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Work: Capitalism. Economics. Resistance.
By itself, this is a book about work, but it's also more than that. It is an outline of an analysis of capitalism: what it is, how it works, how we might dis-mantle it. And the book and the analysis are outgrowths of something more a movement of people determined to fight it.
So this book isn't just an attempt to describe reality but also a tool with which to change it. If any of the words or illustrations resonate with you, don't leave them trapped on these pages write them on the wall, shout them over the intercom at your former workplace, change them as you see fit and release them into the world.
This project is the combined effort of a group of people who have already spent many years in pitched struggle against capitalism. What qualifies us to write this? Some of us used to be students or pizza deliverers or dishwashers; others still are construction workers or graphic designers or civic-minded criminals. But all of us have lived under capitalism since we were born, and that makes us experts on it. The same goes for you. No one has to have a degree in economics to understand what's happening: it s enough to get a paycheck or a pink slip and pay attention. We re suspicious of the experts who get their credentials from on high, who have incentives to minimize things that are obvious to everyone else.
Like every attempt to construct a scale model of the world, this one is bound to be partial in both senses of the word. To present the whole story, it would have to be as vast as history. There s no way to be unbiased, either: our positions and values inevitably influence what we include and what we leave out. What we offer here is simply one perspective from our side of the counter and our side of the barricades. If it lines up with yours, let's do something about it.
So this book isn't just an attempt to describe reality but also a tool with which to change it. If any of the words or illustrations resonate with you, don't leave them trapped on these pages write them on the wall, shout them over the intercom at your former workplace, change them as you see fit and release them into the world.
This project is the combined effort of a group of people who have already spent many years in pitched struggle against capitalism. What qualifies us to write this? Some of us used to be students or pizza deliverers or dishwashers; others still are construction workers or graphic designers or civic-minded criminals. But all of us have lived under capitalism since we were born, and that makes us experts on it. The same goes for you. No one has to have a degree in economics to understand what's happening: it s enough to get a paycheck or a pink slip and pay attention. We re suspicious of the experts who get their credentials from on high, who have incentives to minimize things that are obvious to everyone else.
Like every attempt to construct a scale model of the world, this one is bound to be partial in both senses of the word. To present the whole story, it would have to be as vast as history. There s no way to be unbiased, either: our positions and values inevitably influence what we include and what we leave out. What we offer here is simply one perspective from our side of the counter and our side of the barricades. If it lines up with yours, let's do something about it.
376 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2011
55 people are currently reading
1286 people want to read
About the author
CrimethInc.
30 books267 followersFrom the official website:
Crimethought is not any ideology or value system or lifestyle, but rather a way of challenging all ideologies and value systems and lifestyles—and, for the advanced agent, a way of making all ideologies, value systems, and lifestyles challenging.
Crimethought is not any ideology or value system or lifestyle, but rather a way of challenging all ideologies and value systems and lifestyles—and, for the advanced agent, a way of making all ideologies, value systems, and lifestyles challenging.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
June 17, 2020
No longer using this website, but I'm leaving up old reviews. Fuck Jeff Bezos. Find me on LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/profile/...
Work is a lucid and thoughtful analysis of capitalism, work, and economics. Its strengths come from its its readability, its perspective, and, most importantly, its timing.
The authors of Work have a pretty amazing ability to explain the complicated concepts upon which our economy rests in just a couple of pages. The authors have engaged the hundreds of years of study of and resistance to capitalism that the working class and its allies have put forward, and done a great job of packaging that knowledge into a readable and exciting primer.
The book was written from the perspective of someone who wants to understand capitalism and their place underneath it. It is not for the captains of industry or the state policymaker. It is written as a dishwasher, a serviceworker, a proletarian who occupies a low rung of the corporate ladder. It is an explanation why going to work every day is such a terror, and why the only thing worse than this work is not having access to it while still living in this system. But it also explores areas of the terrain that are out of reach to the proletariat (such as the stock market, dividends, finance) and exposes the spell that it casts on its participants, how murderers are literally grinding up our bodies to push this machine forward at all cost (to us, to the planet, to themselves).
The timing of the book is great. When the markets are crashing all around us and capitalism seems in peril, this book comes out at a very strategic time. People are being evicted from their houses, fired from their jobs, or worse, have long been fired or evicted, and are starting to doubt the firmness of ground beneath them. This book describes the problem of capitalism, the false solutions and why they are false, and outlines some of the first steps of a real resistance to it.
One of the final segments of the book ("Fight Where You Stand") was so right on that I almost cheered aloud while reading it.
Work is a lucid and thoughtful analysis of capitalism, work, and economics. Its strengths come from its its readability, its perspective, and, most importantly, its timing.
The authors of Work have a pretty amazing ability to explain the complicated concepts upon which our economy rests in just a couple of pages. The authors have engaged the hundreds of years of study of and resistance to capitalism that the working class and its allies have put forward, and done a great job of packaging that knowledge into a readable and exciting primer.
The book was written from the perspective of someone who wants to understand capitalism and their place underneath it. It is not for the captains of industry or the state policymaker. It is written as a dishwasher, a serviceworker, a proletarian who occupies a low rung of the corporate ladder. It is an explanation why going to work every day is such a terror, and why the only thing worse than this work is not having access to it while still living in this system. But it also explores areas of the terrain that are out of reach to the proletariat (such as the stock market, dividends, finance) and exposes the spell that it casts on its participants, how murderers are literally grinding up our bodies to push this machine forward at all cost (to us, to the planet, to themselves).
The timing of the book is great. When the markets are crashing all around us and capitalism seems in peril, this book comes out at a very strategic time. People are being evicted from their houses, fired from their jobs, or worse, have long been fired or evicted, and are starting to doubt the firmness of ground beneath them. This book describes the problem of capitalism, the false solutions and why they are false, and outlines some of the first steps of a real resistance to it.
One of the final segments of the book ("Fight Where You Stand") was so right on that I almost cheered aloud while reading it.
November 5, 2011
Wow, almost a decade after Crimethinc. swept me off my feet and skyrocketed me into the world of anarchism, they've managed to make something relevant, enjoyable and something I'm not embarrassed to share with friends and acquaintances.
It's also bizarre to read a book that's timely (the resistance section in the back talks about north africa and has pictures from within the last few months) while it's still timely.
It's also bizarre to read a book that's timely (the resistance section in the back talks about north africa and has pictures from within the last few months) while it's still timely.
January 10, 2016
Can't deny the perfect timing on this book's release. A theory of wealth inequality in capitalism, printed late enough to reference and speculate about the Arab Spring movements and early enough to thrust into the hands of USA Occupiers.
Crimethinc wrote a winner here. The clear, thorough breakdown of the 2008 financial crisis is the best I've read so far.* It's like a really knowledgeable friend taking the time to explain the entire system and process from causes to domino effects to far reaching impacts, in easy to follow language and relateable metaphors without diluting anything. I liked how they got into personal responsibility of specific corporations and people, without shirking away from systemic analysis. And the systemic analysis is really, really good. From the focus on the financial crisis, the book moves into a careful, overarching deconstruction of the mechanisms of late capitalism-- and like I said, it's really, really good.
First, it makes fucking sense. There is a gluttony of anti-cap analysis available right now, and most of it is highfaluting, incomprehensible gibberish. Uck. This book is written in down to earth language with logic I follow and can intuit myself as they build arguments. Epistemologically, their conclusions are built from life experience. This is the biggest weakness of one part of the book (see below), but absolutely the biggest strength of the "Mechanics" section, on late-capitalism in the US: their life experience is rooted in the service industry. The rise of the service industry in rich countries is a major shift in how capitalism operates, and is not explained well by earlier anti-capitalist economic theories (in my limited experience). The analysis of late-capitalism via a service industry worker's standpoint, coupled with their research into the inner workings of the financial system, lends a rich perspective that you won't find in something coming out of the academy. Yes! Theory derived from life as experienced by those navigating a system of oppression is awesome and provides a unique standpoint which allows one to see the flip side to the picture as presented by the powerful.
The picture as presented? Capitalism continuously concentrates wealth and poverty. Having resources allows one to access more resources and vice versa. There's a lot more detail into specific mechanisms of how this is done, and it's a valuable read.
HOWEVER, the first part of Work is throwaway. The authors attempt a comprehensive sociological overview of society based on people's economic roles, but the authors are not sociologists, economists, or particularly rigorous lay theorists. The entire section comes off as an extended brainstorm, interesting, on the money sometimes, off it others, and generally assuming significance without proof or theory. This works well when speaking from their own experience in the section on mechanisms of late capitalism, but really fails when they try to extrapolate to the rest of the world's situation.
And this pairs poorly with Crimethinc's decision, again, to refuse to cite from whom their ideas come. I hate this attitude. When you refuse to cite ideas, especially radical critiques of society, the people who you are slighting are not corporate patent-owning fat cats, but the same theorists from whom the corporations and privileged academics appropriate: theorists of color, women writers, Third World authors. These theorists are consistently forgotten & marginalized within the academy (like passed up for tenure and shit) even though their theories and analysis often provide the basis for entire cultural shifts in many fields. It's essential we cite who came up with these ideas so that these theorists become just as entrenched and canonical as some of their white dead dude counterparts, and especially important if we come from various privileged identities (i.e. usa, wealthy, white, male, whatev) because stealing ideas and words without attributing them-- even when writing about anticapitalism and anticolonialism-- is itself a form of colonialism. For a group of authors so often called out on privilege, racism, and sexism, it's disappointing to see Crimethinc's ideas develop without their actions.
[More discussion at the Radical & Anarchist Book Club]
* Though do check out this book that details the way the financial crisis caused the 2008 global food crisis: Food Rebellions!: Forging Food Sovereignty to Solve the Global Food Crisis
Crimethinc wrote a winner here. The clear, thorough breakdown of the 2008 financial crisis is the best I've read so far.* It's like a really knowledgeable friend taking the time to explain the entire system and process from causes to domino effects to far reaching impacts, in easy to follow language and relateable metaphors without diluting anything. I liked how they got into personal responsibility of specific corporations and people, without shirking away from systemic analysis. And the systemic analysis is really, really good. From the focus on the financial crisis, the book moves into a careful, overarching deconstruction of the mechanisms of late capitalism-- and like I said, it's really, really good.
First, it makes fucking sense. There is a gluttony of anti-cap analysis available right now, and most of it is highfaluting, incomprehensible gibberish. Uck. This book is written in down to earth language with logic I follow and can intuit myself as they build arguments. Epistemologically, their conclusions are built from life experience. This is the biggest weakness of one part of the book (see below), but absolutely the biggest strength of the "Mechanics" section, on late-capitalism in the US: their life experience is rooted in the service industry. The rise of the service industry in rich countries is a major shift in how capitalism operates, and is not explained well by earlier anti-capitalist economic theories (in my limited experience). The analysis of late-capitalism via a service industry worker's standpoint, coupled with their research into the inner workings of the financial system, lends a rich perspective that you won't find in something coming out of the academy. Yes! Theory derived from life as experienced by those navigating a system of oppression is awesome and provides a unique standpoint which allows one to see the flip side to the picture as presented by the powerful.
The picture as presented? Capitalism continuously concentrates wealth and poverty. Having resources allows one to access more resources and vice versa. There's a lot more detail into specific mechanisms of how this is done, and it's a valuable read.
HOWEVER, the first part of Work is throwaway. The authors attempt a comprehensive sociological overview of society based on people's economic roles, but the authors are not sociologists, economists, or particularly rigorous lay theorists. The entire section comes off as an extended brainstorm, interesting, on the money sometimes, off it others, and generally assuming significance without proof or theory. This works well when speaking from their own experience in the section on mechanisms of late capitalism, but really fails when they try to extrapolate to the rest of the world's situation.
And this pairs poorly with Crimethinc's decision, again, to refuse to cite from whom their ideas come. I hate this attitude. When you refuse to cite ideas, especially radical critiques of society, the people who you are slighting are not corporate patent-owning fat cats, but the same theorists from whom the corporations and privileged academics appropriate: theorists of color, women writers, Third World authors. These theorists are consistently forgotten & marginalized within the academy (like passed up for tenure and shit) even though their theories and analysis often provide the basis for entire cultural shifts in many fields. It's essential we cite who came up with these ideas so that these theorists become just as entrenched and canonical as some of their white dead dude counterparts, and especially important if we come from various privileged identities (i.e. usa, wealthy, white, male, whatev) because stealing ideas and words without attributing them-- even when writing about anticapitalism and anticolonialism-- is itself a form of colonialism. For a group of authors so often called out on privilege, racism, and sexism, it's disappointing to see Crimethinc's ideas develop without their actions.
[More discussion at the Radical & Anarchist Book Club]
* Though do check out this book that details the way the financial crisis caused the 2008 global food crisis: Food Rebellions!: Forging Food Sovereignty to Solve the Global Food Crisis
July 26, 2013
Actually a lot better than I would expected.
The criticisms can really come from some of the same things that can be leveled on Crimethinc, though the lifestylism and silly "adventure" stuff has been toned down. Instead, there really is a lack of ways forward and an effort to over-critique, at the point of making things feel futile and often without a way for readers to have a way forward. This is not to mention point blank areas where they have gotten facts wrong(a lot of this comes from their belief about all the areas that capitalism has infected, which often does not see the areas that capitalism has retreated from or where non-capitalist forms of hierarchy in conventional areas of class struggle). There are obvious areas where I might disagree in terms of critique, but there are few volumes where an agreement would be absolute.
The criticisms can really come from some of the same things that can be leveled on Crimethinc, though the lifestylism and silly "adventure" stuff has been toned down. Instead, there really is a lack of ways forward and an effort to over-critique, at the point of making things feel futile and often without a way for readers to have a way forward. This is not to mention point blank areas where they have gotten facts wrong(a lot of this comes from their belief about all the areas that capitalism has infected, which often does not see the areas that capitalism has retreated from or where non-capitalist forms of hierarchy in conventional areas of class struggle). There are obvious areas where I might disagree in terms of critique, but there are few volumes where an agreement would be absolute.
October 8, 2020
Unique in all of the ways. The graphic design is excellent. The content is superb- like a gust of pleasant air blowing over me and waking me from the long slumber called ALIENATION. Say what you want about CrimethInc. but in my opinion they consistently put out excellent critical propaganda. Accessible, very smart and savvy, I would recommend this to anyone (new or old timers to the concepts) wanting a different type of primer on capitalism, production, wealth inequality and the omnipresent malaise of modernity. Written in 2011 but still feels fresh in most of the sections.
May 15, 2012
This book is a pretty good analysis of work in capitalism. I've never read much about economics, and I feel this was a good introduction. However, it only scratched the surface. It didn't detail a lot of what it described, and like many Crimethinc books, didn't supply references for many claims and figures. For an intro to anarchist analysis of work though, it was pretty decent.
October 15, 2025
So I got this for 2 bucks at friends of Nola library and was like sure why not, having gotten to it it’s an interesting read as a time capsule of activist thought at this time, how it’s substantively very much the same or parallel with what we discuss now 17 years after the sub prime mortgage crisis, but surprisingly tonally different, or perhaps it’s just sloppily written, at times flowery to a fault, and stylistically has many shallow qualities and I can’t make up my mind which it is. At times just reads as a preacher to the choir, but I could be predisposed to think this as someone very much in the choir to begin with.
It’s still interesting to read what amounts to a manifesto produced by an organization of the occupy Wall Street era. I was too young to understand it at the time but just old enough to remember it so it’s always been hard to have a deep understanding of it given all the tumult that came after, 2016 and onward.
I am a concerned citizen. I’m just at a crossroads of how I want to make my world better as one.
It’s still interesting to read what amounts to a manifesto produced by an organization of the occupy Wall Street era. I was too young to understand it at the time but just old enough to remember it so it’s always been hard to have a deep understanding of it given all the tumult that came after, 2016 and onward.
I am a concerned citizen. I’m just at a crossroads of how I want to make my world better as one.
November 2, 2021
Good introduction, sometimes little bit too simple but I guess it is for reason, I have found interesting concepts and I got different views on the respective topic.
[EN-Paperback]
[EN-Paperback]
November 15, 2018
There's a lot of truth in here. Certainly wish it was mandatory to read in schools, but I didn't learn anything new from it.
Read
December 27, 2011Two things that irritated me about this book:
1) No bibliography. I get that the anonymous authors didn't want to concede authority to the academy, but it still rankled when I wanted to cross-reference something.
2) Illustrations from Shutterstock. There is something profoundly sad about realizing that you once considered using the same vector illustration for a book about twentysomething finances, and here it is exhorting overpaid and underworked employees to rise up and advocate for their rights.
Regarding Crimthinc, my first exposure was in college. I had a friend who was very passionate about human rights. I complained to her that I was frustrated with repetitive ultraliberal rhetoric that discouraged discourse. While I may have agreed that small family farms are better than multinational agri-business conglomerates who encourage a monoculture that will ultimately rob our land of its nutrients, I want to know WHY. The girl in my class, who grew up on a family farm owned by ConAgra, wanted to know why. Why are heirloom peaches profoundly better than the peaches you'd get in the supermarket? Years later, after I'd done more research, I felt like I had a better idea of why I should buy local, but at the time I was angry at evangelicals, whether advocating for religion or heirloom peaches. So, my friend told me to read Crimethinc because it was an intelligent alternative. I didn't really think that it was.
So, I get that this isn't meant to convince anyone who isn't already convinced. That said, I did find some good lines that made me happy I'd purchased this book. I like the last chapter about thinking of activism not as something you'd shoehorn into your "free time" but as a part of who you are all of the time.
Plus, this is a really nice-looking book (Shutterstock illustrations aside). Great cover. I wish that they'd credited the other sources of illustrations in the interior!
1) No bibliography. I get that the anonymous authors didn't want to concede authority to the academy, but it still rankled when I wanted to cross-reference something.
2) Illustrations from Shutterstock. There is something profoundly sad about realizing that you once considered using the same vector illustration for a book about twentysomething finances, and here it is exhorting overpaid and underworked employees to rise up and advocate for their rights.
Regarding Crimthinc, my first exposure was in college. I had a friend who was very passionate about human rights. I complained to her that I was frustrated with repetitive ultraliberal rhetoric that discouraged discourse. While I may have agreed that small family farms are better than multinational agri-business conglomerates who encourage a monoculture that will ultimately rob our land of its nutrients, I want to know WHY. The girl in my class, who grew up on a family farm owned by ConAgra, wanted to know why. Why are heirloom peaches profoundly better than the peaches you'd get in the supermarket? Years later, after I'd done more research, I felt like I had a better idea of why I should buy local, but at the time I was angry at evangelicals, whether advocating for religion or heirloom peaches. So, my friend told me to read Crimethinc because it was an intelligent alternative. I didn't really think that it was.
So, I get that this isn't meant to convince anyone who isn't already convinced. That said, I did find some good lines that made me happy I'd purchased this book. I like the last chapter about thinking of activism not as something you'd shoehorn into your "free time" but as a part of who you are all of the time.
Plus, this is a really nice-looking book (Shutterstock illustrations aside). Great cover. I wish that they'd credited the other sources of illustrations in the interior!
March 23, 2016
Structured as a collection of short chapters, this book attempts to define Work™, and its many components, and provides insight into how our daily lives have been affected by the rise of capitalism. Certain chapters read like a mouthy five-paragraph essay from a high school student, while others provided really interesting connections between work, capitalism, and the many controversial issues facing our society today.
This book is heavy on complaints about capitalism and how it is ruining our lives. The complaints are mostly legitimate and warranted, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never been particularly attracted to the notion of authority or “working for the man”, so the book resonated with me in that respect. I was disappointed to find no mention of potential alternatives to capitalism until the last forty pages of this near 400-page piece. 90% rant, 10% action. There is no formal bibliography, either; only a short list of books that were referenced during the course of writing.
I agree a lot with the underlying message of this book, but it’s rant-driven content is an indication of how difficult it is to find and implement alternative solutions to the problems facing modern society. Capitalism has become so engrained in the societies of developed nations around the world, that any alternatives are usually considered dangerous or radical, and labeled as such. A battle against capitalism is a tough one to wage-perhaps the toughest.
This book is heavy on complaints about capitalism and how it is ruining our lives. The complaints are mostly legitimate and warranted, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never been particularly attracted to the notion of authority or “working for the man”, so the book resonated with me in that respect. I was disappointed to find no mention of potential alternatives to capitalism until the last forty pages of this near 400-page piece. 90% rant, 10% action. There is no formal bibliography, either; only a short list of books that were referenced during the course of writing.
I agree a lot with the underlying message of this book, but it’s rant-driven content is an indication of how difficult it is to find and implement alternative solutions to the problems facing modern society. Capitalism has become so engrained in the societies of developed nations around the world, that any alternatives are usually considered dangerous or radical, and labeled as such. A battle against capitalism is a tough one to wage-perhaps the toughest.
April 16, 2012
Despite how much I enjoyed it, for the most part this book isn't really innovative. Instead it serves as a modern restatement of the nature of capitalism and how it has pervaded so many aspects of our lives. The analysis is insightful and low on the romanticisation Crimethinc are prone to (love it as I may). The damning fashion in which the many ranks and roles are tied together is lucid but lacks the usual vitriol that can be alienating for readers who might realise the part they play in this insidious scheme.
The look at the workings of some areas of economics comes across well, something that far too many anarchist texts lack, the numbers and systemic criticisms of capitalism that are vital to analysis.
The presentation is pretty nice, the centrepoint of the updated capitalist pyramid is a great idea and a nice tip of the hat to the old IWW pyramid.
A book I wish I could have had as a teenager.
The look at the workings of some areas of economics comes across well, something that far too many anarchist texts lack, the numbers and systemic criticisms of capitalism that are vital to analysis.
The presentation is pretty nice, the centrepoint of the updated capitalist pyramid is a great idea and a nice tip of the hat to the old IWW pyramid.
A book I wish I could have had as a teenager.
May 6, 2025
Wholly anti-capitalist, the book offers plenty of dissections of every aspect of our society and how its problems are inherently rooted in private property and our capitalist way of living.
It feels distinctly dated (early 2010s) and many of its larger calls to action or hopeful resolutions have already come to pass. The age of information and the attention economy were in the hands of businesses and capitalists and planned out far before anyone thought they could use it as a means of revolt.
Also it never quite gave a solution to all the bureaucratic benefits of our society - how would healthcare, travel, waste management, or anything difficult happen in a safe and more beneficial way than it does now without our regulations? It critiques without providing the counter.
A final quote, and a good one from Athens: “we weighed its joys and justices and found them all too little”. I wish there was more momentum. Transformation happens in contagion.
It feels distinctly dated (early 2010s) and many of its larger calls to action or hopeful resolutions have already come to pass. The age of information and the attention economy were in the hands of businesses and capitalists and planned out far before anyone thought they could use it as a means of revolt.
Also it never quite gave a solution to all the bureaucratic benefits of our society - how would healthcare, travel, waste management, or anything difficult happen in a safe and more beneficial way than it does now without our regulations? It critiques without providing the counter.
A final quote, and a good one from Athens: “we weighed its joys and justices and found them all too little”. I wish there was more momentum. Transformation happens in contagion.
May 9, 2021
An excellent and accessible primer to anti-capitalism, "Work" does a good job at making clear the function and problems with modern capitalism. However, I found it to pose more questions than answers, especially in the abbreviated second section which addresses resistance and tactics. This serves as a good introduction, but ought to be paired with further reading. I found the criticism of consumption, reformism, and the re-absorption of resistance into market ideology especially valuable, and worth the read alone.
April 4, 2012
I'll never forgive Crimethinc for Evasion but this was pretty good. A very clear, accessible explanation of capitalism. I would definitely recommend this for someone who's new to anarchism/anti-capitalism and has a hard time articulating why.
November 11, 2013
Lacks inspiration, and depth, but it might be useful to the newcomer
May 4, 2016
El trabajo es cáncer.
June 26, 2020
money is fake y'all
January 7, 2025
"Работа" — это книга, которая обещает стать критическим анализом капитализма и роли труда в жизни современного общества с анархистской точки зрения. Однако, несмотря на интересные моменты, она оставляет больше вопросов, чем ответов.
Плюсы
Один из наиболее позитивных моментов — это глава о взаимопомощи в Новом Орлеане во время кризиса. Этот пример действительно вдохновляет и напоминает о том, как солидарность и кооперация могут преодолеть хаос капиталистического общества.
Книга поднимает важные вопросы о том, как капитализм влияет на нашу жизнь и здоровье, подчёркивая, что система заботится о человеке только в том случае, если это приносит прибыль. Она также показывает, как труд становится средством поддержания этой системы, а не способом для удовлетворения человеческих потребностей.
Минусы
Книга во многом производит депрессивное впечатление. Она оставляет ощущение безнадёжности, практически не предлагая путей к спасению или конструктивным изменениям. Несмотря на завершающие главы, где обсуждается возможность сопротивления вне капиталистической экономики, эти идеи звучат слабо и неубедительно. Особенно это заметно на фоне острой критики реформизма и других альтернатив.
Книга затрагивает множество социальных проблем, но часто делает это поверхностно, без глубокого анализа или чётких решений. В результате она больше подходит для тех, кто только начинает интересоваться критической теорией и анархистским взглядом на капитализм. Опытным читателям она может показаться слишком общей.
Итог
"Работа" — это скорее стартовая площадка, чем глубокое исследование. Если вы заинтересовались какими-либо из поднятых в книге тем, лучше поискать более детальную информацию в других источниках. Вопрос названия остаётся открытым: книга скорее о критике общества в целом, чем о труде как таковом.
Плюсы
Один из наиболее позитивных моментов — это глава о взаимопомощи в Новом Орлеане во время кризиса. Этот пример действительно вдохновляет и напоминает о том, как солидарность и кооперация могут преодолеть хаос капиталистического общества.
Книга поднимает важные вопросы о том, как капитализм влияет на нашу жизнь и здоровье, подчёркивая, что система заботится о человеке только в том случае, если это приносит прибыль. Она также показывает, как труд становится средством поддержания этой системы, а не способом для удовлетворения человеческих потребностей.
Минусы
Книга во многом производит депрессивное впечатление. Она оставляет ощущение безнадёжности, практически не предлагая путей к спасению или конструктивным изменениям. Несмотря на завершающие главы, где обсуждается возможность сопротивления вне капиталистической экономики, эти идеи звучат слабо и неубедительно. Особенно это заметно на фоне острой критики реформизма и других альтернатив.
Книга затрагивает множество социальных проблем, но часто делает это поверхностно, без глубокого анализа или чётких решений. В результате она больше подходит для тех, кто только начинает интересоваться критической теорией и анархистским взглядом на капитализм. Опытным читателям она может показаться слишком общей.
Итог
"Работа" — это скорее стартовая площадка, чем глубокое исследование. Если вы заинтересовались какими-либо из поднятых в книге тем, лучше поискать более детальную информацию в других источниках. Вопрос названия остаётся открытым: книга скорее о критике общества в целом, чем о труде как таковом.
June 27, 2020
Wow! Huge congrats to the folks at the mysterious crimethinc for this beautiful and comprehensive book! The artwork was deeply stirring and humorous and wonderful! Truly incredible artwork! As someone who has not received an education, this book was a super helpful 101 on a ton of different topics. The writing was disorganized, dense & unnecessarily hard to understand at points, and sometimes felt cheap or with sloppy analysis, and it took me a while to push through the book, but I deeply appreciate that at points the text really embraced the importance of living analysis and radical flexibility and creativity, and really emphasized the roles of culture and relating, and and counterculture, and that of course, ultimately, the downfall of capitalism will not simply bring about a better or more free world in the destined mechanical way the marxists purport, but that we have to set up positive examples now!
January 23, 2023
Honestly, I've had this book for a really long time and have never read it. I like that this book includes photos, comics, and other media. I think it's overall a great book to get a clear idea of the capitalistic social order. I enjoy the emphasis on resistance and revolution, I also like that it's careful to not rush those sorta things. This seems like a good book to introduce folks to radicalizing and who are considering alternatives to capitalism. My biggest criticism of this book is how quick it jumps from point to point to point, I think there is a lot that could have been expanded on, specifically on what we can do, but I suppose that's where we should have discussion. It's a good book to examine and question our current social order. It's a little weird to read this at a point where I feel pretty clear on these sorta things and have been educated on this social order for some time, but again it's a great introductory book. A good sense of class consciousness!!
June 23, 2024
Though the format, layout, division of chapters, topics at hand and overarching intention and narrative of this book are exciting and well communicated, it left me still feeling hopeless and without any tangible, executable actions of - what - to - actually - do. The reader is brought to an excited height - and left with, zero solutions, strategies, resources. This is an “occupy Wall Street” think - without the think or solution. Bottom line is that human beings are greedy, selfish, power hungry, corrupt, violent and will ALWAYS be self serving. It’s been this way since the beginning of time. If you want to scribe a manual for change, give me something I can latch onto, instead of pissing me off even more.
November 14, 2019
Great intro to concepts of capitalist critique. Crimethinc in a way just regurgitates ancient leftist concepts in a modern protest punkish light, but is that such a bad thing? Kind of wish they would have elaborated more on the roots of the concepts they were going over. Romanticized a little, and vague on the resistance side. Really goes over the different roles in capitalism well though. Lots of great illustrations, but it maybe overkill considering that's probably like 40% of the book.
Great intro to Crimethinc and capitalist critique in general.
Great intro to Crimethinc and capitalist critique in general.
January 23, 2020
As usual, there's much more detail on what's wrong than on how to change it. Kind of weak and hand-wavy at some points, but it's useful as a reference for thinking about how all the parts of society are bound up in its problems. Handy if you need a reminder that electoral politics and NGOs and education won't fix things.
February 27, 2020
Meticulously argued but hopeful too. If you’re feeling crushed by all the crap in the world think about the source of a lot of it and then resolve to do something about it. Gradually things really can feel better. It’s not easy but putting up with being crushed is a mug’s game and trying to reshape this dumb system ain’t gonna work.
July 16, 2025
really good read overall.
what I think is really good: crtique of state structures, historical facts, well-explained economics, insights about activism, examples of workplace struggle
what I wouldn't really take this book to be too accurate about: anything about gender or queerness, understanding of socialism or communism
what I think is really good: crtique of state structures, historical facts, well-explained economics, insights about activism, examples of workplace struggle
what I wouldn't really take this book to be too accurate about: anything about gender or queerness, understanding of socialism or communism
December 31, 2021
I bookended 2021 with Crimethinc. works, and I think that this one may have been the best of the three I’ve read thus far. Mind-opening, and undoubtedly worthy of the highest recommendations I could ever dole out. A masterpiece!
December 31, 2022
Книга - манифест сопротивления капитализму с огромным количеством нераскрытых тезисов (звучит как вброс).
При этом, авторы не рассуждают, а какой мир должен быть без капитализма? Предлагают читателю бороться с капитализмом, чтобы что?
При этом, авторы не рассуждают, а какой мир должен быть без капитализма? Предлагают читателю бороться с капитализмом, чтобы что?
November 8, 2018
Sunkiai skaitėsi.
December 28, 2018
This book takes time to read, not because it's over complicated but because it's written so simply that you plummet straight to the crux of why capitalism is so shite and lose your sense of purpose.
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