During a soliloquy in Julius Caesar, Brutus says, ‘The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.’ His words clearly apply to John Marciano’s book, The American War in Vietnam…. Whereas Brutus speaks of Caesar’s use of power, Marciano addresses the misuse of the Noble Cause principle espoused by the United States in the Vietnam War. ¶ Marciano, a Professor Emeritus at the State University of New York at Cortland, relates this principle to America’s employing military power in general—and in particular to what he calls the ‘staggering human and ecological losses’ resulting from ignoring remorse relative to the Vietnam War… | more…

During the nineteenth century, three US presidents died in office, or shortly after it, from drinking the water in the White House. This was probably because that water was drawn downstream from the marsh where the White House’s ‘nightsoil’ was dumped, including that of the slaves who helped build it. For Rob Wallace, this is therefore an ‘epiphenomenon of empire’, as ‘on what was a glorified plantation, growing not crops but imperial designs alienated from people and places alike, enslaved men and women were obligated to kill their masters bucket by bucket’… | more…

Henry Giroux is one of our foremost critical voices. With America’s Addiction to Terrorism, he once again applies his critical pedagogy to the US, finding a common thread of growing authoritarian state terrorism through 12 chapters on such varied phenomena as “selfie culture,” austerity, education, cinema, nuclear proliferation, and the state of public intellectuals, while neatly tying these threads to the more obvious tapestry of racism, police militarization, and torture…. | more…

Ursula Huws, author of Labor in the Global Digital Economy: The Cybertariat Comes of Age, recently gave a talk sponsored by the Contemporary Philosophy of Technology at the University of Birmingham, UK. Watch the video here. | more…

Say goodbye to March, but not to feminism!
Monthly Review Press is offering a 40% discount on selected books by and about women—both print and electronic (when available)—starting midnight March 30, and ending midnight April 2. Just enter the coupon code: whm331401 to receive 40% off at checkout. | more…

Jeb Sprague, author of Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti is interviewed by Kim Brown of The Real News Network about Haiti, based on his earlier research on paramilitarism in the context of economic restructuring, social conflict, and political tensions in the country.
(In two parts; be sure and stay tuned for the 2nd half.) | more…

Come to the Athens Book Launch of The Syriza Wave: Surging and Crashing with the Greek Left
Wednesday, April 5, 7:30-9pm
University of Athens
School of Education
Navarinou 13A, Lecture room AA
Athens, Greece 10680
Author Helena Sheehan will discuss her book, along with event coordinator Kostas Skordoulis, and speakers Michalis Spourdalakis, Costas Isychos, Stathis Kouvelakis, and Aris Chatzistefanou | more…

The appointment of Betty DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education aroused considerable opposition. Many of those challenging her were acting on the subtitle of Howard Ryan’s book, ‘organizing against the corporate juggernaut.’ ¶ Educational Justice is a rewarding mix of political analysis about the corporate forces pushing U.S. education in one direction and examples of grassroots union and classroom organizing as a way of challenging that direction. ¶ Ryan places the corporate program in the neoliberal context of what he calls a ‘bosses revolt.’ It includes transferring public funding for education to private education, limits on the union rights of teachers, control through testing and a dual expectations of schools—high quality education for the children of the well off and training for obedience for those on the bottom. | more…

Book Launch for Union Power: The United Electrical Workers in Erie, Pennsylvania
Barnes & Noble
Friday March 24, 2017 6:00 PM
5909 Peach St., Erie, PA 16509
814-864-6300
Author James Young will discuss his book Union Power—the history of two Erie labor unions that helped to save us from ourselves and gain decent living standards for area working people. Copies of the book will be available at the signing. | more…

So much of a sense of union history is in danger of disappearance with the downward slide of organized labor, we need a refresher—not just a big sweep but the saga in a microcosm. Union Power supplies a lucid case study in the key developments from the 1930s breakthrough of industrial unionism through the grim counterattack by capitalism to the struggle for survival. Whoever is old enough to remember the many campus peace events of the later 1960s with only one speaker from organized labor on hand—that is, from the United Electrical Workers—will have an insight already. ¶ Author James Young, longtime activist, academic historian and now retiree still on the (radical) job, is well suited for the task, and so is the location, Erie, PA. | more…

Recently, John Smith, author of Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation, and Capitalism’s Final Crisis, was asked by Mark Karlin of Truthout / Buzzflash to describe the new, improved state-of-the-art version of imperialism. Same old neocolonialism, updated?
“Mark Karlin: Why did you begin your book with the collapse of Rana Plaza in 2013, which killed more than one thousand exploited garment workers in Bangladesh?
John Smith: Three reasons… | more…

The collapse of Rana Plaza, an eight-story building housing several textile factories, a bank, and some shops in an industrial district north of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, on 24th April 2013 killing 1,133 garment workers and wounding 2,500, was one of the worst workplace disasters in recorded history…. ¶ The screams of thousands trapped and crushed as concrete and machinery cascaded down upon them unleashed a full-spectrum shockwave, amplified by the anguished howl of millions around the world. The calamity made instant headline news. Consumers of clothes made in Bangladesh’s garment factories were confronted by their palpable connection to the people whose hands made their clothes, and about their miserable existence on this earth. | more…

To celebrate Red Rosa’s March 5 birthday, to mark the inarguable fact that, even in death, Rosa Luxemburg is the antithesis of Donald Trump, and to lament the injustice that, while she went to prison, nobody in the Trump administration is there yet…

Monthly Review Press is proud to offer a 50% discount on all our books
—both print and electronic—
Starting midnight, March 5 and ending midnight, March 10
Just enter the coupon code: 50OFFMAY510 to receive 50% off at checkout | more…