Leftist Lit

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Leftist Lit

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

Let's talk about leftist books! These are books, aren't they? Broadly speaking (from wiki since, per Paul Lafargue, I have a right to be lazy) left-wing politics supports social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy.

Some works that IMO are great places to start if you're interested in learning more are listed below. Remember that there are no stupid questions, and if anyone has any recommendations to add to the OP, please post below or PM me.

Capitalism (general):
Karl Marx is the big dog here. Capital and The Communist Manifesto are his most well-known works, with the former being a dense magnum opus explaining the capitalist mode of production, and the latter being a much shorter work which calls for the workers of the world to unite, but I like to recommend Wage Labor and Capital as an easy to digest introduction to his work. He wrote it for factory workers to read in their off-time, and it can be considered a practical shorthand for capital, including an explanation of why you work harder and harder while you receive no additional compensation for your efforts.

Feminism:
bell hooks: Feminism Is For Everybody is a great starting point, as it breaks down what the feminist movement is and why a guy should also be working toward the destruction of sexism in our society.

General History:
Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States is a easy-to-read history of the US, starting with pre-Columbian America and ending in the late 80s/early 90s. It is often assigned for AP US History classes and will hopefully open the reader's eyes to the injustice in America. Plus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKqR2Tss8Es

Eric Hobsbawm's The Age of ____ is a 4-part series going from the French Revolution through the fall of the Soviet Union. He tackles arts, culture, wars and economic issues in this series.

Media:
Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent explores how media groups "are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion". Remember how every news source supported the Iraq War in 2002 and no one gave any space for anti-war opinions? When's the last time you heard a news story seriously discussing models other than capitalism as possible economic structures? Exactly. Edward S. Herman was also an author but we don't remember this part (joke).

While it's a podcast, I'd recommend Citations Needed as a great source for understanding the modern media.

Global affairs:
Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine runs the reader through what the global financial elite do to weaker countries and how they leverage disasters (natural or man made) to destroying working conditions and social safety nets in countries.

Some extra authors to look into in the meantime before I update this post:
Frantz Fanon
Angela Davis
Mike Davis
Louis Althusser
Theodor W. Adorno
Slavoj �i�ek (he likes movies and has a voice comparable to angels singing)

I'd be interested in hearing which authors people enjoyed, which they hated, who they think is out of touch, who sucks, etc. This is not the place to discuss current elections or who you're voting/not voting/protest voting for (probably need to keep it focused on books in TBB).

Please also consider The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale, which happens to be our book of the month!

# ¿ Jul 14, 2020 02:52

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 11:52

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

Reserved.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2020 02:54

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

PTSDeedly Do posted:

God�s Bits of Wood by Ousmane Semb�ne is an interesting novel about colonialism and worker action in Senegal.

Frequently bought together: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. That's good company to be in--I'll check it out.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2020 17:41

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

Safety Biscuits posted:

I just read this for my IRL book group. The main thesis is pretty interesting and good for media literacy, but most of it is evidence supporting their arguments. Which is necessary, but a bit dull. And the chapter on the Cambodia genocides really seems to minimise the Khmer Rouge's casualty figures, which argues against Chomsky and Herman, I think. It's almost a shame that the bulk of the book is so detailed because short bits on, say, Watergate do a great job of getting their ideas across. Overall, though, a really interesting read.

Chomsky was a little late to the �Cambodian genocide really happened and it was worse than we thought� party, but when there was enough evidence he did change his mind.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2020 08:03

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

Safety Biscuits posted:

The figures he endorses in Manufacturing Consent 6.2.2 (1988) are 600-750,000 dead due to the Khmer Rouge, which is rather late to the party... He seems to be very touchy about admitting that he was wrong, but definitely doesn't deny it. Anyway, it's a single stain on an interesting book, although on thinking about it some more they push the propaganda model a bit far.

Yeah I think I picked it up in After the Cataclysm, where he�s questioning who we�re getting reports from and how there�s a potential incentive to play up the misdeeds of �those guys� while our guys get free passes so regularly, but he was writing at the time or within a couple years of the events, so I�m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Chomsky has shown no evidence that he�d be for the systematic murder of 1/4-1/3 of Cambodia if he had god-vision at the time of writing.

Sort of a boy-who-cried-wolf situation with the establishment being the boy.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2020 00:46

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

A human heart posted:

While on the lower end of most estimates, those figures aren't ridiculous in terms of the academic literature on the topic - they're pretty similar to the figures Michael Vickery gives in 'Cambodia 1975-1982' (though note that he does so while also saying that he doesn't think it's actually possible to give a reliable estimate because there simply isn't any data for Cambodia's population in 1975). I think some of the recent archaeological work on mass grave sites may have enabled the calculation of more accurate figures although I'm not sure really. Vickery also points out that initial media coverage of the country was slanted and wrong, in the sense that they reported mass killings and atrocities in every part of the country from the moment the CPK took power, when in fact mass killings only really got going on a wide scale in 1976 and particularly in 1977 as the state began to collapse because of different factions in the party basically waging open war against each other, and the extent of mass killings varied by area depending on factors like the disposition of the cadres in the area and the factions they were associated with. So the media reports were slanted towards American interests even though significant aspects of what they were saying was true, or became true. The US media also mysteriously stopped saying anything bad about Pol Pot after he was ousted from power and became a US backed contra, at the same time as there were some genuinely ridiculous stories of Vietnamese atrocities in the country in the 80s, which I think gives you an idea of what was motivating their reporting.

The last part I think really hit Chomsky, as it turns out that the Communist reprisals against Vietnamese pro-Capitalists never really happened to the degree they were expected/?hoped for? by Western anti-Communists.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2020 08:12

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

Does anyone have a rec on modern Korean history? I�m mostly interested in learning more about the post-WW2 era, since the most recent TrueAnon made me realize that beyond �there was a military dictatorship until more recently than most people think� I don�t know a lot, but I wouldn�t mind learning about the annexation by Japan if it�s in one book.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2020 00:21

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

Duck Rodgers posted:

Two recommendations on energy and the development of liberal capitalism.

I�m reminded that the Romans had very primitive steam engines as novelties. Ignoring that production of powerful engines may not have been possible with the technology of the time, a factor to not developing this could have been: �Why? We have slaves for that.� This is too simplistic and probably wrong, but the fact that the idea fits into our modern understanding of how labor is the real power of the world is interesting + it fits in with what you wrote re: with a controlled labor force, development of new sources of power isn�t necessary. With an insecure control over labor, grab that poo poo up and undermine labor.

Adding those 2 to my list.
Would love to hear about Islam/Saudi Arabia/oil.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2020 06:41

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

Does anyone have a good history of India book from a leftist (or at least not right wing) perspective? By this I mean like a People�s History-style book which hits the big notes but isn�t from a Modi apologist.
Also looking for the same for Korea.
Have been speaking with more people from these countries and would like to know what�s going on without getting an �everything is always getting better don�t ask questions� perspective.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2020 05:53

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

gfarrell80 posted:

Finished "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community". Yep. We shot the reincarnation of Jesus. Humanity is doomed.

Should be mandatory reading for junior high schoolers. What an optimistic visionary.

Added to my reading list.

Looking at the collected Marx/Engel works from International and sent them an email about getting it all (US):
�There is a 15% discount for purchase of the entire set. The price of the set would be $1,171.73 plus shipping which would be about $70�

I�ve been reading some Baudrillard (System of Objects) recently and secretly wish I could be an insufferable critic of interior design.

Tried Derrida�s Politics of Friendship and feel like I�m the academic equivalent of a chimp in a tuxedo trying to get into the high society gala. My philosophy friend sent me a quote from Foucault saying how frustrating Derrida is as a writer/speaker/person, so I feel a little better.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2021 04:00

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

I�m reading Thomas Frank�s Listen Liberal and it�s mostly stuff that any knowledgeable lefty will already know, but it�s very well-written for the waning Liberal in your life who needs that one extra push to go over the hump. My only concern is that the title may sound condescending to someone who isn�t quite ready to take the plunge.

King Leopold�s Ghost isn�t lefty per se, but since it�s about imperialism I thought this would be a good place to recommend it as a history of Belgium in the Congo. �...reads like a novel� is the quote on the cover of my edition which is really accurate.

Anyone have any suggestions for anarchist works or decent history? I�m reading Conquest of Bread at present and would like to read a few more books on it to at least have a better understanding of its history and core works. I know that it�s a wide topic, so a framework would be really helpful.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2021 07:30

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

Baka-nin posted:

Two books come to mind,

Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic by Maurice Meisner, its a very informative work from the 1911 revolution period up to the early 1990s. Does a very good job of explaining the ideological goal post shifting and political factionalism of the CPC and combines it with an analysis of the economy and political situation of the PRC as it actually existed and the gulf of this with the official versions.

China's New Red Guards: The Return of Radicalism and the Rebirth of Mao Zedong by Jude Blanchette. This one is an investigation into current PRC and its political climate, focussing on relationship between the CPC and its officially tolerated (mostly) sometimes opposition sometimes auxiliary movements on the nationalist and "maoist" currents and what's been going on since the early 2000s to Xi's premiership. Ends just as the Jasic unionisation campaign was just starting.

Any recs on the Gang of Four or Lin Bao?

# ¿ Apr 15, 2021 09:48

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

Beefeater1980 posted:

For anyone interested in the role slavery played in the development of modern management practices, I recommend Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management by Caitlin Rosenthal. Did you know that Gantt charts have their origin in task schedules on slave plantations? I didn�t!

I have a soft spot for evil accounting/finance info, so this is going on the list.

�Challenging the traditional depiction of slavery as a barrier to innovation...�
But maybe we should keep this book away from certain entrepreneurs.

As a chaser, check out People�s Republic of Walmart to see how modern mega corps are able to run planned economies, challenging the idea that a central state couldn�t work with modern analytic tools.

The North Tower fucked around with this message at 18:09 on May 28, 2021

# ¿ May 28, 2021 18:02

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

Kim Stanley Robinson�s Mars Trilogy isn�t the best thing ever written, but it explores politics in a not succ way, the potential need for revolution, and how people will mess up something awesome to make number go up.

And lots of chapters about someone going out to look at rocks and lichen.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2021 22:43

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 11:52

The North Tower: Aug 20, 2007; You should throw it in the ocean.

ProperCoochie posted:

If anybody is looking for a leftist work of fiction that's not 900 pages and is even something of a pageturner, I cannot recommend Wag the Dog by Larry Beinhart enough.

It's like the inverse Starship Troopers in that the movie is disposable, the book is essential. If you enjoy how the movie ST was rediscovered/reconsidered over the last 10 years, WtD is a perfect fit for you. You will marvel and repeatedly shake your head in awe that this was published pre-9/11. The author says in an updated forward:

That's not hyperbole, it straight up reads like an instruction manual.

The movie is about the president fabricating a war to distract from personal affairs.
The book is about how the the Gulf War was overtly staged and exaggerated and how a few Hollywood types helped George Bush design and direct it. There are many real world characters, it starts with Lee Atwater on his deathbed handing off the blueprints. There's a hardboiled detective trying to unravel it all, WtD is like a genre fiction take on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gulf_War_Did_Not_Take_Place. There are many footnotes detailing real world facts and events, and at the end of the book are a long list of lingering questions.

Note: The book was originally published as American Hero. Avoid that version, as it was republished a couple years later as WtD with a couple extra chapters that recontextualizes the whole work into metafiction territory.

Awesome recommendation. TrashFuture got me to read Baudrillard since they talk about him so drat much.

# ¿ May 9, 2022 09:27

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Leftist Lit