One of the things I found hardest about abandoning my liberalism is years of being told that Socialism and Communism wasn't really a viable alternative because USSR bad. Honestly, I didn't even know what the words meant. I wasn't a liberal, but that's as left as my brain would allow. Reading Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti {ARR!} helped me a lot with that. But the real kicker was reading Vincent Bevin's The Jakarta Method {ARR!} and learning that every time I read the words anti-communist in history class, they were talking all along about Nazis or the local equivalent. And when they were talking about communist revolutions, it was just workers (often Indigenous peoples) just trying to not be treated like slaves.

The United States of America is a fucking lie, our history a myth that we get pounded into our brains from cradle to grave. It was created by slavers for slavers and every progressive step forward was gained with sweat and lots of blood; Every step backwards is a step towards slavery. Full stop. To learn about that, I very much recommend reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States {ARR!}, James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me {ARR!}, and Gerald Horne's The Counter-Revolution of 1776 {ARR!}.

For understanding the current path of US politics and how we got here, I would recommend reading Thomas Frank's Listen, Liberal: Or Whatever Happened to the Party of the People {ARR!} for a background of the democratic party. For understanding how the GOP has taken such a powerful hold of US politics I would recommend Dark Money by Jane Mayer {ARR!}. And for the more history on neoliberalism and the US's future, check out Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean {ARR!}.

At some point check out Parenti's Inventing Reality {ARR!} and the intro to Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent {ARR!} to really understand just how badly we are all drowning in propaganda, they go well as a followup to Dark Money because Dark Money documents the insane propaganda network by the Koch Brothers and once you understand how pervasive it is and realize that it barely scratches the surface you'll truly appreciate the scale of what it is we need to tackle as leftists.

Give me a few minutes and I'll edit in some links.

edit: links added.

H G Wells' interview of Stalin is a great primer in laying out the difference between social democracy and socialism

I would recommend How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney for these reasons:

1. The text hits the sweet spot of very easy to read and digest without sacrificing theoretical depth. I don't think I have read a single book that balance the two as well as Rodney. Parenti, compared to Rodney, is easy to read as Rodney but sacrifices theoretical depth. Most other recommended authors are denser reads than Rodney.

2. The text is also surprisingly funny given the subject matter, but it's a sardonic sense of humor.

3. The text doesn't just go over theory in terms of how to analyze the world, but actually demonstrates how to analyze the world, in this case Europe's continued exploitation of Africa. Most theoretical texts don't have a part that goes, "Here's the theory, now let's show you how to apply that theory with examples." They are like math textbooks without examples.

4. The text is about an often neglected part of history of an often neglected part of the world. Africa wasn't just pharaohs and dudes with bones in their noses running around naked and living in mud huts. Crucial to this, Rodney didn't just uncritically praise these past African kingdoms either. They were class societies too with an exploited worker class which Rodney points out.

5. The text isn't written by a dead white dude, but a dead Black dude who became dead because the Guyanese government thought he was too dangerous to be alive (Rodney was an organizer as well), so they assassinated him by rigging his car with a bomb.

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You're probably gonna get a lot of really good recommendations and answers from people who know way more than me, so rather than give you a specific reading list I recommend you find something that speaks to you and you know you'll finish. For me, the first thing I ever read was Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton, for a friend of mine it was Che's Motorcycle Diaries. Neither of these really lay out basic theory and we would have understood more of it if we had done more of the "basic" reading, but they were the catalyst for us to start our own education.

I lied there is one specific recommendation: Principles of Communism by Engels is a much clearer and informative text from the manifesto. It's basically an FAQ, while the manifesto is a call to action that assumes you are at least familiar with the principles. The yellow Parenti video is also a certified banger, though it's been a while since I watched it so I can't recall how accessible it would be to someone just jumping in.

Edit: Holy shit did all 4 of the people replying a few minutes ago all hit post at the same time???

State and Revolution is 100% an important piece too read, and as long as you read carefully (read sections over to make sure you understand) it's not too hard either! Then if you want to dive into Marx I cannot stress enough how helpful it is to first study dialectics, read Mao's On Contradiction, read Stalin's Dialectical and Historical Materialism or any other credible account on the subject. Dialectics in particular will prepare you the best for marx because EVERYTHING he writes is through this lens. Most importantly though is to broaden your horizons, read PoC authors, read female authors, read a diverse range because otherwise you run into (despite how well meaning you are) the risk of developing western chauvinist views.

This was kinda lengthy but I hope it helps

As an alt recommendation, Do Not read Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st century. It has the word capital in the title which tricks people into thinking it might be good. It is not, not only are his conclusions off, he misreads Marx like an undergrad. Avoid in favor of everything else in this thread

the entire Warrior Cats series. every car with 10+ bumper stickers that you see. this website.

I recently heard "Anti-Duhring" by Engels being recommended for a "if you could read just the one thing" on Rev Left Radio podcast. it encompasses "Utopian and Scientific" while condensing a huge amount of Marx's Capital

the blurb would be that Engels was pestered for years to address the "theory" of a guy named Duhring who was against Marx's ideas and also had a sizable following. the people who were listening to Marx and Engels thought they needed to be discredited and finally got around to Engels enough to make him write "Anti-Duhring" which explains what communism is, why it is a valid philosophical framework and why Duhring was making a mockery of it with his ideas. this seems to have had the intended effect as Duhring-ism isn't a thing nowadays as far as I'm aware

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1877/anti-duhring/

I love these threads bc I get lots of new reading recommendations :comfy:

It really depends on your personal style of learning, where you're at, and where you want to be.

For example, if you were interested in "go to the source even if it's difficult" to build a solid foundation, I'd start with Das Kapital. This would be a bad recommendation for someone who might go in a different direction and that you're trying to propagandize, but it sounds like you personally want stronger foundations and I say there's no better place to go than what daddy Marx had to say. It's a difficult read and will require some supplemental reading to know what he's referring to sometimes (e.g. The Paris Commune), but there's really no replacement for just reading the actual theory that's the basis for so much more reading, including Lenin. I can't tell you how many Marxists I've met who never actually read Marx's primary work and had just plain terrible takes as a result.

If you want an introduction to shedding some of liberalism's propaganda, here's a few recs:

• Blackshirts and Reds. Parenti is incredibly efficient in creating displacing narratives while highlighting liberal - and therefore often fascist - lies about how the world works and has worked.

• The Jakarta Method. To see the face of capital when the mask falls, to pose the question of why you've probably never heard of the events described, and harden your heart to social democratic incrementalism and just generally not taking the threats of capitalism seriously: they will kill us, we need to be aware and organize around having a ruthless enemy.

• A People's History of The United States. Good for displacing white settler-colonial myths about the US that are still spread in US schools and US media worldwide.

• Pedagogy of The Oppressed. Generally just good for reorienting your frame of mind away from a Eurocentric one, with a specific focus on education. There is a whole world of human experiments and self-organization out there and capitalism endlessly tries to flatten it into one mode with simple narratives and relationships that serve itself. This book is a good Marxist dissection of this.

Capitalist realism is I think pretty accessible for not being deep in yet. Fisher touches on a lot of good places to go next. I'll also suggest Debt, Graebers history of the topic.

Sylvia Federici’s work (Caliban and the Witch, etc) was helpful for using core Marxist concepts like primitive accumulation in a modern context. Honestly helped me understand Marx better. Her interview on Rev Left Radio is also really good!

The Red Menace podcast does a really great job introducing and summarizing a wide variety of foundational texts. I recommend the episodes On Contradiction (Mao), On Practice (Mao) and Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (Lenin). The series starts with some of the more fundamental texts, and branches out from there, so it is good to listen from the beginning if you want to dive in deeper.

some good ones to be getting on with:
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
State and Rev
Kapital