Monthly Review Press

Could the people who voted for Trump or Clinton overthrow capitalism? Climate & Capitalism reviews Michael Yates’s new book

February 20, 2024

The title of Michael Yates’ new book asks a question that every socialist has heard many times. We hear it from liberals who think changes can only be made by working inside the system. We hear it from radicals who simply can’t imagine working people moving against the system. ¶ Is it really possible that people who voted for Trump or Clinton — two faces of global reaction — might one day overthrow capitalism?….

New! Michael Tigar’s Mythologies of State and Monopoly Power

February 20, 2024

Mythologies,” writes veteran human rights lawyer Michael Tigar, “are structures of words and images that portray people, institutions, and events in ways that mask an underlying reality.” For instance, the “Justice Department” appears, by its very nature and practice, to appropriate “justice” as the exclusive property of the federal government. In his brilliantly acerbic collection of essays, Tigar reveals, deconstructs, and eviscerates mythologies surrounding the U.S. criminal justice system, racism, free expression, workers’ rights, and international human rights.

November 26, Rockford, IL: Howard Waitzkin on “Health Care Under the Knife”

February 20, 2024

Howard Waitzkin, author — along with the Working Group on Health Beyond Capitalism — of "Health Care Under the Knife: Moving Beyond Capitalism for Our Health," will speak on the U.S. health-care system, and how it could rescued and made an integral part of a new and radically different society.

The Working Class and Batista’s Overthrow: New West Indian Guide on A Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution

February 20, 2024

Stephen Cushion’s A Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution, the result of extensive archival and oral history research, is one of the most important books (in any language) on the history of the Batista regime and its opponents during the 1950s to appear in the last three or more decades. It is also an openly revisionist account that challenges much research and writing produced by both Cuban and foreign scholars….”

“So many reasons to fight”: ISR on Kohei Saito’s Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism

February 20, 2024

"Ecosocialism needs Marx," Kohei Saito once wrote. In Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism, Saito shows why…. This work and Saito’s familiarity with a range of international debates regarding Marxist theory and practice make possible his beautiful analysis of Marx’s ecosocialism, an analysis that should inform our struggle for revolutionary socioecological change….

Yellow Journalism and the New Cold War: Jeremy Kuzmarov via Counterpunch

February 20, 2024

Like Saddam Hussein a decade and a half ago, Russia and its President Vladimir Putin have been repeatedly vilified in the Western media over the last five years, helping to mobilize popular support for the reemergence of a new Cold War...

New! From Commune to Capitalism: How China’s Peasants Lost Collective Farming and Gained Urban Poverty

February 20, 2024

In the early 1980s, China dismantled its socialist rural collectives and divided the land among millions of small peasant families. Mainstream history argues that this "decollectivization campaign" greatly improved agricultural productivity and the lives of the peasants. A closer examination suggests a much different and more nuanced story....

Marx & Philosophy on Michael Lebowitz’s The Socialist Imperative: From Gotha to Now

February 20, 2024

During the past two decades, economist Michael A. Lebowitz has written a number of books, proposing to build socialism as a practical alternative. Lebowitz’s new book, The Socialist Imperative from Gotha to Now, is a continued project about proposing the building of socialism in the 21st century…. Lebowitz’s book attempts to establish a theoretical vision of socialism and the lessons from the experience of ‘real socialism’...

Science & Society reviews Ian Angus’s A Redder Shade of Green

February 20, 2024

A Redder Shade of Green is a very welcome compilation of posts from Ian Angus’ website “Climate and Capitalism,” some original, others updated and revised. Ian Angus is a Canadian ecosocialist activist and scholar. This book follows two other earlier ones, the excellent critique of populationism/neoMalthusianism (with Simon Butler), Too Many People (Haymarket, 2011), and Facing the Anthropocene (Monthly Review Press, 2016), a splendid introduction to this subject....

Jeremy Kuzmarov talks to Paul DeRienzo on TrumpWatch

February 20, 2024

Jeremy Kuzmarov, author, with John Marciano, of The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce, talks with Paul DeRienzo about the little-remembered history of Russia-United States relations.