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Socialism

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What's a good book for a complete beginner to learn about socialism? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago by JustSomeGuy@lemmy.ml to c/socialism@lemmy.ml
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[–] theluddite@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm going to take a different tack than some others are here. Instead of giving you classics, I'm going to recommend mostly things from the "other" direction, mostly critiques of our current world written by leftists, or histories of leftist ideas. These will probably be more familiar to you, but will introduce you to new ideas as you go, which you can dig into as you get deeper.

I don't know what kind of interests you have, but here's a few:

  • Utopia of Rules: A collection of 3-4 essays about bureaucracy. Everyone hates bureaucracy, but somehow the right has monopolized hating bureaucracy in American politics. A nice place to start that will resonate with most people.

  • The People's Republic of Walmart: A relatively concise history of socialist planning (as opposed to market economies), which includes the simple yet no less profound insight that megafirms like walmart already do major economic planning on the scale of countries, and it works. A nice book, though fair warning, the prose can be a bit tedious sometimes. Not too technical, but technical enough that it could pique your interest if you are inclined towards those kinds of things as I am.

  • Cybernetic Revolutionaries: If you like history, this one might be for you. It's the story of Allende's government's Cybersyn project. Eden Medina did a wonderful job interweaving the concepts of cybernetics, politics, and the history in a really important way, and one that contradicts the trend in our world to separate "politics" from everything.

Happy to recommend something else if none of these are to your liking.

[–] sovietsnake@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Either the Communist Manifesto or Engel's Principles of Communism are pretty good. It depends exactly on what you might be interested into. In my opinion one of the most important things is to learn the material dialectical method of thinking, since this allows you to see the world through this lenses, and therefore some Engel or Stalin's texts no the subject are better, although maybe harder to understand. For example, Engel's The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man is a book that talks about how labour played an important part in the evolution of the human, and how for example Darwin's evolution fits perfectly with the dialectical method proposed by Marx.

[–] JustSomeGuy@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for the recommendations. I did read the Communist manifesto but still struggled a bit with it, despite it being the more basic entry point. Would Engels be too advanced for me? My basis of knowledge is just what I've learned from YouTube channels like Second Thought & prof. Richard Wolff

[–] redtea@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago

I wouldn't say the Communist Manifesto is the most basic entry point. It was written in a different time for an audience who would have understood a lot more of the references than we do today. It also applies dialectical and historical materialism without really addressing what that means, which can create a bit of a sticking point.

I didn't fully understand it until I'd read a lot of other Marxist texts. The first time I read it (when I wasn't a Marxist), I just thought it was a bit shit. The second time I read it (when I was becoming a Marxist), I thought that it ignored the crucial information that I was looking for. It was during the third read-through (after becoming a Marxist) that I got the most out of it.

These readings were years apart, btw. And my earlier issues with it were down to having certain expectations of what I would find. I'm only saying this so that you don't lose heart – texts that should be easy to read or which seem easy to some people aren't always easy to others.

Now, I'm with Soviet Snake and I do recommend it as an early text. But it's a starting point, to get a flavour of Marxism. If you don't/didn't get on with it, there are other texts.

Engels is a better writer than Marx. He usually gets to the point a little quicker. Not to say I dislike Marx's style; but Engels is more direct. Give his sole-authored works a try.

In light of your OP question, I suggest Socialism: Utopian and Scientific: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm.

[–] Northern_Blood@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

How to Be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century by Erik Olin Wright might be a good start.

[–] Omidov@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

There is this book called "why Marx was right" wrtten by Terry Eagleton. He is a professor of economics from uk. It is an easy to follow explanation of Marxism in general and quite simple to understand. I definitely recommend it.