I thought this would be more fun than just listing the books I have hard copies of, so if anything strikes your curiosity, or you can't read the title, ask away. I have read all or big parts of around 2/3 of the stuff there, some I have more for just reference. I have way more stuff on pdf but this is more fun to share. Also yes in advance, I do give too much money to Verso.
Damn, forgot in another box somewhere I have copies of Fields Farms and Factories and Mutual Aid, along with Plato and a bunch of other western canon (fodder). I'm not taking more pictures though.
That is...a lot of books. I'll probably have questions at some point
If I may...
- How would you classify 'Trotsky as alternative?' did we finally found a good evenly balanced at our friend Trots?
- Haven't read any Oscar Wilde books just yet. Would this be a good 1st? Or where would you place it in a Wild Reader List? Also, how do you connect it to your own political thinking?
- How tough is the grundrisse? Anything to maybe read an excerpt of or should it be read fully?
- Finally: Honest thoughts on the Chapo Guide to the Revolution. Guilty Pleasure Buy, Cringe Mistake or Essential Theory Reading?
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Ernest Mandel is definitely in the upper echeleon of thinkers as far as Trotskyists go, he was never in some of weird micro party stuff that others got into. In general the book is a good introduction to Trotsky's writing from a Trotskyist perspective.
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I think it would, the book I have is a collection of essays and fragments, so a wide look at Wilde.
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Some of the Grundrisse sucks, it's a set of working notes, but there are really good passages in different parts. I wouldn't read the whole thing, just hunt and find for sections. It's not a systemically planned out work so it goes all over the place.
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It's not like essential reading, but fun analysis on contemporary liberals, and the drawings are fun.
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Hmmm... Which would you recommend an ML to read for understanding the USSR in terms of valid criticisms? And I'm curious about the Cold War and American science, is it any good?
I would highly recommend the soviet century by Lewin that I have in there for an overview of the period. The Sam Farber book on soviet democracy is also still really good. There's also J Arch Getty's work on the purges and Stalin period more generally. There was also a new book published this year on Stalin that I've heard great things about and will probably buy, Stalin: Passage to Revolution. I've heard the Stalinism to Eurocommunism book is interesting, but I haven't read it.
The Cold War and American Science so far is great. It's an academic history book, focused on the relations between MIT and Stanford and the Military Industrial Complex. It is dry in places as it goes over every single engineering lab that existed, but it gives some really good insights into how the whole machine really worked, and the psychology of the people doing that science, and those opposed to doing it. I'm also reading The Closed World by Edwards, which is a similar book but more broadly focused on reinterpreting the history of computers and cybernetics.