Hey guys.
I’ve spent most of my life as a moderate lib, until about 6 months ago when I became full-on leftist. However, I know very little Marxist theory.
Assuming I know nothing, what books would recommend to some like me? Obviously Marx, but what else? And in what order? Would anyone be willing to curate a list of books that would give me the basics on Marxist theory and history from the perspective of Marxism? Any advice would be helpful.
Thanks!
Debt: The First 5000 Years - David Graeber (RIP) This book neatly picks apart so many things that are wrong with contemporary neoclassical economics, and its a nice 21st century critique as well, since so many classical works miss the last century or more of not only historical development itself, but also of investigative procedure and method to develop models out of that history.
Also, when it comes to Kropotkin, the standard recommendation is usually Conquest of Bread, which don’t get me wrong is a decent book, but I think its popularity really tends to overshadow Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. Particularly if you have passion towards the natural sciences, biology in particular. In addition to being a political/philosopher, he was also a biologist with several achievements of note. I’d recommend this book if you have any sort of inclination or fascination with studying the living natural world, as it does a great job setting egalitarianism and a world with no individual is privileged over others into a scientific context.
And if that sounds like something you’re into, I’d also recommend “The Mis-Measure of Man” by my top dude Stephen Jay Gould is a wonderful debunking of things like IQ and Skull-shapes.
Bakunin and Kropotkin. Even if you want to go the ML route, you’ll need to dunk on anarchists eventually, so you might as well peer over the fence to see what’s up.
:kropotkin-big:
Harry Potter
Settlers
Manufacturing Consent is a good primer even if Chomsky took a lot of undue credit with that book.
David Graeber’s Debt and Bullshit Jobs are awesome.
Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine and No Logo are good.
Peoples history of the United States by Zinn is also great.
These are all vaguely left and not hardcore Marxist or socialist books.
Everything else I think will start to go into tendencies. If you want to listen to me, a fucking incoherent imbecile, I would recommend:
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Fred Block’s the ruling class do not rule
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ABCs of Capitalism by Vivek chibber
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post-scarcity anarchism by Bookchin
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wretched of the earth by Fanon
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state and revolution by Lenin
