“Suspense and dramatic interest” (Radek reviewed in ‘Socialism and Democracy’)
February 20, 2024
"...works brilliantly to create suspense and dramatic interest in that the reader is asked to see the world through the eyes of its main protagonist..."
Monthly Review Press
Listen: “Ending the Myth” podcast (Co-author of Dissenting POWs interviewed on ‘Mechanical Freak’)
February 20, 2024
The podcast Mechanical Freak, recently welcomed esteemed sociologist Jerry Lembcke to talk about how the memory of the Vietnam War was both recreated and used in the 1980s and 1990s to unify public sentiment against the liberatory movements of the 1960s. Lembcke reminded the audience that even in the creation of memory, there is a political struggle for the future that needs to be waged.
“A skillful, researched warning against the blind acceptance of wartime propaganda” (The Hidden History of the Korean War to appear in ‘Foreword Reviews’)
February 20, 2024
The presentation is novelistic: there is a rising action as tensions build before the war begins. Once the conflict starts, there’s gripping escalation, then brief falling action as the war concludes. Questions posed throughout keep engagement high while also allowing time for contemplating new pieces of information. The result is illuminating...
Many millions gone (Endless Holocausts reviewed in ‘Counterpunch’)
February 20, 2024
Ron Jacobs, of Counterpunch: "David Michael Smith and Monthly Review Press have done us a favor by publishing this book. Not only is it honestly refreshing, it is perhaps the most important history of the United States published in recent years. There are no excuses here, no rationales; just an accounting of the essential truth in the making and maintenance of the US empire. It is harsh. It is relentless. It cannot be any other way. The endless death described in its pages does not allow another interpretation."
Listen: Foster on the future of so-called “civilization” (The “Old Mole Variety Hour”)
February 20, 2024
Bill Resnick, host of KBOO’s “Old Mole Variety Hour,” recently talked to John Bellamy Foster about the future of the planet and what we call “civilization.” Foster is convinced that... READ MORE
NEW! SOCIALIST REGISTER 2023 (EXCERPTS)
February 20, 2024
The 59th annual volume of the "Socialist Register" examines the growth of corporate power and other important organizational trends in global capitalism. Rejecting such notions as “stakeholder capitalism,” it reviews the organization and strategies of unions and the left as it searches for new routes to socialism. Read on for excerpts from the likes of Adam Hanieh, Patrick Bond, Charmaine Chua and Spencer Cox...
An invaluable warning against the State as a neutral tool (Beyond Leviathian reviewed by ‘Counterfire’)
February 20, 2024
The state cannot be ‘reformed’ since it is not, despite what liberal theory would insist, a neutral institution. The state historically developed in order to enshrine class power, and so traps us ‘within the paralyzing confines of the hierarchical and antagonistic framework of the political/military domain’. This can only be broken through a ‘radical transformation’ in ‘our social metabolism’, that is in the relations of production of capitalism.
Listen: Fascism is a “product” of monopoly finance capitalism (The Coming of the American Behemoth on the New Books Network)
February 20, 2024
The United States, being the most advanced capitalist country in the world, is not only not immune to this sort of movement (fascism), but is uniquely vulnerable, and that vulnerability has not gone away in our times....
Value Chains reviewed in Indonesian for ‘The Suryakanta’
February 20, 2024
(Read on, if you know Indondesian) Dalam ekonomi global saat ini, sebagian besar produksi terjadi di negara-negara “berkembang” seperti Tiongkok, India, dan Indonesia. Namun, sebagian besar keuntungan dari produk-produk yang dihasilkannya tetap menggunung dalam dompet para kapitalis di Eropa, Amerika, dan Jepang. Enak saja! Kok bisa?
“A lofty dream” (Work Work Work reviewed in ‘Dissident Voice’ and ‘Countercurrents’)
February 20, 2024
'Work Work Work' sounds similar for working boys in many countries. Anyone can find them at any hub of exploitation and profit making. A visit to the Tipu Sultan Road or the Dolaai Khaal or Taatee Bazaar area in the capital city of Dhaka, a visit to automobile repair shops around Dhaka or to the marine vessel making yards along the Buriganga near Dhaka will find them. Boys picking torn papers, discarded plastic pieces of innumerable shapes and sizes from street sides, tearing down old posters from walls of the city buildings, looking for whatever is saleable in garbage heaps, selling kitchen items or flowers from morning to night, until may be 10 or 11 PM....