Book Description
Looks at the life of the father of Communism focusing primarily on the human side of the man rather than his works.
Author : Francis Wheen
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 470 pages
File Size : 40,61 MB
Release : 2000
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780393049237
Looks at the life of the father of Communism focusing primarily on the human side of the man rather than his works.
Author : Andrew Pendakis
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 250 pages
File Size : 15,4 MB
Release : 2024-09-19
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1350420891
The last ten years have seen a dramatic upsurge of interest in socialist theory and politics. As a recent Washington Post op-ed put it, “We are living in a new social democratic moment”. People are increasingly drawn to Marxist theory but find it difficult to imagine how it can be integrated practically into an everyday life pervaded by capitalist norms and social practices. Often intuitively, they agree with Marx's critique of capitalism, but don't know how to bridge the gap between their sense of dissatisfaction with the present and a revolutionary solution which can feel indefinitely postponed and remote. Living a Marxist Life responds to this disconnect by framing Marxism not as a mere “theory” but as a practical philosophical truth-a lived practice that immediately changes the reality of those experimenting with it. From Frida Kahlo to Jean-Luc Godard, Pablo Picasso to Angela Davis, Marxists are not dry theoreticians but embodied agents of a process that is as intensely imaginative and joyful as it is demanding and difficult. This book, then, is a chronicle of radical change-a record of the ways our thoughts, habits, desires, actions, and emotions can be fundamentally reshaped by an encounter with Marx. This book is not an introduction to Marx, nor a systematic defense of Marxism. Rather, it is a self-help book that calls into question the very idea of self-help, a guide to the good life that rejects normative morality, and an inspirational manual that promotes philosophy, sociology, and politics, not vague spirituality or religion, as solutions to the urgent problems that face us.
Author : Marshall Berman
Publisher : Verso
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 12,24 MB
Release : 1999
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781859843093
Citing a lifelong engagement with Marxism, critic and writer Marshall Berman reveals the movement's positive points and suggests a new beginning for Marxism may be on the horizon with its recent 150th anniversary attention.
Author : Hadas Thier
Publisher : Haymarket Books
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 45,10 MB
Release : 2018-06-02
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1642592188
A lively, accessible, and timely guide to Marxist economics for those who want to understand and dismantle the world of the 1%. Economists regularly promote Capitalism as the greatest system ever to grace the planet. With the same breath, they implore us to leave the job of understanding the magical powers of the market to the “experts.” Despite the efforts of these mainstream commentators to convince us otherwise, many of us have begun to question why this system has produced such vast inequality and wanton disregard for its own environmental destruction. This book offers answers to exactly these questions on their own terms: in the form of a radical economic theory. “Thier’s urgently needed book strips away jargon to make Marx’s essential work accessible to today’s diverse mass movements.” —Sarah Leonard, contributing editor to The Nation “A great book for proletarian chain-breaking.” —Rob Larson, author of Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicon Valley “Thier unpacks the mystery of capitalist inequality with lucid and accessible prose . . . . We will need books like A People’s Guide to help us make sense of the root causes of the financial crises that shape so many of our struggles today.” —Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership “Ranging from exploitation at work to the operations of modern finance, this book takes the reader through a fine-tuned introduction to Marx’s analysis of the modern economy . . . . Thier combines theoretical explanation with contemporary examples to illuminate the inner workings of capitalism . . . . Reminds us of the urgent need for alternatives to a crisis-ridden system.” —David McNally, author of Blood and Money
Author : Mike Gonzalez
Publisher : Encounter Books
Page : 182 pages
File Size : 12,86 MB
Release : 2021-09-07
Category : History
ISBN : 1641772247
The George Floyd riots that have precipitated great changes throughout American society were not spontaneous events. Americans did not suddenly rise up in righteous anger, take to the streets, and demand not just that police departments be defunded but that all the structures, institutions, and systems of the United States—all supposedly racist—be overhauled. The 12,000 or so demonstrations and 633 related riots that followed Floyd’s death took organizational muscle. The movement’s grip on institutions from the classroom to the ballpark required ideological commitment. That muscle and commitment were provided by the various Black Lives Matter organizations. This book examines who the BLM leaders are, delving into their backgrounds and exposing their agendas—something the media has so far refused to do. These people are shown to be avowed Marxists who say they want to dismantle our way of life. Along with their fellow activists, they make savvy use of social media to spread their message and organize marches, sit-ins, statue tumblings, and riots. In 2020 they seized upon the video showing George Floyd’s suffering as a pretext to unleash a nationwide insurgency. Certainly, no person of good will could object to the proposition that “black lives matter” as much as any other human life. But Americans need to understand how their laudable moral concern is being exploited for purposes that a great many of them would not approve.
Author : Jonathan Sperber
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 687 pages
File Size : 49,45 MB
Release : 2013-03-11
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0871404672
This major biography fundamentally reshapes our understanding of a towering historical figure.
Author : Michel Henry
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 138 pages
File Size : 24,12 MB
Release : 2014-08-14
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1472524314
Michel Henry uses the fall of communist regimes to reflect on the place of the individual in the late capitalist moment.
Author : Howard Zinn
Publisher : Seven Stories Press
Page : 754 pages
File Size : 31,96 MB
Release : 2011-01-04
Category : History
ISBN : 1583229469
No other radical historian has reached so many hearts and minds as Howard Zinn. It is rare that a historian of the Left has managed to retain as much credibility while refusing to let his academic mantle change his beautiful writing style from being anything but direct, forthright, and accessible. Whether his subject is war, race, politics, economic justice, or history itself, each of his works serves as a reminder that to embrace one's subjectivity can mean embracing one's humanity, that heart and mind can speak with one voice. Here, in six sections, is the historian's own choice of his shorter essays on some of the most critical problems facing America throughout its history, and today.
Author : Cristofer Scarboro
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Page : 237 pages
File Size : 20,68 MB
Release : 2020-06-02
Category : History
ISBN : 0253047803
“First-class, rigorously researched, richly documented, and thought-provoking” essays on the consumer experience in socialist Eastern Europe (Graham H. Roberts, author of Material Culture in Russia and the USSR). As communist regimes denigrated Western countries for widespread unemployment and consumer excess, socialist Eastern European states simultaneously legitimized their power through their apparent ability to satisfy consumers’ needs. Moving beyond binaries of production and consumption, the essays collected here examine the lessons consumption studies can offer about ethnic and national identity and the role of economic expertise in shaping consumer behavior. From Polish VCRs to Ukrainian fashion boutiques, tropical fruits in the GDR to cinemas in Belgrade, The Socialist Good Life explores what consumption means in a worker state where communist ideology emphasizes collective needs over individual pleasures.
Author : Shlomo Avineri
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 15,88 MB
Release : 2019-08-06
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0300248776
This new exploration of Marx as a Jewish thinker presents “a perceptive and fair-minded corrective to superficial treatments” of his life and work (Jonathan Rose, Wall Street Journal). A philosopher, historian, sociologist, economist, current affairs journalist, and editor, Karl Marx was one of the most influential and revolutionary thinkers of modern history. But he is rarely thought of as a Jewish thinker, and his Jewish background is either overlooked or misrepresented. Here, distinguished scholar Shlomo Avineri argues that Marx’s Jewish origins made a significant impression on his work. Marx was born in Trier, then part of Prussia, and his family had enjoyed full emancipation under earlier French control of the area. But then its annexation to Prussia deprived the Jewish population of its equal rights. These developments led to the reluctant conversion of Marx’s father, and similar tribulations radicalized many other Jewish intellectuals of that time. Avineri puts Marx’s Jewish background in its proper and balanced perspective, and traces Marx’s intellectual development in light of the historical, intellectual, and political contexts in which he lived.