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.
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!
The New Spirit of Capitalism by Boltanski and Chiapello. A bit of a slog and makes me do homework
State and Revolution. It’s a little slow going, but I’m finding it interesting.
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.
