Monthly Review Press

Portrait of the philosopher as a young man: Michael Heinrich’s biography of Marx, Vol. I

February 20, 2024

Michael Heinrich’s projected biography of Marx that is supposed to consist of four volumes is an extraordinary ambitious undertaking. Only the first volume “Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society” has been published so far. It covers the years before Marx’s birth (because it deals with his parents) and goes up to his doctoral dissertation done in 1841, when he was 23. The biography is extraordinary ambitious for three reasons....

Still “a communist”–good man! Weekly ☭ Worker reviews Grossman’s memoir of socialist defection

February 20, 2024

He hoped that, if he kept his head down and his mouth shut, then he could live out his military career in peace and quiet. Conscription had been renewed for Korea, but he was fortunate enough to be sent to Germany. This was also the time of peak McCarthyism....

New! “Value and Crisis: Essays on Marxian Economics in Japan” (2nd ed.)

February 20, 2024

About the time of the First World War, when interest in Marxist theory was virtually nonexistent in the United States, rival schools of thought in Japan emerged, and brilliant debates took place on Marx’s Capital and on capitalism as it was developing in Japan. Forty years ago, Makoto Itoh’s Value and Crisis began to chronicle these Japanese contributions to Marxist theory. Now, in a second edition of Value and Crisis, Itoh deepens his study of Marx’s theories. The promise of these theories has not waned. If anything—considering the failure of Soviet-style socialism and the catastrophe of neoliberalism—it grows daily.

Engels on Ecology: Against the Grain talks to John Bellamy Foster

February 20, 2024

C. S. Soong, host of Against the Grain (KPFA/94.1 FM) talks with John Bellamy Foster, author, most recently, of The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology. To what extent did Frederick Engels engage with environmental and ecological issues? When Engels wrote about the dialectics of nature, what did he mean by “dialectics”? According to Foster, Engels’s insights into ecology, dialectics, and the environmental conditions of the working class were, and remain, critically important...

1919 Direct Power: Journal of Working Class Studies reviews “Radical Seattle”

February 20, 2024

Since the Covid-19 pandemic pummeled the economy, millions of workers have been displaced, while others continue to work amid increasingly harsh, often hazardous working conditions. With Covid forcing millions to choose between a paycheck and their health, some labor activists have hoped for a wave of wildcat strikes, and in the wake of the election, perhaps even a ‘general strike’ if Trump refused to concede....

Left Voice reviews Rob Wallace’s “Dead Epidemiologists” + This Is Hell interviews Rob Wallace

February 20, 2024

DOUBLE HEADER: "A must-read for anybody who wishes to truly understand Covid-19...." AND listen to Rob Wallace talking recently with Chuck Mertz on This Is Hell...

“Planet Farm” … “Bidenfreude” — Keeping up with Rob Wallace

February 20, 2024

Rob Wallace, author of Big Farms Big Flu and Dead Epidemiologists, has become an international pundit in the conversation about the rise and spread of global epidemics. Here are two of his latest articles on COVID-19 and beyond....

To ameliorate viruses of capitalism, eradicate capitalism itself: Counterfire on “Dead Epidemiologists”

February 20, 2024

To say that the Tory government’s response to Covid-19 has been disastrous is merely to state the obvious. Their unwillingness to take decisive action at the right time, coupled with their ability to contemplate tens of thousands of deaths with equanimity, has earned them a special place even in the annals of Tory incompetence and self-serving cynicism....

Spend February 14 with a book you’ll love: Socialist History Society launches “The Return of Nature” by John Bellamy Foster

February 20, 2024

Twenty years ago, John Bellamy Foster’s Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature introduced a new understanding of Karl Marx’s revolutionary ecological materialism. More than simply a study of Marx, it commenced an intellectual and social history, encompassing thinkers from Epicurus to Darwin, who developed materialist and ecological ideas. Now, with The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology, Foster continues this narrative. In so doing, he uncovers a long history of efforts to unite issues of social justice and environmental sustainability that will help us comprehend and counter today’s unprecedented planetary emergencies….

Gerald Horne on the Roots of White Supremacy, via Blog Talk Radio

February 20, 2024

Gerald Horne, author of the recently published The Dawning of the Apocalypse, talks to Greg Rasheed, host of Blog Talk Radio's The Root and Roots Show about the roots of white supremacy, begun in the 16th century, reaching all the way into the US Capitol on January 6 ... and beyond...