Archive | Review

“Everything gives way and nothing stands fast.” —Heraclitus, as quoted in Plato’s Cratylus1 During the “Age of Catastrophe” (1919–45), a series of profound economic, political, and ideological crises disrupted what had appeared to be the “normal” functioning of capitalism.2 In 1930, a key moment of this “age,” marked by the economic catastrophe of the Great […]

Jennifer Berkshire has been writing insightfully about the rightwing attacks on public schools and on education for many years. S

Videogames are everywhere.

Sadowski’s book based on the This Machine Kills podcast is an incisive and important demolition of illusions around technology and AI, argues Kevin Crane.

While most recent class satires have focused on the perspective of the wealthy, Lawrence Lamont and Syreeta Singleton’s film debut brings class-conscious comedy back to its roots.

A science fiction novel about the future of nature and technology reviewed by Ian Parker.

Writer and journalist Karan Madhok’s book ‘Ananda’ is a deep-dive into the cannabis plant–what it is, what it does, and how Indian society looks at and reacts to it.

The Bob Dylan biopic is finely acted and captures the aspects of the musician impressively, but not the full political power of the songs, finds Jonathan Maunders.

In January 2024, the World Economic Forum predicted that by 2050 climate change will cause 14.5 million deaths and $12.5 trillion in damage.

Thought-provoking and polemical as ever, the recent publication of Domenico Losurdo’s “Western Marxism: How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn”, finally provides English readers with access to the prolific Italian philosopher and militant’s penultimate book.

In this excerpt from Mike Davis’s classic book ‘The Ecology of Fear’, he explores the tinderbox of the wealthy “Los Angeles frontiers” and the massive public resources dedicated to keep it from igniting.

RICHARD CLARKE applauds the assertion that Western Marxism represents a withdrawal from action to change the world into the academy.

Following the publication of Tariq Ali’s latest memoirs, he spoke to Michael Lavalette about the contrasting periods covered in his autobiographies and the prospects for the left today.

We are all familiar with the charge that some policy or decision is a case of ‘political correctness gone mad’, part of the rhetoric of the ‘culture wars’, but we may not have thought a great deal more about it.

In his new book, Alvin Finkel tells the story of the 99% who have constantly sought to live in a society of equals

How can we transcend the alienation of humanity and nature, and create a world of substantive equality and ecological sustainability?

There is much to say on behalf of Vanessa Christina Wills’ Marx’s Ethical Vision, which not only advances Marxist scholarship but takes a strong, well-founded position regarding some of the most vexing and significant questions confronting anyone who would grasp his philosophical thought.

Composing a history of Detroit is an exercise in tying together many economic and social trends within a microcosm of class, race, and fraught politics. Mark Jay and Philip Conklin’s work discusses the 20th-century history of the city to offer a documentation of class struggle seen through the industrialization of the city in the early 20th century, the racial tensions of the post-World War II period, and, finally, the simultaneous processes of decay and development in the last three decades.

Many people now live in homes and rely on infrastructure that are owned by pension funds, insurance companies, and banks.

My engagement with Marx in this book is ultimately an act of critical dialogue–of thinking with as well as across and through his texts toward multiple unforeseen destinations.