Left-of-centre democratic ideologies and movements Books

Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Deutscher Memorial Prize 2023Capital is currently cannibalizing every sphere of life-guzzling wealth from nature and racialized populations, sucking up our ability to care for each other, and gutting the practice of politics. In this tightly argued and urgent volume, leading Marxist feminist theorist Nancy Fraser charts the voracious appetite of capital, tracking it from crisis point to crisis point, from ecological devastation to the collapse of democracy, from racial violence to the devaluing of care work. These crisis points all come to a head in Covid-19, which Fraser argues can help us envision the resistance we need to end the feeding frenzy. What we need, she argues, is a wide-ranging socialist movement that can recognize the rapaciousness of capital - and starve it to death.Trade ReviewNancy Fraser is a legendary radical philosopher grounded in the best of the Marxist and feminist traditions yet whose genuine embrace and profound understanding of Black, ecological, immigrant and sexual freedom movements make her a unique figure on the contemporary scene! Cannibal Capitalism is not only a singular gem - it is an instant classic for our bleak times! -- Cornel West, author of Race MattersA brilliant synthesis of Fraser's many pathbreaking contributions to a Marxian theory of capitalism for the twenty-first century, beautifully written. -- Wolfgang Streeck, author of How Will Capitalism End?Cannibal Capitalism conjures up a monster that voraciously consumes the very land, labor and natural world upon which it thrives. With characteristically clear and inventive prose, Nancy Fraser unpacks capitalism's historically shifting, interlaced dynamics, revealing the interrelations between seemingly disparate crises and social violences. Throughout, we see the powerful potential of an anti-racist, eco-social reproduction critique. And we see why the future of the planet and humanity depend upon the socialist left building anti-capitalist struggles that reach across workplaces, streets, forests and oceans. -- Sue Ferguson, author of Women and WorkNancy Fraser has produced the most elegant theory yet of capitalism in our age - capitalism not in the narrow economic sense, but capitalism in the sense of a total omnivore, a system that cannot stop devouring everything around it, destroying the lives of people and nature. This is Marxist theory for our age of crisis - and, we shall hope, of reckoning. -- Andreas Malm, author of How to Blow Up a PipelineShould serve to remind ... that capitalism remains a guzzler of care, and this is an unsustainable position -- Rachel Andrews * White Review, Best Books 2022 *An explicit plea for a political project. The parallels between care and ecology are instructive. -- James Butler * London Review of Books *Fraser captures how gender oppression, racial domination, and ecological destruction are not incidental to capitalism, but structurally embedded in it. -- Rhoda Feng * The Nation *Table of ContentsPreface: Cannibal Capitalism: Are We Toast?1. Omnivore: Why We Need to Expand Our Conception of Capitalism2. Glutton for Punishment: Why Capitalism Is Structurally Racist3. Care Guzzler: Why Social Reproduction Is a Major Site of Capitalist Crisis4. Nature in the Maw: Why Ecopolitics Must Be Trans-environmental and Anti-capitalist5. Butchering Democracy: Why Political Crisis Is Capital's Red Meat6. Food for Thought: What Should Socialism Mean in the Twenty-First Century?Epilogue: Macrophage: Why COVID Is a Cannibal Capitalist Orgy

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Book SynopsisThe climate crisis is not primarily a problem of 'believing science' or individual 'carbon footprints' - it is a class problem rooted in who owns, controls and profits from material production. As such, it will take a class struggle to solve. In this ground breaking class analysis, Matthew T. Huber argues that the carbon-intensive capitalist class must be confronted for producing climate change. Yet, the narrow and unpopular roots of climate politics in the professional class is not capable of building a movement up to this challenge. For an alternative strategy, he proposes climate politics that appeals to the vast majority of society: the working class. Huber evaluates the Green New Deal as a first attempt to channel working class material and ecological interests and advocates building union power in the very energy system we so need to dramatically transform. In the end, as in classical socialist movements of the early 20th Century, winning the climate struggle will need to be internationalist based on a form of planetary working class solidarity.Trade ReviewHuber has written a 'What Is To Be Done?' for all of us who are vexed by the failure of progressive climate activism to produce a blueprint for a national action with clear strategic goals. In a blazing critique, he skewers 'radical' as well as liberal environmentalists who advocate market solutions to a crisis whose very cause is the cost-and-profit logic of energy markets. Equally he shows that the electoral road to a Green New Deal is a dead-end without a massive public struggle, integrally involving labor, for public ownership of the power industry. The shelves groan with books on the coming apocalypse , but here, at long last, is a concrete strategy for socialists. -- Mike DavisMore and more people recognize capitalism as a primary driver of climate change. Matt Huber takes the crucial next step. He powerfully demonstrates not just why working class power is indispensable to a just transition but how we build it. -- Jodi DeanThe most powerful missile yet hurled against bourgeois climate politics. With a laser-sharp focus, it strikes at the central fortress: the sphere of production, where one class dominates another and wrecks the planet in the process. A book for every union organiser and every climate activist and everyone who wishes for the two to join forces - to be read, studied, debated, aimed and fired. -- Andreas MalmThis book represents an important and timely contribution to the climate fight. -- Jonathan Rosenblum * Jacobin *We know we need to challenge the power of fossil capital to preserve a habitable planet - but how? Climate Change as Class War injects a necessary dose of strategic thinking into debates about the way forward, arguing for a mass climate politics rooted in the decommodification of basic needs and an organizing strategy focused on workers who can exert power at the point of electricity production. Huber's sharp analysis and challenging arguments open up debates that climate, labor, and socialist movements badly need to have. -- Alyssa BattistoniClimate Change as Class War is an audacious argument, particularly in its unabashed revitalization of Marxism. -- Ryne Clos * Spectrum Culture *

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Book SynopsisThe essential introduction to the writings of Abdullah Öcalan, founder of Democratic ConfederalismTrade Review'Abdullah Ocalan seems to have done a better job writing with the extremely limited resources allowed him by his jailers than authors like Francis Fukuyama or Jared Diamond did with access to the world's finest research libraries' -- David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5000 YearsTable of ContentsForeword by Nadje Al-Ali Introduction 1. War and Peace in Kurdistan: Perspectives on a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question 2. Democratic Confederalism 3. Liberating Life: Woman’s Revolution 4. Democratic Nation Index

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Book SynopsisThe first Westerner to meet Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communist leaders in 1936, Edgar Snow came away with the first authorised account of Mao's life, as well as a history of the famous Long March and the men and women who were responsible for the Chinese revolution. Out of that experience came Red Star Over China, a classic work that remains one of the most important books ever written about the birth of the Communist movement in China.This edition includes extensive notes on the military and political developments in China, further interviews with Mao Tse-tung, a chronology covering 125 years of Chinese revolution and nearly a hundred detailed biographies of the men and women who were instrumental in making China what it is today.Trade ReviewThe remarkable thing about Red Star Over China was that it not only gave the first connected history of Mao and his colleagues and where they had come from, but it also gave a prospect of the future... This book has stood the test of time on both these counts - as a historical record and as an indication of a trend. * From the Introduction by John K. Fairbank *It truly was a book that shook the world. * China Daily *Irreplaceable... by far the most important single source regarding [Mao's] life * Stuart R. Schram *Scoop of the century * Foreign Affairs *

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Book SynopsisIs socialism desirable? Is it even possible? This book presents a moral case for socialism and argues that the obstacles in its way are exaggerated.Trade Review"Characteristically lucid, engaging and gently humorous... Cohen says things that need to be said, often better than anyone else; and his last book is especially effective as an argument against the obstacles to socialism typically ascribed to human selfishness. His style of argument is very accessible, and it is certainly a more attractive mode of persuasion than dreary analyses of how capitalism actually works."--Ellen Meiksins Wood, London Review of Books "Is socialism really such an alien way of organizing human society? In this stimulating essay titled Why Not Socialism? (just 92 pages long), the late Oxford philosopher G. A. Cohen invites us to think seriously about what socialism has to offer in comparison with capitalism."--Sanford G. Thatcher, Centre Daily Times "Beautifully written... In sublimely lucid fashion, Cohen draws up taxonomies of equality, offers ethical objection to capitalism ... and distinguishes between two questions: is socialism desirable?; and, if desirable, is it feasible? ... Tiny books are all the rage in publishing nowadays; this is one of the few that punches well above its weight."--Steven Poole, The Guardian "[A] stimulating and thoughtfully argued advocacy of the better world that we need to fight for."--Andrew Stone, Socialist Review "A quietly urgent book."--Owen Hatherley, Philosophers' Magazine "Cohen brings his characteristic clarity to his final defence of socialism."--Tim Soutphommasane, The Australian "No doubt the best forms of socialist organization will emerge, like everything else, after much trial and error. But a vast quantity of preliminary spadework is necessary to excavate the assumptions that keep us from even trying. With Why Not Socialism?, Cohen has turned over a few shovelfuls, bringing us a little nearer the end of the immemorial--but surely not everlasting--epoch of greed and fear."--George Scialabba, Commonweal "[Here] we have a renowned scholar producing an accessible, concise work addressing a vital topic from a committed, progressive standpoint: would that more of today's academic star scholars would follow this example."--Frank Cunningham, Socialist Studies "Why Not Socialism? is a lucid and accessible statement of some of Cohen's deepest preoccupations."--Alex Callinicos, Radical Philosophy "However small the package ... the problems that Cohen addresses in this slim volume are of enormous importance, and can be taken seriously by readers ranging from those with only a tangential interest in the field, to serious scholars of egalitarian and socialist thought."--Robert C. Robinson, Political Studies ReviewTable of ContentsCHAPTER I: The Camping Trip CHAPTER II: The Principles Realized on the Camping Trip CHAPTER III: Is the Ideal Desirable? CHAPTER IV: Is the Ideal Feasible? Are the Obstacles to It Human Selfishness, or Poor Social Technology? CHAPTER V: Coda Acknowledgment

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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 SynopsisMcManus presents a comprehensive guide to the liberal socialist tradition, stretching from Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Paine through John Stuart Mill to Irving Howe, John Rawls, and Charles Mills.Providing a comprehensive critical genealogy of liberal socialism from a sympathetic but critical standpoint, McManus traces its core to the Revolutionary period that catalyzed major divisions in liberal political theory to the French Revolution that saw the emergence of writers like Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Paine who argued that liberal principles could only be inadequately instantiated in a society with high levels of material and social inequality to John Stuart Mill, the first major thinker who declared himself a liberal and a socialist and who made major contributions to both traditions through his efforts to synthesize and conciliate them. McManus argues for liberal socialism as a political theory which could truly secure equality and liberty for all.An essentia

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Book SynopsisCapitalism has transformed the world and increased our productivity, but at the cost of enormous human suffering. Our shared values equality and fairness, democracy and freedom, community and solidarity can both provide the basis for a critique of capitalism, and help to guide us towards a socialist and democratic society. In this elegant book, Erik Olin Wright has distilled decades of work into a concise and tightly argued manifesto analyzing the varieties of anti-capitalism, assessing different strategic approaches, and laying the foundations for a society dedicated to human flourishing. How to Be an Anticapitalist is an urgent and powerful argument for socialism, and a unparalleled guide to help us get there. Another world is possible.Trade Review"Deserves to be widely read. In 150-odd pages, Wright makes the case for what's wrong with capitalism, what would be better, and how to achieve it. This is the rare book that can speak to both the faithful and the unconverted. You could buy it for your skeptical uncle or your militant cousin: there is something here for the reader who needs persuading that another world is possible, and the reader who wants ideas for bringing that world into being." --Ben Tarnoff, Guardian "His ideas captured the imagination of audiences, intellectuals and activists across the globe ... Wright reinvented the meaning of socialism." --New York Times "Erik Olin Wright was a visionary writer gifted with the imagination to foresee what life after capitalism might look like, but he was much more than that. He embodied an entire way to think about capitalism and the world: clear, precise, and free of bullshit. This book, his last, should be an indispensable reference point for those who want to change the world for the better." --Bhaskar Sunkara, founder and publisher of Jacobin magazine "Erik will be remembered as the most important theorist of class in the second half of the twentieth century, and the greatest Marxist sociologist of his time." --Vivek Chibber, author of Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital "Possessed of an unlimited capacity to render his ideas precise and simple, without diluting them, Erik gave activists a vision of a collective project to which each could contribute. Given the resurgent interest in 'socialism' among a new generation of thinkers and activists, Erik had an ever-increasing following." --Michael Burawoy, from the afterword "[An] eloquent and accessible volume." --Tom Mayer, Colorado Daily

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Luebbert Best Book Award, Comparative Politics Section of the American Political Science Association""The most important new book on revolutions to appear in decades."---Jack A. Goldstone, Mobilization

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Book SynopsisBy the middle of the twenty-first century, war, famine, economic collapse, and climate catastrophe had toppled the world's governments. In the 2050s, the insurrections reached the nerve center of global capitalism—New York City. This book, a collection of interviews with the people who made the revolution, was published to mark the twentieth anniversary of the New York Commune, a radically new social order forged in the ashes of capitalist collapse.Here is the insurrection in the words of the people who made it, a cast as diverse as the city itself. Nurses, sex workers, antifascist militants, and survivors of all stripes recall the collapse of life as they knew it and the emergence of a collective alternative. Their stories, delivered in deeply human fashion, together outline how ordinary people's efforts to survive in the face of crisis contain the seeds of a new world.Trade Review “A really fascinating glimpse into a future New York City after a revolution has transformed the US and much of the world into an antifascist, communist utopia…necessary and empowering, providing a hypothetical foundation for an ideal future.“—Buzzfeed, "34 New Summer Books You Won’t Be Able To Put Down" "Every socialist needs to read this book. Every abolitionist, every Marxist, every anarchist, every revolutionary needs to read this book. Every person who has ever wondered how the world will function after the final retirement of the market, the commodity form, money, wages, rent, coercive gender roles, prisons, police, class, nation states, borders, profit, and in general the dominating power of any humans over any others…It’s a book that will engage seasoned organizers, well-read academics, and street-level agitators. It also could serve quite well as a dazzling introduction for newly politicizing folks who would benefit from a clear end-goal and would want to know what could be accomplished by the movements for human liberation.”—Spectre Journal“[Everything for Everyone] challenges us to not just write fiction about revolution but to make books that practice the kinds of collaboration necessary to make revolution…This book is an uncompromising, anticolonial, profoundly queer and trans, buoying, addictive, and wholly original creation…Everything for Everyone has no patience with docile truisms about how we are supposed to write. Instead, it’s a shot across the bow for contemporary fiction, raising the bar on how to crystallize utopian longings in literary form.“—BOMB Magazine“But if you come to Everything for Everyone for the politics, stay for the writing. Barring Vladimir Nabokov in Pale Fire, I can’t think of another author who uses an academic form to achieve a literary result so successfully. Each of the interviewees and interviewers has an entirely unique and authentic voice. The book is utterly plausible as the archival project it claims to be, while also telling gripping stories and slipping in details to delight sci-fi fans (a space elevator in Quito! Sentient algae-based AI! Augmented reality implants for dance parties!).“—TruthOut“Charts dizzying, delightful new futures for science fiction, urban planning, and engaged social practice. I spent 15 years as a community organizer and never dreamed of seeing something that so bravely, brilliantly combines liberational nonfiction and radical documentary with the exuberance of the best speculative storytelling.“ —Sam J. Miller, Nebula-Award-winning author of Blackfish City and The Art of Starving“Eman Abdelhadi and M. E. O’Brien’s tall tales of the future draw on real experiences of the past and present. The book’s multiple narratives, equal parts hope and pain, merge into a prayer for collective survival and for the eventual flourishing of our powers of love and invention. Voices from as-yet-unlived lives instill faith that our becoming is not yet done. Abdelhadi and O’Brien have created a vivid image of the possibility that we will one day make a home of the world.” —Hannah Black “The special magic of Everything for Everyone is that it combines the genres of the oral history interview with speculative utopian fiction. Oral histories can show how in their everyday lives ordinary people can make the world. Utopian fiction can show the worlds we might want to be making. Every cook, or sex worker, can govern. And this is the life they might build from the ruins of this civilization, such as it is. Such a pleasure to feel one could be making the world over with them.” —McKenzie Wark, author of The Beach Beneath the Street “Eman Abdelhadi and M. E. O’Brien are changing the game of what the novel is and what the novel can be. Much as James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Imani Perry did with the epistolary form in non-fiction, Everything for Everyone uses speculative oral history to expand and explode the limits of what fiction can do. Their imagined oral histories from many parties help us understand the present from many possible points of view in the future looking back, like Rashômon meets House of Leaves. In Everything for Everyone, binaries (of male-versus-female, fiction-versus-non-fiction, past-versus-future) are irrelevant compared to something much more interesting and important that Abdelhadi and O’Brien seek to illustrate: truth, and the way we might find liberation in it.” —Steven W. Thrasher, author of The Viral Underclass“I had no idea I was a post-revolution speculative fiction fangirl till I started reading Everything for Everyone, which kicks off with a food riot at the Hunts Point Market led by a sex worker. I’m really bummed out by the fact that I’ll be 82—hopefully!—when their fictional revolution kicks off and dead by the time the dust settles. Exciting to read something hopeful, intersectional and an antidote to our dystopian doldrums.” —Sherry Wolf, author of Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics and Theory of LGBT Liberation “In this genre-bending work of utopian fiction, O'Brien and Abdelhadi imagine a world that might emerge from the ashes of our own. Part speculative social science, part abolitionist manifesto, it explores the social forms and political possibilities of life after capitalism—the novel ways of organizing life, doing gender, and coping with the psychic costs of transformation that may follow the inevitable crises of capital and climate that lie in our future. Like the best utopian fiction, Everything for Everyone is also a startling work of political theory: it gives us the opportunity, as all utopias do, to learn about our own desires and hopes for a way out of our current conjuncture.” —Katrina Forrester, author of In the Shadow of Justice “Leftists are often accused of being against everything, but not having a vision of what we're fighting for. Everything for Everyone is a corrective, a sweeping vision of the type of world and society we imagine can and will provide for us all, abundantly. Not all beautiful novels are invested in social restructuring, and not all social restructuring is envisaged in novels, but here we have exactly their meeting point: a beautiful novel bristling with the necessary changes we must make to survive on this planet. The future has sex in it, and community; it has food and labor and joy. It has trauma and memories of the harm, the nightmare, of capitalist precarity. The future is sure to exist; will it have us in it? Everything for Everyone imagines that it will, and, given this remarkable vision, this perpetual possibility, it's now our work to live up to it.” —Joseph Osmundson, author of Virology“Everything for Everyone is a window into a possible future and a powerful antidote to our present moment’s ubiquitous moods of anti-utopianism, despair, nostalgia, and capitalist-realism…this must-read speculative fiction…chronicle[s] the first stages of the abolition of the family; the history of the ecological restoration projects and interplanetary technologies that might render our planet liveable and leisurely; the invention of real democracy; and the armed conflagrations that were necessary along the way. So, if you have ever wondered to yourself, What will the triumph of indigenous land struggles, the overthrow of colonial occupations, and the fall of capitalism look like? Which parts of New York would be at the forefront of a communist revolution, and which would double down into religious, hyper-patriarchal fascism? Whose knowledges of facilitation, healing, conflict resolution and partying will help the population heal from its collective trauma?—then this superb novel is the book for you.”—Sophie Lewis, author of Abolish the Family: A Manifesto of Care and Liberation

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Book SynopsisA myth-busting popular history of the German Revolution focusing on the roles of women, workers and ordinary peopleTrade Review'An excellent work with the focus on the grassroots out of which developed the revolutionary mass movements of the sailors and workers bringing peace and democracy to Germany' -- Ottokar Luban, International Rosa Luxemburg Society'A rigourous analysis and narrative history of the working class in a place and time where the idea of the emancipation of humanity was a real possibility' -- Raquel Varela, Labor Historian, New University of Lisbon, IISG Honorary FellowTable of ContentsForeword by Mario Kessler Introduction: What German Revolution? 1. Industrialization and the Emergence of the German Working Class 2. The Rise of Popular Radicalism 3. War, Suffering and Resistance 4. The Road to the November Revolution 5. The Kaiser Goes, the Generals Remain 6. Provocation, Revolt and Repression 7. Women in the War and the Revolution 8. Death Agony of the Revolution Conclusion Notes Index

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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 SynopsisAngel in the Forest is Marguerite Young's fascinating chronicle of two attempts to establish utopian communities in nineteenth-century America.In it, she recounts the strange tale of New Harmony, Indiana, a community originally founded in 1814 by the German mystic Father George Rapp, who wanted to apply Scriptural communism to daily life in order to bring about the New Jerusalem. It was sold in 1825 to Robert Owen, the father of British socialism who, with a group of English immigrants, implemented his own theories for a perfect community, this time based on rationalism.Both experiments failed, but Young finds in both a distinctively American yearning for utopia, which continues to characterize the American spirit to this day: a tradition of faith and folly can be traced from Owen's New Moral World to George Bush's New World Order.Written with the same elegance, wit, and lyric beauty that distinguishes her fiction, Angel in the Forest was widely praised upon its first publication in 1945. This edition includes Mark Van Doren's introduction to Scribner's 1966 reprint.Trade Review“When a poet chooses to write history facts gain in power and in dimension. Young is a meticulous scholar, but she illumines every description and every character with her laser light of significance. Her facts radiate wit and irony and are incarnated in human beings.” —Anaïs Nin, Los Angeles Times”One of my very treasured books . . . the best book I know on the subject of the early primitive religious cults. I hope it will get the attention it deserves.” —Katherine Anne PorterTable of ContentsContentsNew Harmony Today—A Glimpse in Summer, 1940Backward into Old Harmony—A Dissolving VistaThe Children of the Ozarks, 1940The Children of IsraelA Journey to the WabashA Machine Like ClockworkA City Whose Ten Gates Are of GoldFrederick Rapp, the Lord TemporalThe Exodus of the Rappites from HarmonyThe Coming of OneThe Fading of the Golden RoseAnother Coming, Another DispensationA Pilgrim's ProgressDearest CarolineAn Eden of ChildrenParadise Was LostJehovah and RousseauInterviews with Emperors and KingsNew Harmony, the Goal of ManAmerica, the Promised LandThe Pears FamilyThe Fool of NatureNoah's Ark, the Maid of Mist, the Boatload of KnowledgeNew Harmony, the Golden RoseAn Adult ViewSerpents in the GardenThe Declaration of Mental IndependenceExodus from New HarmonyGlaucas, 1940The Third Age of New HarmonyRobert Owen's Ideal Made Real to Dwell Among UsBuilder of Old HarmonyUtopia in BedlamFarewell to New Harmony

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Book SynopsisVisionary English Socialist and pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris argued that all work should be a source of pride and satisfaction, and that everyone should be entitled to beautiful surroundings no matter what their class. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

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Book SynopsisCadres (senior party or government officials) have played a significant role throughout Chinese history and particularly over the past century. They were instrumental in helping the Communist Party of China (CPC) come to power in 1949 and in implementing the reform and opening-up process that began in 1978. This elite group in Chinese society has been pivotal in enabling the CPC to bring about social and economic development.The imperial examination system in the Sui and Tang dynasties was the world’s earliest recognized cadre selection system, and it has deeply influenced the formation of a civil service in the UK and other western countries. Since the establishment of the New China, the selection and appointment of cadres have undergone many changes designed to make the process more democratic, open and competitive.This book provides a fascinating insight into how China’s leaders are chosen. It explains the basic standards, guiding principles and procedures that are used in the process, and details the examination and evaluation systems, along with the supervisory and disciplinary measures that are deployed. It gives readers a comprehensive and systematic understanding of how China’s leaders are selected and appointed.

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Book SynopsisFeaturing the works from Marx's enormous corpus, this title covers Marx's development from the Hegelian idealism of his youth to the mature socialism of his later works. It includes writings from Marx's early philosophical works, and the central writings on historical materialism.Trade ReviewThe Introductions are solid, accurate, readable, authoritative. The editor is well informed, and the selections provide a balanced introduction to Marx's central thoughts. --Daniel Little, Colgate University

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Book SynopsisA devastating critique of modern left-wing thinking from a leading political philosopher.In Fools, Frauds and Firebrands, philosopher Roger Scruton, one of the leading critics of leftist orientations in modern Western civilization, examines the thinkers who have been most influential on the attitudes of the New Left. What does the Left look like today, he asks, and how has it evolved? Is there any foundation for resistance to its agenda without religious faith?Scruton begins with a ruthless analysis of New Leftism and concludes with a critique of the key strands in its thinking. He conducts a reappraisal of such major left-wing thinkers as: E. P. Thompson, Ronald Dworkin, R. D. Laing, Jurgen Habermas, Gyorgy Lukacs, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida, Slavoj Zizek, Ralph Milliband and Eric Hobsbawm. Scruton''s exploration of these important issues is written with skill, perception and at all times with pellucid clarity. In addition to asseTrade ReviewEminent British philosopher and polymath Scruton gives a sharp-edged, provocative critique of leading leftist thinkers since the mid-twentieth century ... complex and erudite. * Publisher's Weekly US *Caustic, highly recherché, and simply great fun to read for the questing intellectual soul. * Kirkus Reviews *From the standpoint of a serious conservatism, it honestly assesses the political and philosophical contributions of the Left. The book also addresses what is likely our most pressing question: ‘Can there be any foundation for resistance to the leftist agenda without religious faith?' * Catholic World Report *Since he no longer has a university career to protect, Scruton can now tweak the nose of academic leftism to his heart’s content… Scruton is at his best, (and funniest) when trying to make sense of [Alain] Badiou’s weird confection historical materialism and Platonic mathematical theory. -- Jonathan Derbyshire * Prospect *The book is a masterpiece ... In crisp, sometimes brilliant prose, Mr. Scruton considers scores of works in three languages, giving the reader an understanding of each thinker’s overarching aim and his place within the multifaceted movement known as the New Left. He neither ridicules nor abuses the writers he considers; he patiently deconstructs them, first explaining their work in terms they themselves would recognize and then laying bare their warped assumptions and empty pretensions. -- Barton Swaim * Wall Street Journal *I enjoyed this immensely, both for Scruton's dry, British wit as well as for the sheer breadth of intellectuals covered in his survey. * Against the Grain Blog *Highly recommended * Powerline US Blog *Here Scruton thoroughly and fairly debunks the ostentation, obfuscation, and terrible writing and downright deceitfulness of much of postwar Marxist-inspired philosophy. For Scruton the culprits are mainly from France and Germany—beginning with Sartre and carrying through to Foucault, Habermas, Althusser, Lacan, Deleuze, Gramsci, and Said—and he carries the attack forward to Badiou and Žižek. Even Galbraith and Dworkin take a few hits. Scruton writes from the perspective of an old-school conservative. His sympathies are with the virtues of the countryside and historically rooted associations of every sort, from churches and the US Constitution to volunteer fire departments, brass bands, and the local Grange. His personal point of view could be called sentimental … but his arguments against his foes are substantial and deep. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 What is Left? 2 Resentment in Britain: Hobsbawm and Thompson 3 Disdain in America: Galbraith and Dworkin 4 Liberation in France: Sartre and Foucault 5 Tedium in Germany: Downhill to Habermas 6 Nonsense in Paris: Althusser, Lacan and Deleuze 7 Culture Wars Worldwide: The New Left from Gramsci to Said 8 The Kraken Wakes: Badiou and Žižek 9 What is Right? Index of names Index of subjects

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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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Book SynopsisFor the left and the right, major multinational companies are held up as the ultimate expressions of free-market capitalism. Their remarkable success appears to vindicate the old idea that modern society is too complex to be subjected to a plan. And yet, as Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski argue, much of the economy of the West is centrally planned at present. Not only is planning on vast scales possible, we already have it and it works. The real question is whether planning can be democratic. Can it be transformed to work for us? An engaging, polemical romp through economic theory, computational complexity, and the history of planning, The People's Republic of Walmart revives the conversation about how society can extend democratic decision-making to all economic matters. With the advances in information technology in recent decades and the emergence of globe-straddling collective enterprises, democratic planning in the interest of all humanity is more important and closer to attainment than ever before.Trade ReviewProvocative and lively book. * Morning Star *Philips and Rozworski's book is a timely exhortation to rethink the wisdom that markets always do it better. -- Hettie O'Brien * New Statesman *People's Republic of Walmart is fast-paced and provocative. It offers readers a refreshing perspective on today's highly planned capitalist enterprises, and the prospect of a new form of democratic, transparent and socialist planning. -- Ann Pettifor * TLS *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“This book is a brilliant tour-de-force. As the questions of democracy, economic democracy, and socialism are of growing interest to so many, the time for this book has surely come.”—Joerg Rieger, Vanderbilt University "In this important and timely book, Dorrien gives us a masterful synthetic overview of democratic socialism as a distinct moral and political tradition, outlining the theological and philosophical currents that were vital to its development. His exemplary scholarship is driven by a passion for the existential importance of this tradition."—Luke Bretherton, Duke University"Social Democracy in the Making provides a superb, erudite history of the evolution of democratic socialist ideas and practices, thereby highlighting the vital efforts of the democratic Left to create a new and better world."–Lawrence S. Wittner, University at Albany, SUNY“This well-researched, insightful, and nuanced account successfully presents a strong case for democratic socialism as a compelling political alternative in our radically pluralist society.”— Rubén Rosario Rodríguez, Saint Louis University “This book is a profound and important interpretation of the intertwined legacies of Christian socialism and Social Democracy, interpreting both as movements for economic democracy–an indispensable common ground for social justice movements today.”—Jung Mo Sung, Methodist University of São Paulo, Brazil

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Book SynopsisWhat is socialism? Does it have a future, or has it become an outdated ideology in the 21st century?This Very Short Introduction considers the major theories in socialism, and explores its historical evolution from the French Revolution to the present day. Michael Newman argues that socialism has always been a diverse doctrine, while nevertheless containing a central core of interconnected values and goals: a critique of capitalism; an optimistic view of human beings; and the belief that it is possible to establish societies based on egalitarianism, social solidarity, and co-operation. In this new edition, he draws on case studies such as Cuba, Sweden, and Bolivia, to consider attempts to implement socialism in practice, before discussing New Left challenges to conventional notions of socialism on such questions as feminism, climate change, and direct action. Rejecting the widespread view that socialism is an out-dated doctrine, Newman argues that it remains ultimately relevant in today''s world. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books ar the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewThis edition of Socialism: A Very Short Introduction is informative and accessible. It will benefit both graduate and undergraduate students in all disciplines, and it would be useful for the Core programs and the general reader. * Arab Studies Quarterly *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction 1: Socialist traditions 2: Cuban communism and Swedish social democracy 3: New Lefts - enrichment and fragmentation 4: Beyond the Dominant Orthodoxies 5: Socialism today and tomorrow References Further reading Index

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Book SynopsisThis book addresses the challenges facing socialists and the recent shift from protest to politics. It examines the limits and possibilities for class, party and state transformation and the democratic and socialist insurgencies inside the Labour Party in Britain, and the Democratic Party in the USA.Table of ContentsCONTENTS: Introduction: The revival of democratic socialism; class, party, state: the twentieth century socialist experience; From protest to party to state: lessons from Syriza; Corbyn's challenge: from party insurgency to state transformation?; Sanders challenge: economic democracy beyond `responsible capitalism'?; Planning for democratic socialism.

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