(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best communism & socialism books

There are many threads similar to this one, you might want to search for them in addition to what people are willing to post in this thread:

For a first intake of libertarian socialism:

"Basic Bakunin" by the UK Anarchist Federation

If you are interested in marxian tendencies of libertarian socialism:

"Theory and practice: an introduction to Marxian theory" by Root and Branch

To get more into moderate forms of socialism, where you seem to be at the moment if I look at your flair, read this:

"Why not Socialism?" by G.A. Cohen

or this:

"Why Marx was right" by Terry Eagleton

You might also be interested in one of the absolute classics of marxism:

"The Communist Manifesto" by Marx/Engels

You can find it online here

For a more "in depth" look at libertarian socialism, you can also look at Kropotkins main work:

"The Conquest of Bread" by Kropotkin

also available online on libcom

If you want a quick way to understand the revolutionary history of early 20th century Europe, you can also listen to this lecture series by left communist Lauren Goldner:

Goldner on: German Revolution, Luxemburg and Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky

Or you might be interested in socialist fiction to immerse yourself in the utopian ideas fleshed out by past and present comrades:

50 SciFi and Fantasy works every Socialist should read

To get a first impression of up-to-date marxian enonomic analysis of todays society, you can always listen to "Economic update" by Richard D. Wolff.

To further your understanding of socialism, you should also take a look at socialist feminism, maybe with this work (one click hoster!):

Liese Vogel: Marxism and the Oppression of Women /attention: new book hosted on a one click hoster ;)

To get further reading ideas and recs regarding problems like imperialism, fascism, biologism, critical psychology, materialist history etc. etc., you may want to check the Revolutionary Reading Guide

Knock yourself out, comrade!

>Capitalism is the system of individuals with (inalienable) rights trading and making agreements voluntarily, whereas State ownership is not.

You're describing classic laissez faire economics, which is not exclusively the definition of capitalism. Capitalism, in a very simplified sense for the purpose of brevity, refers to an economic system in which the primary goal is the accumulation of capital. This is characteristic not only of laissez faire systems where individuals mix their labor with their property to produce something exchangeable in the market place, but Keynesian economics, corporatism, state capitalism etc.

The argument proponents of state capitalist theory would make is that states like the USSR never transcended capitalist production, and that the means of production only changed hands from private ownership to state ownership. Essentially the state became the new capitalist, as its primary goal was extracting surplus value from the workers for the purpose of accumulating capital.

If you're interested in researching the theory a bit more, Peter Binns has a relatively short, but good explanation in his essay State Capitalism. If you don't want to read the whole thing just look over the first three or four sections. State Capitalism & World Revolution is the primary text I used to introduce myself to the theory.

I can recommend a few for modern politics.

For the Tories you are probably best off reading Tim Bale's Conservative Party from Thatcher To Cameron. For New Labour, with the caveat that it's perhaps a bit too Shakespearean and focuses on personal struggles, Andrew Rawnsley's The End of the Party is a good read. David Marquand's Britain Since 1918 tries to do politics over a broader scope, though I think his analysis is a little superficial. There are other recommendations in the subs' media library.

Books I would add to balance this list out:

Anthropology

Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches by Marvin Harris. Unlike Germs, Guns, and Steel, this book is written by an actual anthropologist (sorry Mr. Diamond) and is a really easy read--it covers topics from the sacredness of cows to cargo cults. It's fun, too, as Harris is an entertaining and engaging writer, and it's a slim book.

Bonus Level Challenge Anthropology Read:

In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio by Phillipe Bourgois. This is another monograph written by an actual anthropologist. This book is more challenging subject matter, and I should put a big Trigger Warning on it for violence against women.

Economics

Wages, Price, and Profit by Karl Marx. It's a shame more people don't read Marx beyond the Manifesto, which he wrote fairly early on in his academic life. W,P and P is a preparatory work for Capital and outlines one of the arguments Marx makes in the much denser and more complete work that was to follow. It's short, and one of Marx's more approachable writings, dealing with something we are all familiar with: how much we get paid, and why.

Bonus Level Challenge Economics Read:

Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism by V. I. Lenin. This book contains much drier material, as Lenin draws upon common economic sources (I hope you like talking about tons of iron) to illustrate phenomenon like World War 1--which he saw as a competition of imperialist powers to redivide the Middle East and Africa--and even the Iraq Invasion that would come almost 100 years later.

The most complete explanation of his ideas is probably Das Kapital, but it has a well-deserved reputation for being particularly difficult to get into. A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy also has some good insights into his thoughts while the later Critique of the Gotha Progra has more detail concerning what a communist society might actually look like. If you're looking for a secondary source, Karl Marx's Theory of History is excellent.

>However punishments like imprisonment...stops people from repeating their crimes.

Here in the US, the correctional systems are completely useless in terms of "rehabilitating" people.

>In my opinion anarchy is not true freedom, as it inevitably leads to the strong oppressing the weak because there is no benevolent authority to stop them.

One could propose that that's how it already is. Look at the drug cartels in mexico, or the contiunal pervasice creep/influence of the US military in nearly every single country.

Anarchism is a single word that is used to describe a plethora of views, both economic and social. I reflect your sentiments when it comes to anarcho-capitalism. Much of the "strong oppressing the weak" comes from the distribution of wealth, class privilege, etc. This is, of course, a whole other discussion in itself.

>I would be very willing to look over anything you can show me which disproves my views.

I'm not trying to disprove your views. I feel that we have quite a bit in common actually. If you're willing to, here is an excellent book that I think may interest you. Reviews Here. It's light on theory and heavy on real world data/experiments/examples.

Here are two good ones i've read, neither of them shy away from treating the obvious anti-egalitarian/elitist strain in Nietzsches thinking:

https://www.amazon.com/Nietzsche-Politics-Aristocratic-Radicalism-Detwiler/dp/0226143546

https://www.amazon.de/Nietzsche-Biographie-Denkens-R%C3%BCdiger-Safranski/dp/3596151813

My friend also recommended me this one, i haven't read it yet though:

https://www.amazon.com/Nietzsche-Aristocratic-Rebel-Intellectual-Balance-sheet/dp/9004270949

As for Nietzsche's connection to Nazi ideology, i saw that Alfred Bäumler was already mentioned, which probably is a good start. Other than that you might want to read Armin Mohlers "Die konservative revolution im Deutschland" which doesn't treat Nietzsche exclusively, yet the author draws a connection between the crypto-nazi "revolutionary conservative" movement and Nietzsches thought. I highly recommend it.

https://www.amazon.de/Die-Konservative-Revolution-Deutschland-1918-1932/dp/3902475021

The major advantages of a socialist economy are the elimination of overproduction as well as giving complete information to planners. Capitalism has to struggle with overproduction and incomplete information as a result of them operating as competitors. That's the major difference.

Industrialization under the czars was not really qualitatively different from Stalin's industrialization except for the fact it was extremely patchy, concentrated, and relatively marginal; as well as the fact that the industrialization was almost exclusively to build up military capabilities. And yes, I'm aware it ruined much of agriculture. That was relatively intentional, the motivation for the 1932 famine was to export grain in return for rapid industrialization. Which he succeeded in.

I'd recommend you read The Revolution Betrayed, and The Contradictions of Real Socialism to understand the actual problems with the Stalinist socialist model.

Socialism/Communism

A People's History of the World

Main Currents of Marxism

The Socialist System

The Age of... (1, 2, 3, 4)

Marx for our Times

Essential Works of Socialism

Soviet Century

Self-Governing Socialism (Vols 1-2)

The Meaning of Marxism

The "S" Word (not that good in my opinion)

Of the People, by the People

Why Not Socialism

Socialism Betrayed

Democracy at Work

Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA (again didn't like it very much)

The Socialist Party of America (absolute must read)

The American Socialist Movement

Socialism: Past and Future (very good book)

It Didn't Happen Here

Eugene V. Debs

The Enigma of Capital

Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism

A Companion to Marx's Capital (great book)

After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action

Capitalism

The Conservative Nanny State

The United States Since 1980

The End of Loser Liberalism

Capitalism and it's Economics (must read)

Economics: A New Introduction (must read)

U.S. Capitalist Development Since 1776 (must read)

Kicking Away the Ladder

23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Traders, Guns and Money

Corporation Nation

Debunking Economics

How Rich Countries Got Rich

Super Imperialism

The Bubble and Beyond

Finance Capitalism and it's Discontents

Trade, Development and Foreign Debt

America's Protectionist Takeoff

How the Economy was Lost

Labor and Monopoly Capital

We Are Better Than This

Ancap/Libertarian

Spontaneous Order (disagree with it but found it interesting)

Man, State and Economy

The Machinery of Freedom

Currently Reading

This is the Zodiac Speaking (highly recommend)

You would probably really enjoy the book Four Systems, which I'm sad to see is out of print. It was a textbook in my Intro to Poli Sci class. It presents four different systems of government -- social democracy, individual democracy, communism and fascism -- each from the perspective of someone who advocates the system. As a freshman I came out of each section (plus the introduction, which covers anarchism) feeling like "Wow, yeah, this actually makes a lot of sense!"

There is a book around (albeit dated now) about neo-Nazism in Australia by David Harcourt which is an interesting read (Everyone wants to be Fuhrer). In the same way that german Nazism built on existing concepts of Volk and race and pre-existing anti-Semitic sentiment and thought, the far right in Australia goes back a long way in terms of its connections to both Labor as a party and labour as a force and conceptions of the racial other, especially the "Yellow peril".

Rebel Girl is a great read and covers the period from about 1906-1926, and is a first-person account of a female radical labor organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World. Highly readable…

Free PDF, ePUB and audiobook: https://thebreadbook.org

The 5$ bread book on amazon is 'non-profit', in the sense that the entire purchase price goes to printing and distribution. (link)

worker co-op online store: https://www.firestorm.coop/products/783-conquest-of-bread.html

I'd recommend reading this first, I think it summarises loads of stuff (short pdf graphic novel/manifesto): http://prole.info/pdfs/wcpw.pdf

depends on how in-depth you'd like it, what aspect of it, etc. The first thing I read was, I think http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-ABC-Anarchism-Alexander-Berkman/dp/0486433692/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332327795&sr=8-1

Ancient Chinese Thought

Mencius Full text here

Zuo zhuan Full translation here

Discourses on Salt and Iron Full English translation here

Late Qing reformist thought (to be updated)

大同书 (No english version found yet)

救亡决论 (No english version found yet)

警世钟 (No english version found yet)


Intellectual Trends in the Ch'ing Period by Liang Qichao


Early Republican Thought (to be updated)

Kidnapped in London

The International Development of China

The Three Principles of the People

Articles of New Youth

Maoist Thought

On Practice Full text

On Contradiction Full text

Ten Major Relationships Full translated text here

Deng Xiaoping Thought

Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth From Facts and Unite As One In Looking to the Future

Opening Speech At the Twelfth National Congress of the Communist Party of China

China Will Tolerate No Disturbances

Excerpts From Talks Given In Wuchang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shanghai AKA southern tour

I would also recommend to OP Lebowitz's other book The Contradictions of "Real Socialism": The Conductor and the Conducted for a detailed account and critique of the economies of the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union. I don't think Yugoslavia was mentioned but it did cover relations between different state-owned industries and the way production and management were carried out in places like the DDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia etc.

>Those communists were not in Hollywood and they were not union leaders.

Hollywood - yes, there were communists active in Hollywood. This is discussed in many books, including Reagan's War (Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild at the time some of this was going on).

union leaders - yes, there were communists active in labor unions, including leadership positions. Refer to UE, and ILWU for a couple of examples. The AFL and the CIO kicked some unions out of their federations for being communist dominated.

Refer to

• Toil and Trouble:A History of American Labor
  
  
• The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade
  
  
• American Communism And Soviet Russia
  
  and Reagan's War (link above)

PS:

https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Revolution-Towards-Non-Leninist-Marxism/dp/0979181380

https://www.amazon.com/Hegemony-Counter-Hegemony-Capitalism-Nationalism-Authoritarianism-ebook/dp/B00295QGEI

https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Leninist-State-Marxist-ebook/dp

https://www.amazon.com/Voices-99-Percent-History-Movement-ebook/dp/B0063JGZN8

https://www.amazon.com/Contradictions-Capitalism-Introduction-Marxist-Economics-ebook/dp/B00295QJ0E

https://www.amazon.com/World-Incorporated-Supra-National-Corporation-Stranglehold-ebook/dp/B004Y6GBV8

https://www.amazon.com/IWW-Documentary-History-Lenny-Flank-ebook/dp/B00295QCTC

I served two terms as co-chair of the General Executive Board of the IWW. So you are preaching to one of the choir singers.

)

An entire book has been written on it. Perhaps worth a look

> Marx

Educate yourself

The Communist Manifesto https://www.amazon.com/dp/1508475660/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ZqJKDbK0FC37H

Ban this book, then. Your proposed principal extends to censoring core political speech in no time at all.