No catches, no fine print just unadulterated book loving, with your favourite books saved to your own digital bookshelf.
New members get entered into our monthly draw to win £100 to spend in your local bookshop Plus lots lots more…
Find out moreSee below for a selection of the latest books from Marxism & Communism category. Presented with a red border are the Marxism & Communism books that have been lovingly read and reviewed by the experts at Lovereading. With expert reading recommendations made by people with a passion for books and some unique features Lovereading will help you find great Marxism & Communism books and those from many more genres to read that will keep you inspired and entertained. And it's all free!
A readable polemic on the growing dominance of the finance industry over the UK economy, and what the left can do to challenge it. The last time there had been run a on a British bank was 1886, when Overend, Gurney and Company folded after their appeals to the Bank of England for support fell on deaf ears. Then, in 2008, on the brink of collapse after lending too much money to mortgage-hungry customers, Northern Rock was saved in the largest bank bail-out in history. But why, over one hundred years later, did the Bank of England change tack and intervene? The answer is that, in the years between 1886 and 2008, the UK economy had transformed, and was now more reliant on banks than ever before -- without them, almost every area of economic activity would have ground to a halt. This signifies a fundamental change in the UK's economic model, and this fundamental change has a name: financialization. Stolen tells the story of how and why this financialization occurred, what it means for our society and politics, and what the left can do to fight it. At present, the odds are stacked against labour and in favour of finance capital. But what follows it will be determined by which group -- the many or the few -- manages to take power in this moment of crisis. How we understand this moment, and what we do with it, will determine the course of the future.
This book, originally published in English in 1930 is a vivid account of the life and problems of Russia in the first decades of the twentieth century. The typical features of existence in the proletarian state are discussed in connection with an exhaustive analysis of the whole experiment of Bolshevism and the developments of economic policy are clearly explained and discussed.
The study of Marxism in Britain throws light on what many historians have referred to as `the enemy within'. In this book, David Burke looks at the activities of Russian political emigres in Britain, and in particular the role of one family: the Rothsteins. He looks at the contributions of Theodore and Andrew Rothstein to British Marxism and the response of the intelligence services to what they regarded as a serious threat to security. With access to recently released documents, this book analyses the activities of early-twentieth century British Marxists and brings to life the story of a remarkable family.
Soviet foreign policy in the Stalin era is commonly assumed to have been a direct product of either Marxist ideology or the leader's whims. Both assumptions, however, oversimplify the complex and subtle factors involved in its creation and implementation. Kyung-Deok Roh provides an alternative, more nuanced, explanation and demonstrates the key role played by Stalin's economic advisors. The so-called 'Varga Institute' , a 'think tank' led by Evgenii Varga, developed a unique scholarly discourse on the capitalist economy and international politics, based on an amalgam of Marxist economics and, notably, the work of American economist W. E. Mitchell. The institute's scholarship, which suggested the resilience, adaptability and stability of the capitalist economy, created the discursive space within which decisions were made, and influenced Stalin to move increasingly from aggressive strategies towards more cautious international policies. Roh's account, the first comprehensive study of this pivotal group, demonstrates the many complex ways that Soviet foreign policy was created and sheds new light onto the controversial relationship between Soviet academia and the party. Based on extensive archival research into previously untouched material, Stalin's Economic Advisors is essential reading for all researchers seeking to add nuance to their conception of Stalinist foreign policy, economic thought and politics.
The Italian Communist Party was once one of the most powerful and vibrant parties of the West. In this detailed and probing work, Lucio Magri, one of the towering intellectual figures of the Italian Left, assesses the causes for its demise. The PCI survived almost a century of Italian history, from its founding in 1921 to the partisan resistance, the turning point of Salerno in 1944 to the de-Stalinization of 1956, the long '68to the historic compromise, and to the opportunity-missed forever-of democratic transformation. With rigor and passion, The Tailor of Ulm merges an original and enlightening interpretation of Italian communism with the experience of a militant heretic into a riveting read-capable of broadening our insights into contemporary Italy, and the twentieth-century communist experience.
Between the end of the Second World War and the collapse of Communism confrontation with the Soviet Union was an everyday reality. As part of Nato's response, Scotland played a key role in the alliance's forward maritime defence strategy, aimed at containing the Soviet threat from naval and air forces. During this period 10 per cent of the UK's naval and air forces were based in Scotland, and there was a substantial US presence as well as top secret satellite and command stations. In this book Trevor Royle paints a fascinating portrait of this extraordinary period, examining not just the wider military and political contexts, but also showing how the defence industry brought huge economic benefits, how CND maintained a high-profile presence, and how anti-nuclear sentiments underpinned much of the left's thinking in Scotland and contributed to the hegemony enjoyed by the Labour Party in Scotland during the Cold War.
This book discusses the history of the left labour movement in Cyprus, a country under British colonial rule for 82 years (1878-1960). The Cypriot left presents an interesting case study among scholars studying the European left movement due to its large electoral size, which has amounted to approximately to one third of the Cypriot population since the early 1940s. By surveying specific events, institutions and processes that form the untold history of the Cypriot labour movement, this book illustrates how the success of the left in Cyprus is based on a diverse and rich tradition which touches upon all aspects of Cyprus's social, political, economic and cultural identity. The Cypriot left has been largely represented by AKEL (Progressive Party of the Working People) since the early 1940s, as the successor of the Communist Party of Cyprus (1926). This book argues that the party's history has contributed significantly in rendering the party electorally successful beyond the critical juncture of 1991. Offering analysis of a largely unexplored topic, this book makes an important contribution to scholarship on political parties in Cyprus and the study of radical left schemes of mobilisation in this region. It will be of interest to students and scholars researching Cypriot politics and radical left politics more generally.
Today the 80-mile-long Moscow Canal is a source of leisure for Muscovites, a conduit for tourists and provides the city with more than 60% of its potable water. Yet the past looms heavy over these quotidian activities: the canal was built by Gulag inmates at the height of Stalinism and thousands died in the process. In this wide-ranging book, Cynthia Ruder argues that the construction of the canal physically manifests Stalinist ideology and that the vertical, horizontal, underwater, ideological, artistic and metaphorical spaces created by it resonate with the desire of the state to dominate all space within and outside the Soviet Union. Ruder draws on theoretical constructs from cultural geography and spatial studies to interpret and contextualise a variety of structural and cultural products dedicated to, and in praise of, this signature Stalinist construction project. Approached through an extensive range of archival sources, personal interviews and contemporary documentary materials these include a diverse body of artefacts - from waterways, structures, paintings, sculptures, literary and documentary works, and the Gulag itself. Building Stalinism concludes by analysing current efforts to reclaim the legacy of the canal as a memorial space that ensures that those who suffered and died building it are remembered. This is essential reading for all scholars working on the all-pervasive nature of Stalinism and its complex afterlife in Russia today.
By using the concept of capitalism as a form of life , the authors in this volume reconceive capitalism, and its mechanisms and effects on our bodies and on our common life. The idea that capitalism is more than a discrete economic system and instead a form of life that shapes our relationships with others, our sense of ourselves and our capacities, practices, bodies, and actions in the material world should be rather obvious. Yet efforts - whether through criticism or policy remedies - to redress the vast inequalities, inherent exploitation, alienation, and the manifold destructive effects of capitalism on the environment, typically proceed without grappling fully with the entwinement of the economic with the social and cultural, much less the ethical, ontological, and phenomenological. This volume proposes form of life as a heuristic tool, connecting literatures that often remain isolated from one another - the Frankfurt School, neo-materialism, Wittgenstein's philosophy, Foucault's and Agamben's biopolitics, and Marx's discussion of reproduction. In emphasizing economic practices, as opposed to capitalism as a system, they conceive of the economic as an integral and integrated dimension of life, and thus develop new possibilities for critique. Viewing human beings as economic bios, provides a needed alternative to analyses that position neoliberalism as an economic logic imposed upon the social and cultural. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal for Cultural Research.
Afterlives of Chinese Communism comprises essays from over fifty world-renowned scholars in the China field, from various disciplines and continents. It provides an indispensable guide for understanding how the Mao era continues to shape Chinese politics today. Each chapter discusses a concept or practice from the Mao period, what it attempted to do, and what has become of it since. The authors respond to the legacy of Maoism from numerous perspectives to consider what lessons Chinese communism can offer today, and whether there is a future for the egalitarian politics that it once promised. Co-published by ANU Press: https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/afterlives-chinese-communism
The work of Karl Marx has been taken up by a huge range of American writers, from a wide variety of perspectives. As Harry Harootunian argues in this provocative pamphlet, however, there is an indelible American stamp to this scholarship that unites it across diverse disciplines and schools of thought. Focusing in particular on the post-war years, Harootunian tracks American Marxism's chapters in recent history, tracing the movement from its disengagement with the American Communist Party to how it negotiated the Cold War struggle with Stalinism; from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the momentary triumphalism of Third World liberation movements. He concludes with a look at how the succumbing of much Marxist thought to neoliberal globalism has paved the way for the reappearance of fascist oligarchs. The result for historical practice, cultural studies, and social theory has been, as Harootunian shows, a radical disconnect between abstract analysis and the tangible agendas of social movements and sectarian factionalism.
