Radical Thought Books - Page 12

Fixed Ideas: America Since 9.11

Joan Didion

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Editorial Review:

In Fixed Ideas Joan Didion describes how, since September 11, 2001, there has been a determined effort by the administration to promote an imperial America --a "New Unilateralism"-- and how, in many parts of America, there is now a "disconnect" between the government and citizens.

"[Americans] recognized even then [immediately after 9/11], with flames still visible in lower Manhattan, that the words 'bipartisanship' and 'national unity' had come to mean acquiescence to the administration's preexisting agenda --for example the imperative for further tax cuts, the necessity for Arctic drilling, the systematic elimination of regulatory and union protections, even the funding for the missile shield."

Frank Rich in his preface notes: "The reassuring point of the fixed ideas was to suppress other ideas that might prompt questions or fears about either the logic or hidden political agendas of those conducting what CNN branded as 'America's New War.'"

He adds, "This White House is famously secretive and on-message, but its skills go beyond that. It knows the power of narrative, especially a single narrative with clear-cut heroes and evildoers, and it knows how to drown out any distracting subplots before they undermine the main story."

Book and cover design by Milton Glaser, Inc.

Karl Marx, Frederick Engels Collected Works: Engels : 1890-92 (Karl Marx, Frederick Engels: Collected Works)

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels

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Brian Wells,Esquire, reviews Collected Works by Marx 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This is the first of the massive 50 volume set of everything ever written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels.

This volume contains the Doctoral Disertation and other early works of Karl Marx. It is a very interesting view into the early beliefs of the great nineteenth century thinker and economist.

What is Property?

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

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Editorial Review:

Proudhon's most famous declaration that "property is theft" comes from this, his most famous work, published in French in 1840; the English translation dates from 1890. According to Proudhon, only that which is being used is real property. Land must be lived on or farmed to be property, and goods must have been made by one's own labor to be owned. These new definitions challenge the very basis of capitalist systems, and Proudhon used them as the foundation for his writings in support of anarchy. Activists, historians, and philosophers will find themselves pondering his arguments long after they have finished reading. PIERRE-JOSEPH PROUDHON (1809-1865) was a French political philosopher who wrote extensively on anarchy and was the first person known to have referred to himself as an anarchist. His most famous writings include The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century (1852) and System of Economic Contradictions; or The Philosophy of Poverty (1846).

Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America

Bertram Gross

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Dated leftist delusions. 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 32 people found this review helpful.

I read this book many years ago and reviewed it yet again at the prompting of yet another Leftist dolt, I found it illogically constructed, breathlessly conspiratorial and vacuous. It is the favored deceit of Leftists that there is some distinction between "Fascism" or National Socialism and International Socialism. There is none. National Socialism in Germany, Fascism in Italy and other state worshiping monopolistic governmental construct has no distinguishing characteristics from states based upon Lenin/Stalin/Mao/Castro's Socialism.

It is a lie that the Comintern invented after the collapse of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact for the division of Eastern Europe between the National Socialist state and the Soviet Union. This cooperation terminated by the opening of hostilities between the two socialist entities. Germany's attack was predicated upon competition over the east's wealth not ideology.


Reagan and Bush are the defenders of the democratic institutions of the west in line with the founders of the United State while the Left is the heir of a foreign born, degenerate and alien ideology that has produced nothing but slaughter and despair wherever and whenever it overthrows the established order.

Editorial Review:

Illuminates the increasing collusion between Big Government and Big Business to "manage" our society in the interests of the elite.

Understanding the F-Word: American Fascism and the Politics of Illusion

David L McGowan

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

By offering a radical review of the last one hundred years of US history, this work is intended as a counterpoint to the rampant revisionism of the flurry of books glorifying the "American Century". Beginning with the rather bold and decidedly controversial assertion that the current political system in place in the United States at the dawn of the twenty-first century is fascism, the first part of this book attempts to justify that claim by first defining exactly what fascism is-correcting various widely-held misconceptions-and then analyzing how closely we as a nation conform to that definition. Also included is a review of some of the hidden history and key events of World War II.

Part II offers a retrospective of the twentieth century American presidential administrations, to demonstrate that the steady and inexorable march towards overt fascism was a defining characteristic that remained unchanged. The final section looks at the still very much alive eugenics movement, and analyzes the role played by the psychiatric establishment in validating the fascist state. This book will surely find no shortage of detractors, but if read with an open mind, it just may change the way you view the world.

Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It

Leon Trotsky

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The best book on anti-fascism! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 24 people found this review helpful.

I thought that this was a great book because it gets into the heart of fascism and tells you how to fight against it.

Fascism: yesterday and today 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Is fascism some type of irrational mass hysteria? Leon Trotsky argues no. The rise to power of Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco was a result of the regular workings of the capitalist system and the failure of the workers and farmers of their countries to wage an effective fight to replace it. Trotsky, a leader of the Russian revolution who was exiled, and later murdered by Joseph Stalin, denounces the failure of both the class-collaborationist Social Democracy and the sectarian and corrupt Communist Party to rise to the task.
Trotsky de-mystifies the hold that fascist ideology gained over masses of desperate middle-class elements in these countries, and the decisive support given to these movements by the biggest capitalists of their time. And he demonstrates how fascism can be fought by an effective revolutionary leadership, and how the continuing rule of capital will inevitably create similar fascist menaces as long as it exists.

Editorial Review:

Writing in the heat of struggle against the rise of fascism in Germany, France, and Spain in the 1930s, communist leader Leon Trotsky examines the class origins and character of fascist movements. Building on foundations laid by the Communist International in Lenin's time, Trotsky advances a working-class strategy to combat and defeat this malignant danger. (pamphlet)

Also available in: French

Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe

Cas Mudde

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Editorial Review:

As Europe enters a significant phase of re-integration of East and West, it faces an increasing problem with the rise of far-right political parties. Cas Mudde offers the first comprehensive and truly pan-European study of populist radical right parties in Europe. He focuses on the parties themselves, discussing them both as dependent and independent variables. Based upon a wealth of primary and secondary literature, this book offers critical and original insights into three major aspects of European populist radical right parties: concepts and classifications; themes and issues; and explanations for electoral failures and successes. It concludes with a discussion of the impact of radical right parties on European democracies, and vice versa, and offers suggestions for future research.

Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents (October Books)

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This volume is a revised and expanded version of a special issue of the journal October (Winter 1997) that was devoted to the work of the Situationist International (SI). The first section of the issue contained previously unpublished critical texts, and the second section contained translations of primary texts that had previously been unavailable in English. The emphasis was on the SI's profound engagement with the art and cultural politics of their time (1957-1972), with a strong argument for their primarily political and activist stance by two former members of the group, T. J. Clark and Donald Nicholson-Smith.

Guy Debord and the Situationist International supplements both sections. It reprints important, hard-to-find essays by Giorgio Agamben, Libero Andreotti, Jonathan Crary, Thomas Y. Levin, Greil Marcus, and Tom McDonough and doubles the number of translations of primary texts, which now encompass a broader and more representative range of the SI's writings on culture and language. In a field still dominated by hagiography, the critical texts were selected for their willingness to confront critically the history and legacy of the SI. They examine the group within the broader framework of the historical and neo-avant-gardes and, beyond that, the postwar world in general. The translations trace the SI's reflections on the legacy of the avant-garde in art and architecture, particularly on the linguistic and spatial significance of montage aesthetics. Many of the translated works are by Guy Debord (1932-1994), the impresario of the SI, especially known for his book The Society of the Spectacle.

In Defense of Anarchism (with a New Preface)

Robert Paul Wolff

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Title misleads and there are better books! 2 out of 5 stars.
11 of 15 people found this review helpful.

This book, at 80 pages, had me really excited at the halfway point. HIs critiques of the existing systems of government- especially direct, representitive, and majoritarian democracy are deft and well formulated. I figured that as the author had presented his case against the state pretty well by page 40, he'd have a great affirmitive case for anarchism.

WRONG!! There was no case. Once he'd laid down his anti-government case, he simply repeated most of what he'd wrote one more time. Even the last sub-chapter 'Utopian Glimpses of a World Without States" didn't attempt anything. That in mind, the books title is not only misleading, it is a fabrication. AS there is no defences of anarchism here, it might best be called 'Critiques of the Idea of Government."

Well, the two stars I gave it were for amazing clarity in writing. This book, under a worse writer, could've easily been two hundred or more pages but Wolff keeps it short and energetic. Also, his critiques of the state (especially on voting procedure and inadequacies in district-representation) were great.
To Close, I must mention that there are many books similar to this one that are far superior to this one. For a great deffense of anarchism (favoring the market) read Randy Barnett's "Structure of Liberty." For a good defense of anarchism (favoring no market) read Proudhon's "What is Property" and for a book questioning the legitamacy of the state coming to a minarchist- libertarian- conclusion, the true classic is Robert Nozick's "Anarch, State and Utopia."

Editorial Review:

Here with a new preface is Robert Paul Wolff's classic analysis of the foundations of the authority of the state and the problems of political authority and moral autonomy in a democracy.

A Hubert Harrison Reader

Hubert Henry Harrison

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Editorial Review:

The brilliant writer, orator, educator, critic, and activist Hubert Harrison (1883 - 1927) is one of the truly important, yet neglected, figures of early twentieth-century America. Known as "the father of Harlem radicalism,' and a leading Socialist party speaker who advocated that socialists champion the cause of the Negro as a revolutionary doctrine, Harrison had an important influence on a generation of race and class radicals, including Marcus Garvey and A. Philip Randolph.

Harrison envisioned a socialism that had special appeal to African-Americans, and he affirmed the duty of socialists to oppose race-based oppression. Despite high praise from his contemporaries, Harrison's legacy has largely been neglected. This reader redresses the imbalance; Harrison's essays, editorials, reviews, letters, and diary entries offer a profound, and often unique, analysis of issues, events and individuals of early twentieth-century America. His writings also provide critical insights and counterpoints to the thinking of W. E. B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey.

The reader is organized thematically to highlight Harrison's contributions to the debates on race, class, culture, and politics of his time. The writings span Harrison's career and the evolution of his thought, and include extensive political writings, editorials, meditations, reviews of theater and poetry, and deeply evocative social commentary.