this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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Vijay Prashad and Michaek Parenti for non fiction, and Kim Stanley Robinson for fiction
What book do you recommend by Parenti for a noob?
Thank you for the suggestions! π
Love Blackshirts & Reds for more recent history, but also would like to throw in The Assassination of Julius Caesar if you are interested in the politics of Rome at all. It's way more similar to Amerikan "democracy" than one might believe (not just "descended from").
There were multiple almost-uprisings that were quashed by the ruling class, and this work goes into grueling detail regarding them. I do not view Rome the same as I did prior to reading it, or Amerika for that matter.
Blackshirts and the Reds (obvi), To Kill A Nation (recent history of the destruction of Yugoslavia, a lot of parallels to Ukraine), Inventing Realities (Iβve heard itβs like Manufacturing Consent, but better), and Against Empire. There are probably other good ones that I donβt know much about. I wasnβt much interested by The Assassination of Julius Ceasar, but if youβre into Roman history itβs probably good.
Inventing realities felt to me like 2 books in 1, with a very simple but well developed analysis of propaganda as part 1 and the last chapter with part 2 being the 200 pages of just gut wrenching examples of propaganda to support found between. I thought beforehand that it'd feel like there were many theses being developed, but it just hits hard then piles on support. Not a bad thing, but I found it interestingly written
Manufacturing consent is similar, but Iβm sure Parenti is better than Chomsky.
Yeah I've read both and like parentis more. But I found Chomsky's a bit more "academic" is structure, while parentis felt that unique way I tried to describe. Might also come from the times I read them (Chomsky long ago as a young lib and parenti while I was already a communist)
(Not the original reply but) Depends on the interest, but I started with Blackshirts and the Reds (deconstructing the red fascist myths and northwestern lies about the Soviet Union) and it was an amazing read. They're usually really short and straightforward to read, so any of them will do as the first one.
Second Blackshirts & Reds, it's a very easy read and highly informative.
Kim Stanley Robinson is an ML? After reading Ministry for the Future I assumed he was a socdem. I did not like that book. It's been a while since I read it, and from what I remember, it omitted a useful economic analysis and liberation struggle from confronting climate crisis which seemed totally idealistic to me.
I recall reading that he considered himself a Marxist, and he does appear to support revolutionary approach to social change in his books. While Ministry for the Future isn't perfect, it did some economic analysis showing that capitalism is fundamentally at odds with having a livable future. The whole thesis of the book is that capitalism needs to be abolished, and the book also doesn't shy away from saying that violence will be necessary to do so. It also talks positively about USSR saying that it had the right idea all along.
Fair enough, for some reason I really recall raging at that book being unrealistic in a "let's vote away climate crisis" kind of way, but I also don't remember details π. Thanks.
He's a socialist, but not a Marxist-Leninist. Not instinctively hating the USSR is good, but it doesn't make you an ML. π
That's fair, I do find his open support for revolutionary struggle refreshing though.