Category: Monthly Review Press /

José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology reviewed in Journal of Latin American Studies

José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology reviewed in Journal of Latin American Studies

February 20, 2024

Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker are well known for their important contributions to the study of Latin American Marxism, Latin American revolutionary politics and Jose Carlos Mariategui's thought. Their new joint contribution is a volume that makes available to English readers a considerable number of Mariategui's shorter texts... Mariategui, an undoubtedly gifted journalist, political author and literary critic, offers readers engaging and rich perspectives—mainly but not exclusively Latin American and Marxist ones—on some of the main issues that concerned European and Latin American progressive public opinion at the time. These translations are a welcome and useful aid for all engaged in teaching Latin American history and literature, the history of socialist ideas, indigenismo, world history, third world studies and so on.

NEW! America’s Education Deficit and the War on Youth by Henry A. Giroux

NEW! America’s Education Deficit and the War on Youth by Henry A. Giroux

February 20, 2024

America's latest war, according to renowned social critic Henry Giroux, is a war on youth. While this may seem counterintuitive in our youth-obsessed culture, Giroux lays bare the grim reality of how our educational, social, and economic institutions continually fail young people. Their systemic failure is the result of what Giroux identifies as "four fundamentalisms": market deregulation, patriotic and religious fervor, the instrumentalization of education, and the militarization of society. Giroux sets his sights on the war on youth and takes it apart, examining how a lack of access to quality education, unemployment, the repression of dissent, a culture of violence, and the discipline of the market work together to shape the dismal experiences of so many young people.

Nancy Stout Interviewed by Hazel Kahan

Nancy Stout Interviewed by Hazel Kahan

February 20, 2024

Nancy Stout is the author of One Day in December: Celia Sánchez and the Cuban Revolution. In this in-depth interview, Stout discusses Sánchez's life, her role in the Cuban revolution, and her relationship with Fidel Castro. The interview was conducted by Hazel Kahan for her Tidings podcast and WPKN in Bridgeport, CT.

One Day in December reviewed on Human Needs Before Profit

One Day in December reviewed on Human Needs Before Profit

February 20, 2024

For many years, I've been inspired to read about the lives of revolutionaries. These are people who had been raised in a more or less typical environment, and transformed themselves into leaders of political movements. These political movements didn't merely attempt to reform one or another aspect of society. No, these leaders attempted to form a new kind of government that would have completely different priorities. The list of some of these leaders would include, Spartacus, Thomas Paine, Tecumseh, Frederick Douglass, Jose Martí, Ida Wells, Mother Jones, Vladimir Illyich Lenin, Eugene Debs, Malcolm X, Ernesto Che Guevara, and Nelson Mandela. Looking at this list we see that most of these leaders were men. Nancy Stout spent ten years researching her biography of Celia Sánchez. Reading Stout's book, we can see why the name Celia Sánchez clearly needs to be added to this list. In this biography we see a woman who overcomes unbelievable odds to put in place a government that transformed the lives of the Cuban people.

Joan Stone's Foreword to Dispersed City of the Plains by Harris Stone

Joan Stone's Foreword to Dispersed City of the Plains by Harris Stone

February 20, 2024

The following is Joan Stone's Foreword to Dispersed City of the Plains by Harris Stone, his final book, published by Monthly Review Press in 1998. It provides a little context for the book's creation and insight into Harris's major aim: examining "the built form of the American city, the built form of monopoly capital."

"Violence, USA": an excerpt from Henry A. Giroux's America's Education Deficit and the War on Youth

"Violence, USA": an excerpt from Henry A. Giroux's America's Education Deficit and the War on Youth

February 20, 2024

Since 9/11, the war on terror and the campaign for homeland security have increasingly mimicked the tactics of the enemies they sought to crush. Violence and punishment as both a media spectacle and a bone-crushing reality have become prominent and influential forces shaping U.S. society. As the boundaries between "the realms of war and civil life have collapsed," social relations and the public services needed to make them viable have been increasingly privatized and militarized. The logic of profitability works its magic in channeling the public funding of warfare and organized violence into universities, market-based service providers, Hollywood cinema, cable television, and deregulated contractors. The metaphysics of war and associated forms of violence now creep into every aspect of U.S. society.

Walter A. Rodney book signing and film screening in Atlanta

Walter A. Rodney book signing and film screening in Atlanta

February 20, 2024

Join Clairmont Chung, editor of Walter A. Rodney: A Promise of Revolution and director of the documentary W.A.R. Stories, for a film screening and book signing during Atlanta's Caribbean Film Festival, 2 PM, Sunday June 9.

The Ecological Rift reviewed in Science & Society

February 20, 2024

Marxist ecologists John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, and Richard York compellingly argue that our perpetual ecological crises are a direct product of global capitalism. The relationships of dominance within capitalism are the main obstacle to ecological sustainability. At over 400 pages in length (and an additional 90 pages in footnotes alone), The Ecological Rift uses the disciplines of political economy, human ecology and sociology to mount a powerful indictment of capitalism's destructive effects upon our fragile ecosystems.

Horace Campbell, author of Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya, on "Benghazi, Petraeus, and the CIA" for CounterPunch

Horace Campbell, author of Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya, on "Benghazi, Petraeus, and the CIA" for CounterPunch

February 20, 2024

Two years after the failed NATO intervention, Libyan society is in chaos. Over 50,000 were killed in a mission that was meant to protect civilians, and there are reportedly more than 1,700 competing militias marauding the streets. One outcome of this chaos was the attack on U.S. mission in Benghazi which led to the death of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens on September 11, 2012. There have been Congressional hearings on this attack, and on May 8, U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, the California Republican who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called another inquiry into the September 11, 2012 event.

Newsletter sign-up

Keep up to date with all the latest socialist news from MR