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This is the fourth installment of my book recommendation series. You can access the first one here, the second one here and the third one here. Every Saturday, I will post three book recommendations that will mainly be centered around socialism, Marxism, history and political economy. I will also take outside book recommendations from readers who want me to review them in the future. Enjoy!
1.) Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty (2013)
Renowned French economist, Thomas Piketty’s magnum opus took the book world by storm in 2013. It became an international bestseller because of it’s unique approach to analyzing the modern distribution of capital. Piketty is not a socialist and he doesn’t pretend to have a direct answer as to how to get to a post-capitalist world. But what he does offer, the reader has to appreciate. He offers facts and statistics to back up the obvious warnings that inequality is out of control. He offers insight into how capital flows and the most recent history of wealth accumulation by the capitalist elite. He depicts tables and charts of data that show how we are now approaching levels of inequality greater to those in the early 1900s. This book is a big red alarm for the capitalists who profit off of exploitation and the socialists who are trying to change the system and make the world more egalitarian.
2.) A History of the Cuban Revolution by Aviva Chomsky (2015)
Aviva picked up all her father’s greatest writing skills. This book takes a chapter by chapter look at the Cuban Revolution from the viewpoint of the people on the ground. Chomsky lays the background for the revolution from Batista’s reign in the 1930s and again in the 1950s to the July 26th Movement led by Castro’s guerrillas throughout the 1950s. She also highlights the stark differences differences between capitalist exploitation on the island (American mafia-owned casinos and racetracks alongside rampant Cuban poverty) to what socialism offers the people (communes, modern medicine, fair wages etc.). Every angle of the revolution and its aftermath is covered. Chomsky discusses sports, art, theater, movies, social norms, healthcare, infrastructure, religion, race, gender and sexuality. What’s also great about this book is that you get a real life look into the revolution’s earliest and best stages as well as a look into the dark years of the Special Period in the 1990s. No stone is left unturned by Chomsky. Definitely recommended to first time readers on the very important Cuban Revolution.
3.) Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell (1938)
One of Orwell’s best works. This collection of writings spans the couple of years Orwell fought for the POUM Republican militia in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell was a democratic socialist and enlisted because he truly hated fascism and didn’t want it to spread throughout Europe. He saw the emerging Spanish Civil War as an important front in which to stop that spread. He had no idea what he was getting himself into and his collection of amazing firsthand accounts, proves that. He credits what he experienced there as the catalyst that shaped all of his future writings. He yearned for democratic socialism and was unbending in his virtues. Many of the left that quotes Orwell today from his most notable work Nineteen Eighty-Four, are unaware of how profoundly his life was changed by the war in Spain. He saw the anarchists and socialists who despite their differences, were able to create blossoming local economies in Catalonia during the chaos of wartime. He was truly amazed and convinced that he must die for democratic socialism. The book is 368 pages of excellent, fast-paced writing and is essential for understanding Orwell, the man.