Review: Anti-Nazi Germans
As Boris Johnson and others attempt to invoke the ‘spirit of the Blitz’ in response to COVID-19, Ian Birchall celebrates a recent publication that disrupts the national myths of WWII.
Review: On Fire by Naomi Klein
Katherine Hearst reviews On Fire, a wide-ranging examination of the climate crisis that argues for a comprehensive ‘Green New Deal’.
Review: Can’t Pay Won’t Pay
The 30th anniversary of the Trafalgar Square riot is a good time to reflect on Simon Hannah’s engaging account of the movement that scuppered Thatcher’s poll tax, writes Andrew Stone
Review: Twenty-First Century Socialism
How should socialists organise in the ‘climate decade’? Gus Woody reviews Jeremy Gilbert’s book, Twenty-First Century Socialism.
Review: The Twittering Machine
Mark Murphy reviews Richard Seymour’s latest book, which uses a psychoanalytical framework to understand the phenomenon of social media.
Review: A Planet to Win – Why We Need a Green New Deal
Pete Cannell reviews an important contribution to the discussions around the Green New Deal.
Review: A Jewish Communist in Weimar Germany
Merilyn Moos reviews a new biography of Werner Scholem, an uncompromising revolutionary to the end.
Review: A Climate Emergency – Beyond a Capitalist Solution
Mike Downham reviews Ken Ferguson’s new pamphlet, A Climate Emergency – Beyond a Capitalist Solution.
Review: Facing the Apocalypse
With the insurgent activism around climate in the face of crisis, a Marxist book on climate is timely. John Walker reviews Alan Thornett’s book, Facing the Apocalypse: Arguments for Ecosocialism.
Review: Chasing the harvest
Jack Pickering reviews a powerful collection of stories of migrant workers in California’s agricultural sector.
Review: Urban Warfare
Kate Bradley reviews Urban Warfare by Raquel Rolnik, an important investigation into how capitalism has shaped housing for its own ends
Review: The Order of the Day
The unfolding catastrophe of the 1930s is illuminated in new ways in a disconcerting new book by Éric Vuillard, writes Brian Parkin.
Review: We Need To Talk About Putin
Mark Galeotti’s alternate perspective on Putin, as presented in his recent book We Need to Talk About Putin, provides an interesting read.
Review: Fully Automated Luxury Communism
Colin Wilson reviews Aaron Bastani’s much-anticipated account of the potential for a future society of equality and abundance.
Review: Capitalism and Theory
A collection of the writings of Mike Kidron casts light on the heterodox Marxist economist and the revolutionary socialist organisation he once belonged to, writes Brian Parkin.
Review: What’s Wrong With Rights?
Radha D’Souza’s investigation into the international liberal rights regime is a welcome intervention that should make us question the framework of ‘rights’.
Review: Green Growth
Stephen Graham reviews Green growth: Ideology, Political Economy and the Alternatives
Review | Never Again
Colin Revolting reviews Never Again by David Renton, the story of the fascist National Front and the campaign which stopped it in its tracks.
Favourites of 2018: rs21 reviewers recommend…
Our reviewers recommend the music, films, books, exhibitions and TV they discovered in 2018.
Review: Towards a Gay Communism
Colin Wilson reviews Towards a Gay Communism by the Italian gay liberation activist and writer Mario Mieli.
Review: Economics for the Many
Mike Haynes reviews Economics for the Many, a new book of essays edited by Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.
Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin’s race problem
David Renton reviews the latest opportunistic attempt to make sense of the resurgence of reactionary politics in the West.
Review: Ukraine and the Empire of Capital
Nick Evans finds much of interest in Yuliya Yurchenko’s analysis of Ukraine’s recent history.
Review: A Party with Socialists in It
Simon Hannah’s book about the history of the Labour left can help us think through what strategies the left should adopt
There’s nothing so weird as a revolution
Ian Birchall reviews China Miéville’s October, a new history of the Russian Revolution. It seems an odd pairing: the Russian Revolution and China Miéville, whose reputation is based on fantasy fiction which he himself describes as “weird”. But one only needs to read a few pages to realise that this is not a forced marriage […]
Atlas Shrugged: the world’s most boring cult novel
On 10 October 1957 Random House published Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a book now regarded by many as the ultimate expression of capitalist greed, as well as perhaps the worst novel ever written.
Review | The Rise of Hindu Authoritarianism by Achin Vanaik
Bill Crane reviews The Rise of Hindu Authoritarianism, written by Achin Vanaik as a critical response to the political developments in India following the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in 2014, as well as the consequences and future travails for the Indian left. The Rise of Hindu Authoritarianism is published by Verso Books […]
Review: The Reproach of Hunger
Mike Downham reviews leading expert on humanitarian aid and development David Rieff’s book The Reproach of Hunger, which addresses the burning question of why have we failed to address the crisis of hunger in the twenty-first century. Food banks erupted across the UK following the 2007-2008 financial crisis, their number surging in late 2010 when […]
The Handmaid’s Tale: hope is evident amidst repression
Angela Stapleford argues that the recent adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale holds up a mirror to the worst possibilities within our own world, but also shows the possibility of resistance.