heiss93 wrote: I've been reading "Socialism Betrayed" by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny: http://www.amazon.com/Socialism-Betrayed-Behind-Collapse-Soviet/dp/1450241719. This book tries to explain the direct and indirect causes of the collapse of the USSR, and debunks the myth that Soviet socialism was destined to fail. I've also been reading "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein: http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine. In this book, Klein argues that the neo-liberal camp has used disasters (either natural, unintentionally or intentionally man-made) to push through unpopular measures. She describes how disaster capitalism was used in Pinochet's Chile, post-Soviet Russia, the first years of 'Solidarity' in power in Poland, Hurrican Katrina in the USA, post-Apartheid South Africa, etc. Another interesting book I've read is "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism" by Ha-Joon Chang (a South Korean economist at the University of Cambridge): http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/aug/29/ha-joon-chang-23-things. Chang argues that there are no such things as free market and state intervention-free economy.
I've just started re-reading Daniel Pipes' Russia Under the Old Regime (http://www.amazon.com/Russia-under-Old-Regime-Edition/dp/0140247688) which I'd read when doing my BA some 20 years ago ( ). I'd bought myself 5 books before Christmas last year, all based on Russia. After I've read these books, I intend on reading up on the Yugoslav Wars.
Prior to Pipes' book, I'd just finished reading this http://www.amazon.com/Rhodesian-War-Military-History-Stackpole/dp/0811707253/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399164405&sr=1-1&keywords=rhodesia+stackpole ; The Rhodesian War: A Military History. I heartily recommend it.
Soviet cogitations: 1
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 04 May 2014, 01:59 New Comrade (Say hi & be nice to me!)
Hi! I need your help, folks. Can you help me find free to download Progress Publishers books?
I'm currently reading three books (I'm never able to focus on just one...); Chinese Marxism in Flux, 1978-84: Essays on Epistemology, Ideology, and Political Economy,
Quote:and En biografi over Olaf Palma ( Quote:- the last "great" social democratic politician...
Nice collection of Soviet texts here:
http://www.redstarpublishers.org/#SovUn I was reading A. Zhdanov: History of Philosophy, 1948. http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/a ... t.htm#phil He critiques the work of Alexandrov for being overly lenient towards all previous bourgeois philosophies, in that virtually any famous philosopher can be called 'progressive for his time'. Quote: This was at a time when Hegel and German Idealism was out of favor and so Alexandrov is accused of over-emphasizing it's influence on Marx's dialectic. Kamran Heiss
I was skimming through the philosophical passages of Tolstoy's War and Peace, which is a great work of philosophical history, independent of the novel. As a work of prose nonfiction, it gives an excellent account of the Napoleonic invasion of Russia.
I was particularly intrigued by Tolstoy's attempt to apply the infinitesimal to historical science. This is a most dialectical view of history, and prefigures Engels' comment about the relation of calculus to lower mathematics being analogous to that between dialectics and formal logic. This flows from Tolstoy's proto-materialist understanding that the masses are the makers of history, and that the so-called Great Men are slaves to necessity. https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/t.h.koornwind ... lstoy.html Kamran Heiss
John Dewey (1859-1952). The Quest for Certainty: A Study of the Relation of Knowledge and Action (1929).
There are some strong parallels between Dewey's insistence on the unity of thought and praxis and the Marxist theory of knowledge. Many scholars have drawn attention to the parallels with Mao's On Practice in particular. Dewey visited China, while Mao was a student. The Neo-Pragmatist Philosopher Hilary Putnam was an ex-member of the Progressive Labor Party, and when asked in an interview about the influence of Lenin of Philosophy of Science, he said that he did not consider Empirocriticism to be a good work of philosophy, but was more impressed by Mao's On Practice, and claimed that Mao had been influenced by Dewey. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MquP2kIvsMQ The parallels are not purely epistemological, because Dewey also goes into the ways in which metaphysics is based on the social class system of an elite of idle intellectuals who denigrate the work of the slaves. Kamran Heiss
Naoimi Klein - No Logo
Lenin - April Thesis Maurice Meisner - Mao's China and After
"Another View of Stalin" - Ludo Martens
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Soviet cogitations: 2507
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 09 May 2004, 21:17 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Party Bureaucrat
I just received my copy of Communism: Basic Writings compiled by Anne Fremantle. It's an old, pulp-fiction style out of pring book, but it's chock full of essential writings on Communism.
http://books.google.com/books/about/Com ... cmQwAACAAJ The table of contents is as follows: I CLASSICAL COMMUNISM The Communist Manifesto - Marx/Engels Socialism: Utopian and Scientific - Engels The ABC of Communism - Bukharin What Is To Be Done - Lenin Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism - Lenin The Withering Away of the State - Stalin Critique of the Gotha Programme - Marx The Social System of Capitalism - Marx Capitalism and Human Alienation - Marx On the History of Early Christianity - Engels Religion - The Great Soviet Encyclopedia Profession of Materialistic Faith - Thorez Idealism of the Communists - Thorez II MARX AND HISTORY The Materialist Conception of History - Marx/Engels Hsitory and Class Consciousness - Lukacs The Rise of the Middle Class - Engels Thomas Muenzer - Bloch The Fall of Natural Man - Diderot The History of Babeuf's Conspiracy - Buonarroti What is Property? - Proudhon III REVISIONIST COMMUNISM Marxism, Freedom, and the State - Bakunin The Dictatorship of the Proletariat - Kautsky Fundamental Problems of Marxism - Plekhanov Anarchist Doctrine - Plekhanov Reform or Revolution - Luxembourg Manifest of th Russian Social Democratic Labor Party - Struve Terrorism and Communism - Trotsky The Modern Prince - Gramsci Excerpts from Mao Tse-Tung's Writings - Mao IV CONTEMPORARY COMMUNISM On Revolution - Ho Chi Minh On Humanism - Marcuse Interview - Marcuse The New Class - Djilas Twentieth Century Marxism - Garaudy Wretched of the Earth - Fanon La Historia Me Absolvera, Speech In Court - Castro Speech on Education at the University of Havana - Castro Notes for the Study of the Ideology of the Cuban Revolution - Che The Concept of the Left - Kolakowski Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative - Cohn-Bendit
Soviet cogitations: 4764
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 20 Jul 2007, 06:59 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Forum Commissar
Wow. That's an impressive list.
I've just bought: Marx/Engels - Revolution in Spain Kurt Heinzelman - The economy of the imagination David Cooper - Death of the Family I have yet to begin reading them. ![]() "You say you have no enemies? How is this so? Have you never spoken the truth, never loved justice?" - Santiago Ramón y Cajal Forum Rules
Soviet cogitations: 2507
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 09 May 2004, 21:17 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Party Bureaucrat
I just found this at the bookstore:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/capital ... 0674430006 Quote: Wondering if I should pick it up. Has anyone looked into it?
Soviet cogitations: 237
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 16 Jul 2014, 21:53 Ideology: Other Leftist Pioneer Quote: Is him forgotting the effect Marx itself had on history of such countries ? You cannot put development of the social protection network into the account of capitalism, it was done by the blood of the proletariat, not out of simple consideration by the capitalists.
Soviet cogitations: 2507
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 09 May 2004, 21:17 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Party Bureaucrat AldoBrasil wrote: Yeah, that one bit made me raise an eyebrow, especially given the disappearance of the middle class that we have been seeing lately.
The Rational Kernel of the Hegelian Dialectic
It is one of the greatest works of Maoist philosophy produced by Zhang Shiying in 1972. It includes a commentary by Alain Badiou and is free on PDF by the publisher. http://re-press.org/books/the-rational- ... dialectic/ Kamran Heiss
Stalinista wrote: I'm gonna love this book. Freiheits Kämpfer wrote: I haven't been able to read it myself, but this book has very briefly caused a storm in western European leftish intellectual circles. I don't know if it sparked the same kind of interest in the US, but it was briefly treated as the holy grail, a new gospel that adequately explains the economic system. He uses a large amount of empirical data (although that has since been called into question by some) to demonstrate the growth in wealth inequality, and that this is inherent to capitalism. He proposes a tax on wealth to save the system and democratic order. It's not right to critique a book without reading it, so I'll refrain from commenting on the content until I get around to it. I would recommend buying and reading it critically, if only because it has a certain relevancy recently, and let us know what you think. The easy critique is that Piketty is "not a Marxist", but that's a bit redundant, because he says so himself. However, it is worth considering why he's surfacing now and why there is such a hype around him now. All factions of bourgeois democracy are scrambling to save the system, one way or another, and Piketty comes from the circles of the French Socialist Party of president Hollande. So on the one hand, he represents an analysis of the economic system, and on the other hand, he represents a certain political program. So it's no wonder that social-democratic parties around Europe are inviting him to speak in parliament, in order to build the case for "stopping the crisis" and saving the system by raising taxes, while avoiding the issue of property. At this point, I'll defer to a Marxist who has bothered to properly review Piketty's work: http://philosophersforchange.org/2014/0 ... cal-essay/ http://zzs-blg.blogspot.nl/2014/05/beyo ... ndrum.html
Radical Representations: Politics and Form in U.S. Proletarian Fiction, 1929-1941 ...
By Barbara Foley http://books.google.com/books?id=VYzEtZ ... &q&f=false Interesting book on the Proletarian Novels written during the CPUSA's Popular Front period. I was intrigued by the influence of Hemingway on Proletarian Realism. And the impact on Richard Wright, Steinbeck, and Dashiell Hammett. Kamran Heiss
Africa's Freedom Railway: How a Chinese Development Project Changed Lives and Livelihoods in Tanzania
Quote: http://books.google.com/books?id=xeeDwc ... il&f=false Kamran Heiss
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