Nullifidian
08-23-2007, 07:40 PM
When I moved from Lawrence, I donated a large portion of the books I could bear to part with to the Solidarity! infoshop, but now I really feel I need something to read. I just got done reading John Pilger's The New Rulers of the World and I'm still in the mood to read something with a definite left slant, preferably something I can find used or in paperback. I figure we have enough radicals around like livius that this is a good place to ask. :D
I've been considering Mike Davis' City of Quartz (http://www.akpress.org/2006/items/cityofquartz). It looks good, although quite a departure from the only book of his I've read (Late Victorian Holocausts).
However, I wouldn't like to restrict this thread to just what I want to read, so please feel free to use this thread to make general recommendations, although I'd love a few choices which meet my criteria above, and I'll recommend some books to be fair.
The New Rulers of the World (http://www.akpress.org/2002/items/newrulersoftheworld) by John Pilger.
This is a book that made me want to go out and start the revolution right now. Then, after a moment's consideration, I realized that V for Vendetta made the process look too easy. ;)
Seriously, though, it's not an easy read. It can be infuriating, or energizing, or both for people like me who derive their energy from anger at the system. Pilger analyzes the way in which Western corporate influence merges with government power to reshape the political arena worldwide. His chapter on Indonesia under Suharto is a particularly telling example: after Sukarno was overthrown, representatives of major Western corporations came together to carve up Indonesia between them.
Surveillance and Security: Technological Power and Politics in Everyday Life (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780415953931&itm=7), ed. by Torin Monahan
If I had the means, this book would be in every hotel room in America. It's an anthology of superb sociological research which focuses on how the powers that be exploit the poor and working class as guinea pigs in a surveillance-oriented technocratic system. It covers everything from buses to schools to food stamps in its analysis. Plus, it also contains articles about how to resist it. What could be better?
The Conquest of Bread (http://www.akpress.org/2004/items/conquestofbread) by Pyotr (Peter) Kropotkin
Aside from Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution, this is Kropotkin's classic work on anarcho-communism. It begins with an analysis of the capitalist-feudalist Russia he was familiar with, then argues that well-being for all is a possible future. It combines damning criticism of the existing system with a well-developed assessment of how and what it would take to achieve his near-ideal future.
A Southern Tragedy, in Crimson and Yellow (http://www.blairpub.com/fiction/southern_tragedy.htm) by Lawrence Naumoff
Social realism in fiction is not dead. This novel takes the deadly Hamlet, NC chicken plant disaster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Hamlet_chicken_processing_plant_fire) as its starting point for a very moving look at a town which went from a boom town to a bust town, and people suffering the most extreme privations who could only get work at this chicken plant, where they were treated like shit and, fatefully, locked in in order to prevent "stealing" these chickens to feed their families. Twenty-five people died in the fire and another fifty-four were injured.
I've been considering Mike Davis' City of Quartz (http://www.akpress.org/2006/items/cityofquartz). It looks good, although quite a departure from the only book of his I've read (Late Victorian Holocausts).
However, I wouldn't like to restrict this thread to just what I want to read, so please feel free to use this thread to make general recommendations, although I'd love a few choices which meet my criteria above, and I'll recommend some books to be fair.
The New Rulers of the World (http://www.akpress.org/2002/items/newrulersoftheworld) by John Pilger.
This is a book that made me want to go out and start the revolution right now. Then, after a moment's consideration, I realized that V for Vendetta made the process look too easy. ;)
Seriously, though, it's not an easy read. It can be infuriating, or energizing, or both for people like me who derive their energy from anger at the system. Pilger analyzes the way in which Western corporate influence merges with government power to reshape the political arena worldwide. His chapter on Indonesia under Suharto is a particularly telling example: after Sukarno was overthrown, representatives of major Western corporations came together to carve up Indonesia between them.
Surveillance and Security: Technological Power and Politics in Everyday Life (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780415953931&itm=7), ed. by Torin Monahan
If I had the means, this book would be in every hotel room in America. It's an anthology of superb sociological research which focuses on how the powers that be exploit the poor and working class as guinea pigs in a surveillance-oriented technocratic system. It covers everything from buses to schools to food stamps in its analysis. Plus, it also contains articles about how to resist it. What could be better?
The Conquest of Bread (http://www.akpress.org/2004/items/conquestofbread) by Pyotr (Peter) Kropotkin
Aside from Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution, this is Kropotkin's classic work on anarcho-communism. It begins with an analysis of the capitalist-feudalist Russia he was familiar with, then argues that well-being for all is a possible future. It combines damning criticism of the existing system with a well-developed assessment of how and what it would take to achieve his near-ideal future.
A Southern Tragedy, in Crimson and Yellow (http://www.blairpub.com/fiction/southern_tragedy.htm) by Lawrence Naumoff
Social realism in fiction is not dead. This novel takes the deadly Hamlet, NC chicken plant disaster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Hamlet_chicken_processing_plant_fire) as its starting point for a very moving look at a town which went from a boom town to a bust town, and people suffering the most extreme privations who could only get work at this chicken plant, where they were treated like shit and, fatefully, locked in in order to prevent "stealing" these chickens to feed their families. Twenty-five people died in the fire and another fifty-four were injured.