Sunday, July 27, 2014

Georg Lukács, Tactics and Ethics: 1919-1929

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"Tactics and Ethics collects Georg Lukács’s articles from the most politically active time of his life, a period encompassing his stint as deputy commissar of education in the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Including his famed essay on parliamentarianism—which earned Lukács the respectful yet severe criticism of Lenin—this book is a treasure chest of valuable insights from one of history’s great political philosophers." 

Etienne Balibar, Identity and Difference: John Locke and the Invention of Consciousness


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"John Locke's foundational place in the history of British empiricism and liberal political thought is well established. So, in what sense can Locke be considered a modern European philosopher? Identity and Difference argues for reassessing this canonical figure. Closely examining the "treatise on identity" added to the second edition of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Etienne Balibar demonstrates Locke's role in the formation of two concepts central to the metaphysics of the subject—consciousness and the self—and the complex philosophical, legal, moral and political nature of his terms.

With an accompanying essay by Stella Sandford, situating Balibar's reading of Locke in the history of the reception of the Essay and within Balibar's other writings on "the subject," Identity and Difference rethinks a crucial moment in the history of Western philosophy."

G. A. Cohen, Why Not Socialism?

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Cesare Casarino and Antonio Negri, In Praise of the Common A Conversation on Philosophy and Politics

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Maurizio Lazzarato, The Making of the Indebted Man

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"Debt—both public debt and private debt—has become a major concern of economic and political leaders. In The Making of the Indebted Man, Maurizio Lazzarato shows that, far from being a threat to the capitalist economy, debt lies at the very core of the neoliberal project. Through a reading of Karl Marx’s lesser-known youthful writings on John Mill, and a rereading of writings by Friedrich Nietzsche, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Michel Foucault, Lazzarato demonstrates that debt is above all a political construction, and that the creditor/debtor relation is the fundamental social relation of Western societies.

How do we extricate ourselves from this impossible situation? How do we escape the neoliberal condition of the indebted man? Lazzarato argues that we will have to recognize that there is no simple technical, economic, or financial solution. We must instead radically challenge the fundamental social relation structuring capitalism: the system of debt."  

Erik Olin Wright, Envisioning Real Utopias

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"Rising inequality of income and power, along with recent convulsions in the finance sector, have made the search for alternatives to unbridled capitalism more urgent than ever. Yet few are attempting this task—most analysts argue that any attempt to rethink our social and economic relations is utopian. Erik Olin Wright’s major new work is a comprehensive assault on the quietism of contemporary social theory. A systematic reconstruction of the core values and feasible goals for Left theorists and political actors, Envisioning Real Utopias lays the foundations for a set of concrete, emancipatory alternatives to the capitalist system. Characteristically rigorous and engaging, this will become a landmark of social thought for the twenty-first century."  

Monday, July 21, 2014

Joel Kovel, Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine



Joel Kovel, Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine

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A call to transform Israel into a secular democracy by a leading writer -- This book is absolutely fundamental for those who reject the unfortunate confusion between Jews, Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel -- a confusion which is the basis for systematic manipulation by the imperialist power system. It convincingly argues in favour of a single secular state for Israelis and Palestinians as the only democratic solution for the region. Zionism creates a terrible contradiction that eats away at the soul and conscience of the Jewish people. The problem is that you can't have a democratic state for just one people while excluding the others. It is just a logical impossibility. The notion of democracy derives from universal ideals based on universal human rights; it cannot exist where there is a systematic inequality, and all the more so when these others are those who have been dispossessed by Zionism.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Evgeny Pashukanis, Pashukanis: Selected Writings on Marxism & Law



Evgeny Pashukanis, Pashukanis: Selected Writings on Marxism & Law

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Evgeny Pashukanis was the prodigious author of some two hundred pieces on questions of legal theory, legal history and public administration We employed three specific criteria in the determination of the eleven translations from the original Russian which are incorporated in this volume, nearly all of which appear for the first time in English. These criteria were: (a) the relationship between the Marxism inherent in Pashukanis' work (which changed substantially between 1924 and 1937) and the theoretical status of Marx's own fragmented discourse on state and law; (b) the relationship between Pashukanis' writings and the concrete circumstances of that Soviet history of which he was part; (c) the status of the internal structure of Pashukanis' thought,i.e. the adequacy and consistency of the various sets of propositions which in combination became known as the commodity exchange theory of law

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Marx & Engels Collected Works (50 Volumes)

Marx & Engels Collected Works (50 Volumes)


This English edition will include the works and letters already contained in the main volumes of the above-mentioned second Russian and German editions as well as in the supplementary volumes of these editions already published or in preparation. It will embrace all the extant works of Marx and Engels published in their lifetime and a considerable part of their legacy of manuscripts— manuscripts not published in their lifetime and unfinished works, outlines, rough drafts and fragments. The contents of the main sections of the volumes will include authorised publications of speeches by Marx and Engels or reports of their speeches which they themselves verified. Author's revisions of various works are regarded as works in their own right and will be included alongside the original texts. Of the available preliminary manuscript versions, however, only those that differ essentially from the final text will be published in this edition.

Volume 1 (.PDF)
Volume 2 (.PDF)
Volume 3 (.PDF)
Volume 4 (.PDF)
Volume 5 (.PDF)
Volume 6 (.PDF)
Volume 7 (.PDF)
Volume 8 (.PDF)
Volume 9 (.PDF) 
Volume 10 (.PDF)
Volume 11 (.PDF)
Volume 12 (.PDF)
Volume 13 (.PDF) 
Volume 14 (.PDF) 
Volume 15 (.PDF)
Volume 16 (.PDF)
Volume 17 (.PDF)
Volume 18 (.PDF) 
Volume 19 (.PDF)
Volume 20 (.PDF)
Volume 21 (.PDF)
Volume 22 (.PDF)
Volume 23 (.PDF)
Volume 24 (.PDF)
Volume 25 (.PDF)
Volume 26 (.PDF)
Volume 27 (.PDF)
Volume 28 (.PDF)
Volume 29 (.PDF)
Volume 30 (.PDF) 
Volume 31 (.PDF)
Volume 32 (.PDF)
Volume 33 (.PDF)
Volume 34 (.PDF)
Volume 35 (.PDF)
Volume 36 (.PDF) 
Volume 37 (.PDF) 
Volume 38 (.PDF)
Volume 39 (.PDF)
Volume 40 (.PDF)
Volume 41 (.PDF)
Volume 42 (.PDF)
Volume 43 (.PDF)
Volume 44 (.PDF)
Volume 45 (.PDF)
Volume 46 (.PDF)
Volume 47 (.PDF)
Volume 48 (.PDF)
Volume 49 (.PDF)
Volume 50 (.PDF)

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Alexander Rabinowitch, The Bolsheviks in Power (2007)

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Abram Leon, The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation (1942)


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"Traces the historical rationalizations of anti-Semitism to the fact that, in the centuries preceding the domination of industrial capitalism, Jews emerged as a "people-class" of merchants, moneylenders, and traders. Leon explains why the propertied rulers incite renewed Jew-hatred in the epoch of capitalism's decline." 



Allen W. Wood, Karl Marx (Second Edition)


Allen W. Wood, Karl Marx (Second Edition)
 
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This is one of the most respected books on Marx's philosophical thought. Wood explains Marx's views from a philosophical standpoint and defends Marx against common misunderstandings and criticisms of his views. All the major philosophical topics in Marx's work are considered: the central concept of alienation; historical materialism and Marx's account of social classes; the nature and social function of morality; philosophical materialism and Marx's atheism; and Marx's use of the Hegelian dialectical method and the Marxian theory of value.

The second edition has been revised to include a new chapter on capitalist exploitation and new suggestions for further reading. Wood has also added a substantial new preface which looks at Marx's thought in light of the fall of the Soviet Union and our continued ambivalence towards capitalism, exploring Marx's continuing relevance in the twenty-first century.

Monday, July 14, 2014

S. J. Barnett, The Enlightenment and Religion: The Myths of Modernity



S. J. Barnett, The Enlightenment and Religion: The Myths of Modernity

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This title offers a critical survey of religious change and its causes in eighteenth-century Europe, and constitutes a radical challenge to the accepted views in traditional Enlightenment studies. Focusing on Enlightenment Italy, France and England, it illustrates how the canonical view of eighteenth-century religious change has in reality been constructed upon scant evidence and assumption, in particular the idea that the thought of the enlightened led to modernity. For despite a lack of evidence, one of the fundamental assumptions of Enlightenment studies has been the assertion that there was a vibrant Deist movement that formed the ''intellectual solvent'' of the eighteenth century. The central claim of this book is that the immense ideological appeal of the traditional birth-of-modernity myth has meant that the actual lack of Deists has been glossed over, and a quite misleading historical view has become entrenched.

Terry Eagleton, Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic



Terry Eagleton, Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic

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This is a complex and subtle book that deals with consistent intelligence on the importance of tragedy. It also shows what is simultaneously Eagleton's great virtue and great vice, an obsessive and all-powering love of paradox. In small doses Eagleton's constant emphasis on irony is stimulating and properly dialectical. Over three hundred pages, the length of this book, it can be repetitive and overly mechanical. There is something a bit predictable in Eagleton's constant desire to be original and stimulating. And yet it is worth it to work their way through this book. Eagleton starts off by dealing with two common ideas of what is tragic. The first is that tragedy is something that is very sad. This is considered by many academics to be trite, and they present the second, more pernicious view that tragedy is something of great import that happens to sufficiently great people and in doing show vindicates the justice and morality of the natural order.
Eagleton is properly critical of this and much of the book is an acute critique of those tragic theorists who seek to resolve the cruelty and horror of life into convenient didactic messages. Noting C.S. Lewis' passing reference to the fundamentally untragic quality of everyday life and ordinary people, the "uncouth mixture of agony and littleness" Eagleton notes that Lewis' own writings on his wife's premature death "do not seem to view the event as dull and uninteresting, though other people's real lives are perhaps much more uncouth than one's own." Commenting on Martha's Nussbaum's argument that Antigone shows the sterility of a conflict-free life Eagleton notes that is akin to arguing that "the lesson of the Illiad is that the ancient world needed a United Nations Organization." A.C. Bradley, George Steiner and Karl Jaspers are also rebuked for rhapsodizing Tragedy. Throughout the book Eagleton constantly swerves through a panopoly of Scyllas and Charibdeses. On the one hand we must beware those who conservatively and callously invoke reactionary assumptions of a "human nature." On the other hand we must not accept those shallow post-modernists who assume that all change is good, and that one should be hostile to whatever is permanent, unalterable or historical. On the one hand it is callous to assume that suffering is ennobling and tragedy great for that purpose, since most people are clearly not redeemed that way. On the other hand one must not be so sceptical as to reject hope altogether or simply assume that is naive to possess it. Eagleton notes Franco Moretti's provocative comment that the modern world prefers unhappiness, because assuming the worst is likely to occur makes it easier for bourgeois society to forgive itself for not providing the best or the adequate. On the one hand the didactic and teleological aspects of Kant appear crude, while on the other hand the primitivist and simple-minded valorization of "life" itself in Nietzsche and Lawrence are callous and cruel in their indifference to others.

After discussing the weakness of tragic theory, Eagleton goes on to discuss the value of agony. He then goes on to discuss tragic theory from Hegel to Beckett, and then discusses the problem of heroes in tragedy. There then follows a long discussion of freedom, fate and justice which includes, not always productively, a discussion of the problems of determinism. Yet Eagleton points out that tragedy, which supposedly vindicates the moral order undermines it by showing so much gratuitous injustice and cruelty, a problem much tragic theory cannot really grasp. There is then a chapter on pity, fear and pleasure, which includes a passage on incest and also raises the question of whether are pity is a scarcely concealed sadism at the fate of others. There are then a chapter on tragedy in the novel and the interesting relationship between tragedy and modernity. Tragedy can be dismissed as archaic, yet arguably the experience of modernity is itself tragic. Although critical of Lukacs and of the pessimism of much Western Marxism, Eagleton praises it for recognizing the essential truth of modernity, that is both a "revolutionary advance" and "one light nightmare of butchery and exploitation." There is then a chapter on the nature of evil and the emptiness of the demonic. In this chapter and in the concluding one about sacrifice and Thomas Mann one occasionally feels that Eagleton is pushing the logic of official rites not only farther than the officials want, but also farther than anyone would normally like to push it. Eagleton is a former Catholic and often notes the similarity of Marxism and Christianity in the way they can combine deep pessimism with a sense of ultimate hope. As a Jew myself, I don't find this comparison entirely kosher, but this unpromising theme repeats itself through the book. It is perhaps appropriate then that Eagleton concludes his work by arguing the Left must go beyond the rhetoric and pragmatism and culturalism. Instead of a Catholic or a Protestant, Eagleton quotes Kafka and his final metaphor is the last thing Joseph K sees before he dies.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Ellen Meiksins Wood, Empire of Capital



Ellen Meiksins Wood, Empire of Capital

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What does imperialism mean in the absence of colonial conquest and imperial rule?

Capitalism makes possible a new form of domination by purely economic means, argues Ellen Meiksins Wood. So, surely, even the most seasoned White House hawk would prefer to exercise global hegemony in this way, without costly colonial entanglements. Yet, as Wood powerfully demonstrates, the economic empire of capital has also created a new unlimited militarism.

By contrasting the new imperialism to historical forms such as the Roman and Spanish empire, and by tracing the development of capitalist imperialism back to the English domination of Ireland and on the British Empire in America and India, Wood shows how today's capitalist empire, a global economy administered by local states, has come tom spawn a new military doctrine of war without end, in purpose or time.

Recommended Works: Class Struggle in Iran

Peykar 


Many of these texts come from various former Marxist organizations that were active in pre-1979 revolutionary ferment or from academic studies on the capitalist mode of production in Iran. These texts may be opinionated--in no means does Ebookcollective share or affiliate with any particular political organization.

So here are some works you MUST read (from all parties, sects, etc.)  (ebook provided--all are pdfs unless provided with the format)

Books/Essays (Academia)

2. Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions 
3. Ervand Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran
20. Moghadam and Ashtiani - The Left and Revolution in Iran

Cherik Fadais (چريک‌های فدایی خلق ایران) 
(Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas)

1. Armed Struggle; both a Strategy and a Tactic — by Massoud Ahmad-Zadeh
4. Torture and Resistance In Iran (Hemaseyeh Moghavemat)-- Ashraf Dehghani (pt. 1) (pt. 2)

Peykar (پيکار) 


Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) (سربداران)
1. Islam: Ideology and Tool of the Exploiting Classes by Nasrin Jazayeri 

Tudeh Party of Iran (نامه مردم)
1. Brief History of The Tudeh Party of Iran

Unity of Communist Militants (Ettehade Mobarezane Komonist)

1. Anarcho-Pacifism: Peykar with the Wooden Sword!


Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Maxime Rodinson, Israel: A Colonial-Settler State?



Maxime Rodinson, Israel: A Colonial-Settler State?

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Examines the Zionist colonization of Palestine and how the State of Israel was formed.
"Places the history of Zionism and Israel in the perspective of European expansion and colonialism in the Third World and upholds the view, accepted by most Arabs, that Israel is indeed a 'colonial-settler state' imposed by force on an unwilling Palestinian population . . . . [P]rovides abundant documentation . . . . Recommended generally for libraries with Middle East collections."-Choice
Index, Annotation, Maps

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality and Dialectic



Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality and Dialectic

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This book is one of the most important recent books on Hegel, a philosopher who has had a crucial impact on the shape of continental philosophy. Published here in English for the first time, it includes a substantial preface by Jacques Derrida in which he explores the themes and conclusions of Malabou's book. The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality and Dialectic restores Hegel's rich and complex concepts of time and temporality to contemporary philosophy. It examines his concept of time, relating it to perennial topics in philosophy such as substance, accident and the identity of the subject. Catherine Malabou's also contrasts her account of Hegelian temporality with the interpretation given by Heidegger in Being and Time, arguing that it is the concept of 'plasticity' that best describes Hegel's theory of temporality. The future is understood not simply as a moment in time, but as something malleable and constantly open to change through our interpretation. The book also develops Hegel's preoccupation with the history of Greek thought and Christianity and explores the role of theology in his thought.Essential reading for those interested in Hegel and contemporary continental philosophy, The Future of Hegel is also fascinating to those interested in the ideas of Heidegger and Derrida.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Roman Rosdolsky, Engels and the ‘Nonhistoric’ Peoples: the National Question in the Revolution of 1848


Roman Rosdolsky, Engels and the ‘Nonhistoric’ Peoples: the National Question in the Revolution of 1848

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The extraordinary work that follows was written by the Ukrainian Marxist Roman Rosdolsky (1898-1967) in the spring of 1948, in the centennial year of the revolution with which it is concerned. In spite of the timeliness of its composition, Rosdolsky's monograph could not find a publisher immediately. This was partly due to the postwar chaos and the author's circumstances. Rosdolsky had only recently come to America,where he settled in Detroit, and he wrote his monograph in German. His connections with the new Europe were still very tenuous, and with some connections, being a former Communist in Cold-War America, he had to be quite circumspect in order to avoid deportation. Given, furthermore, the general isolating effect of his very modest means, it is understandable that almost anything Rosdolsky might have written in this period, regardless of topic, would have had difficulties in finding a publisher.However, this book in particular posed a problem. It concerned some embarassing statements made by Marx and, above all, Engels with regard to East European peoples. During the revolution of 1848-49 Marx and Engels had characterized most of the Slavic peoples (the outstanding exception being the Poles) and other East European peoples (such as the Romanians and Saxons of Transylvania) as nonhistoric, counter revolutionary by nature and doomed to extinction. The statements, moreover,were saturated with insulting epithets (pig-headed, barbarian,robber) and ominous-sounding threats (a bloody revenge that would annihilate these reactionary peoples). Such sentiments had a particular lynasty ring in the immediate postwar years, in the wake of Nazi brutality in Eastern Europe, and they seemed all the more perverse at a time when Communist parties were taking power in the same East European nations that Engels had written off as counter-revolutionary by their very nature. Exacerbating the ironies and sensitivities was the vehemently anti-Russian animus that permeated these particular passages in Engels' writings, and Russia, of course, had become in the meantime the fatherland of the proletarian revolution.

Karl Marx, Early Writings


Karl Marx, Early Writings

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Written in 1843-4, when Marx was barely twenty-five, this astonishingly rich body of works formed the cornerstone for his later political philosophy. In the Critique of Hegel's "Doctrine of the State", he dissects Hegel's thought and develops his own views on civil society, while his Letters reveal a furious intellect struggling to develop the egalitarian theory of state. Equally challenging are his controversial essay, "On the Jewish Question and the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts", where Marx first made clear his views on alienation, the state, democracy and human nature. Brilliantly insightful, Marx's "Early Writings" reveal a mind on the brink of one of the most revolutionary ideas in human history - the theory of Communism. This translation fully conveys the vigour of the original works. The introduction, by Lucio Colletti, considers the beliefs of the young Marx and explores these writings in the light of the later development of Marxism.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Terry Eagleton, How to Read a Poem


Terry Eagleton, How to Read a Poem

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Lucid, entertaining and full of insight, How To Read A Poem is designed to banish the intimidation that too often attends the subject of poetry, and in doing so to bring it into the personal possession of the students and the general reader. The book offers a detailed examination of poetic form and its relation to content. It takes a wide range of poems from the Renaissance to the present day and submits them to brilliantly illuminating closes analysis. Eagleton discusses the work of major poets, including John Milton, Alexander Pope, John Keats, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, W.B. Yeats, Robert Frost, W.H.Auden, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, and many more. This study includes a helpful glossary of poetic terms.

Richard Seymour, Against Austerity: How We Can Fix the Crisis They Made



Richard Seymour, Against Austerity: How We Can Fix the Crisis They Made

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Against Austerity is a blistering, accessible and invigorating polemic against the current political consensus. Deploying his renowned power of razor-sharp polemic Richard Seymour charts the role of austerity in radically reducing living standards, fracturing established political structures, and creating simmering social alienation and explosions of discontent.

But Against Austerity goes further – making a bold theoretical intervention on the question of challenging austerity and creating radical alternatives. Beginning with an analysis of current class formation and dominant ideology, Seymour issues a call to arms, mapping a new strategy to unite the left.

Along the way, he tackles the vexed question of achieving social change, in particular issues of reform and social revolution. In an age characterised by the paucity and inadequacy of mainstream analysis, Against Austerity points a way forward to revive the left and create a new spirit of collective resistance.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

D.D. Kosambi, Ancient India: A History of Its Culture and Civilization

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 A modern Marxist historian of South Asia presents a digest of ancient Indian history.

D.D. Kosambi, An Introduction to the Study of Indian History

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Neutral Observer reviews Kosambi's book "An Introduction to the Study of Indian History."
Kosambi is a master of all he surveys in this book - his dexterity, scholarship and decisive judgments reminded me of Eric Hobsbawm. The book is fascinating in many respects - the choice of photographs, the detailed endnotes, the insistence on deducing historical information from observing ritual and practice among the various castes and tribes in India, the obvious comfort with the ancient history of Iran and the near east, the deep knowledge of Sanskrit and Sanskrit literature, Kosambi's scientific studies of coin hoards etc. His contempt for poor scholarship is expressed without reservation and with caustic precision. His writing is terse and elegant. It often rises to the eminently quotable.

Christopher Hill, Lenin And The Russian Revolution (1947)

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Christopher Hill, The Century of Revolution: 1603-1714 (1982)

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Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution (1972)

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Within the English revolution of the mid-seventeenth century which resulted in the triumph of the protestant ethic - the ideology of the propertied class - there threatened another, quite different, revolution. Its success 'might have established communal property, a far wider democracy in political and legal institutions, might have disestablished the state church and rejected the protestant ethic. In "The World Turned Upside Down" Christopher Hill studies the beliefs of such radical groups as the Diggers, the Ranters, the Levellers and others, and the social and emotional impulses that gave rise to them. The relations between rich and poor classes, the part played by wandering 'masterless' men, the outbursts of sexual freedom, the great imaginative creations of Milton and Bunyan - these and many other elements build up into a marvellously detailed and coherent portrait of this strange, sudden effusion of revolutionary beliefs. 

Gerald Horne, The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America


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The successful 1776 revolt against British rule in North America has been hailed almost universally as a great step forward for humanity. But the Africans then residing in the colonies overwhelmingly sided with London. In this trailblazing book, Gerald Horne complements his earlier celebrated Negro Comrades of the Crown, by showing that in the prelude to 1776, the abolition of slavery seemed all but inevitable in London, delighting Africans as much as it outraged slaveholders, and sparking the colonial revolt.

In the prelude to 1776, more and more Africans were joining the British military, and anti-slavery sentiments were deepening throughout Britain. And in the Caribbean, rebellious Africans were chasing Europeans to the mainland. Unlike their counterparts in London, the European colonists overwhelmingly associated enslaved Africans with subversion and hostility to the status quo. For European colonists, the major threat to security in North America was a foreign invasion combined with an insurrection of the enslaved. And as 1776 approached, London-imposed abolition throughout the colonies was a very real and threatening possibility—a possibility the founding fathers feared could bring the slave rebellions of Jamaica and Antigua to the thirteen colonies. To forestall it, they went to war.

The so-called Revolutionary War, Horne writes, was in large part a counter-revolution, a conservative movement that the founding fathers fought in order to preserve their liberty to enslave others—and which today takes the form of a racialized conservatism and a persistent racism targeting the descendants of the enslaved. The Counter-Revolution of 1776 drives us to a radical new understanding of the traditional heroic creation myth of the United States.

Roman Rosdolsky, The Making of Marx's Capital


Roman Rosdolsky, The Making of Marx's Capital

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Rosdolsky's Making of Marx's 'Capital" is a major work of interpretation and criticism, written over fifteen years by one of the foremost representatives of the European marxist tradition. Rosdolsky investigates the relationship between various versions of Capital and explains the reasons for Marx's sucessive reworkings; he provides a textual exegesis of Marx's Grundrisse, now widely available, and reveals its methodological riches. He presents a critique of later work in the marxist tradition on the basis of Marx's fundamental distinction between 'capital in general' and 'capital in conrete reality.' The Making of Marx's Capital' was first published in 1968 as Zur Enstehungsgeschichte des Marx'schen 'Kapital".

G. W. F. Hegel, Hegel’s Logic


G. W. F. Hegel, Hegel’s Logic

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The final, 1830 version of the Hegel’s Logic, known as “The Shorter Logic,” is the most accessible and until recently, the most widely known of Hegel’s mature works, the work which has been most influential among Marxists. In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to “The Phenomenology” at the expense of his mature work. An understanding of “The Phenomenology” is important to understanding “The Logic,” but unlike “The Logic,” “The Phenomenology” was written in a hurry, contains much that is dated and is so poorly structured as to be almost unreadable. The 1830 Logic, which Hegel used in his lectures, is on the other hand, a reliable and structured presentation of Hegel’s mature views.

The Logic is provided with a new Foreword by Andy Blunden which approaches Hegel from a Marxist perspective and will help the novice appreciate Hegel’s importance. Hegel’s mode of writing is arcane, and even this most accessible of his works may be hard for the modern reader to make sense of. This Foreword goes a long way to unlocking the mysteries of Hegel’s writing for the uninitiated.

Few introductions to Hegel tackle the problem of what the subject matter of the Logic is. This is only made clear in his early works, and through an appreciation of his life and times. Andy draws on these aspects to introduce the reader to a powerful and systematic approach to problems which are as acute today as they were in 1830.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Meenakshi Gigi Durham, Douglas Kellner, Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks

Meenakshi Gigi Durham, Douglas Kellner, Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks

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Bringing together a range of core texts into one volume, this acclaimed anthology offers the definitive resource in culture, media, and communication.A fully revised new edition of the bestselling anthology in this dynamic and multidisciplinary fieldNew contributions include essays from Althusser through to Henry Jenkins, and a completely new section on Globalization and Social MovementsRetains important emphasis on the giant thinkers and “makers” of the field: Gramsci on hegemony; Althusser on ideology; Horkheimer and Adorno on the culture industry; Raymond Williams on Marxist cultural theory; Habermas on the public sphere; McLuhan on media; Chomsky on propaganda; hooks and Mulvey on the subjects of visual pleasure and oppositional gazesFeatures a substantial critical introduction, short section introductions and full bibliographic citations.

Melissa Gira Grant, Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work


Melissa Gira Grant, Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work

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Sex work and conditions within the sex industry are frequent topics of discussion in mainstream culture and media, but rarely do these discussions include sex workers themselves, and rarely do they deviate from the position that sex workers must be saved from their evil industry - a position that New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof repeatedly advocates. Playing the Whore turns this position on its head, arguing that sex work is fundamentally a form of work, and as in other industries, it is not the labor of sex work that is illegitimate, but rather the working conditions within the sex sector that are abominable. Based on ten years of writing and reporting on the sex trade, and grounded in the author's personal experience as a sex worker, community organizer and health educator, Playing the Whore dismantles pervasive myths of prostitution, criticizes conditions within the sex industry, and argues that separating sex work from the 'legitimate' economy only harms those who perform sexual labor.