Monthly Review Press

In the public eye: “Albert Einstein’s ‘Why Socialism?'”

In the public eye: “Albert Einstein’s ‘Why Socialism?'”

Einstein's prescient article "Why Socialism?", first published by Monthly Review in its inaugural 1949 issue, has to say the least, been circulating for some time. Yet it has never been more relevant than today. In defiance of those who would like to, not only re-write history, but erase the future, please help us get this book out to as wide an audience as possible....
In the public eye: Gabriel Rockhill’s “Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?”

In the public eye: Gabriel Rockhill’s “Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?”

The latest: ""...The narrative begins with the CIA’s pursuit of Che Guevara, using it as an entry point to discuss ideological warfare. Rockhill highlights Guevara’s own belief in the importance of media and ideology, shaped by his experience of U.S. propaganda during the Guatemalan coup. The book is structured in three parts: first, outlining the “imperial intellectual apparatus” of the Cold War; second, a detailed examination of the Frankfurt School’s integration into U.S. and West German institutions, with a focused case study on Herbert Marcuse's documented ties to U.S. government projects; and finally, a conclusion contrasting what he terms “imperial” Marxism with anti-imperialist traditions. Rockhill’s work challenges the perception that “Western Marxism” emerged organically solely from within the Western workers’ movement or intelligentsia. He proposes that powerful external forces consciously nurtured certain theoretical directions. His ultimate conclusion is that the dominant Marxist tradition inherited in Western academia is a depoliticized one, shaped by the very powers it claimed to critique, and thus ill-suited for building concrete revolutionary alternatives...."
In the public eye: John Bellamy Foster’s “Breaking the Bonds of Fate”

In the public eye: John Bellamy Foster’s “Breaking the Bonds of Fate”

The latest: "Epicurus set up schools, first in Lampsacus (in modern day Turkey), then later in Athens. Other philosophical schools in the city used public space for lectures and attracted young, well educated, aristocratic Greek men. His critique of the ruling classes that dominated these schools that “'Nothing is enough for those for whom enough is too little' is as applicable today as in his age...."
In the public eye: Steve Cushion’s “Slavery in the British Empire and its Legacy in the Modern World”

In the public eye: Steve Cushion’s “Slavery in the British Empire and its Legacy in the Modern World”

The latest: "And what of those who had been 'freed'? They received precisely nothing, in fact worse than nothing because they were required to remain in their former owners’ service for four years, although this was now referred to as an “apprenticeship”. The change in British law naturally made no difference to the fate of enslaved people in the USA’s southern states but Cushion, rightly, goes to some lengths to show how British capital continued to benefit..." One of the most impressive things about Steve Cushion is his extremely active approach to engaging the public around the topic of reparations, and using his books as a means of pushing for meaningful change on the ground....