Politics Books

The description of the condition of the book was dead on and got my satisfaction. A great purchase and a great book.

This volume covers the period from September 1914 to 1948, and consists of essays and other writings on war and Hesse's reactions to it. I was surprised how what he said resonated with me--filled with opposition to German militarism and detestion of the Nazi horror. I was again reminded of Hesse's greatness, and I don't see how the language of the translation could be better. I was greatly moved by the proof that there were good Germans who cringed in pain as they watched the slide to Hitlerian madness. There are 25 separate pieces and I am glad I own this book, so I can refer to them again and again.

Hermann Hesse's "If the War Goes On" is different from many of his other books because rather than fiction, it is a book of short essays. The one which still stands out in my mind after 20-plus years is entitled, "The European". The book is worth reading. Hesse was, if I recall correctly, a pacificist whose nationality happened to be German, at a time when war was going on in Europe. The title of the book seems to reflect both the external political cirumstances of the time in which he was writing, but also, and perhaps mainly, conditions of conflict inside people. It is evident from biographies of Hesse that he struggled alot and documented this in his writing. It's time for me to re-read this incredible book.

I don't know the "Amazon.com Customer" who wrote the 1998 review of Hesse's small book of essays _If the War Goes On_. What I do know is more than 30 YEARS after reading the same essay, "THE EUROPEAN", I'm obliged to continue recommending it to people everywhere. Hesse was European and German yet a pacifist. He also was a person with a healthy self-criticism for the population to which he belonged. In pre-Hitlerian Europe (specifically Germany) he must have suffered for his ideas and feelings far from the Teutonic/Euro ordinary. Yet he had enough courage to claim and share what he perceived. "The European" is a lesson for our times. Get this book. Share this essay.

What is it like to be a famous German novelist living in Switzerland during World War II? Innumerable Germans at their wits' end would write Hermann Hesse hoping that somehow he could help them. In this collection of short pieces, Hesse shows that the best way he knew to achieve peace was to use his pen.

It is worth getting your hands on this book just in order to read "The European," which reminds us that philosophy must above all be practical.

This book is both hilarious and thoughtful. 50 full-color "modern propaganda" posters which come "from" the Bush Administration and attempt to sway Americans to support illegal wiretaps, torture, war, intelligent design, etc. Each poster is accompanied by a well-written essay summing up the salient points of the issue and devastating Bush's legal reasoning and excuses for his positions. Highly recommended.

Humor illustrates tough truths in this new book of propaganda posters from Micah Wright. This time he writes his own accompanying political text instead of relying the Center for Constitutional Research, and the book does not suffer for it... in fact, the text is both informative AND funny. A great book.

Thats almost as funny as Mr.Wrights book. If You're Not a Terrorist, Then Stop Asking Questions is a recommended satire of the evil accuring in our country today. The review I am refering to in the subject line is a perfect example of the whole "rightwing will do anything to discredit someone" for their sick cause. Lie, cheat, steal, tell freedom of expression to shut up. Foul little beasties they are. Nasty. Evil. Eh heb, anyway. I highly recommend this book it is the bomb.

Wright totally nails the style of the old propaganda posters from World War I and II in these scathing posters. Totally fresh way to point out our increasingly eroding liberties under the present regime.

I wish we could get full-size posters of these amazing pages to post all over the country so we could possibly wake up the American public that now is the time to start fighting like hell for our liberties before they are all gone.

When the President of the United States reserves the power to ignore the law, lock up American citizens without cause and deny them due process (indefinitely), torture, eavesdrop on thousands of Americans, break treaties and wage illegal wars at a whim - and the list goes on - we are indeed on the verge of losing our democracy forever. Jefferson said "Information is the currency of democracy" and the secrecy employed by this administration is breathtaking. "Democracy dies behind closed doors" is another quote that comes to mind.

This is not a "tinfoil hat" scenario. This is reality. Get this book for yourself and buy a few copies for your friends and family as well.

I did!

No other book brings to life the work and struggles of new migrants in the United States. Ness sets the stage for the impending crisis that the labor movement will most certainly confront in the years to come. The book is eye-opening political-economy that points to new strategies and directions for the labor movement and the broader the working class. Striking is the absence of unions, labor institutions, and a party capable or willing to support the new realities of what is effectively the post-NLRA era.

This book is far and away the most important book on labor in many years. While it covers immigrant laborers in the U.S. the book can be applied to U.S. workers as well. The book counters the intuitive notion that migrant workers are too afraid to organize. In fact they are the most likely to organize! Then the book provides a road map for all labor organizing, both immigrant and U.S.-born workers. Of all the books I have read, this book provides the most theoretically sound approach to labor organizing and mobilization in a clear and concise manner. The book is accessible to any reader and, without hubris or jargon, explains in a clear way that it is workers who organize first. Power is consolidated for the workers by unions. But even without unions, the book shows us that workers are more willing to take risks and are much more militant than their unions. Written clearly, the book is the best book on immigrants for university students. In my class, I found that students were so enthusiastic that the book in fact sparked discussion without my intervention. Bravo to Ness.

This is one of the very few books that addresses the issue of worker organizing and the importance of migrant workers to the oranized labor movement. The AFL-CIO increasingly recognizes the need for immigrant workers as they form a larger part of the labor force in low-wage jobs amenable to organizing. Unions have a range of responses to this newfound worker militancy, from complacency to building power and support for workers otherwise left to their own. Unlike other books, Ness shows that migrant workers from similar backgrounds tend to have strong ties to their co-workers. In fact, these strong ties contributes to solidarity and the will to confront rapacious employers. Surely U.S. workers have much to learn from migrants whose bonds of solidarity are reinforced by common religious, national, language, and ethnic identities.
U.S. workers are no less militant if confronted with identifical circumstances as immigrants. However, the rise in contingent work contributes to fewer bonds of solidarity as native-born frequently move from job to job as they seek out individual gains--mostly without success.

The case studies in this book will be instructive to international unions in seeking out new strategies for organizing immigrant and native-born workers alike. This book is the most important contribution to the literature on labor organizing in recent memory, and provides the basis for understanding the labor struggles of the early 20th century when mobilized immigrant workers formed unions and were consolidated by the national unions. This book offers hope to all of us as the government seeks to marginalize immigrants through imposing draconian laws and weaken their legal status as workers.

Immigrants, Unions, and the New US Labor Market is the most timely and intelligent examination of the implicatoins of the expansion of global capitalism on international migration. The book provides real life evidence of the human spirit of solidarity among migrant workers. This stirring book offers a roadmap for unions and employers of the eternal struggle for dignity among an outcast population that now forms an important component of American labor. This penetrating book is indispensable to understand the plight of migrants and how social conditions and human experience shapes the actions of working people. I commend the author.

Professor Immanuel Ness brings a lot to the lectern in this story of spirited, but impoverished immigrant workers organizing in New York City. Ness is a professor of political science. He's written widely on cities. And his years as a union organizer give him instant street credibility.

All this experience and knowledge is effectively woven into his book, Immigrants, Unions and the New U.S. Labor market The title is accurate although Ness rarely strays far from the battles in New York's five boroughs. New York is a kind of testing ground. Immigrant workers in New York City make up more a than half the labor force. The low wages of these immigrants explain why New York County has the biggest spread between rich and poor in America -- It's in these organizing campaigns that the struggle to keep America from sliding back to the pay and conditions of the Gilded Age are being determined.

Ness focuses on three campaigns: Mexicans who work in Korean deli's, Pakistani limo drivers; and west African grocery store workers. With dozens of candid interviews, he takes us inside these immigrant communities, to hear the voices of New York's most silent workers.

Everyone knows that immigrants have it hard. But Ness forces us to see just what it means to be delivery man from Mali and be forced to live on $1.00 an hour - plus tips of course - while working for A&P's Food Emporium.

These workers are so exploited they aren't even permitted the status of workers. They're "independent contractors" "a fiction that allows employers the right to ignore the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) regulating minimum wage, maximum hours and safety conditions. The upshot is that the grocery baggers from Mali wind up making that $1.00 an hour - which is more than they would make in Mali but not as much as Americans made a century ago. .

Ness shows us how these immigrants nevertheless have been able to come together to demand dignity, rights and a few extra dollars - at great risk, despite threats of physical harm, deportation, and job loss. It's not exactly workers of the world unite. But a triumph of the resilience of traditional social bonds which somehow survive even in the Global City. Plus it turns out they can mobilize a lot of outside support - the Mexican workers in Korean deli's got help from State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer who obligating sued the employers for back pay; a formidable community campaign sprang up on the Lower East Side to support the workers when they went on strike; the Mexican Consul-general got involved, too.

Ness' most surprising finding is that American unions - the institution you might expect to be leading the charge on behalf of the most exploited workers - the established unions - are mostly missing in action or actively undermining the immigrant organizing campaigns. There are some splendid exceptions, like Ernesto Joffre the former Chilean miner, jailed for subversion under the Pinochet dictatorship who went into exile here in New York and became head of an exemplary garment workers local. But mostly organized labor is too busy patrolling its jurisdictional boundaries to give more than perfunctory help. Almost immediately after Joffre's untimely death, his parent union liquidated support for the organizing campaign. A shady longshore union located in New Jersey wound up with sweetheart contracts with several of the Korean deli's.

Ness' accomplishment is dual: anthropology of New York's newest immigrant communities and a political science of the city's unions. It adds up to the most valuable account yet of the astringent realities of immigrant organizing in America.

I was reading somewhere that Marx had been refuted, but you never know, the way the Bush gang is acting up it's only a matter of time before the classic challenge of Marx and Engels will see its stock rise as the Ann Coulter traitors realize she meant it. But will the corpus of ideas stand up? It seemed fitting to check out the cultural fire equipment--I appointed myself for the job. This book is a nice and a breezy, well done exploration of the mainline with an interesting twist on ecology. A bit after the fact, perhaps, since the legacy of known historical Marxism in action was not good here. But the relevance of Marx to ecological questions is not a hard rabbit to pull out of a hat. As interesting was the review of the Marxist viewpoint for which one fears there are no second chances in its current form which is lodged in a series of confusions through which the author takes us unwittingly, flawed material presented as 'store items'. Yet the tradition has infinite potential if anyone can extricate the material from its Hegelian, Darwinian confusions, and regrettable fallacies of (economic) theory.
One nice part of the book is the review of Marx's materialism, and the relation to his early studies of Epicurus. Thence the Hegelian sources of Marx and a history of Marx and Engels on Darwin. The problem with Marx's materialism is that it is, despite the obvious enrichment of the Greek source, too nineteenth century, and too obsessed as contra-Hegel. To transcend bourgeois society seems to ask for a philosophy that transcends the whole (bourgeois) philosophic tradition. But didn't Hegel steal on march on that question? To pick materialism against idealism was a strategic limitation. Hegel is too clever to outwit with materialist boilerplate from the age of scientism and water cooler jargon from hallways at Nasa. One is a Marxist anti-Hegelian yet armed with pilferred Hegelian material--the result is seen in the author's discussion of Hegel on Kant, a point on which Marxists tend to toe the line, like pragmatists with their 'naturalized Hegelianism'. Marx was brilliant but Marxism was outwitted by Hegel. Why not backtrack to Kant then, a gesture the author points to without intending it in, surprisingly, Engels whose reputation sits badly with his dialectics of nature, but the book shows thinking much more cogently in private with the Kantian third critique.
The most useful part of the book is the discussion of Marxism and Darwin. But here total confusion has always reigned in the 'over the falls' embrace of Darwin. And I was fascinated to read the author's giving the game away on Marx's obvious reluctance to let selectionist theory pass. For that we must admire Marx's instincts, for he smelt a rat, but the tide turned against him reservations. I think the Darwinist embrace produced by the Seond Internationale was a great failure of Marxism, as the 'critique of evolutionary economy' failed to make it into the tradition, in part because of the agenda on materialism. In a word, our fire equipment is not ready, for this and other reasons. Interesting little book anyway.

"Marx's Ecology" by John Bellamy Foster positively reasserts the long-neglected environmental aspects of Karl Marx's writing. Foster guides the reader through a fascinating look at Marx's personal intellectual development and the various thinkers who influenced him. The author reveals a Marx who was keenly aware of capital's strategy to alienate labor from nature. Foster also makes clear that Marx worked assiduously to develop a theory that might reconnect dehumanized labor with its degraded environment in hopes of creating a better, more sustainable world.

Indeed, Foster's book is an interesting study of intellectual history, with an emphasis on the debates that raged during Marx's lifespan in the 19th century. The ideas and discoveries of Darwin, Engels, Epicurus, Hegel, Malthus, Proudhon, and others are discussed at length. Foster presents a Marx who was clearly at the vanguard of progressive thought in his era and gives us considerable insight into how Marx created his materialist theory of history. We also understand why Marx privileged the environment but explicitly rejected the fashionable teleological and racist arguments of his time.

In particular, I found the discussion concerning Epicurus to be fascinating. Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher who had a profound influence on the Enlightenment and was the subject of Marx's doctoral dissertation. Foster tells us that Marx's unconventional interpretations have been confirmed by recent archaeological discoveries, although at the time Marx had been working from a small number of extant fragments of Epicurus' writings. In addition to explaining to the reader why Epicurus' ideas are important, Foster deepens our appreciation for Marx, whose intellectual capabilities were evident even at a fairly young age.

In the Epilogue, Foster shows how Marx's ecology fell out of the loop, a victim to Soviet ideology, Stalinist purges and other historical forces. But he shows how snippets of Marx's environmental thought has influenced scholars and activists throughout the 20th century. In fact, Foster suggests that Marx has been vindicated by some within the contemporary environmental movement. For example, Rachel Carson's work connecting corporate power with environmental and social degradation recalls (unconsciously?) Marx's work regarding the dialectic of nature and science. But with this book, Foster has effectively redrawn the circle, solidly connecting Marxist theory with the environment. Foster helps us understand that social justice and ecological sustainability are core Marxist values that can guide and inspire activists who are looking for solutions to today's environmental crisis.

In short, I strongly recommend this book for readers who are interested in intellectual history and/or eco-socialist theory, and congratulate Foster for an outstanding piece of research.

This book is a hot knife through the rancid butter of existing views of the ties between science, ecology, and the politics of the human future.

Foster presents prodigious historical evidence for his thesis that, despite a century-and-a-half of obtuseness on both right and left, Karl Marx was one of the greatest and deepest inheritors and advancers of the best tradition of both "Enlightenment materialism-humanism" and ecological realism.

Foster shows that, contrary to traditional interpretations, Marx was neither an admirer of crude mechanistic science nor an airy Hegelian dreamer. If one actually bothers to read the earliest and the lesser-known Marx, it turns out that the bearded one was quite consciously an exponent of the supple, open-ended materialism embodied in the Epicurean tradition and in the best ideas of its Enlightenment elaborators, including giants of science like Bacon and Darwin.

This unappreciated fact, Foster also shows, meant that Marx was also a very profound ecologist. Up to speed on the most important ecological debates of his epoch, Marx's whole project, Foster convincingly demonstrates, rested on the kind of hard-headed, historically-sensitive, and politically clear-sighted concern for the world's ecological welfare that is so sorely lacking in today's sterile debates between status-quo ostriches and "radical" nature worshippers.

This book has opened my eyes and greatly deepened my appreciation of Marx, ecological thought, the history and future of science, and the best meaning of humanism. Anybody interested in these vital issues ought to get and digest this ground-breaking tour-de-force!

My group and I used this book for a presentation in our class in Marx and Marxism over at CSUF (go Dr. Avila!) and we would recommend this book to anyone not only interested in Marx and ecology but natural history and the divergent systems of socialism that sprung up in tandem with Marx. Paul Proudhon, Charles Darwin, Malthus, John Evelyn, Francis Bacon, Epicurus and a doven others are the stars of this Altmanesque vehicle, each getting their due. So vast is its scope in terms of not only the social/political/scientific movements but also the personalities that created them and so compact and taut is the prose that this book becomes not just informative but fun and... dare I say it?... rather thrilling to read.

In "Marx's Ecology," John Bellamy Foster defies conventional green thinking by raising the banner of materialism rather than spirituality in the fight to save the planet and humanity from ecological ruin. In addition to restoring materialism to its proper place, Foster also shows that ecological questions were central not only to Marx, but other Marxists such as Bebel and Bukharin. By restoring this lost tradition, Foster hopes to create a new basis for ecosocialism grounded in Marxist science rather than mysticism.

Although most students of Marx are aware of materialist thought in such early works as the 1845 "Theses on Feuerbach," Foster argues convincingly that materialism made its debut in Marx's doctoral dissertation on the "Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature," written four years earlier. According to Foster, the standard explanation for the dissertation is that Marx saw Epicurus as a kindred rebel spirit. This Epicurus sought to overthrow the totalizing philosophy of Aristotle, just as the post-Hegelians--including the young Marx--rose up against Hegel. What is missing here is the element of materialism, which drew Marx to Epicurus in the first place. Marx identified with the Enlightenment, for which Epicurus serves as a forerunner to the radical democrats of the 17th and 18th century. The materialism they all shared was crucial to an attack on the status quo, ancient or modern.

The Greek materialists, especially Epicurus, are important to Marx because they represent the first systematic opposition to idealist and essentialist thought. Just as importantly, Epicurus in particular anticipates the scientific revolution of the Enlightenment. His dicta that "Nothing is ever created by divine power out of nothing" and "nature . . . never reduces anything to nothing" are in harmony with what we now know as "the principle of conservation." Foster also notes that Lucretius, another materialist of the classical era, "alluded to air pollution due to mining, to the lessening of harvests through the degradation of soil, and to the disappearance of the forests; as well as arguing that human beings were not radically different from animals."

In their early writings, Marx and Engels wed the materialism of the Enlightenment to a political critique of the capitalist system, particularly targeting ideologues such as Malthus. Taking aim at his false piety, the 1844 "Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy" challenges private property, especially in the land, asserting that:

"To make earth an object of huckstering--the earth which is our one and all, the first condition of our existence--was the last step in making oneself an object of huckstering. It was and is to this very day an immortality of self-alienation. And the original appropriation--the monopolization of the earth by a few, the exclusion of the rest from that which is the condition of their life--yields nothing in immorality to the subsequent huckstering of the earth."

By restoring Marx's materialism to its proper place, "Marx's Ecology" provides a theoretical foundation for further explorations in ecosocialism. Once we understand the proper connection between nature and society, we can begin to act to confront the major problems facing humanity, from global warming to diminishing fresh water supplies. In the final chapter, Foster cites a number of Marxist thinkers who belong to the materialist tradition. Their examples can help to inspire a new generation of ecologically minded socialists.

Foster presents an unfamiliar side of Bukharin. His "Philosophical Arabesques," only made available in 1992, reveals a sophisticated dialectical materialist who grounds his analysis of society in ecology. Bukharin writes of the "earth's atmosphere, full of infinitely varied life, from the smallest microorganisms in water, on land and in the air, to human beings. Many people do not imagine the vast richness of these forms, or their direct participation in the physical and chemical processes of nature."

As one of the founders of German Social Democracy, August Bebel not only spoke with some authority in the 1884 "Woman Under Socialism," he also seemed to be anticipating the dire consequences experienced today in the wake of clear-cutting:

"The mad sacrifice of the appreciable deterioration of climate and decline in the fertility of the soil in the provinces of Prussian and Pomerania, in Syria, Italy and France, and Spain. Frequent inundations are the consequence of stripping high ground of trees. The inundations of the Rhine and Vistula are chiefly attributed to the devastation of forest land in Switzerland and Poland."

Finally, in an instance that seems to address Joel Kovel's complaint about the lack of spirituality in Marxism and a possible alternative to Lewis Henry Morgan's obsession with "improvement,", we have the example of Rosa Luxemburg who wrote from prison in May, 1917:

"What am I reading? For the most part, natural science: geography of plants and animals. Only yesterday I read why the warblers are disappearing from Germany. Increasingly systematic forestry, gardening and agriculture are, step by step destroying all natural nesting and breeding places: hollow trees, fallow land, thickets of shrubs, withered leaves on the garden grounds. It pained me so when I read that. Not because of the song they sing for people, but rather it was the picture of the silent, irresistible extinction of these defenseless little creatures which hurt me to the point that I had to cry. It reminded me of a Russian book which I read while still in Zurich, a book by Professor Sieber about the ravage of the redskins in North America. In exactly the same way, step by step, they have been pushed from their land by civilized men and abandoned to perish silently and cruelly."

Black's "Impeachment" is the ideal guide for the average citizen who hasn't studied constitutional law. Black gives a thumbnail sketch of the impeachment process' mechanics and explains what we know about the framers' intentions. He discusses the most often debated impeachment issues, and he offers his own interpretation of the process in general and comments on Nixon's impeachment.

The main points I took from this book are that impeachment gravely frays the fabric of American society, and that partisan politics has no place in the process; the linchpin of impeachment is the solemn statesmanship of our congressmen. If another impeachment comes about in my lifetime, I'll let my congressmen know early in the proceedings that I'm counting on them to act without partisan bias.

Black's book is now a bit dated, and his treatment is certainly more broad-brush than that of, say, Michael Gerhardt's "The Federal Impeachment Process" but this is still a wonderful book. A classic and, like all Black's works, beautifully written. If you're interested in impeachment (and who isn't these days?) this ought to be the first book you read.

Black's book is remarkably relevent to the current impeachment situation, even after 25 years. Though his examples are comtemporary to the Nixon near-impeachment (and prior to his resignation), it is refreshing to read a treatise on impeachment that does not constantly refer to Starr, Lewinsky, Tripp, et al. It is not written for the lawyer, so it has a popular flavor that made it a quick read while still imparting a great deal of information.

'The process of presidential impeachment and trial thereon, culminates in a judgement of the Senate, either that the president is not guilty, or that he is guilty on one or more of the Articles of Impeachment voted by the House, and is to be removed from office. Is this judgement of conviction final, or is it in some manner appealable, to the United States Supreme Court or elsewhere'?

Good question, huh? And so begins Chapter 4 of Charles L. Black's marvelous essay on the subject of impeachment. Black wrote this book when President Richard M. Nixon occupied the White House, yet the clarity of his writing, the reasonableness of his arguments and the vigor of his analysis, still hold true today nearly a quarter of a century later. This edition, republished in 1998, includes an impressive new forward by Prof Akhil Reed Amar of Yale University. If you're looking somewhat bewildered by the goings on Capitol Hill, and by implication, the lead stories on the news, rest assured you're not alone. One moment you hear the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee recommending four Articles of Impeachment and the next moment you see the House vote to send the President to be tried by the Senate. What gives? You ask.

Black's book takes the reader on a journey in search of the facts relating to impeachment: what it means, where it originated and how we apply tests to determine the case for or against an impeachable offence. Black also examines the role of lawyers and of the Courts.

The author's objective throughout is not so much as to provide the reader with solutions, rather it is to illuminate why certain answers are incorrect. He does this by laying the evidence before the reader, so that the reader has every chance to examine both the evidence and his conscience, prior to arriving at a determination. As in other aspects of life, the book highlights that not all issues are clearly defined, and there is indeed room for some interpretation Irrespective of whether you're keen to turn the first sod in the political grave of the President William Jefferson Clinton, or whether you'd prefer to stand at his side as the United States Senate charges him; Black's essay is lucid, elegant and entertaining. As a contribution to the debate it is invaluable.

Black's book is now a bit dated, and his treatment is certainly more broad-brush than that of, say, Michael Gerhardt's "The Federal Impeachment Process" but this is still a wonderful book. It ought to be brought back into print and -- given political events at the moment -- maybe it will be. A classic and, like all Black's works, beautifully written.

This set of articles, written in the early 1990s, is even more relevant today than when they were first written. In contrast to the George Bush the elder's boast that the US was leading us all into a "New World Order" of peace and prosperity, the perspective here is a sober and realistic one: the US is leading the world toward economic depression, a renewal of fascist movements, and if the working class does not take power, World War III. This assessment was based on a series of events, including the gigantic stock market crash of 1987. Preventing World War III, and all that would accompany it, is the challenge facing working people around the world and we need to organize NOW to make sure this is not our future. In light of this, this issue of New International includes an extremely informative article on Cuba, which shows that despite the "Special Period" they were living through, without aid from the Soviet Union, the Cubans were still fighting for a socialist society and because they refused to bow down to capitalist America, they continued to be a thorn in the side of the US. All of this is even more true today, as the stock market bubble of the 1990s has now decisively burst. And what is most striking today is how the jockeying for position heading into the war with Iraq is showing just what this article said: that competition between "allies" within NATO would sharpen. Just look at all the anti-French and German propaganda going around right now and you'll see just how accurate this set of articles was and still is today.

This book explains the meaning of the 1987 New York stock market crash and its repercussions; the "Special Period" (term used in Cuba for the economic crisis caused by the collapse in trade with the former USSR and Eastern Bloc, the tightening of the U.S. trade embargo, and the revolution's own admitted errors); the struggle against Stalinism and the "pockets of capitalism" in Cuba, led by the Cuban Communist Party and the revolutionary government; and why the Cuban revolution is still an inspiration for working people all over the world. The march led by Yanqui-U.S. imperialism, in the first place, toward fascism and world war, against its allies/imperialist rivals, against the post-capitalist economic foundations which survive in the workers states ( ex-USSR, Eastern Europe, China, etc.) and against the workers and farmers the world over, including those in the imperialist countries, is explained as well. Finally, this book points out that there is only one road forward for the resistance to this barbarous future: to follow the example of the Bolshevik revolution and the example of the Cuban revolution, applied to the specific conditions of each country, which is both possible and necessary even in the imperialist countries, the U.S. included. Above all, this book is a message of hope and scientific confidence in the workers and farmers of the whole world, based on the experience of the militants who are building the beginnings of a revolutionary workers party in the belly of the Imperial Beast.

This 1994 volume takes up the long-term economic crisis of capitalism and how it drives the U.S. rulers toward more severe conflicts with their international rivals, and toward a showdown with workers and farmers at home. It explains the rise of fascist perspectives, such as those of Patrick Buchanan and Jean-Marie Le Pen, as the inevitable product of the social crisis that is unfolding. And it describes the increasing use of military force to defend the interests of U.S. capitalism as the result of the needs of a declining empire, not just as the choice of certain politicians.

This book's main article is a resolution adopted in 1988 by the Socialist Workers Party explaining the causes and results of the stock market crash. It is a remarkable picture of the growing conflicts between the big capitalist powers--the US, Europe, and Japan--and the economic crises, colonial wars, and other problems that have issued from those conflicts since then. Moreover, there is a program, just as relevant then and today for workers, youth, farmers, racial and national minorities to fight their way out of that to socialism. Not prophecy, but scientific socialist answers about where we have been and where we are going.

"OCTOBER 1987: a near-meltdown of stock exchanges world wide lays bare capitalism's new vulnerability and increaing instability. 1989-91: counterrevolutionary Stalinist police apparatuses in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union come tumbling down. 1991: a war against Iraq that Washington seeks to portray as victory of a new world order results instead in increasing conflicts among NATO powers themselves, and between them and others in the 'victorious coalition,' from Moscow to Riyadh.

1991-1992: in Gulf War's aftermath, it becomes clear that world capitalism has sunk into depression conditions for the first time in half a century; polarization between wealth and poverty grows, insecurity deepens, and ultrarightist forces gain new ground. 1994: despite most difficult conditions in 35 years, Cuba's working people fight to maintain proletarian social relations conquered through their revolution, giving the lie to expectations of 'friend' and foe alike.

"These are just a few of the events analyzed in this issue of New International that have transformed world politics and frame the growing class conflicts and military confrontations before us today. How the working class and its allies respond to the accelerated capitalist disorder will determine whether or not imperialism's march toward fascism and war can be stopped....And whether a road to the communist future of humanity will be opened" (from the back cover).

The title is "The Improving State of the World" and Goklany shows the state of the world
is improving. By nearly every measure of human wellbeing, we are better off than we used
to be. Life expectancy is increasing. Starvation and malnourishment is decreasing. The air
is cleaner. The water is cleaner. Child labor is less prevalent. Literacy is increasing.
Personal income is increasing. There are many more. The good news applies to the world
as a whole, the developed world, and the developing world. But this is not just cheering
for the status quo. He identifies the exceptions to the general trends, and does it for
each of the measures of wellbeing. Most of the exceptions are in Africa south of the Sahara,
and in the former soviet empire.

The subtitle is "Why we're living longer, healthier, more comfortable lives on a cleaner planet".
The reason is technology, economic growth, human capital, education, the rule of law, and
private property, all linked together in many interconnected "virtuous cycles." For example,
economic growth means more money to buy technology such as fertilizer and tractors which means
more food and less hunger, and time for education so more children can make even better
technology and sell it for less to more well fed, less sick, longer lived people who can use
their energy for economic growth. With better infrastructure, less food rots before it is eaten,
so less land is needed for farms so there is more room for biodiversity. With economic security,
families tend to be smaller. Each improvement makes improvements in other areas more likely.

The book was published by Cato Institute, the well known conservative think tank. Liberals
should consider the message, rather than the messenger. You don't get up before dawn and look
west just because Hitler said the sun rises in the east.

It is easy to evaluate the arguments and check the claims in the 420 pages of text. There are
85 pages of notes. Most of the links in the virtuous cycles are fully explained by statistics.
There are a few places were Goklany resorts to qualitative explanations, but these are clearly
stated to be not quantitative. The statistical data is used more fairly than in any other work
I can recall. Almost all the time series analysis uses all the data available; the few exceptions
are explained and justified. He uses data from advocates of positions opposite what he will
conclude. For example, he accepts the data from IPCC and uses it in his analysis that shows
adaptation to changing climate is better than intervention to try to prevent the change. He uses
consistent rules for fitting trend lines. Sometimes, there are different statistics that seem to
be about the same reality. He sometimes explains why one source might be undercounting or
overcounting. He often will do the analysis with both sets of data.

Some of Goklany's arguments clearly follow Maslow's hierarchy of needs. People do not care about
the environment when they are hungry. People do not care about quality of life next year when
they are concerned about surviving this year. Economic growth allows people to care about the
environment. Technical advances allow them to do something about it.

The tone is level and matter of fact. This is not a hate book, but some will hate some of the
conclusions. He presents the arguments for other conclusions fairly. Those that reach other
conclusions are not portrayed as evil or stupid, or even as paid shills of some vast conspiracy.

The book is optimistic about our future, with the emphasis on what is good for people. He does not
praise or deplore large families, but notes the strong trend towards smaller families as wealth
increases. Wealth brings health and less infant mortality, so an increase in population, but
increased family size happens only for a while.

The conclusions Goklany reaches will seem correct to more conservatives than liberals. The book will
not appeal to the extremes of either political wing, but it could be a big help to most of us
in the middle that wonder what we can do to help humanity.

This is not an entertaining read. There is a lot of information to absorb. There are many steps in
some of the virtuous cycles. Some of the vicious cycles Goklany debunks have to be examined in
detail to show they are wrong. You do not have to read it straight through to benefit from this
book. The next time you are invited on a crusade or bandwagon, pause and check it out. Use the
detailed index and find out all sides of the issue. You might find enough information to satisfy
yourself in just a few pages. But most things influence most other things and you might want to dig
deeper. You might find you have read half the book by the time you cover all the issues that are
related to the topic that was your starting point.

This is an important and excellent book. I highly recommend it.

Finally someone has taken the time to document how things have improved. Easy to read, lots of good information.

Many believe that globalization and growth are degrading the environment and, ultimately, human desires, but THE IMPROVING STATE OF THE WORLD: WHY WE'RE LIVING LONGER, HEALTHIER, MORE COMFORTABLE LIVES ON A CLEANER PLANET is the first to analyze long-term trends from a range of indicators of environmental health, offering up data drawing important links between economic growth, technological change, and free trade - which have actually helped foster a 'cycle of progress' leading to improvements in the human condition. THE IMPROVING STATE OF THE WORLD is a milestone study highly recommended for college-level holdings strong on social issues and environmental and political affairs: it is especially recommended for college-level classroom debate and is unparalleled in its scope.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Indur Goklany has written a very convincing and fact-filled work arguing that Mankind is thanks primarily to technological development on a progressive path towards greater and greater well- being. As the subtitle of the book says he argues that we are living longer , healthier more comfortable lives on a cleaner planet.

In an outstanding review of this book in 'Foreign Affairs'James Suroweicki suggests it is the Industrial Revolution that is at the heart of the economic and social transformation which is the subject of this book.
"In the West, above all, the effects of this transformation have been so massive as to be practically unfathomable. Real income, life expectancy, literacy and education rates, and food consumption have soared, while infant mortality, hours worked, and food prices have plummeted. And although the West has been the biggest beneficiary of these changes, the diffusion of technology, medicine, and agricultural techniques has meant that developing countries have enjoyed dramatic improvements in what the United Nations calls "human development indicators," even if most of their citizens remain poor. One consequence of this is that people at a given income level today are likely to be healthier and to live longer than people at the same income level did 40 or 50 years ago.
But Suroweicki takes objection to the idea that it is unregulated free market which alone can deal with environmental problems and points out that it is only through various government initiatives that the quality of air and water has improved in most Western cities.
This book does a good job of debunking the work of the doomsayer demographers of the Ehrlich, Club of Rome school which were at the heart of public awareness in the nineteen seventies.
To do this it amasses a tremendous amount of evidence as to the generally improved quality of life in most geographical regions. It does note the exceptions in sub- Saharan Africa and Russia.
Yet it does not give sufficient attention to such possibly catastrophic processes as nuclear proliferation. Nor does he consider the full effect of radical fundamentalist Islam both on the standards, level of economic development in Islamic societies- but on their general capacity for bringing through war disruption and even disaster to the world.
Nor does he consider the damage wrought by new technology on the family, and the overall mental health - profile of mankind. The great growth in mental illness, primarily Depression certainly is related to disruptive effects of new technology.
Thus while presenting a very convincing case that technological progress has given us longer, more prosperous lives Goklany does not reckon fully the negative consequences which have also come with this.

Probably one of the most important, well written, and throughly researched books on the topic of human development and the way we interact with our environment to come out in the past decade. It is a detailed and unapologetic look at what is really going on and where we should properly focus our attention in the future.
It is a brilliant answer to the eco-doom "best-sellers" that have proliferated recently. Highly recommended for those who want to KNOW, not just pontificate and pursue a political agenda.

I don't even know where to begin as it relates to this book. One word would be excellent thought. It provides a clear, concise, well researched, informative (not bias or persuasive) view on Micheal Manley and Claude McKay's ideologies. I think all 'yardies' should read this book. It all honesty it has instilled a foundation for a deep sense of national pride that I didn't really have before. The book also gives an interesting blue print of Third World development and how these great products of our nation (Jamaica) got to the views that they did. It also provides some insight on what the developing world is afraid of- third world cooperation. The short of it, is that I loved the book. I could not put it down once I started reading it.

I found this book to be extremely engaging, WELL-RESEARCHED, creative and generally thought provoking. The author has taken a very original approach by comparing the written works of a Afro-Caribbean poet (who was instrumental in igniting the Harlem Renaissance) with those of Jamaica's most loved Prime Minister Michael Manley. He has compared their writings to extrapolate on their political views on globalization and its impact on peoples of the African Diaspora and the global South. The interspersing of poetic writings with declassified political documents is indeed avant-garde!! It makes the work into one that can be enjoyed by all.

I recommend it highly!!

Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (2/07)

"In-Dependence from Bondage" is a compilation of the world views of the well known Poet, Claude McKay, and the world renowned Afro-Caribbean Socialist, Michel Manley. Both men, although of different generations, are known for their dedication to social change as it relates to the exploitation of the peoples of African descent in the Western hemisphere. Claude McKay's poetry was one of the great forces in bringing about what is often called the Negro Literary Renaissance.

Over a period of nearly four centuries approximately 4,000,000 Africans were transported to North America and the Caribbean Islands as the results of slave trading. Scattered, dispersed, and separated from their family and culture, these peoples persevered to maintain their traditions, religion, language, and folklore. Lloyd McCarthy, in this book, focuses primarily on the Jamaican perspective; however, it is relevant to the social, political, and economic conditions everywhere. I found the poetry of Claude McKay thought-provoking and enlightening on the African Diaspora and the plight of these exploited peoples.

McCarthy successfully illustrates the impetus, impact and corrective tactics currently being considered which are central to combating white racism, classicism, and Western imperialism. McCarthy gives the reader a definitive compilation of the writings of Claude McKay and Michael Manley. He has analyzed their works using references from dozens of authors and their interpretations of the ideological clash and policy gaps in African Diaspora relations. His research is well documented with complete and thorough endnotes.

McCarthy also is an Afro-Jamaican, and instills the influence of his personal history and heritage in his writing. He reveals his own empathy for the peasants and the working-class outlook, and the political perspectives that McKay and Manley expressed.

This work is a major contribution to the study of African Diaspora as it relates to globalization, policy planning, and international relations with developing and impoverished nations. McCarthy also presents valuable insight into how literature, biographical narrative, and intellectual history are interconnected with politics. The book is a wake up call to the peoples and nations of the African Diaspora to find collective solutions to survive globalization.

"In-Dependence from Bondage" holds promise of becoming the guidebook or blueprint for the liberation movement and should be read by our Washington politicians as well as all New World Africans.

I recently read somewhere that 2% of the worlds richest population owns over half of the world's wealth. An article on ABC news stated that ""Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and high-income Asia-Pacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90 percent of total world wealth." Yet, globalization is one the rise and is further touted as a means to economic empowerment. "In-Dependence from Bondage" looks at the unconstructive consequences that globalization brings to many in the African Diaspora and the world. This book illustrates how two Jamaican political figures prophetically viewed globalization's impact on developing nations during the 20th century and provides statistical analysis of how this global economic disparity has manifested itself in the quality of life of the peoples of developing nations. Mr. McCarthy defines globalization as the spread of American capitalism and provides extensive evidence as to how the throngs of capitalism (and its undercurrent of Elitism) affect impoverished nations for the benefit of a select few. Where there is a thesis, there must be an antithesis. This book represents a viable alternative view from which we all can learn. BRAVO!!!

"SURVIVAL. LIBERATION. STRUGGLE"! These are not merely fortuitous themes but the vital, mutual, connection in the theses on global capitalism and the crisis of imperialism found in the literary and political legacy of Claude McKay and Michael Manley.

*In-Dependence From Bondage* shows how the artist, McKay, and the politician, Manley, (both international political activists and writers) surveyed World-Development, over the last 500 years. They have observed how imperialist-globalization is still shutting down human liberty, producing backwardness and desperation for the majority of humanity worldwide,in the current epoch, especially in the African Diaspora.

The author demonstrates that both men were driven, like other great historical figures--true internationalists, and so moved (with their art and politics) upon the world-stage because they deeply cared about humanity, as we move in history.

As men, of the Americas, who have witnessed, participated in, and were closely acquainted with key historical figures and great events of the last century, they saw how imperialism and global capitalism have afflicted peoples in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The author shows that McKay and Manley warned the Lumpen-bourgeoisie of the African Diaspora how a handful of international financial capitalists (through international agencies) were ravaging poor countries, with debt. Thus *In-Dependence From Bondage* points out that the debt burden of the African Diaspora along with that of the Global South is rising, rapidly, and is one explanation for the decline in overall human development since the end of the Cold War.

Unwise borrowing and investments in wrong projects by the lumpen-bourgeois, "Gate Keepers," of the African Diaspora, acting with and for the big predatory lenders in the imperialist countries is one explanation for the current debt burden.

*In-Dependence From Bondage* argues that the historical evidence, since 1948, is readily available to show that the disaster that is called capitalism was not warmly welcomed by the mass of people in the African Diaspora. It was forcibly imposed in many countries through military interventions, political assassinations and destabilization carried out by the agents of Capitalism and imperialism, under the false pretense of fighting "communism" in the Third World.

McCarthy believes that some of the loans, which are now the source of the debt burden in poor countries, may well have been granted to the lumpen-bourgeoisie (including the lumpen-Black-bourgeois), as reward money for their capitulation to imperialist globalization, during and after the Cold War.

According to McCarthy, under such circumstances, morally the devastated ravaged-poor of the African Diaspora should now resist. They must not repay "reward' loans." Let the greedy-opportunists pay! His argument for the case is that, under the warped system of Western political democracy, it is unlikely that the people, who are now being asked to repay such cruel loans, knew anything about the conditions of the agreements or when their corrupt elites entered into negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

*In-Dependence From Bondage* makes the point that, the nationalist elites collaborated with US based international loan sharks, the IMF and World Bank in usurping the democratic rights of the people in the process of borrowing. Thus, they have helped to tighten the noose of capitalist exploitation and imperialism around the neck of the African Diaspora's economy.

McCarthy reiterates that, both the World Bank and the IMF, predatory lenders, are instruments of imperialism for the big financial capitalist of the North. Any promise of a "debt relief" is not trustworthy because it is a "gift horse" that must be examined closely. The "benevolent" bearer of "debt reliefs are the wolves of capitalism making sure that the political environment in the black Diaspora remains welcoming to further exploitation. p.154

Although the work is a non-fiction on the subject, capitalism/imperialism, McCarthy makes the book light, lively and entertaining by presenting and interpreting some of McKay's rare poetry and fictional writings.

In contrast, he also examines Manley's relations with the infamous Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, but STRANGELY, he suggested that Kissinger may have been more empathetic to Michael Manley and Jamaica during the 1970s than they ever realized. Other elements in the US administration, advocating for the international bauxite giants, instead, were Manley's main antagonists.

With this said, in the worldviews of McKay and Manley, the survival and liberation of humanity and the African Diaspora, from under the heel of imperialist-globalization demands "STRUGGLE... CONTINUOUS STRUGGLE!" says McCarthy.

This interesting, fast moving, easy to read book of only 192 pages, should be read by students, artist, politicians and general readers with an interest in history, politics, literature, and the fate of humanity!

See also:

Life And Debt

The book is easy to read. The information is presented in an user friendly way at the end of every chapter are valuable resources. I would strongly recommend the text to anyone working with or caring for infants and toddlers.

The book and companion book were in great shape. Book was brand new and cheaper than it was in stores for being used (at the date of purchase). Shipment was quick and no problems.

Rarely...very rarely does a book approach this kind of perfection...every once in a while.

I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Gonzalez-Mena, so I realize the depth of her wisdom on babies and toddlers. This book incapsulates all of her ideas with vivid color and comprehensive, but brief, chapters. She even includes tons of citations and research to solidify her points.

It's the natural companion for the WestED Program for Infant Toddler Caregivers (PITC). The champion guidebook bar-none for infant/toddler caregivers.

I think anyone can learn a great deal from this book. I had to buy it for my college class child development and I learned alot from it.

Janet Gonzalez-Mena and Dianne Widmeyer Eyer have developed a precise method of working with groups of infants and toddlers based on the relationship principle. Their philosophy is one of respect for the child. I have recommended this book to many new educarers and they all have thanked me, saying it was the best guide they had come across. It is a "must read" for all who work with infants and toddlers in group care as well as for the parents of those children.

The book itself is a fantastic example of very thorough investigative journalism. The writers obviously spent years doing massive amounts of research and interviews. It reads very well and presents a cast of characters as they truly are. It is written for the layman and casual reader. Once you put it down you will be extraordinarily disheartened at how the S&L crisis came about. The book sheds light on the roots and origins - the push for industry deregulation in the '80s and its massive, and quite apparently not well thought through, embrace by legislators. But it does a fair and balanced portrayal of the actors - highlighting that the worst people were already professional con artists and had links to organized crime. What is truly disheartening is the massive participation by and interference by top level career politicians (a handful of whom are still around)- many of whom were found by their peers to have severely violated ethics standards. It does a good job of portraying why regulation and oversight of certain industries - particularly the financial services industry, is so difficult. The rulemakers (legislators) are often severely conflicted because they are so heavily funded by the industry - most people don't like taking shots at their meal ticket. Some legislators, as detailed here, won't even hesitate to attack regulators when they threaten their lobbyist/campaign lifeline - rather than protect their citizens overall.

This is a very good read in light of current events with the mortgage lending crisis. One will find creepy, even shocking similarities. The bottom line is the same - poorly written loans (given to an elite group in the S&L case) with no real, credible basis for believing they would be repaid - shoddy underwriting, shoddy controls, shoddy monitoring, weak regulation/deregulation/regulation with no teeth [which is always exploited by those opportunistic few who quite literally make a living as con artists (criminals)], massive interference by the rich and connected.

The best, and saddest part, is this book is real - the events really happened, the facts are portrayed very objectively (the writers did an extraordinary job with research and documenting sources of information), the people involved were people well known and are still around in some circles, the costs and consequences are real and still being paid for to this day. Reading this book in light of current events will make one pause...pause and worry.

A must read - will leave you speechless and much wiser.

I give this 4.5 stars out of 5 - very well done. The most accessible, well-documented history of the S&L crisis caused by Reagan in the 80's. Even though the topic is dated, the book provides a good subject for students of history, and also an eye-opener for people interested in the irresponsible (and costly) fiscal policies of the neo-con right wing.

In the first few pages, this book summarizes a problem (a scam, actually) perpetuated on the American taxpayers by a small handful of ultra-wealthy elitists. In just a few minutes, you will have a firm grasp on how the scam works, and the long term effects on the US economy - something even the press never really understood and failed to adequately convey to the public. The author uses metaphors and plain language, and even though it is dense, the book is easy to read.

Besides being a good overview, what I found most interesting was the secion on Neil Bush and his insurance fraud scams (over 100 of them), and how George H Bush was able to pardon him before the public or press got full wind of his embezzlement. Subsequently, I read the book "Silverado: Neil Bush and the Savings & Loan Scandal" - which was also very good, but franky, I thought that the short section on Bush in the Inside Job did more than an adequate job of covering all the facts.

Except for the historian, economist, or political scientist, this book is probably too much detail for the average reader. For those of you who want the quick & dirty fact, I suggest reading about it online (Wikipedia), or getting the the abridged version of this book, or listening to the abridged audio book. But the length of the book does not detract from my positive rating - very well done.

I highly recommend this to those of us who were not adults at the time: in the 80's, I was still a kid - I couldn't be bothered to know what was happening in the world of S&Ls. Little did I know, but those high-flyers would affect my taxes for years (and years and years).

The book is easy to read - not too technical. It was a bit repetitive at times, but I think that's because many of the S&L crooks used the same types of illegal ponzi schemes to move money from one pocket to the other.

If you're like me, and knew very little about the S&L debacle, then let this book educate you. It's a telling tale of the problems brought-about by rampant de-regulation. I never knew that the S&L scandal(s) involved the wholesale looting of these banks (and American taxpayers - since they were federally protected deposits).

If you're already well-versed in the subject, you can read this to get some of the more personal stories of theft and graft.

There were also stories of corrupt politicians. I know it's a shock, but to me there's nothing more disgusting than a public trustee bending the rules to their advantage: they work for us.

This is a tragic story of the looting of hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayers money, money that could've gone for needed social services or other things. The government let it happen and this book tells you how.