A review of Hal Draper and E Haberkern, Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution Volume V: War and Revolution (Monthly Review Press, 2005), $17.99 The attitudes the left take to imperialism are shaped more often than not by what they perceive… Continue Reading
A review of Hwang Sok-yong, The Guest (Seven Stories Press, 2005), $27.95 ‘The moment he uttered Ch’ansaemgol, Yosop realised that some 40 years had passed since he’d last mentioned the name of his hometown. Ch’ansaemgol. The word started out with… Continue Reading
A review of Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett, China and Socialism: Market Reforms and Class Struggle (Monthly Review Press, 2005), £13.99 This is a timely book. China is rarely out of the news, though generally in one of two contexts.… Continue Reading
A review of Alex Callinicos, Making History: Agency, Structure, and Change in Social Theory (Brill, Historical Materialism book series, 2004), euro 52 This is an important book, though not an easy one. It is the second edition of a work… Continue Reading
David Harvey, A Brief History of Neo-Liberalism (Oxford University Press, 2005), £14.99 David Harvey, the leading Marxist geographer, manages to cram a lot into this brief history of the renaissance of free market capitalism in the guise of neoliberalism. He… Continue Reading
A review of Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Untold Story (Jonathan Cape, 2005), £25 Chang and Halliday1 set out their agenda from the book’s opening words: ‘Mao Zedong, who for decades held absolute power over one quarter of… Continue Reading
A review of Chris Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800 (Oxford, 2005), £85 The period from the 5th to the 11th centuries in Europe has traditionally been treated in Britain as the ‘Dark Ages’—of little… Continue Reading
bq. A review of Steven Rose, The 21st Century Brain (Jonathan Cape, 2005), £25, and Terrence Deacon, The Symbolic Species (Norton, 1998), £8.99 Understanding how the human brain works is one of the biggest unsolved questions in biology, and it… Continue Reading
bq. A review of Gregor Gall, The Political Economy of Scotland: Red Scotland? Radical Scotland? (University of Wales Press, 2005), £19.99 Macduff: Stands Scotland where it did? Ross: Alas, poor country, almost afraid to know itself! (Macbeth, act 4, scene… Continue Reading
bq. A review of Andrew Simms, Ecological Debt: The Health of the Planet and the Wealth of Nations (Pluto Press, 2005), £12.99; Steven P McGiffen, Biotechnology: Corporate Power Versus Public Interest (Pluto Press, 2005), £15.99 What is to be done… Continue Reading