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I'll let somebody else hit you with the theory and whatnot, but in my own journey pushing myself left I started with Zinn's A People's History and Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me to unprogram all the crap they taught you in school.
Then while not necessarily leftist, to understand modern politics, I'd recommend Listen, Liberal by Thomas Frank and Dark Money by Jane Mayer noting that while Mayer pretty much gives the Dems a free pass, Frank points out that they were benefiting from the Koch brother's antics right up until about 2014. MacLean's Democracy in Chains is a good background on neoliberal's origins and how they linked with the Koch brothers.
You can also give The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander a read, but honestly you could watch 13th and get the same understanding of the modern justice system's racism.
Again, this all not necessarily Leftist, but it's good for ripping the band aid off the lib shit we were taught.
a classic first introductory text is zinn's people's history
I'll second Zinn's A People's History, but I'll also add Killing Hope if you'd like to know about the history of the imperialist stuff the US did in the 20th century like the overthrown of Allende and support for the Contras.
October by China Melville tells a great story like account of the October revolution
Revolutions podcast gives a pretty good account of some important events too.
Yeah Revolutions is fantastic. Came here to mention that. There's alot of great material there & Mike Duncan has this wonderful personality & voice that really makes it nice to listen to. I found myself just smashing through episodes like crazy
For an intro to the USSR, particularly the revolutionary period, you will want to read October by China Melville (although people do say he falls for propaganda narratives about how the USSR fares after the revolution, so you will want to read other sources for that info). For critical American history, Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States is a classic starting point a lot of people read in high school or college. There's also a more recent book called How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr that would also serve as a good intro. I haven't read these, but I've also heard that Against Empire and Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti are good intro level history books. If I'm not mistaken, all of these books are on the theory MEGA file posted on the daily megathreads. For podcasts, RevLeft radio!
The Communist movement has faced opposition since it was founded and the opposition to it has often been organized and violent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-communist_mass_killings
Great post, I have been seeking resources on Africa for this exact thing. Ancient, modern, whatever I just want to know more, definatly the region I know the least about.
Yea I found the cultures of Africa so interesting during anthropology class but that has such an imperialist slant.
Like I've read of nonbinary deities from some tribes and found that so interesting, as well matriarchal led tribes, and what I assume is closer to communistic societies that developed . I mean I get Mansa Musa existed but idk I just need to learn more
'The African Dream' che's diary of his time fighting in the congo is good, can give some flavor while learning about the greater context of African revolutions of the time
