Category: Monthly Review Press /

Ricardo Alarcón on Gerald Horne and Race to Revolution

February 20, 2024

...an important intellectual event is taking place this year in the United States. Gerald Horne, Professor of History and African American studies at the University of Houston, has just added two new texts to his long and brilliant bibliography on these subjects. Last April, New York University published The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America. And now, in late June, Monthly Review Press began distributing Race to Revolution: The U.S. and Cuba During Slavery and Jim Crow.

July 27, Race to Revolution Book Talk in Baltimore, MD

February 20, 2024

Join MR Press author Gerald Horne for a discussion of his new book, Race to Revolution: The U.S. and Cuba during Slavery and Jim Crow on Sunday, July 27, 7:30PM, at Red Emma's, 30 W. North Ave. Baltimore, MD 21201

Marta Harnecker, author of A World to Build, wins the 2013 Liberator’s Prize for Critical Thought

February 20, 2024

We're pleased to share the news that MR Press author and Monthly Review contributor Marta Harnecker has won the 2013 Liberator's Prize for Critical Thought. MR Press will publish the English edition of her prize-winning book, A World to Build: New Paths toward Twenty-first Century Socialism, in November 2014. This announcement was published by the Venezuelan news agency Agencia Venezolana de Noticias and was translated by Fred Fuentes.

Antonio Gramsci reviewed in Socialist Studies [PDF]

February 20, 2024

The fortunes of Antonio Gramsci as a Marxist thinker and Communist Party leader have been so curious it is worth foregrounding their recent past within academic and intellectual circles. Particularly in the English-speaking world, Gramsci's popularity has undoubtedly only increased since the fall of the Soviet bloc, the advance of neoliberalism and the deeper disorganization of the Left. Such a phenomenon leaves us asking why it is that this Marxist revolutionary has been spared the same fate as Marx and Engels, who either have continued to be held in disrepute or, worse, been relegated to irrelevance.

The People's Lawyer reviewed in The Progressive Populist

February 20, 2024

In a post-9/11 world, a "new normal" exists in the US. It tilts in no small way towards the power of government's three branches. The trio focuses, almost obsessively, on national safety and security. Against that backdrop, Albert Ruben's new book amplifies the strengths and weaknesses of a progressive institution involved in civil liberties and human rights struggles for nearly five decades.

The Ecological Rift reviewed in Journal of World-Systems Research

February 20, 2024

Ecological degradation is the elephant in the room for many people; they are aware of its presence yet would prefer to ignore it rather than be forced to consider both its severity and possible remedies. This practiced ignorance occurs despite numerous problems, such as global climate change, species extinction, deforestation, overfishing, and dramatic disasters such as the recent oil "spill" from offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the radiation releases from nuclear power plants in post-tsunami Japan. This elephant is enormous, destructive, and cannot be imagined away. John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, and Richard York have been taking on the elephant for years.

Class Dismissed reviewed in HNN

February 20, 2024

In general, college professors are not particularly well-regarded as political analysts (the noun "academic" is a term of unvarnished contempt in precincts like FOX news). But there is a special circle of irrelevance reserved for English professors, who are not typically known for their quantitative acumen -- or, for that matter, their ability to write in a language the rest of us understand. So it was with some trepidation that I picked up this book by John Marsh, who teaches at the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana. Amazingly, I encountered a work of deft econometrics. Even more amazing, it's clear, lively, and realistic.

Listen to the NYC Book Launch for Magnus Hirschfeld: The Origins of the Gay Liberation Movement

February 20, 2024

The Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung–New York Office recently hosted a book launch for Magnus Hirschfeld: The Origins of the Gay Liberation Movement, with author Ralf Dose. Dose was joined by Steven Thrasher, a Contributing Editor at BuzzFeed. Thrasher was named Journalist of the Year 2012 by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his investigative feature writing in the New York Times, Village Voice and Out magazine. Click here for audio and photos of the event, courtesy of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

Steve Early interviewed in Working In These Times

February 20, 2024

Steve Early is the author of Save our Unions, published by Monthly Review Press. He is interviewed by Mike Elk for Working In These Times, who writes: "At time when the labor beat was disappearing from mainstream publications, Early's writing formed a valuable body of work that inspired many young writers—myself included—to stick with the profession through its highs and lows."

Biology Under the Influence reviewed by the Weekly Worker

February 20, 2024

In this review I discuss one particular chapter of the book, entitled 'Dialectics and systems theory'. Though prolific writers, these two famous research biologists and evolutionists, Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin, are mostly known for their classic, 'The dialectical biologist', a gem more relevant today than when written in 1985. The chapter I am investigating here was written by Levins. When Hegel, Marx or Engels wrote of 'things', they were commenting on the dynamics of everything: all things (matter-energy) are born or emerge (from other things); they live or exist, then decay and die. These things are all that exist - everything is in permanent flux and "all that is solid melts into air" (Communist manifesto).