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Tag: Reviews

A 300-year excursion through the history of the global economy (‘International Affairs’ reviews the Patnaiks)

A 300-year excursion through the history of the global economy (‘International Affairs’ reviews the Patnaiks)

February 20, 2024

Patnaik and Patnaik unpick the realities of capitalism: First, as thriving on exogenous rather than endogenous stimuli––namely colonialism followed by state intervention after the Second World War––thus negating its capacity to be self-contained and perpetual; and second, leading to high unemployment through deindustrialization and land grabs for export crops and property accumulation which push petty producers and peasants into joblessness.

Brings homes the seemingly Sisyphean task of a collective revolutionary project, “with theoretical and stylistic aplomb” (Marx & Philosophy Review of Books on “Marx, Dead and Alive”)

Brings homes the seemingly Sisyphean task of a collective revolutionary project, “with theoretical and stylistic aplomb” (Marx & Philosophy Review of Books on “Marx, Dead and Alive”)

February 20, 2024

"Marx, Dead and Alive" packs an extraordinary amount into its 184 pages, both historical detail and in contemporizing Marx with multifarious global contexts and examples.... it would make an excellent introduction for someone just starting to grasp Marx and wanting clear definitions of alienation, capital, class, commodity fetishism, value and wage labour – amongst other key concepts....

Her Majesty’s African-American Allies: A review by Gerald Horne

Her Majesty’s African-American Allies: A review by Gerald Horne

February 20, 2024

It is well-established that African-Americans have sought allies abroad as a way to weaken opposition at home. Often, scholars have tackled this important topic as it manifested during the Cold War. The work at hand emulates previous scholarship in detailing this trend during the antebellum and early postbellum era...

Some ways forward after the devastating decline in union membership (Shaun Richman reviewed for Organizing Upgrade)

Some ways forward after the devastating decline in union membership (Shaun Richman reviewed for Organizing Upgrade)

February 20, 2024

The ongoing debate about reviving the U.S. labor movement tries to grapple with the devastating decline in the union membership rate from one-third of the workforce in the 1950s to less than 11% today. In this discussion, occasionally a book comes along that is a great combination of labor history, thoughtful analysis of union organizing, and suggestions for ways forward. Shaun Richman’s "Tell the Bosses We’re Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century" is such a book.

Sure to “inspire new directions in research and debate” (“Dissenting POWs” reviewed in H-Soz-Kult, H-NET)

Sure to “inspire new directions in research and debate” (“Dissenting POWs” reviewed in H-Soz-Kult, H-NET)

February 20, 2024

Without trivializing the hardships of often several years in jail, Wilber and Lembcke dissect personal accounts by former POWs. They point out contradictions, distinguish between physical punishment measures and deliberate violence, reconstruct different phases in the history of the prisons, and conclude that brutal treatment and torture were less common and systematic than purported.

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