Kojin Karatani, Transcritique: On Kant and Marx

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From the MIT Press:

"Kojin Karatani's Transcritique introduces a startlingly new dimension to Immanuel Kant's transcendental critique by using Kant to read Karl Marx and Marx to read Kant. In a direct challenge to standard academic approaches to both thinkers, Karatani's transcritical readings discover the ethical roots of socialism in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and a Kantian critique of money in Marx's Capital.

Karatani reads Kant as a philosopher who sought to wrest metaphysics from the discredited realm of theoretical dogma in order to restore it to its proper place in the sphere of ethics and praxis. With this as his own critical model, he then presents a reading of Marx that attempts to liberate Marxism from longstanding Marxist and socialist presuppositions in order to locate a solid theoretical basis for a positive activism capable of gradually superseding the trinity of Capital-Nation-State." 

Lucio Colletti, Marxism and Hegel (1969)

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From Verso Books:

"The interpretation of Hegel has been a focal point of philosophical controversy ever since the beginning of the twentieth century, both among Marxists and in the major European philosophical schools. Yet despite wide differences of emphasis most interpretations of Hegel share important similarities. They link his idea of Reason to the revolutionary and rationalist tradition which led to the French Revolution, and they interpret his dialectic as implying a latently atheist and even materialist world outlook.

Lucio Colletti directly challenges this picture of Hegel. He argues that Hegel was an essentially Christian philosopher, and that his dialectic was explicitly anti-materialist in both intention and effect. In contrast to earlier views, Colletti maintains that there is no contradiction between Hegel’s method and his system, once it is accepted that his thought is an exercise in Absolute Idealism stemming from a long Christian humanist tradition. He claims, on the contrary, that intellectual inconsistency is rather to be found in the works of Engels, Lenin, Lukás, Kojève and others, who have attempted to adapt Hegel to their own philosophical priorities.

Colletti places his argument in the context of a broad re-examination of the whole relationship between Marxism and the Enlightenment, giving novel emphasis to the relationship between Marxism and Kant. He concludes by re-asserting the importance in Marxism of empirical science against the claim of “infinite reason,” while at the same time showing how Marx did transform key ideas in Hegelian thought to construct a consistently materialist dialectic." 

Leon Trotsky on China. Introduction by Peng Shuzi

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This volume contains a collection of Trotsky's writings on the Chinese revolution of 1925-27 and its aftermath.

This failed revolution ended with the deaths of tens of thousands of communist workers and the total destruction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as an organised mass movement of the working class. One cannot understand the fundamental problems in modern Chinese history, in particular the nature of the Maoist regime that was established in 1949, without understanding the lessons of 1925-27.

The perspective for the Chinese revolution was at the heart of Trotsky's struggle against the Stalinist bureaucracy. In this struggle, his theory of Permanent Revolution was put to a gigantic test—for the second time. With the support of the Soviet bureaucratic apparatus Stalin prevailed, leading to the betrayal of one of the most promising revolutionary opportunities since 1917. The defeat in China was a decisive blow to the Left Opposition. At the end of 1927, Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and then from the USSR.

Fred Moseley, Tony Smith, Marx's Capital and Hegel's Logic: A Reexamination

Fred Moseley, Tony Smith, Marx's Capital and Hegel's Logic: A Reexamination

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This book provides a wide-ranging and in-depth reappraisal of the relation between Marx’s economic theory in Capital and Hegel’s Logic by leading Marxian economists and philosophers from around the world. The subjects dealt with include: systematic dialectics, the New Dialectics, materialism vs. idealism, Marx’s ‘inversion’ of Hegel, Hegel’s Concept logic (universality-particularity-singularity), Hegel’s Essence logic (essence-appearance), Marx’s levels of abstraction of capital in general and competition, and capital as Hegelian Subject.

The papers in this volume were originally presented at the 22nd annual meeting of the International Symposium on Marxian Theory at Mount Holyoke College in August 2011. The twelve authors are divided between seven economists and five philosophers, as is fitting for the interdisciplinary subject of the relation between Marx’s economic theory and Hegel’s logic.

Contributors are: Chris Arthur, Riccardo Bellofiore, Roberto Fineschi, Gastón Caligaris, Igor Hanzel, Juan Iñigo Carrera, Mark Meaney, Fred Moseley, Patrick Murray, Geert Reuten, Mario Robles, Tony Smith, and Guido Starosta.

Fred Moseley, Martha Campbell, New Investigations of Marx's Method

Fred Moseley, Martha Campbell, New Investigations of Marx's Method

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The contributors to this stimulating collection of thoughtful essays examine the philosophical principles and logical structure underlying Marx's economic theory in Capital.

The essays deal with many methodological issues including: the meaning of dialectic logic, the relation between Marx and Hegel, the historical specificity of Marx's concepts, the emphasis on social forms, the commodity as the starting point of Capital, the theory of money, the distinction between capital in general and competition, and Marx's critique of bourgeois economics.

The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation. Editied by Jonathan Barnes

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The Oxford Translation of Aristotle was originally published in twelve volumes between 1912 and 1954. The revised edition contains the substance of the original translation, slightly emended in light of recent scholarship; three of the original versions have been replaced by new translations; and a new and enlarged selection of fragments has been added. The aim of the translation remains the same: to make the surviving works of Aristotle readily accessible to English-speaking readers.

Andrei Anikin, Science in Its Youth: Pre-Marxian Political Economy

Andrei Anikin, Science in Its Youth: Pre-Marxian Political Economy

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This book traces the link of major modern trends and ideas in political economy to economic doctrines 'of the past. With high scholarship warmed by humor, the reader is introduced to a host of earlier economic thinkers-Boisguillebert, Petty, Quesnay, Turgot, Smith, Ricardo, Saint-Simon, Fourier, Owen, and many others.

Their ideas are revealed against the background o( the age in which they. lived and wrote. The author Andrei Vladimirovich Anikin (Born Sep. 9, 1927 in Tomsk. Died August 29, 2001) was a professor at Moscow University.

A. Leontiev, Political Economy: A Beginner's Course

A. Leontiev, Political Economy: A Beginner's Course

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Originally published in the Soviet Union in 1935, this was a popular Stalinist textbook on Marxism and how it related to the problems of the day. The book was used in Communist Party study classes for years.

Erica Benner, Really Existing Nationalisms: A Post-Communist View from Marx and Engels

Erica Benner, Really Existing Nationalisms: A Post-Communist View from Marx and Engels

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This book counters a range of assumptions commonly held about Marx's views of nationalism and internationalism, not least by twentieth-century marxists themselves. It shows that Marx did not envisage the abolition of national communities or nation states; that the politics of nationalism in Marx is not incompatible with a politics of class; that Marx was repeatedly critical of a "utopian" internationalism, and that the themes of nationalism and international solidarity, far from being necessarily in opposition, can be seen in many cases as mutually reinforcing. Nationalism then emerges in Marxist theory as a form of political self-identification and mobilization that can contribute to the broader project of social and political freedom.

Scott Meikle, Essentialism in the Thought of Karl Marx

Scott Meikle, Essentialism in the Thought of Karl Marx

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Meikle emphasizes the roots of Marx's dialectical method in Aristotelian essentialism and organicism. This is shown to constitute a challenge to liberal scholars to rethink their methodological premises. Though many liberals claim Aristotle as their intellectual forebear, they haue not grasped the Aristotelian propensity for holistic analysis of social phenomena—as Marx did. In order to reclaim Aristotle's legacy, liberals must reformulate their economic and political ideas within a broader context that takes account of historical, cultural and socio‐psy‐chological factors.

Dianne Feeley, Paul Le Blanc, Thomas Twiss, George Breitman, Leon Trotsky and the Organizational Principles of the Revolutionary Party

Dianne Feeley, Paul Le Blanc, Thomas Twiss, George Breitman, Leon Trotsky and the Organizational Principles of the Revolutionary Party

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This is the first comprehensive examination of Leon Trotsky's view on revolutionary organizational principles, and the dynamic interplay of democratic initiative and principled centralism. Mostly in his own words, these writings are grounded in Trotsky's experience in Russia's revolutionary movement, as a leader of the International Left Opposition and Fourth International.

V. Adoratsky, Dialectical Materialism: The Theoretical Foundation of Marxism-Leninism

V. Adoratsky, Dialectical Materialism: The Theoretical Foundation of Marxism-Leninism

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Clara Zetkin, Reminiscences of Lenin

Clara Zetkin, Reminiscences of Lenin

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Sebastian Budgen, Stathis Kouvelakis, Slavoj Zizek, David Fernbach, Lenin Reloaded: Toward a Politics of Truth

Sebastian Budgen, Stathis Kouvelakis, Slavoj Zizek, David Fernbach, Lenin Reloaded: Toward a Politics of Truth

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Lenin Reloaded is a rallying call by some of the world’s leading Marxist intellectuals for renewed attention to the significance of Vladimir Lenin. The volume’s editors explain that it was Lenin who made Karl Marx’s thought explicitly political, who extended it beyond the confines of Europe, who put it into practice. They contend that a focus on Lenin is urgently needed now, when global capitalism appears to be the only game in town, the liberal-democratic system seems to have been settled on as the optimal political organization of society, and it has become easier to imagine the end of the world than a modest change in the mode of production. Lenin retooled Marx’s thought for specific historical conditions in 1914, and Lenin Reloaded urges a reinvention of the revolutionary project for the present. Such a project would be Leninist in its commitment to action based on truth and its acceptance of the consequences that follow from action.

These essays, some of which are appearing in English for the first time, bring Lenin face-to-face with the problems of today, including war, imperialism, the imperative to build an intelligentsia of wage earners, the need to embrace the achievements of bourgeois society and modernity, and the widespread failure of social democracy. Lenin Reloaded demonstrates that truth and partisanship are not mutually exclusive as is often suggested. Quite the opposite—in the present, truth can be articulated only from a thoroughly partisan position.

Contributors. Kevin B. Anderson, Alain Badiou, Etienne Balibar, Daniel Bensaïd, Sebastian Budgen, Alex Callinicos, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Stathis Kouvelakis, Georges Labica, Sylvain Lazarus, Jean-Jacques Lecercle, Lars T. Lih, Domenico Losurdo, Savas Michael-Matsas, Antonio Negri, Alan Shandro, Slavoj Žižek

Theodor Adorno, Introduction to Sociology

Theodor Adorno, Introduction to Sociology

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Introduction to Sociology distills decades of distinguished work in sociology by one of this century's most influential thinkers in the areas of social theory, philosophy, aesthetics, and music.

It consists of a course of seventeen lectures given by Theodor W. Adorno in May-July 1968, the last lecture series before his death in 1969. Captured by tape recorder (which Adorno called "the fingerprint of the living mind"), these lectures present a somewhat different, and more accessible, Adorno from the one who composed the faultlessly articulated and almost forbiddingly perfect prose of the works published in his lifetime. Here we can follow Adorno's thought in the process of formation (he spoke from brief notes), endowed with the spontaneity and energy of the spoken word. The lectures form an ideal introduction to Adorno's work, acclimatizing the reader to the greater density of thought and language of his classic texts.

Delivered at the time of the "positivist dispute" in sociology, Adorno defends the position of the "Frankfurt School" against criticism from mainstream positivist sociologists. He sets out a conception of sociology as a discipline going beyond the compilation and interpretation of empirical facts, its truth being inseparable from the essential structure of society itself. Adorno sees sociology not as one academic discipline among others, but as an over-arching discipline that impinges on all aspects of social life.

Tracing the history of the discipline and insisting that the historical context is constitutive of sociology itself, Adorno addresses a wide range of topics, including: the purpose of studying sociology; the relation of sociology and politics; the influence of Saint-Simon, Comte, Durkheim, Weber, Marx, and Freud; the contributions of ethnology and anthropology; the relationship of method to subject matter; the problems of quantitative analysis; the fetishization of science; and the separation of sociology and social philosophy.

Jacques Rancière, The Philosopher and His Poor

Jacques Rancière, The Philosopher and His Poor

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What has philosophy to do with the poor? If, as has often been supposed, the poor have no time for philosophy, then why have philosophers always made time for them? Why is the history of philosophy—from Plato to Karl Marx to Jean-Paul Sartre to Pierre Bourdieu—the history of so many figures of the poor: plebes, men of iron, the demos, artisans, common people, proletarians, the masses? Why have philosophers made the shoemaker, in particular, a remarkably ubiquitous presence in this history? Does philosophy itself depend on this thinking about the poor? If so, can it ever refrain from thinking for them?Jacques Ranci?re’s The Philosopher and His Poor meditates on these questions in close readings of major texts of Western thought in which the poor have played a leading role—sometimes as the objects of philosophical analysis, sometimes as illustrations of philosophical argument. Published in France in 1983 and made available here for the first time in English, this consummate study assesses the consequences for Marx, Sartre, and Bourdieu of Plato’s admonition that workers should do “nothing else” than their own work. It offers innovative readings of these thinkers’ struggles to elaborate a philosophy of the poor. Presenting a left critique of Bourdieu, the terms of which are largely unknown to an English-language readership, The Philosopher and His Poor remains remarkably timely twenty years after its initial publication.

Gregory Elliott, Althusser: A Critical Reader

Gregory Elliott, Althusser: A Critical Reader

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Louis Althusser was probably one of the most complex - and the most controversial - of the "maitres de penser" to emerge from the turbulent Parisian intellectual scene of the 1960s. During a long career, Althusser achieved wide fame, notoriety and, finally, effacement. Yet his work remains an important element in contemporary philosophy and cultural critique. This volume, timed to coincide with the English-language publication of Althusser's autobiography, "The Future Lasts a Long Time", assesses the importance and influence of "Althusserianism", both in relation to, and beyond, the controversies of his political career and the events of his personal biography. One of the principal aims of the book is to situate Althusser and his texts within the wider histories and cultures to which they belong, drawing on contributors from a wide range of backgrounds and geographical locations. Thus E.J. Hobsbawm contextualizes Althusser's Marxism; Pierre Villar assesses Althusserian historiography; Paul Ricoeur probes Althusser's theory of ideology; Axel Honneth articulates his relation to the principal rival schools of Marxism in the 1960s and 1970s; Peter Dews examines his relations to the structuralist school; David Macey casts a sceptical eye over his alliance with Lacan; Francis Mulhern explores the diversity of Anglophone "Althusserianism"; and Gregory Elliott responds to Althusser's analysis of his own case history. The book concludes with a bibliography of Althusser's analysis of his own case history.

Christopher John Arthur, The New Dialectic and Marx's Capital

Christopher John Arthur, The New Dialectic and Marx's Capital

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This work both argues for, and demonstrates, a new turn to dialectic. Marx's "Capital" was clearly influenced by Hegel's dialectical figures - here, case by case, the significance of these is clarified.

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

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First published in Portuguese in 1968, Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. The methodology of the late Paulo Freire has helped to empower countless impoverished and illiterate people throughout the world. Freire's work has taken on especial urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is increasingly accepted as the norm. With a substantive new introduction on Freire's life and the remarkable impact of this book by writer and Freire confidant and authority Donaldo Macedo, this anniversary edition of Pedagogy of the Oppressed will inspire a new generation of educators, students, and general readers for years to come.

Ha-Joon Chang, 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Ha-Joon Chang, 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

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In "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism", one of today's most iconoclastic thinkers destroys the biggest myths about the world we live in. It may have its flaws, but there's no real alternative to free-market capitalism - ultimately it's making us all more prosperous. The West is more efficient and financially savvy than the developing world. And technology is the way forward for everyone. Right? Wrong. This book will turn every piece of received economic wisdom you've heard on its head. It reveals the truth behind what 'they' tell you and shows how the system really works, including: There's no such thing as a 'free' market; Globalization isn't making the world richer; We don't live in a digital world - the washing machine has changed lives more than the internet; Poor countries are more entrepreneurial than rich ones; and, Higher paid managers don't produce better results. This galvanizing, fact-packed book about money, equality, freedom and greed proves that the free market isn't just bad for people - it's an inefficient way of running economies too. Here Chang lays out the alternatives, and shows there's a better way. 

John Bellamy Foster, Naked Imperialism: The U.S. Pursuit of Global Dominance

John Bellamy Foster, Naked Imperialism: The U.S. Pursuit of Global Dominance

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During the Cold War years, mainstream commentators were quick to dismiss the idea that the United States was an imperialist power. Even when U.S. interventions led to the overthrow of popular governments, as in Iran, Guatemala, or the Congo, or wholesale war, as in Vietnam, this fiction remained intact. During the 1990s and especially since September 11, 2001, however, it has crumbled. Today, the need for American empire is openly proclaimed and defended by mainstream analysts and commentators.

John Bellamy Foster’s Naked Imperialism examines this important transformation in U.S. global policy and ideology, showing the political and economic roots of the new militarism and its consequences both in the global and local context. Foster shows how U.S.-led global capitalism is preparing the way for a new age of barbarism and demonstrates the necessity for resistance and solidarity on a global scale.

Frederic Lordon, Willing Slaves Of Capital: Spinoza And Marx On Desire

Frederic Lordon, Willing Slaves Of Capital: Spinoza And Marx On Desire

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Why do people work for other people? This seemingly naïve question is at the heart of Lordon's argument. To complement Marx's partial answers, especially in the face of the disconcerting spectacle of the engaged, enthusiastic employee, Lordon brings to bear a "Spinozist anthropology" that reveals the fundamental role of affects and passions in the employment relationship, reconceptualizing capitalist exploitation as the capture and remolding of desire. A thoroughly materialist reading of Spinoza's Ethics allows Lordon to debunk all notions of individual autonomy and self-determination while simultaneously saving the ideas of political freedom and liberation from capitalist exploitation. Willing Slaves of Capital is a bold proposal to rethink capitalism and its transcendence on the basis of the contemporary experience of work.

Neil Davidson, How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions?

Neil Davidson, How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions?

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Once of central importance to left historians and activists alike, the concept of the “bourgeois revolution” has recently come in for sustained criticism from both Marxists and conservatives. In this comprehensive rejoinder, Neil Davidson seeks to answer the question, How revolutionary were the bourgeois revolutions? by systematically examining the approach taken by a wide range of thinkers to explain their causes, outcomes, and content across the historical period from the sixteenth-century Reformation to twentieth-century decolonization. Through far-reaching research and comprehensive analysis, Davidson demonstrates that there is much at stake—far from being a stale issue for the history books, understanding these struggles of the past can offer insightful lessons for today’s radicals.

Andrew Collier, Marx: A Beginner's Guide

Andrew Collier, Marx: A Beginner's Guide

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Breathing new life into the achievements of Karl Marx, this accessible and jargon-free introduction is a timely reminder of his undiminished influence. Andrew Collier's engaging text not only introduces the reader to Marx the revolutionary, but also redefines him as one of the first truly democratic thinkers. In a concise yet searching manner, Collier covers all the elements of marxist thought, from the early writings to such major texts as 'Capital' and the key themes of labour and society. Punctuating his study with a wide range of examples, from Aristotelian thought to Thatcherite policy, he explores the traditional notion of Marx the activist, while probing the apparent inconsistencies in his work and reclaiming his place as a philosopher and political theorist. Concluding with a thought-provoking assessment of Marx's pervasive influence on the political landscape of the twenty-first century. Collier's study highlights our own global inequalities and will be warmly welcomed by students, scholars and activists from a variety of backgrounds.

Lee Baxandall, Stefan Morawski (eds.): Marx & Engels on Literature and Art: A Selection of Writings (1973)

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 A concise compilation of texts divided into nine sections with a judicious introductory essay by Morawski.

Terry Eagleton, Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate

Terry Eagleton, Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate

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Terry Eagleton’s witty and polemical Reason, Faith, and Revolution is bound to cause a stir among scientists, theologians, people of faith and people of no faith, as well as general readers eager to understand the God Debate. On the one hand, Eagleton demolishes what he calls the “superstitious” view of God held by most atheists and agnostics and offers in its place a revolutionary account of the Christian Gospel. On the other hand, he launches a stinging assault on the betrayal of this revolution by institutional Christianity.There is little joy here, then, either for the anti-God brigade—Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in particular—nor for many conventional believers. Instead, Eagleton offers his own vibrant account of religion and politics in a book that ranges from the Holy Spirit to the recent history of the Middle East, from Thomas Aquinas to the Twin Towers.

Eduardo Mendieta, The Frankfurt School on Religion: Key Writings by the Major Thinkers

Eduardo Mendieta, The Frankfurt School on Religion: Key Writings by the Major Thinkers

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In The Frankfurt School on Religion, Mendieta has brought together a selection of readings and essays which will make available the significant and much-needed, contribution of the thinkers of the Frankfurt School on the religion.

Andrew Collier, On Christian Belief: A Defence of a Cognitive Conception of Religious Belief in a Christian Context

Andrew Collier, On Christian Belief: A Defence of a Cognitive Conception of Religious Belief in a Christian Context

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On Christian Belief offers a defence of realism in the philosophy of religion. It argues that religious belief - with particular reference to Christian belief - unlike any other kind of belief, is cognitive; making claims about what is real, and open to rational discussion between believers and non-believers. The author begins by providing a critique of several views which either try to describe a faith without cognitive context, or to justify believing on non-cognitive grounds. He then discusses what sense can be made of the phenomenon of religious conversion by realists and non-realists. After a chapter on knowledge in general, he defends the idea that religious knowledge is very like other knowledge, in being based on reliable testimony, sifted by reason and tested by experience. The logical status of the content of religious belief is then discussed, with reference to Christianity.

John Marsden, Marxian and Christian Utopianism: Toward a Socialist Political Theology

John Marsden, Marxian and Christian Utopianism: Toward a Socialist Political Theology

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Slavoj Zizek, John Milbank, The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?

Slavoj Zizek, John Milbank, The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?

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"What matters is not so much that Žižek is endorsing a demythologized, disenchanted Christianity without transcendence, as that he is offering in the end (despite what he sometimes claims) a heterodox version of Christian belief."--John Milbank"To put it even more bluntly, my claim is that it is Milbank who is effectively guilty of heterodoxy, ultimately of a regression to paganism: in my atheism, I am more Christian than Milbank."--Slavoj ŽižekIn this corner, philosopher Slavoj Žižek, a militant atheist who represents the critical-materialist stance against religion's illusions; in the other corner, "Radical Orthodox" theologian John Milbank, an influential and provocative thinker who argues that theology is the only foundation upon which knowledge, politics, and ethics can stand. In The Monstrosity of Christ, Žižek and Milbank go head to head for three rounds, employing an impressive arsenal of moves to advance their positions and press their respective advantages. By the closing bell, they have not only proven themselves worthy adversaries, they have shown that faith and reason are not simply and intractably opposed. Žižek has long been interested in the emancipatory potential offered by Christian theology. And Milbank, seeing global capitalism as the new century's greatest ethical challenge, has pushed his own ontology in more political and materialist directions. Their debate in The Monstrosity of Christ concerns the future of religion, secularity, and political hope in light of a monsterful event--God becoming human. For the first time since Žižek's turn toward theology, we have a true debate between an atheist and a theologian about the very meaning of theology, Christ, the Church, the Holy Ghost, Universality, and the foundations of logic. The result goes far beyond the popularized atheist/theist point/counterpoint of recent books by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and others. Žižek begins, and Milbank answers, countering dialectics with "paradox." The debate centers on the nature of and relation between paradox and parallax, between analogy and dialectics, between transcendent glory and liberation. Slavoj Žižek is a philosopher and cultural critic. He has published over thirty books, including Looking Awry, The Puppet and the Dwarf, and The Parallax View (these three published by the MIT Press). John Milbank is an influential Christian theologian and the author of Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason and other books. Creston Davis, who conceived of this encounter, studied under both Žižek and Milbank.

Alasdair C. MacIntyre, Marxism and Christianity

Alasdair C. MacIntyre, Marxism and Christianity

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This volume explores the common ground between Marxism and Christianity. It argues that Marxism shares in good measure both the content and functions of Christianity and does so because it inherits it from Christianity. It details the religious attitudes and modes of belief that appear in Marxism as it developed historically from the philosophies of Hegel and Feuerbach, and as it has been carried on by its latter-day interpreters from Rosa Luxemberg and Trotsky to Kautsky and Lukacs. It sets out to show that Marxism, no less than Christianity, is subject to the historical relativity that affects all ideologies. This new edition has been updated to take account of the collapse of Communism in the former Eastern bloc and whether Marxism, in particular, is still relevant to those who seek a changed social order today.

C.L.R James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (Second Edition Revised)

C.L.R James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (Second Edition Revised)

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From Amazon, 

“A classic and impassioned account of the first revolution in the Third World.

This powerful, intensely dramatic book is the definitive account of the Haitian Revolution of 1794-1803, a revolution that began in the wake of the Bastille but became the model for the Third World liberation movements from Africa to Cuba. It is the story of the French colony of San Domingo, a place where the brutality of master toward slave was commonplace and ingeniously refined. And it is the story of a barely literate slave named Toussaint L’Ouverture, who led the black people of San Domingo in a successful struggle against successive invasions by overwhelming French, Spanish, and English forces and in the process helped form the first independent nation in the Caribbean.” 

Susan Buck-Morss, The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project

Susan Buck-Morss, The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project

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Walter Benjamin's magnum opus was a book he did not live to write. In The Dialectics of Seeing, Susan Buck-Morss offers an inventive reconstruction of the Passagen Werk, or Arcades Project, as it might have taken form.Working with Benjamin's vast files of citations and commentary which contain a myriad of historical details from the dawn of consumer culture, Buck-Morss makes visible the conceptual structure that gives these fragments philosophical coherence. She uses images throughout the book to demonstrate that Benjamin took the debris of mass culture seriously as the source of philosophical truth.The Paris Arcades that so fascinated Benjamin (as they did the Surrealists whose "materialist metaphysics" he admired) were the prototype, the 19th century "ur-form" of the modern shopping mall. Benjamin's dialectics of seeing demonstrate how to read these consumer dream houses and so many other material objects of the time - from air balloons to women's fashions, from Baudelaire's poetry to Grandville's cartoons - as anticipations of social utopia and, simultaneously, as clues for a radical political critique.Buck-Morss plots Benjamin's intellectual orientation on axes running east and west, north and south - Moscow Paris, Berlin-Naples - and shows how such thinking in coordinates can explain his understanding of "dialectics at a standstill." She argues for the continuing relevance of Benjamin's insights but then allows a set of "afterimages" to have the last word.Susan Buck-Morss is Professor of Political Philosophy and Social Theory at Cornell University. The Dialectics of Seeing is included in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy.

Andrew Benjamin, Walter Benjamin and Art

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Walter Benjamin's most famous and influential essay remains The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Walter Benjamin and the Work of Art is the first book to provide a broad and dedicated analysis of this canonical work and its effect upon core contemporary concerns in the visual arts, aesthetics and the history of philosophy.

The book is structured around three distinct areas: the extension of Benjamin's work; the question of historical connection; the importance of the essay in the development of criticism of both the visual arts and literature. Contributors to the volume include major Benjamin commentators, whose work has very much defined the reception of the essay, and leading philosophers, historians and aesthetician, whose approaches open up new areas of interest and relevance

Margaret A. Rose, Marx's Lost Aesthetic: Karl Marx and the Visual Arts

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This book offers an original and challenging study of Marx's contact with the visual arts, aesthetic theories, and art policies in nineteenth-century Europe. It differs from previous discussions of Marxist aesthetic theory in looking at Marx's views from an art-historical rather than from a literary perspective, and in placing those views in the context of the art practices, theories, and policies of Marx's own time. Dr Rose begins her work by discussing Marx's planned treatise on Romantic art of 1842 against the background of the philosophical debates, cultural policies, and art practices of the 1840s, and looks in particular at the patronage given to the group of German artists known as the 'Nazarenes' in those years, who are discussed in relation to both the English Pre-Raphaelites, popular in the London known to Marx, and to the Russian Social Realists of the 1860s. The author goes on to consider claims of twentieth-century Marxist art theories and practices to have represented Marx's own views on art. The book the conflicting claims made on Marx's views by the Soviet avant-garde Constructivists of the 1920s and of the Socialist Realists who followed them are considered, and are related back to the aesthetic theories and practices discussed in the earlier chapters.

Paul Mattick, Art in its time: Theories and Practices of Modern Aesthetics

Paul Mattick, Art in its time: Theories and Practices of Modern Aesthetics

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Art In Its Time takes a close look at the way in which art has become integral to the everyday 'ordinary' life of modern society. It explores the prevalent notion of art as transcending its historical moment, and argues that art cannot be separated from the everyday as it often provides material to represent social struggles and class, to explore sexuality, and to think about modern industry and our economic relationships.

Anitra Nelson, Marx's Concept of Money

Anitra Nelson, Marx's Concept of Money

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This ground-breaking study places Marx's theory of money within the wider context of his political and philosophical thought, with particular reference to ''alienation.''

Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, Music and Marx: Ideas, Practice, Politics

Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, Music and Marx: Ideas, Practice, Politics

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Music and Marx considers Marx's relevance to current issues in musical scholarship from perspectives that range across disciplinary and political vantage points. Well-known contributors analyze the numerous ways in which Marxist thought enters into music discourse. Exploring everything from Marxism in hip-hop to feudal properties of Hindustani music to revolutionary music of Central America, the essays in this book find surprising, paradigm-shifting revelations. This book will revolutionize the way music production and consumption is viewed.

Paul Blackledge, Reflections on the Marxist Theory of History

Paul Blackledge, Reflections on the Marxist Theory of History

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A decade after Francis Fukuyama announced the "End of History," anti-capitalist demonstrators at Seattle and elsewhere have helped reinvigorate the Left with the reply "another world is possible." More than anyone else it was Marx who showed that slogans such as this were no utopian fantasies, and that capitalism was just as much a historical mode of production, no more natural and certainly no less contradictory, than were the feudal and slave modes which proceeded it. This book should be read by historians, students of cultural, social and political theory and anti-capitalist activists.

Paul Blackledge, Graeme Kirkpatrick, Historical Materialism and Social Evolution

Paul Blackledge, Graeme Kirkpatrick, Historical Materialism and Social Evolution

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Historical Materialism and Social Evolution brings together a collection of essays which investigate the relationship between Marxist thought and Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Each of the contributors emphasize the idea that the distinctive character of progressive social thought is derived from creative ideas drawn from the study of natural evolutionary processes.

Nicos Poulantzas, Fascism and Dictatorship: The Third International and the Problem of Fascism

Nicos Poulantzas, Fascism and Dictatorship: The Third International and the Problem of Fascism

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Poulantzas’s book is the first major Marxist study of German and Italian fascism to appear since the Second World War. It carefully distinguishes between fascism as a mass movement before the seizure of power and fascism as an entrenched machinery of dictatorship. It compares the distinct class components of the counter-revolutionary blocs mobilzed by fascism in Germany and Italy; analyses the changing relations between the petty bourgeoisie and big capital in the evolution of fascism; discusses the structures of the fascist state itself, as an emergency regime for the defense of capital; and provides a sustained and documented criticism of official Comintern attitudes and policies towards fascism in the fateful years after the Versailles settlement. Fascism and Dictatorship represents a challenging synthesis of factual evidence and conceptual analysis that has been rare in Marxist political theory to date.

Nicos Poulantzas, The Poulantzas Reader: Marxism, Law and the State

Nicos Poulantzas,  The Poulantzas Reader: Marxism, Law and the State

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First-ever collection of the key writings of one of the most influential political theorists of the postwar epoch. Nicos Poulantzas was one of the leading Marxist theorists of the twentieth century, developing seminal analyses of the state and social classes during the crisis of monopoly capitalism. This volume brings together a wide selection of Poulantzas’ key writings in legal philosophy and political sociology, including some important pieces translated here for the first time. Texts include his early analyses of law, his studies of hegemony, authoritarianism, and social classes, and his debate on the state with Ralph Miliband and Ernesto Laclau. An essential introduction for the scholar and the student to a body of work that continues to reverberate across the social sciences.

Rius, Marx for Beginners

Rius, Marx for Beginners

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A cartoon book about Marx? Are you sure it's Karl, not Groucho? How can you summarize the work of Karl Marx in cartoons? It took Rius to do it. He's put it all in: the origins of Marxist philosophy, history, economics; of capital, labor, the class struggle, socialism. And there's a biography of "Charlie" Marx besides.

Like the companion volumes in the series, Marx for Beginners is accurate, understandable, and very, very funny.

Teodor Shanin, Late Marx and the Russian Road: Marx and the Peripheries of Capitalism

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Explores Marx’s attitude to “developing” societies. Includes translations of Marx’s notes from the 1880s, among the most important finds of the last century.

Stephen Resnick and Richard D. Wolff, Knowledge and Class: A Marxian Critique of Political Economy

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Intense debates in recent decades have provoked major new directions in Marxist theory.  Earlier reductionist notions of knowledge, dialectics, contradiction, class, and capitalism have been challenged and profoundly transformed.  Economic determinism has given way to new kinds of philosophic, social, and economic analysis such as the one Resnick and Wolff here develop around overdeterminism.  Showing that Lenin, Lukacs, Gramsci, Mao, and Althusser contributed concepts of knowledge, class, and society that can radically alter traditional dialectical materialism, the authors demonstrate how this alteration also transforms Marxist economic theory.  The dramatic result is a new Marxian theory, a new analysis of class, enterprise, and state.

Mike Wayne, Understanding Film: Marxist Perspectives

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 From International Socialism,

"Mike Wayne’s introduction is one of the highlights of the book. Wayne summarises many of the key Marxist debates but takes positions. He argues against the pessimism of even soft versions of postmodernism and challenges the once fashionable post-structuralists who argued that texts write themselves, that cultural products are shaped unconsciously by institutions, history, subconscious desires and so on. As he says, ‘While the dominant version of authorship had rightly been taken to task, we cannot do without some sense of agency, collective and individual… There is no reason to suppose that authors of cultural texts are any less able to consciously shape meaning than academics.’"

Stephanie McMillan, Capitalism Must Die!

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This 248-page book uses text and comics to explain in simple terms what capitalism is, how it works, why it’s irredeemable, and what we can do to end it. Oppression, ecocide, inequality, and exploitation can’t be voted away or escaped. We can’t get rid of them through consumer or lifestyle choices. If you really want to end the atrocities, you need to join the worldwide fight against capitalism!

Part 1 of the book explains the economic mechanisms of capitalism, and why the growth imperative is built into it. Part 2 explains the kind of organizations we need to build and support, in order to have a fighting chance against this ruthless global system.

Throughout, cartoons make the points even more clear (and might make you laugh as well). (Please note: the cartoons in the print version are in black and white).

Rupert Woodfin and Oscar Zarate, Introducing Marxism: A Graphic Guide

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From Marx & Philosophy Society,

"Focusing on Marxist thought in particular, Introducing Marxism gives an overview of the historical development of Marxism, also using the words and ideas of important thinkers. To establish the importance of Marx, the book begins with the publication of one his most well-known works – The Communist Manifesto, stating that “the Manifesto left an indelible mark on human progress and still today forms the basis for a system of political beliefs that motivates millions.” (4) Following a brief account of Marx’s life, which highlights his early passion for philosophy, his life as a political agitator, and the importance of his friendship with Friedrich Engels, Introducing Marxism looks at Marx’s philosophical, economic, and political theories, including dialectical materialism, surplus value, and class struggle."

Ervand Abrahamian, The Coup: 1953, The CIA, and The Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations

Ervand Abrahamian, The Coup: 1953, The CIA, and The Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations

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In August 1953, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency orchestrated the swift overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected leader and installed Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in his place. Over the next twenty-six years, the United States backed the unpopular, authoritarian shah and his secret police; in exchange, it reaped a share of Iran’s oil wealth and became a key player in this volatile region.

The blowback was almost inevitable, as this new and revealing history of the coup and its consequences shows. When the 1979 Iranian Revolution deposed the shah and replaced his puppet government with a radical Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the shift reverberated throughout the Middle East and the world, casting a long, dark shadow over U.S.-Iran relations that extends to the present day.

In this authoritative new history of the coup and its aftermath, noted Iran scholar Ervand Abrahamian uncovers little-known documents that challenge conventional interpretations and also sheds new light on how the American role in the coup influenced U.S.-Iranian relations, both past and present. Drawing from the hitherto closed archives of British Petroleum, the Foreign Office, and the U.S. State Department, as well as from Iranian memoirs and published interviews, Abrahamian’s riveting account of this key historical event will change America’s understanding of a crucial turning point in modern U.S.-Iranian relations.

Rick Geary, Trotsky: A Graphic Biography

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Trotsky was a hero to some, a ruthless demon to others. To Stalin, he was such a threat that he warranted murder by pickax. This polarizing figure set up a world conflict that lasted through the twentieth century, and in Trotsky: A Graphic Biography, the renowned comic artist Rick Geary uses his distinct style to depict the stark reality of the man and his times. Trotsky’s life becomes a guide to the creation of the Soviet Union, the horrors of World War I, and the establishment of international communism as he, Lenin, and their fellow Bolsheviks rise from persecution and a life underground to the height of political power. Ranging from his boyhood in the Ukraine to his fallout with Stalin and his moonlight romance with Frida Kahlo, Trotsky is a stunning look at one of the twentieth century’s most important thinkers and the far-reaching political trends that he launched.