The Winner by a very large margin is:
’Blackshirts & Reds’ (2001) - Michael Parenti | tag: Marxism-Leninism
Parenti shows how “rational fascism” renders service to capitalism. How corporate power undermines democracy, and how revolutions are a form of mass empowerment against forces of exploitative privilege. He also maps the external and internal forces that destroyed communism and the disastrous impact of the “free-market” victory on Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. source
This is the tentative schedule:
- May 22nd: Blackshirts and Reds Part 1
- June 5th: Blackshirts and Reds Part 2
- June 19: Blackshirts and Reds Part 3
- Jul 3rd: Blackshirts and Reds Part 4
Want to add these dates to your calendar? Subscribe to peusall calendar using this link:
https://app.perusall.com/courses/socialist-theory-study-group/FeA3o7L2WaB2eFwLr/due_dates.ics
Please refer to the Perusall post for more information but to briefly recap how to join, view, and annotate this book:
- Go to Perusall.com
- Create an Account
- Click on Enroll in a Course
- Enter this code: HAYACA-PVMCJ
- Use a throwaway account and do not use identifying information.
I will be seeing you in the margins comrades, as we annotate and discuss this book week to week.
Gonna add to this. Chomsky's "How The World Works" - its a collection of easily digestable speeches transcribed into words. Nice n simple. Gave me enough knowledge to dunk on every pro-american person I've ever had the misfortune of meeting.
Most of Lenin's stuff is like that too. All surprisingly easy to comprehend and even when he does get into the more theoretical stuff, he usually includes a quote and breaks it down.
If you’ve never read lefty literature this is the ABSOLUTE BEST PLACE TO START. Parenti makes complex topics pretty easy to grasp with real life examples. There are also tons of footnotes to help out with more obscure events or concepts. You’ll be able to understand all of it and sound smart talking about it as well.
No idea never too soon to talk about exploitation of the third world though
Started reading yesterday, damn thing is so good and to the point that I already finished today
ONLY 165 pages! it's happening I'm actually going to read thank you everyone for choosing this
Hell yeah, I already listened to the audiobook, but I'll buy a copy for book club.
Is there an official audiobook? There's an amateur one on YouTube, bless the guy for making it but it's frankly awful
Oh yeah, not ragging on them for making it or anything, I'm sure it's fantastic for comrades who have trouble reading text, but the recoding quality was a personal hangup that led me to just read it
That's what I listened to, the librivox recording. I think the same guy is actually who has read the few other lefty audiobooks I've listened to.
I've done 1500 chess puzzle in the past week. I think i have an addiction.
It works out as:
Preface, Chapters 1 & 2 for May 22nd,
Chapters 3, 4 & 5 for June 5th,
Chapters 6 & 7 for June 19th,
and Chapters 8 & 9 for July 3rd.
It's a very short book, I finished it in about a day and I'm not even a particularly fast reader (it's very engaging and hard to put down).
I might be wrong and perusall gave me the wrong info wait as sec
![[Book Club Announcement] May - June Winner: Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/UCPcaWIO5x.png){kind=link}
