• vertexarray [any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Still reading the long 20th century. It still slaps. The kind of book that's extremely worth taking notes about, because even if you disregard its conclusions, it still draws on such a rich range of references that you could make reading its bibliography your full-time job.

    The conclusions are also very good tho

    • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Same here, I'm on chapter 1 of The Long 20th Century and every other sentence or paragraph is so full of information. What I've been doing with my book is annotating the parts on imperialism with the concrete, horrifying examples, that other books and articles have made their goal of describing. So when he goes into the full blown resource extraction of unprecedented scale by Spain or England, I add anecdotes of African farmers not meeting their rubber quotas and being brutalized. Or for England, the control of the colonies involved things like the Boer Wars and Concentration Camps.

      • vertexarray [any]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I just happened to start listening to the Revolutions podcast near the same time, so I'm getting a ton of context in parallel. Especially when he gets to Haiti and Spanish America.

        The thing that's drawing me into the book more, though, is how it's letting me fill out my understanding of all kinds of tiny details. I've been using Notion, like so, to catalogue all the bits I don't fully understand, then go back later and research them properly. Finally gaining an understanding of trade in the most abstract sense is very gratifying.

        • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          like so

          Aaaahhh is it ok to nerd out that I also use notion for theory, grad school and tracking my book reads.

          If you haven't already, get Hypothes.is. The markdown translates pretty well from hypothes.is annotations on documents and books, to Notion Pages.

          Also, that's AWESOME. I look forward to seeing what you end up with!

          • vertexarray [any]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Oh you're right, this whips. I installed it and my brain is immediately expanding with the possibilities, goddamn. Great rec!

            • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]
              ·
              4 years ago

              ahhh let’s form a hypothesis group or send me your profile name. I have annotated a bunch of marxist stuff on marxists.org.