politics it’s a fantastic read with some great interviews in it. * Matt Forde, The Political Party Podcast *Table of Contents1. Too Tied to Myth; Too Rooted in the Past 2. Acceptable in the Eighties 3. Harbingers of the Revolution 4. Office and Opposition 5. New Democrats, New America 6. Learning from the Best 7. Blair and Brown's Britain 8. The Third Way International 9. Intervention and Iraq

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Book Synopsis'ONE OF THE MOST OUTSTANDING, ORIGINAL INTELLECTUALS OF HIS GENERATION', Stuart Hall, author of The Hard Road to RenewalThe work of the pioneering historian Raphael Samuel opened up new vistas of historical enquiry. He was committed to the idea of people's history, in which he excavated the ordinary lives of those often overlooked or discarded by other writers. This 'unofficial knowledge' transformed what history was, who was allowed to do it, and who it was for.Workshop of the World brings the full range and depth of Samuel's historical writing on nineteenth-century Britain to the fore. From his pioneering study of the influence of the Catholic Church on England's Irish population to his expansive and erudite essay on the itinerant labourers of Victorian Britain, the collection captures both the breadth and depth of his learning. Guided by both a political engagement as well as a methodological commitment to uncovering the stories of ordinary people, Workshop of the World will help introduce Raphael Samuel's work to a new generation of readers.Trade ReviewWorkshop of the World reveals how Raphael Samuel dived into the nineteenth century to find just how onions were pickled or the temperature of cheese tested, extending far and wide from rough sleepers in Willesden to Roman Catholic missionaries in Wallasey. John Merrick's collection of Samuel's essays provides the reader with an invaluable introduction to the political and cultural background which inspired this insightful and exploratory radical historian. -- Sheila RowbothamThese essays are works of extraordinary intellectual energy, refusing to identify method with political orientation, luminous in their historiographic clarity, which turn our attention from the commonplaces of history to the exceptions that deny the clichés: to a post- 1800 world driven by seasons, not the clock, a post-industrial revolution world of production dominated not by the factory, but the farm, the workshop, the cottage, where skills are created and work degraded, where the machine does not rule; of peri-urban villages of brickmakers, and much, much more besides. A feast of erudition with purpose. -- David Edgerton, author of The Rise and Fall of the British NationJohn Merrick and Verso should be thanked for giving a new generation of readers the chance to encounter the youngest of the British Marxist historians, and the one closest in time to ourselves. Samuel was a charismatic teacher, an extraordinarily well-read historian, and a generous man - his too-long-forgotten voice greets us from every line. -- David RentonAn excellent selection ... Merrick's smart introduction and deftly chosen texts should revive interest and admiration in a socialist historian whose eye for unconsidered trifles led him beyond the political binaries of his time and ours. -- Michael Ledger-Lomas * Engelsberg Ideas *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Making of a People's Historian, by John MerrickPeople's HistoryHeadington Quarry: Recording a Labouring CommunityComers and GoersWorkshop of the World: Steam Power and Hand Technology in Mid-Victorian BritainA Spiritual Elect? Robert Tressell and the Early SocialistsThe Roman Catholic Church and the Irish PoorNotes

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Book SynopsisThe election in Chile of the Marxist leader of the Socialist Party, Salvador Allende, to the presidency in October 1970 inaugurated a political situation unique in Latin America and of world-wide significance. Allende's Popular Unity coalition embraced Socialists and Communists and campaigned on an election programme of unprecedented radicalism - nothing less than the abolition of monopoly capitalism and imperialism in Chile. In this book, Régis Debray, recently released from his Bolivian gaol, questioned President Allende about his strategy for socialism. These discussions ranged widely over the history of the workers' movement in Chile, the strength of imperialism in Latin America, the experience of the first months of the Allende government, the role of the Chilean armed forces, Allende's personal background and friendship with Che Guevara, the seizure of land by peasants since the Popular Unity victory, and the international outlook of the new Chile.In an introductory essay, Debray furnished an analysis of Chilean history and politics which situated Allende in the past and present of the country and explored the dynamics of the class struggle now unfolding there. For this new anniversary edition, leading Chilean leftist scholar Camila Vergara has written a new introduction which appraises the book in the light of recent political developments in Chile.

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Book SynopsisFor more than a century, municipal socialism has fired the imaginations of workers fighting to make cities livable and democratic. At every turn propertied elites challenged their right to govern.Prominent US labor historian, Shelton Stromquist, offers the first global account of the origins of this new trans-local socialist politics. He explains how and why cities after 1890 became crucibles for municipal socialism. Drawing on the colorful stories of local activists and their social-democratic movements in cities as diverse as Broken Hill, Christchurch, Malmö, Bradford, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Hamilton, OH, the book shows how this new urban politics arose.Long governed by propertied elites, cities in the nineteenth century were transformed by mass migration and industrialization that tore apart their physical and social fabric. Amidst massive strikes and faced with epidemic disease, fouled streets, unsafe water, decrepit housing, and with little economic security and few public amenities, urban workers invented a local politics that promised to democratize cities they might themselves govern and reclaim the wealth they created. This new politics challenged the class power of urban elites as well as the centralizing tendencies of national social-democratic movements. Municipal socialist ideas have continued to inspire activists in their fight for the right of cities to govern themselves.Trade ReviewThe culmination of Stromquist's lifetime of impressive scholarship on rank-and-file workers and socialist movements, Claiming the City? arrives right on time as we explore the possibilities of transformation at the municipal scale. Astonishingly sweeping in its range of fine-grained case studies, the book teems with comparative insights while it traces transnational connections established by a mobile working class and internationalist commitments. -- David Roediger teaches American Studies at University of Kansas. His books include The Sinking Middle Class?I'm sure that Shelton Stromquist's monumental book will have a lasting impact. It is an inspiring work by a historian of great stature on a very important, but much neglected, topic; it will certainly resonate throughout discussions of history and socialist politics. -- Marcel van der Linden, International Institute of Social HistoryThis magisterial account of socialist and labor activism at the local level sweeps ambitiously across Europe, the US, Australia, and New Zealand. Shelton Stromquist eloquently unearths a global movement of "internationalism from below" that transformed cities and, as well, reshaped national and global. politics. Claiming the City is a magnificent achievement that vividly demonstrates the value of global labor history. -- Julie Greene, Professor of History, University of Maryland at College Park

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Book SynopsisWilliams examines the colonial and anti-colonial arguments of Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Jeremy Bentham, and L.T. Hobhouse. He reveals some of the central ambiguities that characterise the ways that liberal thought has dealt with the reality of an illiberal world.Trade Review"Progress, Pluralism, and Politics reconstructs a significantly more intricate story of liberalism than what is typically told. The subtlety of Williams' analysis, and his willingness to provide a nuanced account of both the liberal tradition and the individual authors that he considers in his book, are really appreciated." Brian Schmidt, Carleton University"Progress, Pluralism, and Politics makes a timely contribution to the recent debates on liberalism's historical liaisons with imperialism. David Williams insightfully reconstructs the philosophical aporias that liberal anticolonialism has found difficult to avoid and even more difficult to resolve." Onur Ulas Ince, Singapore Management University and author of Colonial Capitalism and the Dilemmas of Liberalism

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Book SynopsisThrough a critique of Left realism, culturalism, and pessimism from the standpoint of heterodox Marxism and Black radicalism, Gary Wilder insists that we place questions of solidarity and temporality at the center of Left political thinking. He makes a bold case for embracing a concrete utopian politics of the possible-impossible adequate to current planetary crises.Table of ContentsPreface | ix Introduction: The Opposite of Pessimism Is Not Optimism | 1 I. Refiguring Politics 1. The Possible- Impossible: Dialectical Optics and Uncanny Refractions (Here, Now, Us) | 17 2. Concrete Utopianism and Critical Internationalism: Refusing Left Realism | 35 3. Practicing Translation: Beyond Left Culturalism | 62 4. Of Pessimism and Presentism: Against Left Melancholy | 86 Intermezzo 5. Solidarity | 109 6. Anticipation | 122 II. Unthinking History 7. Time as a Real Abstraction: Clock- Time, Nonsynchronism, Untimeliness | 139 8. Dialectic of Past and Future | 157 9. It’s Still Happening Again: Ontology, Hauntology, and Ellison’s Dialectics of Invisibility | 191 10. A Prophetic Vision of the Past: Glissant’s Poetics of Nonhistory | 221 III. Anticipating Futures 11. The World We Wish to See | 263 Acknowledgments | 291 Notes | 295 Index | 363

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Book SynopsisThe Everyday Nationalism of Workers upends common notions about how European nationalism is lived and experienced by ordinary people—and the bottom-up impact these everyday expressions of nationalism exert on institutionalized nationalism writ large. Drawing on sources from the major urban and working-class centers of Belgium, Maarten Van Ginderachter uncovers the everyday nationalism of the rank and file of the socialist Belgian Workers Party between 1880 and World War I, a period in which Europe experienced the concurrent rise of nationalism and socialism as mass movements. Analyzing sources from—not just about—ordinary workers, Van Ginderachter reveals the limits of nation-building from above and the potential of agency from below. With a rich and diverse base of sources (including workers' "propaganda pence" ads that reveal a Twitter-like transcript of proletarian consciousness), the book shows all the complexity of socialist workers' ambivalent engagement with nationhood, patriotism, ethnicity and language. By comparing the Belgian case with the rise of nationalism across Europe, Van Ginderachter sheds new light on how multilingual societies fared in the age of mass politics and ethnic nationalism.Trade Review"The relationships of workers and the modern labor movement to social categories such as nationality, ethnicity, class, and religion are complex and poorly understood, usually treated separately from everyday experiences. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including a unique set of 'proletarian tweets,' this superb book both illuminates the Belgian case and provides a model for future research."—John Breuilly, London School of Economics"The Everyday Nationalism of Workers challenges the assumption that nationalism was imposed from above in the decades before the First World War. Based in extensive evidence, including the equivalent of 'tweets' from Belgian workers, Maarten Van Ginderachter's vivid examples build a convincing argument that will engage historians and political scientists interested in working-class patriotism."—Janet Polasky, University of New Hampshire"This well-written, innovative, and engaging study pushes us to reorient our understanding not only of language and national identity in Belgium, but also how to go about studying them. Students unfamiliar with Belgian history will have no problem jumping right into this book, for Van Ginderachter concisely introduces and contextualizes all key issues. One could even say that it serves as a kind of primer on modern Belgian history. It will be useful not only to readers interested in Belgian history, but also to those studying nationalism, language, ethnicity, and labor movements in modern European history."—Matthew G. Stanard, Journal of Social History"Van Ginderachter presents in vivid detail personal stories and interactions among different social classes....[This] volume is a valuable contribution to the study of nationalism."—Zeying Wu, Political Science Quarterly"Van Ginderachter gives a penetrating account of the attitudes of Flemish and Walloon workers toward the fragile Belgian national project and toward their respective and increasingly politicized ethnic identities.Showing that nationalism has been instrumental in the democratic critique of power, and not only in the exercise of exclusivist and antidemocratic power, is among this book's significant accomplishments."—Jakub Benes, H-Nationalism"All too often, nationalism studies and labour studies have followed separate paths, making it difficult to explore the way in which ordinary working-class people interpreted nationalist discourses. With this book, Maarten Van Ginderachter makes a significant contribution to counterbalance this trend while helping scholars and the general public to get acquainted with the role that national discourses played in Belgian history."—Lucas Poy, The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History"This sociohistorical narrative provides insights of contemporary significance, as it coincides with projects of nationbuilding that seem to be rampant alongside the rise of rightwing populism across the world....The Everyday Nationalism of Workers offers useful reading not only for scholars interested in the intersections of labour, history, and colonialism or methodological innovations but also for practitioners of labour activism."—Asmita Bhutani Vij, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism"Van Ginderachter provides us with a refreshing look at national identities among the socialist urban working class of a society with several competing narratives of nationhood."—David J. Hensley, Journal of Modern History"[The Everyday Nationalism of Workers] has made a major contribution to the study of nationalism by investigating the complexities of class, religion, and ethnic identity in Belgium before the First World War....Van Ginderachter makes a powerful argument about nationalism as both pervasive and malleable."—Carl Strikwerda, American Historical Review"Martin van Ginderachter's brilliant study entitled The Everyday Nationalism of Workers provides a detailed case study of the Belgian Workers Party (BWP) and its attempt to forge a sense of national identity that appealed to their core constituency, i.e. industrial workers, but that was still capable of differentiating the BWP's vision of nation from that of its bourgeois rivals."—Stefan Berger, Moving the SocialTable of ContentsIntroduction: Workers into Belgians, Flemings and Walloons 1. A Socialist Pillar of a Hyperliberal State 2. Voting the Nation 3. Nationalist Celebrations and Mass Entertainment 4. An Anti-Militaristic State in Militaristic Times 5. The Royal and Colonial Paradox 6. Schooling the Nation 7. Encounters with the Belgian Flag and the National Anthem 8. Proletarian Tweets 9. Language, the Flemish Movement, and the Nation Epilogue: The First World War

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Book SynopsisThe role of Yugoslav socialist art in emerging global modernisms.Trade Review"Still, the problem of integrating national stories into greater, transnational narratives is a key challenge in the field today – a challenge that Nonaligned Modernism takes head-on. With its emphasis on larger socio-political forces and the institutional structures they engendered, the book offers a thorough, well-researched cultural history of a country that still deserves a more prominent place in the art histories of modernism, 'global' or otherwise." RACAR“Videkanić calls for more attention to be paid to self-governing Yugoslavia and the Nonaligned Movement, with their message of resistance to Western capitalist and colonial hegemony through economic and political cooperation, cultural exchange, justice, and respect for sovereignty, with an eye to both the post-Yugoslav successor states and the global situation. This call is all the more urgent in 2023, when the consequences of Western capitalist exploitation and neocolonialism are becoming more and more evident, not least in the form of perpetual refugee crises, global warming, and the extinction of nonhuman animal and plant species.” H-Socialisms

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Book SynopsisToward the end of his administration (2010-2015), then Uruguayan President Jose 'Pepe' Mujica made headlines across the world with a couple of unusual speeches at United Nations assemblies in Rio de Janeiro and New York that were heatedly anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist, anti-globalisation and anti-climate change all fuelled by a libertarian socialist concept of freedom. This Sancho Panza-like figure was not only one of the few presidents of developing countries not to have somehow got personally rich while in government, but was known to live modestly as a practicing farmer and gave away two-thirds of his salary to his left-wing political organisation and to social housing projects. Even more bizarre was the fact that he had become president of the country whose government he had tried to overthrow forty years earlier in a revolutionary guerrilla war, an exploit for which he spent over a decade in military jails after being shot, severely wounded and tortured. This book is an introduction to the politics and philosophy of an unrepentant permanent militant whose evolution took him from defeated guerrilla warrior to successful presidential candidate without inconsistencies or betrayals, whatever his adversaries from right and left may claim. The study sets Mujica not only in his Uruguayan and Latin American context but also within an International Left that is coming out of mourning for the loss of so-called existing socialism as they search for solutions to lessen the damage done by rampant neoliberal economics and to find creative alternatives. Stephen Gregory's polemic is essential reading for all those interested in discovering Uruguay's unique position in a Latin America where the political right is in decline and leftist governments are moving to the middle ground.

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Book SynopsisFidel Castro is one of the most interesting and controversial personalities of our time he has become a myth and an icon. He was the first Cuban Caudillo the man who freed his country from dependence on the USA and who lead his people to rediscover their national identity and pride. Castro has outlived generations of American presidents and Soviet leaders. He has survived countless assassination attempts by the CIA, the Mafia, and Cubans living in exile. He has become one of the greatest politicians of the 20th Century. His biography, and the history of his country exemplify the tensions between East and West, North and South, rich and poor. As Castro''s life draws to a close, the question as to what will become of Cuba is more important that ever. Will Castro open Cuba to economic reform and democratization, or stick to his old slogan socialism or death? In this remarkable, up-to-date reconstruction of Castro''s life, Volker Skierka addresses these queTrade Review"A comprehensive and highly readable biography written in a remarkably even-handed tone." The Guardian "Volker Skierka has written the book that those wanting to understand the present-day politics of Cuba and its ruler have been awaiting for a long time. He has done so with a freshness, simplicity and elegance that makes it a pleasure to read ... accessible and fascinating to the casual reader and the specialist alike." BBC History Magazine "An exceptional, evenhanded portrait of an undeniably strong leader's strengths and weaknesses." Midwest Book Review "A fascinatingly good read and a treasure trove of information." Morning Star "Volker Skierka's study of Castro stands out for its admirable clarity and accessibility. Synthesizing a wealth of literature, and casting a cool eye on the official pieties of both Havana and Washington, Skierka has drawn a critical but far from unsympathetic portrait of this extraordinary figure of the Cold War world whose personal tenacity ensured that Cuban Communism survived with him into the new millennium." James Dunkerley, Queen Mary UniversityTable of ContentsList of plates. A Note of Thanks. Acknowledgements. Preface to the English Edition. 1. The Heroic Myth. 2. The Young Fidel. Among Jesuits. Among gangsters. 3. The Young Revolutionary. Storm and stress: Moncada. “Che”, the Argentinean. Stormy crossing on the Granma. A guerillero in the Sierra Maestra. 321 against 10,000. 4. The Young Victor. Communists and “barbudos”. 1,500 revolutionary laws. 5. Old Enemies, New Friends. The great powers at the gates. The CIA, the Mafia and the Bay of Pigs. Fidelismo. “Mongoose” and “Anadyr”. Thirteen days on the brink of a third world war. Three gamblers. 6. The Long March with Che. Moscow, Beijing, and Havana. The new man. The demise of Che. 7. Bad Times, Good Times. War and peace with Moscow. Ten million tons. Into the Third World. The revolution devours its children. 8. Alone Against All. Exodus to Florida. Rectificacion and perestroika. The Soviet imperium collapses. The brother’s power. War economy in peacetime. 9. The Eternal Revolutionary. Class Struggle on a dollar basis. Cuba and the global policeman. Castro, God and the Pope. Freedom or “socialismo tropical”. 10. Don Quixote and History. Notes. Bibliography. Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[An] immensely ambitious, careful, and data-rich study. . . . Those trying to pin down with greater precision the legacy of communism now have a model to emulate."---Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs"In this immensely ambitious, careful, and data-rich study, Pop-Eleches and Tucker do not merely explore the historical legacy of communism in eastern Europe; they also tackle the far more difficult problem of distinguishing its impact from that of other factors." * Foreign Affairs *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Country Code Abbreviations Used in Figures 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 xv 1 Communism's Shadow 1 2 Living through Communism 32 3 Methods and Data 63 4 Democracy 99 5 Markets 136 6 Social Welfare 186 7 Gender Equality 215 8 Temporal Resilience and Change 247 9 Legacies and Communism 282 Bibliography 313 Index 333

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Book SynopsisThe remarkable run of self-proclaimed "democratic socialist" Bernie Sanders for president of the United States has prompted-for the first time in decades and to the shock of many-a national conversation about socialism. A New York Times poll in late November found that a majority of Democrats had a favorable view of socialism, and in New Hampshire in February, more than half of Democratic voters under 35 told the Boston Globe they call themselves socialists. It's unclear exactly what socialism means to this generation, but couple with the ascendancy of longtime leftwinger Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the Labour Party in the UK, it's clear there's a historic, generational shift underway.This book steps into this moment to offer a clear, accessible, informative, and irreverent guide to socialism for the uninitiated. Written by young writers from the dynamic magazine Jacobin, alongside several distinguished scholars, The ABCs of Socialism answers basic questions, including ones that many want to know but might be afraid to ask ("Doesn't socialism always end up in dictatorship?", "Will socialists take my Kenny Loggins records?"). Disarming and pitched to a general readership without sacrificing intellectual depth, this will be the best introduction an idea whose time seems to have come again.Table of ContentsBhaskar Sunkara is the founding editor and publisher of Jacobin magazine.

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Book SynopsisIn 1939, residents of a rural village near Chengdu watched as Lei Mingyuan, a member of a violent secret society known as the Gowned Brothers, executed his teenage daughter. Six years later, Shen Baoyuan, a sociology student at Yenching University, arrived in the town to conduct fieldwork on the society that once held sway over local matters. She got to know Lei Mingyuan and his family, recording many rare insights about the murder and the Gowned Brothers' inner workings. Using the filicide as a starting point to examine the history, culture, and organization of the Gowned Brothers, Di Wang offers nuanced insights into the structures of local power in 1940s rural Sichuan. Moreover, he examines the influence of Western sociology and anthropology on the way intellectuals in the Republic of China perceived rural communities. By studying the complex relationship between the Gowned Brothers and the Chinese Communist Party, he offers a unique perspective on China's transition to socialism. In so doing, Wang persuasively connects a family in a rural community, with little overt influence on national destiny, to the movements and ideologies that helped shape contemporary China.Trade Review"Di Wang's rich volume on the Sichuan Paoge offers a major contribution to the history of Chinese secret societies. Based in part on the fascinating thesis of a sociology student at Yenching University, the study brilliantly illuminates the complex linkages between rural society and culture, the limits of local government, and Western-inspired intellectual efforts to arrive at a new understanding of peasant life." -- David Ownby * author of Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid-Qing China *"Violence and Order on the Chengdu Plain is the first monograph in English that is solely dedicated to the study of paoge, one of the most influential secret societies in the upper- and middle-Yangzi regions in pre-1949 China. An elegant microhistory, this work weaves an intimate study with larger social and political contexts involving rebellions, revolutions, foreign invasion, state penetration, and peasant resistance that characterized twentieth-century China." -- Huaiyin Li * University of Texas at Austin *"Without doubt, Di Wang's new book represents an excellent example of a microhistory writing in the field of modern Chinese history." -- Shaofan An * Frontiers of History in China *"Every once in a blue moon, this reviewer finishes a book and thinks: 'Now this is the kind of book I aspire to write.' Di Wang's Violence and Order on the Chengdu Plain is one of those rare books....Full of pathos and interwoven with complex narratives, Violence and Order is rich in anthropological and sociological data collected in the 1930s and 1940s, and complete with entertaining and humanizing historical anecdotes." -- Kelly Hammond * China Review International *"Violence and Order on the Chengdu Plain is an illuminating study of how secret societies operated in early twentieth-century Sichuan and how they have been understood....[The book] adds to the recent flourishing of studies of Sichuan in the Republican period." -- Henrietta Harrison * Journal of Asian Studies *"Violence and Order on the Chengdu Plain is a far-reaching contribution to scholarship on secret societies, local governance, popular culture, and rural society in the first half of China's twentieth century that deserves to be widely read, by both specialists and nonspecialists alike." -- Benno R. Weiner * Twentieth-Century China *"Wang has made an impressive contribution to our understanding of Chinese secret societies, specifically the Paoge....this book is highly readable and is a welcome addition to the historiography of modern China." -- Hongyan Xiang * Pacific Affairs *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Two Voices Joined in the Chengdu Plain chapter abstractThe academic disciplines of sociology and anthropology took root in 1920s China under the influence of American scholars and missionaries. Among these pioneers were Shen Baoyuan's teachers in the Department of Sociology at Yenching University in Beijing. Under their influence, Shen aspired to become a "rural activist" and went to the countryside to learn about rural issues from peasants. In the summer of 1945 she traveled to the village she called Hope Township in the Chengdu Plain, Sichuan Province, to investigate the Gowned Brothers. This introduction discusses past scholarship of secret societies and traces the intellectual origins of Shen's investigation that built the academic foundation for her fieldwork. 1A Public Execution chapter abstractShen Baoyuan created the pseudonym Hope Township to protect the privacy of the people she investigated. However, based on the information in her report as well as other historical sources, this chapter confirms that Hope Township is in fact Chongyiqiao, a northern suburb of Chengdu. Lei Mingyuan, the central personality in Shen's report and head of the local branch of the Gowned Brothers, publicly lynched his daughter and the young tailor who worked for the family in response to rumors that the two were engaged in an affair. Despite the brutal and brazen nature of his crimes, however, Lei did not face any charges. This chapter details the horrific crime and its ramifications, looking at the problematic prevalence of lynching and the rule of law at the time. 2A Local Band of the Gowned Brothers chapter abstractThe Chengdu Plain, in rural western Sichuan, was one of the most affluent areas in all of inland China. All aspects of geography, ecology, economy, lifestyle, and local culture and customs enhanced the development and survival of the Gowned Brothers, who thrived here. This chapter describes these factors as well as the growth of the secret society. The organization was founded in the early Qing period with the goal of "overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming." In its long struggle against the Qing government, the Gowned Brothers developed a solid organizational structure and extensive power network. A large proportion of Sichuan's male population were members and played an active role in local control and security. This chapter documents how this secret society assumed and enforced dominance of local communities. 3Spirituality and Customs chapter abstractThis chapter explores the spiritual beliefs and actions of the Gowned Brothers and looks at how these reinforced the secret society's power structure. Paoge members took what was traditional and fashioned a variety of specialized rites and customs for themselves. Over the past forty or so years, historians and students of Chinese society have taken a much-needed neutral, in some sense anthropological, stance toward China's broad landscape of rites, beliefs, and religious and ceremonial practices. This chapter turns to the unique observations of Shen Baoyuan, who was fascinated with what many in academe of her time thought of as arcane and superstitious ploys. It begins with a short sketch of how traditional rites and beliefs were acted out in the Paoge's own local areas. Popular religions were closely tied to local culture, and the Gowned Brothers worshipped Guandi, which brought members together to fight for a common goal. 4Secret Codes and Language chapter abstractIn her investigation, Shen Baoyuan documented unique words used by Paoge members in everyday life, rituals, and communication, often referred to as "black words" or "hidden lingo." Her 1946 report explained pointed out that the very name of the Paoge originates from an agenda of "national spirit" and "revolutionary ideas," which was a way to refer to the anti-Manchu revolution. Haidi, documenting the organization's history, language, structure, and other information, was the organization's canonical text. The Gowned Brothers created their own language, which reflected their unique political ideas, identity, and historical narratives and provided a covert means of communication. This chapter analyzes the development and role of their secret language as well as the political implications. 5Disciplines and Dominance chapter abstractMembers of the Gowned Brothers reinforced their solidarity and internal stability through strict regulations, codes of conduct, and rituals for meetings and other activities. Any member who violated them would be harshly punished or even executed. This chapter examines these regulations and their chilling effect on nearly every type of behavior. Paoge members actively participated in stabilizing local order. The parties involved in a dispute usually did not pursue justice through a formal, forensic process, but instead went to a teahouse for "negotiation tea." This practice was an important means through which Paoge members learned about current events and kept order in even the smallest of neighborhoods. As prominent members of the community, the brothers challenged official judicial power in this role. This chapter describes the Paoge's mediation process and its effect on local jurisprudence. 6A Tenant Farmer and Paoge Master chapter abstractThis chapter examines Lei Mingyuan's economic situation as his leadership in the Gowned Brothers grew. Scholars generally believed that a tenant belonged to the economic class of poor peasants, but Lei, as a tenant farmer, did not actually do fieldwork. Instead, he hired four short-term laborers, whom he paid on a daily basis. Contrary to the assumption that a leader of the secret society would at least be economically well-to-do, Lei did not fit any category of the rural class division established by the Chinese Communist Party during the Land Revolution in the early 1950s. He rose to power primarily through success in fighting bandits. 7Entering the Paoge chapter abstractThis chapter describes the dynamics that led the Paoge worldview and policies that took hold in the Lei family. Although Lei Mingyuan was a Paoge leader, he was not omnipotent, according to Shen Baoyuan's observations in her 1946 report. He was imperceptibly influenced by social constraints, but he had to support his family and fulfill family obligations. Rice cultivation was the primary focus of those who lived in Hope Township, and the home Lei shared with his second wife, Woman Lei, was surrounded by bamboo groves and paddies. Woman Lei was literate and stern, the survivor of a great tragedy in her first marriage. Her demeanor and shrewdness enhanced the family's ability to establish Lei's reputation as a leader in the organization. 8The Decline of Power chapter abstractThis chapter describes the events that sealed Lei Mingyuan's grim demise, through the lens of the larger framework of leadership in the Gowned Brothers. Given his apparent lifestyle and role in his village from about 1939 to 1945, Lei was incapable of maintaining his responsibilities. Covering up his growing financial and leadership problems, Lei lost his economic freedom when his paddy fields of about seven acres were transferred to another tenant as a result of his failure to pay rent. One might assume that a landlord would not dare enforce the rules against a man as powerful as Lei, but in reality all landholders, despite their status, were subject to the same standards. As Lei's personal economic situation weakened, the financial support he had provided his subordinates diminished, thus causing his political power to wane as well. 9A Family Crisis and a Rural Woman's Fate chapter abstractLei Mingyuan understood that his leadership position in the Gowned Brothers depended on the strength of his reputation. His need to "save face" had driven him to carry out the public execution of his daughter and her presumed lover. This chapter weaves together other stories and details of community life revealing that the women in Lei's family suffered under his tyranny. Lei's economic and political instability drew him into a life of decadence: he began taking opium, further escalating his personal financial crisis. Notoriety resulted for Lei family when their servant girl ran away, further diminishing Lei's reputation and authority. Lei was indifferent to his family's suffering and sought a concubine. Woman Lei resisted, however, and garnered the support from other Gowned Brothers, leading Lei Mingyuan to abort his plan. Eventually, the couple reconciled and the Lei family moved to a shabby house in a neighborhood of coolies. 10Fall of the Paoge chapter abstractThis chapter explores how the Communists established their control in rural China. Knowledge of the transition from the Nationalist regime to the socialist state has centered on major cities, and there has been little understanding of how the CCP extended its power into the countryside. This chapter reveals that the Paoge did not confront the CCP upon its arrival on the Chengdu Plain; rather, the organization quietly watched the situation unfold. When the new regime imposed a grain tax, however, the group led resistance in what the Communist discourse called the "bandit riots." Although the Paoge had many connections with the Communist revolution, the CCP could not tolerate its antiestablishment tradition and was determined to destroy the organization entirely. 11Looking for the Storyteller chapter abstractThis book is primarily concerned with two people: Paoge leader Lei Mingyuan (and his family) and Shen Baoyuan, the storyteller. This chapter provides important, new information on Shen and her 1946 report. Lei and Shen lived in two completely different worlds, with different geographical, educational, social, and economic backgrounds, but they intersected in the summer of 1945. One was investigated and described; the other was the investigator and narrator. Both played a role in retelling an untold, powerful piece of human history. The book is also a three-way narrative: in addition to Lei and Shen, there is the author, who engages the dialogue and attempts to understand the Paoge leader Lei Mingyuan through Shen Baoyuan's perspective. 12Untangling Paoge Myth chapter abstractThis chapter's comprehensive examination of texts and narratives aids the understanding of how the public's perception of the Gowned Brothers was constructed over the centuries. These materials reveal the complex relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and the Paoge. In her report Shen Baoyuan harshly criticized the Paoge in Hope Township, but she found a reason to be hopeful by the fresh ideas presented in Righteous Monthly, a journal published by the organization in Chengdu. At the time, however, Shen did not realize that the journal actually was controlled by the CCP. More than six decades have passed since the Paoge was obliterated. However, during the post-Mao reform the CCP gradually loosened its control, leaving a prime opportunity for the revival of at least some secret societies in China.

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