• impartial_fanboy [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Finishing The Long 20th Century by Giovanni Arrighi, technically about the period of US rise and hegemony, hence the name, but most of the book is spent building up the history. It starts in the early 14th century with the various Italian City-States and how capitalism developed from them and then moved centers first to the Netherlands, then Britain, then the US and hints that the next center (because the book was written in the 90's) will be Japan East Asia. There was a Trillbilly Workers Party podcast on it.

    Started Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction, which is a collection of essays by various marxists talking about the science-fiction genre as a whole. One of the Co-editors is China Mieville who you should check out if you don't know who he is.

    Procrastinating on The 18th Brumaire, waiting for the From Alpha to Omega reading group to finish first.

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

      Arrighi is so good. Adam Smith in Beijing is his followup where he goes "actually lol I was wrong about Japan, it's obviously China folks" and, while good, is not as good as the one you've read. The 18th Brumaire is perhaps my favorite Marx piece, because you get to see so clearly how his method of materialist analysis works with a real historical example. Plus, it's wonderfully written.