Books on Politics/Political Theory/Philosophy

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September 2005
Understanding the Venezuelan Revolution: Hugo Chavez Talks to Marta Harnecker by Hugo Chavez and Marta Harnecker

Marta Harnecker's interviews with Hugo Chavez began soon after one of the most dramatic moments of Chavez's presidency-the failed coup of April 2002, which ended with Chavez restored to power by a massive movement of protest and resistance. In the aftermath of the failed coup, Chavez talks to Harnecker about the formation of his political ideas, his aspirations for Venezuela, its domestic and international policies, problems of political organization, relations with social movements in other countries, and more, constantly relating these to concrete events and to strategies for change.

August 2005
The Next Liberation Struggle: Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy in Southern Africa by John S. Saul

The Next Liberation Struggle integrates the concrete observations of a seasoned observer and participant in southern African liberation struggles with analysis of and reflection on the large question of the place of southern Africa within the global capitalist order and its capacities to contribute toward remaking that global order. It examines specific national developments in South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, and Tanzania. At the same time, it shows throughout how the problems of each national context are linked by a common location in the global order, and argues for a collective regional response.

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The Fiction of a Thinkable World: Body, Meaning, and the Culture of Capitalism by Michael Steinberg

Beautifully conceived and written, The Fiction of a Thinkable World shows how the Western conception of the human subject came to be formed historically, how it contrasts with that of Eastern thought, and how it provides the basic justification for the institutions of liberal capitalism.

Philosophical Arabesques by Nikolai Bukharin with an Introduction by Helena Sheehan

While awaiting his death, Bukharin wrote prolifically. He considered Philosophical Arabesquesto be the most important of his prison writings. In its pages, he covers the full range of issues in Marxist philosophy—the sources of knowledge, the nature of truth, freedom and necessity, the relationship of Hegelian and Marxist dialectic. The project constitutes a defense of the genuine legacy of Lenin’s Marxism against the use of his memory to legitimate totalitarian power.

Pox Americana: Exposing the American Empire edited by John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney

This volume brings together the work of leading Marxist analysts of imperialism to examine the burning question of our time—the nature and prospects of the U.S. imperial project currently being given shape by war and occupation in the Middle East.

“Expertly co-edited by John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney, … Noam Chomsky, Barbara Epstein, and many more learned contributors discuss U.S. imperialism throughout history …. A highly sober accounting….”
— Paul T. Vogel, THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW

China and Socialism: Market Reforms and Class Struggle by Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett

Hart-Landsberg and Burkett's China and Socialism argues that market reforms in China are leading inexorably toward a capitalist and foreign-dominated development path, with enormous social and political costs, both domestically and internationally. The rapid economic growth that accompanied these market reforms have not been due to efficiency gains, but rather to deliberate erosion of the infrastructure that made possible a remarkable degree of equality. The transition to the market has been based on rising unemployment, intensified exploitation, declining health and education services, exploding government debt, and unstable prices.

The Liberal Virus: Permanent War and the Americanization of the World by Samir Amin

Samir Amin's ambitious new book argues that the ongoing American project to dominate the world through military force has its roots in European liberalism, but has developed certain features of liberal ideology in a new and uniquely dangerous form. Where European political culture since the French Revolution has given a central place to values of equality, the American state has developed to serve the interests of capital alone, and is now exporting this model throughout the world. American imperialism, Amin argues, will be far more barbaric than earlier forms, pillaging natural resources and destroying the lives of the poor.

Toward an Open Tomb: The Crisis of Israeli Society by Michel Warschawski

The question of the future direction of Israeli society is critical for the whole array of conflicts in the Middle East, and hence for the global order. Michel Warschawski writes with an insider's understanding of Israel, integrating political analysis, personal anecdote and a powerful moral vision. Toward an Open Tomb reveals the horror of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory while focusing mainly on the effects on the occupiers themselves.

The Rosa Luxemburg Reader edited by Peter Hudis and Kevin B. Anderson

The Rosa Luxemburg Readeris the definitive one-volume collection of Luxemburg's writings in English translation. Unlike previous publications of her work from the early 1970s, this volume includes substantial extracts from her major economic writings—above all, The Accumulation of Capital(1913)—and from her political writings, including Reform or Revolution(1898), the Junius Pamphlet (1916), and The Russian Revolution (1918).

The Postmodern Prince: Critical Theory, Left Strategy, and the Making of a New Political Subject by John Sanbonmatsu

“In a well-argued, often insightful book, Sanbonmatsu traces the rise of postmodern theory to the ‘expressivist’ politics of the New Left; he shows that the postmodern attempt to promote differences and question notions of universality has undercut the possibility of a unified radical movement. Going back to the work of Antonio Gramsci, the author argues for the need to develop a theory of a ‘postmodern prince,’ one that assumes unity and difference by squarely lodging its analysis in the experiential realm where solidarity can arise. In the process of such an argument, Sanbonmatsu admirably explicates the problems associated with postmodern theory, particularly the work of Michel Foucault, and clearly lays out the relevant arguments associated with Gramsci’s theory … Highly recommended.”— B.J. MacDONALD, CHOICE, Current Reviews for Academic Libraries

Eastern Cauldron: Islam, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq in a Marxist Mirror by Gilbert Achcar

The essays collected in Eastern Cauldron describe and explain the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism, the fate of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and its aftermath, and above all the Palestinian conflict—in which the regional stakes are so dramatically embodied and contested. Achcar analyzes the social bases, strategies and tactics of PLO, Hizbollah, Israel and the United States. In an extended introductory essay reflecting on the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Achcar integrates these analyses in a major new account of the strategy of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East and its prospects.

Behind the Invasion of Iraq by The Research Unit for Political Economy

“Behind the Invasion of Iraq . . . synthesizes the seemingly disparate threads of the US war drive in a blistering indictment of American foreign policy . . . The effect is of puzzle pieces clicking into place.”—Counterpunch

Behind the Invasion of Iraq exposes the idea that war will bring democracy to the middle East as so much propaganda. In a context where so many rulers are themselves clients of the United States, the war is aimed not at the rulers but at the masses of ordinary people whose hostility to imperialism has not been broken even by corrupt and autocratic rulers. This book describes the remaking of global power with a truly global awareness of what is at stake.