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A lot of the stuff that gets recommended for beginners actually sucks, imo. If you want to get an idea of what it's about, try these:
Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station
Andrew Collier, Marx: A Beginner's Guide
Michael Heinrich, An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital
C.L.R. James, Modern Politics
Related Recs
I know slavoj zizek is a fucking loser now, but his movie A Pervert's Guide to Ideology was the first piece of media that began to rub away the sheen/shellac of pretense that the world operates smoothly. It was my first time really engaging with a Marxian analysis and sitting with it. I was in high school, and it set me up to care about critical theory. From this movie, I'd read Mark Fisher's really quick book "Capitalist Realism: is there no alternative?" Fisher grounds a lot of his theory in culture/media in a very similar way to Zizek.
After that, I'd follow recommendations made by others in the thread!
Jun 18, 2024
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i see you are reading machiavelli and i expect others can/will recommend you other classical political theory so i will recommend a mix of things that are not! those works can be useful but definitely should be read alongside a variety of other voices and perspectives
books:
- A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn - solid history book that intentionally avoids the nationalist lens in mainstream depictions of US history
- Our History Has Always Been Contraband ed. by Colin Kaepernick, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor - great intro to Black social & political thought and the history of Black Studies
- Normal Life by Dean Spade - very dense, a critique of the gay rights movement by a trans lawyer
- Mutual Aid by Dean Spade & The Care Manifesto by The Care Collective - accessible, short books that criticize contemporary social services and div of labor in care work
- Elite Capture by Olúfémi O Táíwò - critique of identity politics
- Transgender History by Susan Stryker - very accessible book on the history of trans politics and culture
- The Souls of Black Folk by WEB Du Bois - foundational text for critical race theory
a few books on my tbr list i see freq recommended that you may find useful:
- A People’s Guide to Capitalism by Hadas Thier - more accessible than Marx etc
- Abolition. Feminism. Now. by Angela Davis, Gina Dent et al. - the overlap of feminism and prison abolition
- The Case for Open Borders by John Washington - self-explanatory
- An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - self-explanatory
- The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan - of its time but foundational 2nd wave feminist text
- The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein - self-explanatory
- Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics by Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick - criticism of progressive left-wing politics inability to be consistent on Palestine
some other misc media:
- Democracy Now news station/podcast - far better than most mainstream media IMO
- 5-4 podcast - fun, accessible critical analyses of supreme court cases
- Southlake podcast - case study on modern right-wing school board politics in the US
- Amended podcast (i have not finished yet) - more nuanced history of women’s fight for equality
- The 1619 Project essay collection - uses a critical lens to analyze American historical figures and events
- Working Class History & Making Gay History podcasts - self-explanatory
- 13th documentary dir. by Ava DuVernay - looks at the US prison system and the central role of racism in its construction/maintenance
- Crip Camp documentary dir by James LeBrecht and Nicole Newnhan - follows part of the disability rights movement
Jun 17, 2024
Oooooh everything is about class, because of course it is.
(This book is brilliant).
Feb 20, 2025
Top Recs from @kmoshref
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My favourite fruit. Incredible taste and texture and you gotta do all this work to free the gem-like seeds.
Jan 26, 2024
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Science fiction space opera with a mordant sense of humour, set in a far future Fully Automated Space Communism type setting. Like a gritter and sexier Star Trek, but in a good way.
Jan 25, 2024
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For my money (not a lot tbh) she's one of the best filmmakers working today. Her movies are lyrical but never sentimental, morally serious but never self-righteous. She is especially interested in themes about the body, desire, colonialism. My favourites are Beau Travail, Trouble Every Day, and White Material.
Jan 25, 2024