Actually reading The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. It's actually very good. Does anyone know an update to this? Like, a lot of the science and anthropology must have changed in the last 130 or so years.
I would recommend Lise Vogel's Marxism and the Oppression of Women! She gives a comprehensive overview of the history of social feminist theory and the history of women's issues in the communist movement starting with 'The Origin' and the Second Party Congress, going through industrial feminism, second wave feminism, 70s and 80s social feminism, before giving her own analysis.
The book is worth reading as a whole, but you might be interested in it just for her critique of Engels!
Ah great, thank you. I'm sure Engels is going to fuck up a bit, he was a non specialist writing in the 19 century. 😊
For sure! I'm really pleasantly surprised at how well he did and how much empathy he showed given the culture he was raised in. Vogel is also quick to point that out. Honestly I haven't actually read The Origin yet so take my rec w as much salt as you please.
Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed. Reads like a novel. Amazing.
I loved that book. I believe Lenin said every English-speaker should read it as an introduction to the revolution.
Making my way through * Selections From the Prison Notebooks of Gramsci. I'm definitely getting a lot out of , just finished the section on Italian History which was a slog, but I'm glad I read it.
Anyone else read them?
Didn't know these threads existed. I'm not reading anything right now, but the last book I read was Hamas and Hezbollah: a Comparative Study by Joshua Gleis and Benedetta Berti.
Very interesting. It's much more honest and comprehensive than anything you'd find in the media and I'd recomend it as an introduction to the politics of the Middle East. The early sections provide context on the history and political systems of Lebanon and Palestine, so you don't need too much background knowlege to understand it.
I think there's a lot to learn about organizing from that book. These groups manage to combine electoralism, militiancy, and social services in service of a single goal. As a result, they've become durable, trusted centers of power in their own right. Hezbollah openly burned Lebanese flags and called for the destruction of the country, and still became a major national political force. That's the type of energy we need.
Still, it has limitations. Obviously they're not impartial. It seems the book was made for Western policy wonk types. It's also 9 years old, meaning ISIS and the Syrian Civil War are not covered.
The New Spirit of Capitalism by Boltanski and Chiapello. A bit of a slog and makes me do homework
I’ve had to read more about Weber and the language in general is a bit beyond my comprehension sometimes.
State and Revolution. It's a little slow going, but I'm finding it interesting.
I'm on Part 3 of Josh Waitzkin's Art of Learning, I will try to do a write up when I'm completely finished. Additionally, I got Nimona by Noel Stevenson and The Ministry for the Future by Stanley Robinson to read on the train on the way to work next week.
I hated 'The Ministry for the Future' personally. None of the characters ever really feel like people, and he spends ~15x as long explaining his cool idea for a carbon credit cryptocurrency as he does explaining the defeat of the BJP and Bolsonaroism; he spends more of the book left-bashing and geeking out about finance than he does providing a substantive vision of how we can actually make any of the limp reforms a reality.
If you're looking for a grand historical epic on environmentalish issues, I think his Mars trilogy is a substantially better read. Please don't make the mistake I did and convince yourself this book is going to get any better.
Almost done reading 'Dreadnaught' by April Daniels, and 'Complexity in Agroecology' by Ivette Perfecto and John Vandermeer. I really recommend their books for anyone without a science background looking to learn more about the link between imperialism, ecology, and agriculture. Their book 'Breakfast of Biodiversity' is especially good and explains why most conservation efforts will fail because they do not understand why global markets require the destruction of rain forests.
Currently looking for recommendations of fiction by trans authors!
Currently reading The End of the Megamachine by Fabian Scheidler. It covers the creation and development of money, states, and capitalism from ancient times to the present day. Very interesting and covers a wide range of topics, its a bit like a condensed version of 'Debt: The First 5,000 Years' and 'Long History of the 20th Century' in one book. Sometimes this is a downside though since I find myself wanting Scheidler to go into more detail but obviously that isn't practical when covering so much in one book.
