Category: Monthly Review Press /

A 300-year excursion through the history of the global economy (‘International Affairs’ reviews the Patnaiks)

A 300-year excursion through the history of the global economy (‘International Affairs’ reviews the Patnaiks)

February 20, 2024

Patnaik and Patnaik unpick the realities of capitalism: First, as thriving on exogenous rather than endogenous stimuli––namely colonialism followed by state intervention after the Second World War––thus negating its capacity to be self-contained and perpetual; and second, leading to high unemployment through deindustrialization and land grabs for export crops and property accumulation which push petty producers and peasants into joblessness.

Sure to “inspire new directions in research and debate” (“Dissenting POWs” reviewed in H-Soz-Kult, H-NET)

Sure to “inspire new directions in research and debate” (“Dissenting POWs” reviewed in H-Soz-Kult, H-NET)

February 20, 2024

Without trivializing the hardships of often several years in jail, Wilber and Lembcke dissect personal accounts by former POWs. They point out contradictions, distinguish between physical punishment measures and deliberate violence, reconstruct different phases in the history of the prisons, and conclude that brutal treatment and torture were less common and systematic than purported.

Listen: Communes, the rural and the urban, and the shadows of bureaucratization (Authors of “Venezuela, The Present as Struggle” on Cosmonaut)

Listen: Communes, the rural and the urban, and the shadows of bureaucratization (Authors of “Venezuela, The Present as Struggle” on Cosmonaut)

February 20, 2024

On this recent spot on "Cosmonaut," Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual Marquina discuss communes in both urban and rural settings, and their role in the transition to socialism, the questions around oil and the economy, the economic problems of the revolution, the shadows of bureaucratization, the differences between the cities and the countryside and possible way forward for the revolution.

Brings homes the seemingly Sisyphean task of a collective revolutionary project, “with theoretical and stylistic aplomb” (Marx & Philosophy Review of Books on “Marx, Dead and Alive”)

Brings homes the seemingly Sisyphean task of a collective revolutionary project, “with theoretical and stylistic aplomb” (Marx & Philosophy Review of Books on “Marx, Dead and Alive”)

February 20, 2024

"Marx, Dead and Alive" packs an extraordinary amount into its 184 pages, both historical detail and in contemporizing Marx with multifarious global contexts and examples.... it would make an excellent introduction for someone just starting to grasp Marx and wanting clear definitions of alienation, capital, class, commodity fetishism, value and wage labour – amongst other key concepts....

Her Majesty’s African-American Allies: A review by Gerald Horne

Her Majesty’s African-American Allies: A review by Gerald Horne

February 20, 2024

It is well-established that African-Americans have sought allies abroad as a way to weaken opposition at home. Often, scholars have tackled this important topic as it manifested during the Cold War. The work at hand emulates previous scholarship in detailing this trend during the antebellum and early postbellum era...

EXCERPTS: INEQUALITY, CLASS AND ECONOMICS, by Eric Schutz

EXCERPTS: INEQUALITY, CLASS AND ECONOMICS, by Eric Schutz

February 20, 2024

The economic expansion just prior to the pandemic seemed to justify optimism about inequality. But Covid-19 showed just how little grounds there were for optimism. The pandemic demonstrated how poorly prepared for such a crisis a society could be that fails to provide universal, high-quality health care to a significant proportion of its population, as the case and death rates in the United States have demonstrated...

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