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!
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
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire is all about revolutionary thought in education, but he may be a great third or fourth read. This is the single most important book in my praxis.
The others likely mentioned are State and Revolution by Lenin, Settlers by Sakai, and Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti. Chapo are (rightly) obsessed with those three.
One I’d add that doesn’t seem to come up often here is Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg. It’s a short pamphlet, but a great read, and takes a dialectical approach to what we here would deem electoral vs revolutionary politics. Rosa is good, and distills theory/ideology down pretty concisely.
I thought people recommended The Wretched of the Earth by Fanon instead of Settlers by Sakai?
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:
