Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact
  • Hi Guest,
    We have now moved the boards to the new server hardware.
    Search will be impaired while it re-indexes the posts.
    See the thread in the Feedback forum for updates and feedback.
    Lazy Llama

*The Great U75 Politics Reading List Thread.

Allen also has a good chapter in The End of Irish History: Critical Reflections on the Celtic Tiger, which has just come out.

He also had a good book on the Celtic Tiger out previously, the name of which presently escapes me.

Denis O'Hearn (who also has a chapter in TEOIH:CRONTCT) meanwhile has Inside the Celtic Tiger.

Well worth reading. Allen and O'Hearn were among the first to puncture the hype about the so-called boom, and they have been amply justified by subsequent events.

Pity that Kieran Allen's in the Irish SWP though - I saw him speak once, and he came across as a bit of a ranter.
 
Originally posted by Idris2002
Allen also has a good chapter in The End of Irish History: Critical Reflections on the Celtic Tiger, which has just come out.

He also had a good book on the Celtic Tiger out previously, the name of which presently escapes me.

Denis O'Hearn (who also has a chapter in TEOIH:CRONTCT) meanwhile has Inside the Celtic Tiger.

Well worth reading. Allen and O'Hearn were among the first to puncture the hype about the so-called boom, and they have been amply justified by subsequent events.

Pity that Kieran Allen's in the Irish SWP though - I saw him speak once, and he came across as a bit of a ranter.
Click to expand...

I'll check those out. Having seen it at first hand, the Celtic Tiger is just a Paper Tiger. I knew about Allen being SWP, I guess ranting is just par for the course.
 
Pretty juvenile, IMO.

The sort of thing you read as a 17 year old and think is brilliant, then reread later on and realise is pretty peurile.

However, HST's Fear and Loathing in America - his collected letters from the late 60s to mid 70s - does give seem good insights into US politics and society in those years. From a "freak power" perspective, obviously.
 
Recently read Northern Protestants - An Unsettled People, by Susan McKay. Essential reading for anyone who wants to know more about the problems in Northern Ireland, as it gives an insight into the many different attitudes and views held by people across the whole spectrum of the Protestant community.

Currently reading Ten Days That Shook The World by John Reed.
 
So many books!

Various Marx, but especially Capital 1 and the Manifesto
Engels, Condition of Working Class in Britain, Anti-Duhring
Trotsky, My Life, Art and Revolution, Literature and Revolution, History of Russian Revolution, Their Morals and Ours.
Lenin, esp. State and Revoltuion, What is to be done, Imperialism, Left Wing Communism
Bukharin Imperialism and the World Economy
Lukacs History and Class Consciousness (and Defence), Historical Novel
Raskolnikov Krondstadt and Petrograd
Gramsci bits of the Prison Notebooks, for gods sake don't try to read the whole thing!
Volosinov Marxism and Philosophy of Language
Ngugi I will marry when I want
Hegel Phenomonology of Spirit
Sartre Nausea, Mains Salles etc
Carson Silent Spring
Luxemburg Reform or revolution, Mass Strike
Kolonti (spelling?) Love of Worker Bees
Newton Revolutionary Suicide
Levi If this is a man
Rees Algebra of Revolution

now brain overheating!
 
full marks for enthusiasm, but. . .

ulyanov, could you pick a few of those (maybe the ones that most people won't have heard of) and tell us in a few words why you rate them so much?
 
Originally posted by ulyanov
So many books!

Various Marx, but especially Capital 1 and the Manifesto
Engels, Condition of Working Class in Britain, Anti-Duhring
Trotsky, My Life, Art and Revolution, Literature and Revolution, History of Russian Revolution, Their Morals and Ours.
Lenin, esp. State and Revoltuion, What is to be done, Imperialism, Left Wing Communism
Bukharin Imperialism and the World Economy
Lukacs History and Class Consciousness (and Defence), Historical Novel
Raskolnikov Krondstadt and Petrograd
Gramsci bits of the Prison Notebooks, for gods sake don't try to read the whole thing!
Volosinov Marxism and Philosophy of Language
Ngugi I will marry when I want
Hegel Phenomonology of Spirit
Sartre Nausea, Mains Salles etc
Carson Silent Spring
Luxemburg Reform or revolution, Mass Strike
Kolonti (spelling?) Love of Worker Bees
Newton Revolutionary Suicide
Levi If this is a man
Rees Algebra of Revolution

now brain overheating!
Click to expand...

Is this just your course reading list?!
 
Originally posted by ulyanov


Lenin, esp. State and Revoltuion, What is to be done,..
Click to expand...

Wasn't "What is to be done" also the title of a book Lenin read which he said changed his life? Or was that: "What is there to do"?
 
Originally posted by adc069975
Wasn't "What is to be done" also the title of a book Lenin read which he said changed his life? Or was that: "What is there to do"?
Click to expand...
You'd be better off with "What is to be undone?" by Michael Albert
 
Sorry, get a bit over excited by book lusts!

Not going to go into real detail, but basicayl split into:

1)Theory and the way it applies to the world today.. The situation in the world at the moment is such that reading various authors on imperialism etc can make a real difference to your understanding. The similarities between 'State and revolution' circa !917ish and today are really striking

2) Personal accounts of actaul revolutions. The love of Worker Bees is a stunning book. Oddly depressing for the way in which the main protagonist is treated but also really shows the possabilities.

Carson, because its frightening and true, and because she was slated for being a woman and not a biologist,

Levi, so we remember what we are fighting for
 
ok heres some

ragged troused philanthropists..

The Miners Next step...from my carmarthernshire coal field c.1919 britains finest anarcho syndicalist manifesto..(influenced by spainish migrants themselves influenced by malatesta!)

homage to catalonia..

memoirs of a revolutionary..

war in an irish town...this i think is one of the most important political books ever written!praise indeed,,in its down to earth ness

anarchy in action ..colin ward...this is so good..about the simplicity and practicality of real anarchism

and for the academics out there! The Economic and Philospophical Manuscripts of our Lord K.Marx...this is where it is comes frfom and goes back to ...alienation...we are alienated from the soil, by work from each other etc etc..and the point is to change it all!
 
"Many Shades of Black - Despatches from Britain's Far Right" by John Bean
Autobiography of a man who was instrumental in the setting up of the National Front. Excellent, reasoned argument for the motivation of nationalist movements. Past mistakes are examined, as is the problem of neo-Nazis attaching themselves to such outfits. An insiders view of Britain's fledgling Radical Right in the 1950s and 60s plus comment and analysis on the failure of the NF to make a lasting mark despite its impact on 1970s politics. In particular, the lesson of the original (no relation to today's party) BNP's minor election success in Southall in the 60's (Bean earned 9% of the vote in a Westminster election - a huge amount for a fourth party candidate then). Achieved by ditching extremism and focussing on strong local campaigning, it was forgotten by the right for 30 years!


Two other rather obvious choices, but both provide food for thought:

"Camp of the Saints" (novel) by Jean Raspail
"Death of the West" by Patrick Buchanan
 
Right, i finally get around to my contribution to this thread:

Marx Beyond Marx - Toni Negri, a key book in the development of what became known as autonomism (in Anglophone countries anyway). In this detailed look at the Grundrisse Negri (working from the foundations built by Tronti, Panzieri and others) blew apart orthodox objectivist interpretations of ‘Marxism’ - introducing concepts that are still of direct relevance to communists (not so much ‘Marxists’ though).

The Invention of Capitalism: Classical political economy and the Secret History of Primitive Accumulation - Michael Perelman, an exhaustive study that demonstrates that the original ‘classical political economists’ far from following their own publicly stated principles (capitalism as a self-correcting mechanism that thrives without government intervention) engaged in practical activity that directly contradicted them - namely the encouragement through the state of ‘primitve accumulation’ - the use of violence, the law, coercion etc to put in place the basis that their economics could then start from. An important book that attacks the very basis of ‘economics’ at its roots.

Strike! - Jeremy Brecher, a book that brings to life the ‘hidden history’ of the US w/c to light - and destroys the still powerful myth of the US working class as apathetic pampered and un-open to radical politics - in fact it shows that they were often ahead of the European proletariat that was supposed to save everyone - and that the heights the normal, regular conflicts reached were of a level of violence only very rarely reached in Europe - from the Commune in St Louis to the invention of new forms of class struggle , from mass wildcats to sabotage to sit-ins etc.

Nazism, Fascism and the Working Class / Social Policy in the Third Reich: The Working Class and the ‘National Community’ - both by Tim Mason - one book and one collection of articles that managed to turn much of the previous discussion in this area on its head - Mason shows that the Nazis failed to integrate the w/c into their vision of a a volksgemenschaft and that much of the seeming irrationality of the policies followed stemmed from this - and this led to what Mason calls a ‘flight-forward’ that eventually led to the war.
 
For a post that appears above...

Taduesz Borrowski(sp?) : Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the Gas.

A harrowing account of Auschwitz and Birkenau from a polish jew who's life was spared by being given the job of de-clothing people before they were led off to the gas chambers. His lover was also in the death camp, whom he used to see (but could'nt talk to) risking his life by sneaking on to the roof of the huts.

He gives acccounts of the heroic acts of resistance that went on within the camps. Such as the killing of a horrendous SS commander, who had a penchance for raping women before they were gassed. Killed I'll add by a women. There are moments of beautiful humanity though.

Be warned its a very dark book that left me sad but very angry. Its a must read for keeping the memories of the millions of generations
murdered at the hands of the Nazis alive.
 
Phillip Payton- The Making of Modern Cornwall. Hard to find outside university libraries as its now out of print, but a really interesting and thought provoking look at Cornish history and politics and where it might go in the future. Interesting not just for Cornish Studies people but to anyone with an interest in Liberal politics and 'peripheral' British regions too.

Jeremy Paxman- The Political Animal Read this in about a day and a half- a real insight into the towering egomania and borderline madness of some elected politicians. For those interested in standing for something in an election, a sober warning that political careers almost always end in bitterness and disappointment, and that well laid career paths can be undone by complete chance (see also Heseltine, Michael and Eden, Anthony)

Piers Brendon- The Dark Valley Cultural political narrative of the 1930s and the road to WW2. Indictment of appeasement and the best political history of the 30s since AJP taylor's The origins of the Second World War

Plenty more to add but maybe I'll come back to this one later. Some very interesting choices by others. (Fascists excepted)
 
"On the Paris Commune" by Friedrich Engels & Karl Marx. An interesting analysis of the events that led to the establishment of the commune, and it's suppression by the state.
"The Beast Reawakens" by Martin Lee. Good all-rounder on Fascism, it's "New Right" descendants and the various ideologues who inhabit the "scene".
"Citizen Ken" by John Carvel. A likeable (and non-hagiographic) personal and political biography of Ken Livingstone, covering from his birth to the dissolving of the GLC.
"Biopiracy" by Vandana Shiva. An aggressive critique of the corporate patenting of indigenous organisms and knowledge. A book every "anti-capitalist" should read alongside "No Logo" by Naomi Klein..
 
For a fairly comprehensive history of the oil industry and its effect on world business and politics, you could do worse than "The Prize", a book by Daniel Yergin. PBS (in the US) did a series based on the book, it gives great insight into some world events during the last 100 years or so, in particular in the Middle east.Original print was in 1991 I believe, published by Touchstone.
 
ABC of Anarchism by Alexander Berkman

was flipping through the McDonalization of Society at Freedom Press the other day which looks quite promising but around £20
 
PJ Proudhon - The Principle of Federalism

"Solicit men's views in the mass, and they will return stupid, fickle and violent answers; solicit their views as members of definite groups with real solidarity and a distinctive character, and their answers will be responsible and wise. Expose them to the political language of mass democracy, which represents the people as unitary and minorities as traitors, and they will give birth to tyranny; expose them to the political language of federalism, in which the people figures as a diversified aggregate of real associations, and they will resist tyranny in the end."

There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't read it immidiately - Part 1, which is all that is relevant today, weighs in at about a hundred pages and is utterly illuminating (even if Proudhon's attempts to argue from a priori principles is tiring).

I'll second Foucault's Discipline and Punish, Kapital is utterly necessary (though I utterly disliked the Manifesto). Mutual Aid is magnificent as long as you don't fall into some hippy clusterfuck - Kropotkin didn't - the point is that competition exists absolutely, but that mutual aid among a species/group is perhaps the greatest weapon we have in this competition. Few writings have impressed me as much as the Anarchist FAQ , but that is because I like my texts exhaustive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Aaronf
Men on 1970s pro-paedophile list could still work with children today
2 3 4
Replies
100
Views
4K
lazythursday
L
NoXion
Porridge and crumpets included on extensive list of foods banned from TV ads before 9pm
2 3 4
Replies
95
Views
2K
Happy Tree
Happy Tree
Pickman's model
yvette cooper's pitiful politics
Replies
0
Views
214
Pickman's model
Pickman's model
Silas Loom
Practical republican politics
2
Replies
59
Views
2K
Silas Loom
Silas Loom
Fozzie Bear
Andrew Tate launches political party
2 3 4 5 6
Replies
173
Views
5K
Rompipalle
Rompipalle
Back
Top Bottom