Category: Monthly Review Press /

The Science & Humanism of Stephen Jay Gould reviewed in New Politics

February 20, 2024

It has been almost 10 years since the death of the Harvard paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould at the relatively early age of 60. Gould was not only a major figure in the life sciences, he was also one of the great popularizers of science. He wrote a monthly column for Natural History magazine from 1974 to 2001, generating exactly 300 essays that explained complex scientific ideas without oversimplifying them. Ten collections of Gould's popular articles, together with several other books aimed at a general audience, were best sellers, making him one of the best-known scientists of his generation. A year before his death, he was named a "living legend" by the U.S. Library of Congress. What makes Gould of particular interest to readers of this journal is that his scientific views were informed in interesting ways by his radical politics.

Social Structure and Forms of Consciousness, Vol. II reviewed in Marx and Philosophy Review of Books

February 20, 2024

Mészáros is a master dialectician. Having been mentored by Lukács, he is one of a few contemporary philosophers to have a viable sense of the depth of connection between Marx and Hegel and his contribution to Marxist thought over many decades has been seminal, earning him a variety of accolades including the Deutscher prize.

NEW! The Crisis and the Left: Socialist Register 2012

February 20, 2024

The global economic crisis that closed the first decade of the 21st century has demonstrated that the contradictions of capitalism cannot be overcome. The challenge for socialist analysis is to reveal both the nature of these contradictions in the neo-liberal era of globalized finance, and their consequences in our time. This volume, a companion to The Crisis This Time: Socialist Register 2011, examines the response of the international Left and asks, how has the Left responded and can it offer an alternative to faltering capitalism?

The People's Lawyer author Albert Ruben on The Center for Constitutional Rights vs. The Pope

February 20, 2024

Albert Ruben, author of The People's Lawyer: The Center for Constitutional Rights and the Fight for Social Justice, From Civil Rights to Guantánamo, describes the recent lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights against the Catholic Church.

NEW! Wisconsin Uprising: Labor Fights Back, edited by Michael D. Yates

February 20, 2024

This timely book brings together some of the best labor journalists and scholars in the United States, many of whom were on the ground at the time, to examine the causes and impact of the Wisconsin Uprising, and suggest how the labor movement might proceed in this new era of union militancy. Includes a foreword by Robert W. McChesney.

NEW! The God Market: How Globalization is Making India More Hindu by Meera Nanda

February 20, 2024

Conventional wisdom says that integration into the global marketplace tends to weaken the power of traditional faith in developing countries. But, as Meera Nanda argues in this path-breaking book, this is hardly the case in today's India. Against expectations of growing secularism, India has instead seen a remarkable intertwining of Hinduism and neoliberal ideology, spurred on by a growing capitalist class.

NEW! Cocaine, Death Squads, and the War on Terror by Oliver Villar and Drew Cottle

February 20, 2024

Since the late 1990s, the United States has funneled billions of dollars in aid to Colombia, ostensibly to combat the illicit drug trade and State Department-designated terrorist groups. The result has been a spiral of violence that continues to take lives and destabilize Colombian society. This book asks an obvious question: are the official reasons given for the wars on drugs and terror in Colombia plausible, or are there other, deeper factors at work? Scholars Villar and Cottle suggest that the answers lie in a close examination of the cocaine trade, particularly its class dimensions.

Wisconsin Uprising Book Party in NYC, 2/17

February 20, 2024

Join David Newby, Michael Zweig, Stephanie Luce, and Rand Wilson for a party and discussion celebrating the publication of Wisconsin Uprising: Labor Fights Back, at Stony Brook Manhattan in New York City.

Anthony DiMaggio on History for the Future Radio

February 20, 2024

Anthony DiMaggio, author of The Rise of the Tea Party, discusses his book, the state of the Tea Party today, the Occupy movement, and more, on History for the Future Radio with Kevin Brown, WRCT-Pittsburgh 88.3 fm.

José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology reviewed in Z Magazine

February 20, 2024

He was an unabashed Marxist in theory and practice. A socio-historical approach clarified the concrete realities of his place and time: post-World War I and the Russian Revolution amid poverty and inequality. In hindsight, we know this systemic social problem birthed a financial panic and global Great Depression. Editors and translators Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker divide Mariátegui's writing into nine sections, including one at the end that has his writing on women, feminism and politics. He links their emancipation to human liberation in no uncertain terms.