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ABC do Socialismo
Fino, acessível e didático: uma introdução irreverente ao socialismo escrita por colaboradores da Jacobin – ideal para derrubar mitos e desinformações difundidas pela direita nas redes.
Em meio a uma crise política generalizada, a ascensão da extrema direita, o aumento da desigualdade e da precariedade, o aprofundamento da crise ecológica e da emergência climática e o acirramento das lutas de classe, há hoje mais interesse no pensamento socialista do que em qualquer outro momento das últimas quatro décadas. Na América Latina, a esquerda tem se reorganizado para voltar ao poder, e conquistado espaço até mesmo onde não havia sido vitoriosa eleitoralmente em pleitos nacionais, como na Colômbia e no México. Até nos Estados Unidos, o socialista democrático Bernie Sanders provocou – para o choque e horror dos bilionários e seus ideólogos – uma conversa sobre o socialismo no coração do império, e a maior parte da juventude, pela primeira vez na história do país, já diz preferir o socialismo ao capitalismo. Se ainda não está claro exatamente o que o socialismo significa para toda uma nova geração, o que está evidente é que há uma mudança geracional em curso: o tempo do fim das alternativas chegou ao fim. Ninguém mais acha que as coisas podem seguir do jeito que estão.
Este livro pretende cumprir uma função difícil, mas urgente: oferecer uma introdução acessível, contemporânea, informativa e iconoclasta do socialismo para os não iniciados. Não é uma publicação para especialistas, mas para pessoas comuns, que de tanto ouvir falar em socialismo nas discussões políticas começam a ficar curiosas. Feito por jovens escritores da revista Jacobin, o ABC do Socialismo responde a perguntas básicas, incluindo aquelas que muitos querem saber, mas podem ter vergonha de perguntar: “O socialismo não acaba sempre em ditadura?”, “Os socialistas vão ocupar minha casa ou invadir meu sítio?” ou “O socialismo não é um conceito ocidental?”. Didática e dirigida a um público amplo, sem sacrificar o rigor intelectual, esta é a apresentação mais dinâmica – e certamente a mais divertida – que você lerá de uma ideia que se recusou a morrer, e hoje está, para desespero de seus inimigos, mais sedutora que nunca.
CAPÍTULOS
Prefácio: Se você odeia o Bolsonaro então vai amar o socialismo
Aline Klein e Victor Marques
Pelo menos o capitalismo é livre e democrático, né?
Erik Olin Wright
O socialismo soa bem na teoria, mas a natureza humana não o torna impossível de ser realizado na prática?
Adaner Usmani & Bhaskar Sunkara
Os ricos não merecem ficar com a maior parte do seu dinheiro?
Michael A. McCarthy
Os socialistas vão levar os meus CDs do Calypso?
Bhaskar Sunkara
O socialismo não termina sempre em ditadura?
Joseph M. Schwartz
O socialismo não é um conceito ocidental?
Nivedita Majumdar
E quanto ao racismo? Os socialistas não se importam só com a classe?
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Um mundo socialista não significaria apenas uma crise ambiental maior ainda?
Alyssa Battistoni
Os socialistas são pacifistas? Algumas guerras não são justificadas?
Jonah Birch
Por que os socialistas falam tanto sobre trabalhadores?
Vivek Chibber
O socialismo vai ser chato?
Danny Katch
Os socialistas não vão ocupar minha casa e invadir meu sítio?
Sofia Schurig e Marcelo Bamonte
O socialismo é coisa de homem branco europeu?
Rhaysa Ruas
Em meio a uma crise política generalizada, a ascensão da extrema direita, o aumento da desigualdade e da precariedade, o aprofundamento da crise ecológica e da emergência climática e o acirramento das lutas de classe, há hoje mais interesse no pensamento socialista do que em qualquer outro momento das últimas quatro décadas. Na América Latina, a esquerda tem se reorganizado para voltar ao poder, e conquistado espaço até mesmo onde não havia sido vitoriosa eleitoralmente em pleitos nacionais, como na Colômbia e no México. Até nos Estados Unidos, o socialista democrático Bernie Sanders provocou – para o choque e horror dos bilionários e seus ideólogos – uma conversa sobre o socialismo no coração do império, e a maior parte da juventude, pela primeira vez na história do país, já diz preferir o socialismo ao capitalismo. Se ainda não está claro exatamente o que o socialismo significa para toda uma nova geração, o que está evidente é que há uma mudança geracional em curso: o tempo do fim das alternativas chegou ao fim. Ninguém mais acha que as coisas podem seguir do jeito que estão.
Este livro pretende cumprir uma função difícil, mas urgente: oferecer uma introdução acessível, contemporânea, informativa e iconoclasta do socialismo para os não iniciados. Não é uma publicação para especialistas, mas para pessoas comuns, que de tanto ouvir falar em socialismo nas discussões políticas começam a ficar curiosas. Feito por jovens escritores da revista Jacobin, o ABC do Socialismo responde a perguntas básicas, incluindo aquelas que muitos querem saber, mas podem ter vergonha de perguntar: “O socialismo não acaba sempre em ditadura?”, “Os socialistas vão ocupar minha casa ou invadir meu sítio?” ou “O socialismo não é um conceito ocidental?”. Didática e dirigida a um público amplo, sem sacrificar o rigor intelectual, esta é a apresentação mais dinâmica – e certamente a mais divertida – que você lerá de uma ideia que se recusou a morrer, e hoje está, para desespero de seus inimigos, mais sedutora que nunca.
CAPÍTULOS
Prefácio: Se você odeia o Bolsonaro então vai amar o socialismo
Aline Klein e Victor Marques
Pelo menos o capitalismo é livre e democrático, né?
Erik Olin Wright
O socialismo soa bem na teoria, mas a natureza humana não o torna impossível de ser realizado na prática?
Adaner Usmani & Bhaskar Sunkara
Os ricos não merecem ficar com a maior parte do seu dinheiro?
Michael A. McCarthy
Os socialistas vão levar os meus CDs do Calypso?
Bhaskar Sunkara
O socialismo não termina sempre em ditadura?
Joseph M. Schwartz
O socialismo não é um conceito ocidental?
Nivedita Majumdar
E quanto ao racismo? Os socialistas não se importam só com a classe?
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Um mundo socialista não significaria apenas uma crise ambiental maior ainda?
Alyssa Battistoni
Os socialistas são pacifistas? Algumas guerras não são justificadas?
Jonah Birch
Por que os socialistas falam tanto sobre trabalhadores?
Vivek Chibber
O socialismo vai ser chato?
Danny Katch
Os socialistas não vão ocupar minha casa e invadir meu sítio?
Sofia Schurig e Marcelo Bamonte
O socialismo é coisa de homem branco europeu?
Rhaysa Ruas
204 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 209 reviews
October 20, 2016
The Jacobin and Verso collaboration, The ABC's of Socialism, does what it promises: it provides an accessible, lively, and helpful overview of a number of major topics relating to the theory, history, and promise of socialism. The booklet's Q&A format lends itself particularly well to the purpose of removing most of the common questions or misconceptions the average Joe may have about socialism. A variety of issues of this kind are discussed, such as "are socialists authoritarian?", "why do socialists always focus on workers", "how about race/gender?", and even "would socialism be boring?". Since it is written for an American audience, both questions and answers are oriented to the American historical experience, but many of the mini-essays are fairly universally applicable and there's every reason to believe people elsewhere in the Western world, at least, would ask similar questions.
The tone of the book is judiciously pitched. I would say the level can best be described as accessible at intermediate level. That is to say, it steers fully clear of being a work of theory in any sense of that word that might evoke high abstraction or complex jargon, but equally, the vocabulary is for the most part (as far as I can assess such things) one aimed at educated people. With the possible exception of Danny Katch's free-wheeling essay on creativity under capitalism and socialism, most authors do not avoid terms like "purportedly" or "valence" - to pick two from Chris Maisano's opening essay on government spending and socialism. Whether that is good or bad is not for me to say, especially as I am not the right person to judge the fine balance between the need to popularize for a mass audience and the danger of condescension or contempt towards that audience. I can merely observe it. (Incidentally, I wonder whether 'ABC's' is truly the correct plural? My guess would be 'ABCs'.)
On the whole, the essays are very well written, clear, and manage to get a lot of important ideas across in relatively little space. The booklet is 138 pages, but with a large print and much space given to the fine illustrations by Phil Wrigglesworth, this means much content is packed into a series of very short pieces. This alone should contribute to its success as a propaganda tool for socialism. Moreover, the choice of relevant questions, the range of informed answers on current topics of contention - from the importance of union organizing to the joint constitution of race, gender, and class under capitalism - plus the explicit criticisms of alternative political approaches make The ABC's of Socialism a success. Clever, too, was the idea to invent paper hyperlinks: occasional references are given a number that one can plug into a fixed Jacobin URL to find the relevant article on the topic.
Of course, the work is not perfect. The political view of socialism presented is very much that of the organization most Jacobin editors and writers are associated with, at least informally: the Democratic Socialists of America, a socialist campaign group that primarily (though not exclusively) operates within the Democratic Party. This means, for example, an economic orientation towards market socialism of some variety or another, as exemplified by the ingenious article by Seth Ackerman I have previously criticized.
I continue to have disagreements with the DSA and Jacobin's assessment of 20th century history and in particular that of so-called 'real existing socialism', where in this work as elsewhere the arguments generally align with the views of small Trotskyist currents. It is a little disturbing to see an otherwise fine essay rightly emphasize the important contribution socialists made in the struggle for democracy in the 19th century; only to see the whole socialist experience of the 20th century dismissed more or less off-hand without so much as a mention of the role 'authoritarian' socialism, for all its ambivalences, played in defeating fascism, making the anti-colonial movement possible, and being the main pole of opposition to the liberal-reactionary alliance against democracy that has characterized the whole of the 1917-1991 period. Perhaps this also has something to do with widespread American myths about their own role in these historical struggles, although I should add that the history of US interventionism during the Cold War is not ignored. Moreover, I suspect it will not work: although "what about the USSR?" is not a topic in this booklet, it is surely something virtually everyone curious about the socialists will ask, and "this time it'll be different" alone may not satisfy everyone.
Generally, the inevitable cost of focusing on the sociological processes of domination and exploitation and of popularization is that a very critical (intellectual) reader might accuse the authors of frequently handwaving away possible problems or counterarguments. There are many proposals of the format "we will do the good things, not the bad things", without too much by way of specifics as to how that is to be achieved from our current position. But one cannot do everything in one work, and presenting a positive manifesto of intent is always more captivating and effective as a work of popular appeal than a necessarily much lengthier discussion of ways and means, or the umpteenth work of Marxist theory. (Although here, too, one should not condescend too readily: if 19th century workers could find the works of Bebel exciting in the millions, why not today?)
If one takes the booklet's primary purpose to be the presentation of the aims and desires of socialists, and the discussion of common questions or refutations to objections to socialism as imagined by most Americans, it succeeds very well at its purpose. So well, in fact, that one wishes it were a little longer so more topics could be addressed. The current selection, while eminently defensible, is certainly not the only one possible. Wise is also the emphasis on bread and butter questions of political economy, rather than the fraught debates over attitudes towards foreign events and movements that so often uselessly divide left movements that anyway lack the power to affect them. There is in general a great dearth of good popularisations of socialist ideas in general - just as there is such a shortage for good popularisations of Marxism - so that this work is a worthwhile addition to the small pile of texts suitable to introduce a newly conscious person to socialism.
The tone of the book is judiciously pitched. I would say the level can best be described as accessible at intermediate level. That is to say, it steers fully clear of being a work of theory in any sense of that word that might evoke high abstraction or complex jargon, but equally, the vocabulary is for the most part (as far as I can assess such things) one aimed at educated people. With the possible exception of Danny Katch's free-wheeling essay on creativity under capitalism and socialism, most authors do not avoid terms like "purportedly" or "valence" - to pick two from Chris Maisano's opening essay on government spending and socialism. Whether that is good or bad is not for me to say, especially as I am not the right person to judge the fine balance between the need to popularize for a mass audience and the danger of condescension or contempt towards that audience. I can merely observe it. (Incidentally, I wonder whether 'ABC's' is truly the correct plural? My guess would be 'ABCs'.)
On the whole, the essays are very well written, clear, and manage to get a lot of important ideas across in relatively little space. The booklet is 138 pages, but with a large print and much space given to the fine illustrations by Phil Wrigglesworth, this means much content is packed into a series of very short pieces. This alone should contribute to its success as a propaganda tool for socialism. Moreover, the choice of relevant questions, the range of informed answers on current topics of contention - from the importance of union organizing to the joint constitution of race, gender, and class under capitalism - plus the explicit criticisms of alternative political approaches make The ABC's of Socialism a success. Clever, too, was the idea to invent paper hyperlinks: occasional references are given a number that one can plug into a fixed Jacobin URL to find the relevant article on the topic.
Of course, the work is not perfect. The political view of socialism presented is very much that of the organization most Jacobin editors and writers are associated with, at least informally: the Democratic Socialists of America, a socialist campaign group that primarily (though not exclusively) operates within the Democratic Party. This means, for example, an economic orientation towards market socialism of some variety or another, as exemplified by the ingenious article by Seth Ackerman I have previously criticized.
I continue to have disagreements with the DSA and Jacobin's assessment of 20th century history and in particular that of so-called 'real existing socialism', where in this work as elsewhere the arguments generally align with the views of small Trotskyist currents. It is a little disturbing to see an otherwise fine essay rightly emphasize the important contribution socialists made in the struggle for democracy in the 19th century; only to see the whole socialist experience of the 20th century dismissed more or less off-hand without so much as a mention of the role 'authoritarian' socialism, for all its ambivalences, played in defeating fascism, making the anti-colonial movement possible, and being the main pole of opposition to the liberal-reactionary alliance against democracy that has characterized the whole of the 1917-1991 period. Perhaps this also has something to do with widespread American myths about their own role in these historical struggles, although I should add that the history of US interventionism during the Cold War is not ignored. Moreover, I suspect it will not work: although "what about the USSR?" is not a topic in this booklet, it is surely something virtually everyone curious about the socialists will ask, and "this time it'll be different" alone may not satisfy everyone.
Generally, the inevitable cost of focusing on the sociological processes of domination and exploitation and of popularization is that a very critical (intellectual) reader might accuse the authors of frequently handwaving away possible problems or counterarguments. There are many proposals of the format "we will do the good things, not the bad things", without too much by way of specifics as to how that is to be achieved from our current position. But one cannot do everything in one work, and presenting a positive manifesto of intent is always more captivating and effective as a work of popular appeal than a necessarily much lengthier discussion of ways and means, or the umpteenth work of Marxist theory. (Although here, too, one should not condescend too readily: if 19th century workers could find the works of Bebel exciting in the millions, why not today?)
If one takes the booklet's primary purpose to be the presentation of the aims and desires of socialists, and the discussion of common questions or refutations to objections to socialism as imagined by most Americans, it succeeds very well at its purpose. So well, in fact, that one wishes it were a little longer so more topics could be addressed. The current selection, while eminently defensible, is certainly not the only one possible. Wise is also the emphasis on bread and butter questions of political economy, rather than the fraught debates over attitudes towards foreign events and movements that so often uselessly divide left movements that anyway lack the power to affect them. There is in general a great dearth of good popularisations of socialist ideas in general - just as there is such a shortage for good popularisations of Marxism - so that this work is a worthwhile addition to the small pile of texts suitable to introduce a newly conscious person to socialism.
August 30, 2016
Socialism has, to put it mildly, a bit of a bad reputation.
This may sound like an absurd statement in this year of 2016, especially if you live your life on the internet. It has only been a few years since socialist candidate Kshama Sawant won a spot on the Seattle City Council; and it was only last month that Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination for President of the United States after a fiercely contested battle with Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who is a socialist in everything but name. The socialist-communist left is surging like it hasn’t in nearly a hundred years, as the curdled promise of capitalism becomes harder and harder to believe in, and a generation of young people become aware of the grim future that awaits them at the hands of an unrestrained market economy.
But these new and uncertain developments belie the fact that, virtually since their invention, communism and its kissing cousin socialism have been taboos almost everywhere they have manifested themselves. It was less than a decade ago that Barack Obama, a moderate centrist technocrat with a faith in capitalism as strong as that of any Silicon Valley tech mogul, was tarred as a socialist (the more polite word for a communist, in American political cant if not in actuality) by his political opposition; hell, for that matter, in his big speech at the Democratic National Convention a few weeks ago, Obama himself placed communism alongside fascism and jihadism as one of the menacing evils that “threaten our values”.
History is not the strong suit of Americans. We forget things unless they’re happening right now, and that’s if we ever knew them to begin with. We forget that the first Americans to fight fascism were socialists and communists who volunteered against Franco’s forces in Spain, correctly identifying them as a bellwether of what was to come in Europe, and that these heroes died in greater numbers than the American casualties of Pearl Harbor or 9/11. We forget that it was the Russian communists who died in the millions to bring Hitler’s forces to a grinding halt on the Eastern front, allowing the Western democracies the time they needed to bring their own resources to bear against the fascist war machine. We forget that socialists enjoy the highest living standards in the world today, that syndicalists brought us every victory the working class has ever one, that communists have always been on the forefront of the struggles against racism, sexism, and homophobia. We forget that, in the same year that a young Hillary Clinton was roughly informed by NASA that women couldn’t be astronauts, the Soviet Union put the first woman in space.
This forgetting makes us come to some pretty strange conclusions. We conclude that the time for unionism is over, even as the gains the unions made are slowly taken away, because we forget how hard they fought for us and how they died at the hands of their own countrymen. We conclude that socialism is for white people, at a time when it is needed more than ever in the Global South, because we forget that socialism has arisen from the bottom in black, Asian, and Latin American countries for decades. We conclude that communism has been a failure, thanks to compromises and excesses of communist-identified governments, because we forget that everywhere it has arisen, communism has been undermined, sabotaged, railed against, subverted, and fought with unthinkable violence. We conclude that leftist politics inevitably lead to authoritarianism, and we remember learning about Red Terrors in school, because no one bothered to teach us about the dozens of White Terrors.
All of which leads us to The ABCs of Socialism, a concise and fascinating little book by the good people at Jacobin magazine. Jacobin is one of the more curious and singular manifestation of the recent upsurge in interest that socialism has experienced, and the fact that they are so widely despised by everyone from libertarians to neoliberals to dedicated tankies tells me — if I didn’t already know from reading their beautifully designed and diversely written magazine — that they’re doing something right. ABCs is just as lovely as the magazine itself, and it’s exactly what it purports to be: a respectful and intelligent but never pandering or inaccessible introduction to the whys and wherefores of the socialist left.
ABCs isn’t a bold work, or a massive and rigorous introduction to Marxist theory, and that’s good; anyone convinced by its arguments, which are well-made and direct, will find themselves heading in that direction anyway. What it is is a pamphlet-shaped book of short essays that answer the kind of questions that the average American, who, whether they know it or not, have been swimming in the toxic waters of red-baiting anticommunist propaganda since they day they were born, might have about socialism. Is socialism inherently Western? (No.) Is the left anti-feminist? (No.) Does communism inherently lead to totalitarianism? (No.) Does socialism act in defiance of human nature? (No.) Isn’t capitalism synonymous with freedom? (Ah ha ha ha, no.) It does all this with good-natured arguments, lots of facts and statistics as well as suggestions for further exploration in the magazine and elsewhere, a lovely design sensibility, and a passion that is never dogmatic.
It has been almost 25 years since Francis Fukuyama penned his infamous treatise The End of History and the Last Man. He argued, at the same time that Bill Clinton was first elected President and the Democratic Party turned its back on its pro-labor leftist roots and became the party of socially semi-progressive neo-liberalism, that global capitalism and social progress marked an end-point in the political development of humanity — the market had won, the sun had set on communism, and there would henceforth be only one form of government, with freedom and light-up sneakers for all. Now, with another neo-liberal Clinton about to take office, the discontents of capitalism — largely unchanged since the days of Marx and Luxemburg — could not be more pronounced. The seeds sown by the need for more and cheaper markets resulted in an anti-colonialism that mutated into radical Islamism; the insistence that the invisible hand could fix anything proved to be a bad joke as inequality became ever more pronounced in even the richest countries; and environmental devastation threatens to put an end to history in a very different way than Fukuyama predicted. There are good reasons people are more interested in socialism than they have been in decades. If you’re one of them, you can get The ABCs of Socialism from Jacobin in paperback for less than $20, or for free in PDF form. Memory and history will take you that far; the next step is up to all of us.
This may sound like an absurd statement in this year of 2016, especially if you live your life on the internet. It has only been a few years since socialist candidate Kshama Sawant won a spot on the Seattle City Council; and it was only last month that Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination for President of the United States after a fiercely contested battle with Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who is a socialist in everything but name. The socialist-communist left is surging like it hasn’t in nearly a hundred years, as the curdled promise of capitalism becomes harder and harder to believe in, and a generation of young people become aware of the grim future that awaits them at the hands of an unrestrained market economy.
But these new and uncertain developments belie the fact that, virtually since their invention, communism and its kissing cousin socialism have been taboos almost everywhere they have manifested themselves. It was less than a decade ago that Barack Obama, a moderate centrist technocrat with a faith in capitalism as strong as that of any Silicon Valley tech mogul, was tarred as a socialist (the more polite word for a communist, in American political cant if not in actuality) by his political opposition; hell, for that matter, in his big speech at the Democratic National Convention a few weeks ago, Obama himself placed communism alongside fascism and jihadism as one of the menacing evils that “threaten our values”.
History is not the strong suit of Americans. We forget things unless they’re happening right now, and that’s if we ever knew them to begin with. We forget that the first Americans to fight fascism were socialists and communists who volunteered against Franco’s forces in Spain, correctly identifying them as a bellwether of what was to come in Europe, and that these heroes died in greater numbers than the American casualties of Pearl Harbor or 9/11. We forget that it was the Russian communists who died in the millions to bring Hitler’s forces to a grinding halt on the Eastern front, allowing the Western democracies the time they needed to bring their own resources to bear against the fascist war machine. We forget that socialists enjoy the highest living standards in the world today, that syndicalists brought us every victory the working class has ever one, that communists have always been on the forefront of the struggles against racism, sexism, and homophobia. We forget that, in the same year that a young Hillary Clinton was roughly informed by NASA that women couldn’t be astronauts, the Soviet Union put the first woman in space.
This forgetting makes us come to some pretty strange conclusions. We conclude that the time for unionism is over, even as the gains the unions made are slowly taken away, because we forget how hard they fought for us and how they died at the hands of their own countrymen. We conclude that socialism is for white people, at a time when it is needed more than ever in the Global South, because we forget that socialism has arisen from the bottom in black, Asian, and Latin American countries for decades. We conclude that communism has been a failure, thanks to compromises and excesses of communist-identified governments, because we forget that everywhere it has arisen, communism has been undermined, sabotaged, railed against, subverted, and fought with unthinkable violence. We conclude that leftist politics inevitably lead to authoritarianism, and we remember learning about Red Terrors in school, because no one bothered to teach us about the dozens of White Terrors.
All of which leads us to The ABCs of Socialism, a concise and fascinating little book by the good people at Jacobin magazine. Jacobin is one of the more curious and singular manifestation of the recent upsurge in interest that socialism has experienced, and the fact that they are so widely despised by everyone from libertarians to neoliberals to dedicated tankies tells me — if I didn’t already know from reading their beautifully designed and diversely written magazine — that they’re doing something right. ABCs is just as lovely as the magazine itself, and it’s exactly what it purports to be: a respectful and intelligent but never pandering or inaccessible introduction to the whys and wherefores of the socialist left.
ABCs isn’t a bold work, or a massive and rigorous introduction to Marxist theory, and that’s good; anyone convinced by its arguments, which are well-made and direct, will find themselves heading in that direction anyway. What it is is a pamphlet-shaped book of short essays that answer the kind of questions that the average American, who, whether they know it or not, have been swimming in the toxic waters of red-baiting anticommunist propaganda since they day they were born, might have about socialism. Is socialism inherently Western? (No.) Is the left anti-feminist? (No.) Does communism inherently lead to totalitarianism? (No.) Does socialism act in defiance of human nature? (No.) Isn’t capitalism synonymous with freedom? (Ah ha ha ha, no.) It does all this with good-natured arguments, lots of facts and statistics as well as suggestions for further exploration in the magazine and elsewhere, a lovely design sensibility, and a passion that is never dogmatic.
It has been almost 25 years since Francis Fukuyama penned his infamous treatise The End of History and the Last Man. He argued, at the same time that Bill Clinton was first elected President and the Democratic Party turned its back on its pro-labor leftist roots and became the party of socially semi-progressive neo-liberalism, that global capitalism and social progress marked an end-point in the political development of humanity — the market had won, the sun had set on communism, and there would henceforth be only one form of government, with freedom and light-up sneakers for all. Now, with another neo-liberal Clinton about to take office, the discontents of capitalism — largely unchanged since the days of Marx and Luxemburg — could not be more pronounced. The seeds sown by the need for more and cheaper markets resulted in an anti-colonialism that mutated into radical Islamism; the insistence that the invisible hand could fix anything proved to be a bad joke as inequality became ever more pronounced in even the richest countries; and environmental devastation threatens to put an end to history in a very different way than Fukuyama predicted. There are good reasons people are more interested in socialism than they have been in decades. If you’re one of them, you can get The ABCs of Socialism from Jacobin in paperback for less than $20, or for free in PDF form. Memory and history will take you that far; the next step is up to all of us.
June 3, 2017
Reasonable primer on socialist ideas, presented in a question & answer format, wherein the each questions implies a standard objection. Some overt Marxist content, but is not too interested sectarian bickering—except to state its opposition to undemocratic variants, such as lineages of Leninism that have eschewed parliamentary process.
Not much disagreeable here, as far as it goes, if the objective is to present an anodyne socialist doctrine in terms of practical results and immediate policy preferences without much delving into theory. Certainly is aware of the basic Leninist principle of concrete analysis of concrete situations, and therefore has its eyes on the ultimate prize even while realizing the limitations inherent in the present historical conjuncture.
Lotsa cute illustrations work well with the underlying humor of the presentation (“Will socialists take my Kenny Loggins records?” “Socialists want a world without private property, not personal property. You can keep your terrible music.”)
Also handles intersectional interests such as feminism, anti-racism, anti-ethnocentrism, and environmentalism. Certainly a cosmopolitan and reasonable argument here.
Not much disagreeable here, as far as it goes, if the objective is to present an anodyne socialist doctrine in terms of practical results and immediate policy preferences without much delving into theory. Certainly is aware of the basic Leninist principle of concrete analysis of concrete situations, and therefore has its eyes on the ultimate prize even while realizing the limitations inherent in the present historical conjuncture.
Lotsa cute illustrations work well with the underlying humor of the presentation (“Will socialists take my Kenny Loggins records?” “Socialists want a world without private property, not personal property. You can keep your terrible music.”)
Also handles intersectional interests such as feminism, anti-racism, anti-ethnocentrism, and environmentalism. Certainly a cosmopolitan and reasonable argument here.
November 28, 2022
I very much enjoyed this refresher on the contours of socialist philosophy and some of the common challenges to the principles under pinning it. This is accessible and user friendly overview
June 26, 2018
For something that's supposed to explain the basics of socialism, it never bothers to define what it is. Instead it spends most of its time saying what it isn't and according to Jacobin socialism definitely has nothing to do with successful revolutions, they're all incredibly bad and worth dismissing entirely in fact.
Don't worry though! These American social democrats are going to be the ones to get it right, even if they can't even tell us what 'it' is.
If you want an actual introduction to socialism that's not filled with vagueries and venom towards any socialists who have ever achieved anything, try:
Friedrich Engels - Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
Vladimir Lenin - The State and Revolution
They're both very good, reasonably short, and easy to understand, but have the unfortunate side effect of making it impossible to read crap like this from Jacobin without suffering intensely.
Don't worry though! These American social democrats are going to be the ones to get it right, even if they can't even tell us what 'it' is.
If you want an actual introduction to socialism that's not filled with vagueries and venom towards any socialists who have ever achieved anything, try:
Friedrich Engels - Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
Vladimir Lenin - The State and Revolution
They're both very good, reasonably short, and easy to understand, but have the unfortunate side effect of making it impossible to read crap like this from Jacobin without suffering intensely.
October 2, 2018
The ABCs of Socialism was a fun read. It goes over the main questions that people may have about the concept of socialism: isn't socialism against freedom and doesn't it always end in dictatorship? do socialists care about racism, feminism and the environment? will we lose our possessions and fun activities? isn't socialism always against wars?
The articles are well written and give succinct but thoughtful answers to all these questions. There are a lot of short quotes from Marx, Lenin, Luther King and other thinkers that allow the readers to get a glimpse of some of the theories behind socialism and communism.
At the end of the book, I felt optimistic and hopeful for socialism and I look forward to seeing it grow. I have learned a lot from this book and feel I will go back to it in the future. Whether you think you already know about socialism or you think you hate it, this book is a must-read!
The articles are well written and give succinct but thoughtful answers to all these questions. There are a lot of short quotes from Marx, Lenin, Luther King and other thinkers that allow the readers to get a glimpse of some of the theories behind socialism and communism.
At the end of the book, I felt optimistic and hopeful for socialism and I look forward to seeing it grow. I have learned a lot from this book and feel I will go back to it in the future. Whether you think you already know about socialism or you think you hate it, this book is a must-read!
May 31, 2017
The ABC’s of Socialism is a tight little book written by a collection of very intuitive intellectuals who lack the academic penchant for pretentiousness. If I had the means to buy one and place it in every hotel room across the country next to the holy bible, I would. But I don’t! So the best thing I can do is tell every person I know to read the ABC’s of Socialism.
Brevity can’t be undervalued here, you could read the ABC’s on one or two sittings on a toilet. Of course it would be better to fully engage with the text as there are some real gems in each section. For example, here is a little excerpt on a section entitled “Don’t the rich deserve to keep their money?”;
“The socialist view of redistribution within a capitalist society must reject an important premise at play in almost all tax policy debates: the pre tax income is earned solely on individual effort and owned privately before the state intervenes...the first preconditions for firms to earn profit is state enforced property rights
Each section is a concise answer sandwiched in-between a simple question we’ve all heard a million times (I.E. Socialism sounds good in theory, but doesn’t human nature make it impossible?) and a shorthand answer (like “our shared nature actually helps us build and define the values of a just society”). Complete with fun little drawings. The questions themselves range from simple and abstract (“doesn’t socialism always end up in a dictatorship?”) to fairly complex analysis of society as it currently stands (see “isn’t America already kind of socialist” or “will socialists take my Kenny Loggins records?”).
I feel like a lot of really great people in my life are unwilling to give up on capitalism because of the supposed luxury and stability they perceive it has given them and their families. I can hardly blame them for feeling this way. ABC’s editor Bhaskar Sunkara doesn’t claim to present all the answers in this volume either. At the same time, I can think of no better place to start introducing your friends or family or even yourself to socialism. The opinions are well argued and philosophical enough to convince someone on the fence, but could also serve as an introductory rebuke to those who are almost violently against the idea.
Then of course there is the question of why you might read a book on socialism at all. It may seem like an extreme option in a country that already seems so opposed down party lines. Maybe you’re a diehard democrat that believes in the power of capitalism for good (like Robert Reich! He’s a cool guy!). While I’d love to see this book and many other books convert you, I can assure you that the left has a lot to learn from Marxism as a critical theory. Donald Trump’s fire brand, “more jobs” nationalism (which seems interested in bringing the bottom, heavily exploited classes necessary for capitalism back to America for some inexplicable reason) could perhaps find a formidable opponent in the idea that workers deserve to take home a far greater piece of the pie, even long after they are done physically working (think construction worker, truck driver, coal miner) or in the idea that all people deserve to live a happy and equitable life simply because they are humans.
If you want to read this book, shoot me an email and I will personally buy it for you.
Brevity can’t be undervalued here, you could read the ABC’s on one or two sittings on a toilet. Of course it would be better to fully engage with the text as there are some real gems in each section. For example, here is a little excerpt on a section entitled “Don’t the rich deserve to keep their money?”;
“The socialist view of redistribution within a capitalist society must reject an important premise at play in almost all tax policy debates: the pre tax income is earned solely on individual effort and owned privately before the state intervenes...the first preconditions for firms to earn profit is state enforced property rights
Each section is a concise answer sandwiched in-between a simple question we’ve all heard a million times (I.E. Socialism sounds good in theory, but doesn’t human nature make it impossible?) and a shorthand answer (like “our shared nature actually helps us build and define the values of a just society”). Complete with fun little drawings. The questions themselves range from simple and abstract (“doesn’t socialism always end up in a dictatorship?”) to fairly complex analysis of society as it currently stands (see “isn’t America already kind of socialist” or “will socialists take my Kenny Loggins records?”).
I feel like a lot of really great people in my life are unwilling to give up on capitalism because of the supposed luxury and stability they perceive it has given them and their families. I can hardly blame them for feeling this way. ABC’s editor Bhaskar Sunkara doesn’t claim to present all the answers in this volume either. At the same time, I can think of no better place to start introducing your friends or family or even yourself to socialism. The opinions are well argued and philosophical enough to convince someone on the fence, but could also serve as an introductory rebuke to those who are almost violently against the idea.
Then of course there is the question of why you might read a book on socialism at all. It may seem like an extreme option in a country that already seems so opposed down party lines. Maybe you’re a diehard democrat that believes in the power of capitalism for good (like Robert Reich! He’s a cool guy!). While I’d love to see this book and many other books convert you, I can assure you that the left has a lot to learn from Marxism as a critical theory. Donald Trump’s fire brand, “more jobs” nationalism (which seems interested in bringing the bottom, heavily exploited classes necessary for capitalism back to America for some inexplicable reason) could perhaps find a formidable opponent in the idea that workers deserve to take home a far greater piece of the pie, even long after they are done physically working (think construction worker, truck driver, coal miner) or in the idea that all people deserve to live a happy and equitable life simply because they are humans.
If you want to read this book, shoot me an email and I will personally buy it for you.
January 3, 2019
Maybe I’m at fault for not anticipating this based upon the title, but this book was fairly elementary. The essays lack cohesiveness and precision and are largely theoretical, which, while not inherently a bad thing, makes it difficult to pinpoint the work’s purpose. For someone who already agrees with the fundamentals of socialism, I don’t see this book as being particularly helpful. It lacks the statistics or empirical examples that could provide a more solid foundation to what is frequently criticized as a very idealistic and hypothetical ideology. Nor do I imagine it would appeal to a staunch capitalist, due to the slightly condescending tone and failure to make well crafted arguments backed in research. Perhaps I should have sought out the XYZs of socialism, or just read Marx himself.
December 7, 2020
Got this at the Open Books half-off sale for just $4! Couldn't resist the cute illustrations and also felt like I could benefit from a socialism for dummies. It was created by Jacobin which made me trust it more. Took a minute for my brain to warm up (I guess since the last thing I read was a romance novel?) and it got more readable as time went on. Some sections were more interesting and helpful than others. I think the best thing it did for me was connect socialism to anti-war movements, feminism, and anti-racism.
October 20, 2017
I enjoyed this more than I expected to. A decent introduction to the basics of socialism, presenting it as a cheerful and benign alternative to capitalism.
Each chapter is a short essay written in response to a titular question, such as 'Will socialism be boring?'. The answers vary in quality. Some are quite chatty and use humor, others are more dry and academic. The two stand-out chapters for me were: 'Don't the rich deserve to keep most of their money?', which makes the case for taxation, and 'What about racism? Don't socialists only care about class?', about the links between socialism and anti-racist movements.
A great deal of the book's short length describes, concisely yet thoroughly and convincingly, the problems with capitalism. I would have preferred more of a focus on real-world examples of socialist governmental success, rather than on an imagined future. I found the paucity of these examples a tad off-putting and suspicious: it makes it sounds like there aren't any, or that the authors thought the socialist Scandinavian countries weren't leftwing enough for them to count as examples.
At times the authors seemed very out-of-touch-with-reality idealistic; the tone sometimes reminded me of strong religious belief. The socialist future imagined is a bit Heaven-On-Earth.
I have a Pavlovian negative reaction whenever I see someone quoting Marx or Lenin or the Communist Manifesto, so I sometimes felt this book was too leftwing for me. I can imagine others feeling similar for the same reason. Regardless, as I was reading I could feel my opinions being gently, and perhaps successfully, pulled a little bit further to the left, so in that sense the book is a success.
A note on the physical edition: its strange shape and bright coloured illustrations make it look and feel like a children's book, which I actually find quite charming. However, I did not find the red and blue text particularly easy on the eyes - standard black text, however boring it is, would have been more comfortable.
Each chapter is a short essay written in response to a titular question, such as 'Will socialism be boring?'. The answers vary in quality. Some are quite chatty and use humor, others are more dry and academic. The two stand-out chapters for me were: 'Don't the rich deserve to keep most of their money?', which makes the case for taxation, and 'What about racism? Don't socialists only care about class?', about the links between socialism and anti-racist movements.
A great deal of the book's short length describes, concisely yet thoroughly and convincingly, the problems with capitalism. I would have preferred more of a focus on real-world examples of socialist governmental success, rather than on an imagined future. I found the paucity of these examples a tad off-putting and suspicious: it makes it sounds like there aren't any, or that the authors thought the socialist Scandinavian countries weren't leftwing enough for them to count as examples.
At times the authors seemed very out-of-touch-with-reality idealistic; the tone sometimes reminded me of strong religious belief. The socialist future imagined is a bit Heaven-On-Earth.
I have a Pavlovian negative reaction whenever I see someone quoting Marx or Lenin or the Communist Manifesto, so I sometimes felt this book was too leftwing for me. I can imagine others feeling similar for the same reason. Regardless, as I was reading I could feel my opinions being gently, and perhaps successfully, pulled a little bit further to the left, so in that sense the book is a success.
A note on the physical edition: its strange shape and bright coloured illustrations make it look and feel like a children's book, which I actually find quite charming. However, I did not find the red and blue text particularly easy on the eyes - standard black text, however boring it is, would have been more comfortable.
August 3, 2018
The Jacobin is a new-ish journal focussed on Socialism, and this booklet is published by them to address folks wondering why this old-discarded philosophy is suddenly in vogue again in the US. The pdf is 130 short, highly readable pages here: https://s3.jacobinmag.com/issues/jaco...
I'm glad I read it -- its ratio of value to time is good. It covers a lot of the current problems of inequality, racism and misogyny, environmental degradation and capture of democracy by the rich. And does so by providing a critique of capitalism and drawing compelling narratives showing how the current capitalist structure of society leads to these issues, in the US at least.
It also does a good job of presenting what **values** socialists care about, and counters the widespread myth in the US of socialism being antithetical to democracy, and in fact argues that it is a deeper form of democracy embracing both political and economic views of society.
However, there are a few places it falls short. It doesn't address **how** socialism should work in practice. How should one operationalize these values? It doesn't address how any future socialist society can avoid the capture-by-elites that "socialist" societies of the 20th century like India or the USSR fell into. Perhaps I seek a game-theoretic explanation of how these things could feasibly work, and this text didn't try to address this point.
It also takes a rather extreme view of positing capitalism as the root of problems in the world. Counter-point: Indian caste system. Human society is way more varied and complex than this text gives it credit for, and socialism's take on it feels reductionist, when looking beyond Europe and the US.
I'm glad I read it -- its ratio of value to time is good. It covers a lot of the current problems of inequality, racism and misogyny, environmental degradation and capture of democracy by the rich. And does so by providing a critique of capitalism and drawing compelling narratives showing how the current capitalist structure of society leads to these issues, in the US at least.
It also does a good job of presenting what **values** socialists care about, and counters the widespread myth in the US of socialism being antithetical to democracy, and in fact argues that it is a deeper form of democracy embracing both political and economic views of society.
However, there are a few places it falls short. It doesn't address **how** socialism should work in practice. How should one operationalize these values? It doesn't address how any future socialist society can avoid the capture-by-elites that "socialist" societies of the 20th century like India or the USSR fell into. Perhaps I seek a game-theoretic explanation of how these things could feasibly work, and this text didn't try to address this point.
It also takes a rather extreme view of positing capitalism as the root of problems in the world. Counter-point: Indian caste system. Human society is way more varied and complex than this text gives it credit for, and socialism's take on it feels reductionist, when looking beyond Europe and the US.
February 7, 2017
At the aforementioned friends' weekend in January, we also had a Revolution Book Exchange. This was the book I picked out of the pool (I gave _The New Jim Crow_). It's written by the editors and contributors of Jacobin magazine, a great publication that Elise got me a subscription to last year.
Most of it wasn't really news to me, which I guess means I'm beyond the ABCs! One essay that I particularly liked was "What about racism?" by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, which addresses an issue that came up a lot in the Sanders campaign: the relationship between socialism and anti-racism. Taylor gives a lot of interesting history and talks about the way racism has often served as a "divide and rule" method for the upper classes, not just in the US, but also for example in the UK (with anti-Irish racism)--in other words, arguing that class warfare and anti-racism are complements, not substitutes.
One other thing I wanted to mention about this (paper) book is the interesting approach the editors took to try to connect the essays to online content in Jacobin. All of the articles have unique index numbers, so that a link might look like "jacobinmag.com/?p=12345". So in the text, whenever an author cites a Jacobin article, it just gives in a sidebar the title and author, and the number (e.g. 22959). This obviously only works because the book is tied to a specific publication that gave some thought to having a concise system of URLs, but I appreciate the creative attempt to link a paper book to articles online.
Most of it wasn't really news to me, which I guess means I'm beyond the ABCs! One essay that I particularly liked was "What about racism?" by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, which addresses an issue that came up a lot in the Sanders campaign: the relationship between socialism and anti-racism. Taylor gives a lot of interesting history and talks about the way racism has often served as a "divide and rule" method for the upper classes, not just in the US, but also for example in the UK (with anti-Irish racism)--in other words, arguing that class warfare and anti-racism are complements, not substitutes.
One other thing I wanted to mention about this (paper) book is the interesting approach the editors took to try to connect the essays to online content in Jacobin. All of the articles have unique index numbers, so that a link might look like "jacobinmag.com/?p=12345". So in the text, whenever an author cites a Jacobin article, it just gives in a sidebar the title and author, and the number (e.g. 22959). This obviously only works because the book is tied to a specific publication that gave some thought to having a concise system of URLs, but I appreciate the creative attempt to link a paper book to articles online.
May 23, 2017
A collection of essays from Jacobin magazine. The first 3 or so were helpful in explaining the goals and motivations of socialism--actually answered some questions I had. The rest of the essays felt empty. There was a lot of talk about how wonderful socialism will be, but without outlining the mechanisms the system would operate under, it fell flat and became propaganda.
The book is helpful in that it's set up with each essay a response to an often asked question, so if you just want to know the specific answer to something, you can jump to that essay. However, you might get a more concise answer by just going to the Democratic Socialists of America website and searching a keyword.
Helpful essays:
Isn't America already kind of socialist?
Don't the rich deserve to keep most of their money?
Will socialists take my Kenny Loggins records?
The book is helpful in that it's set up with each essay a response to an often asked question, so if you just want to know the specific answer to something, you can jump to that essay. However, you might get a more concise answer by just going to the Democratic Socialists of America website and searching a keyword.
Helpful essays:
Isn't America already kind of socialist?
Don't the rich deserve to keep most of their money?
Will socialists take my Kenny Loggins records?
Read
May 19, 2018good primer/FAQ on how modern (democratic) socialists generally think about a number of issues - race, feminism, war, etc. perfect for those for whom Sanders was an introduction and are wondering what's next.
Jacobin continues to prove itself a valuable beacon of the modern left.
Agree w/ other commenters that the writing/vocabulary was obtuse at times, which can be particularly unhelpful in persuasive leftist literature for obvious reasons. Most effective when handed out in reading circles rather than the streets, but motivating nonetheless.
Jacobin continues to prove itself a valuable beacon of the modern left.
Agree w/ other commenters that the writing/vocabulary was obtuse at times, which can be particularly unhelpful in persuasive leftist literature for obvious reasons. Most effective when handed out in reading circles rather than the streets, but motivating nonetheless.
June 7, 2020
Uma obra bastante didática e que usa uma linguagem bastante simples para falar de tudo o que abarca o socialismo. É perfeito para quem quer conseguir conhecer o movimento e não está acostumado com textos que usam linguagem e termos mais complexos.
November 27, 2016
do všech škol a dětských knihoven
July 17, 2020
این کتاب از آین جهت مفید هستش که با هر مقاله پاسخی به یک سؤال که اغلب پرسیده میشه ، تنظیم شده است.
طراحی جلدش حکایت از سر درونش دارد😁
طراحی جلدش حکایت از سر درونش دارد😁
December 14, 2020
Greaaaat book, it's a must read! It really helps out, in a very clear language, to debunk the most usual myths on socialism (like "socialist will take my things away" or "socialism always end up on dictatorship"). I feel like this book can be enjoyed either by people who have a lot of previous knowledge on the subject or as an introduction to it. As for me, I already know one thing or two about the subject, but this really helped me to summarize my knowledge in a way that I can explain it to other people on a less academic and more relatable way.
It's a simple book, very straight to the point and with some good examples. Also, if you are able to, buy the printed edition - the ebook is free, but this book is BEAUTIFUL.
It's a simple book, very straight to the point and with some good examples. Also, if you are able to, buy the printed edition - the ebook is free, but this book is BEAUTIFUL.
April 1, 2019
This helped radicalize me when I was a DSA-loving liberal, but over time I’ve come to see Jacobin/Verso/DSA as a facade of socialism, not the real thing. ‘Democratic’ socialism and social democracy are opportunist trends that cannot end capitalism because they don’t directly confront the state (or imperialism). They’re what Lenin criticized in State and Revolution, and they don’t have the revolutionary potential that Marxism (Leninism) has. Also, the bits attacking socialist societies as ‘authoritarian’ are simply ignoring the sobering reality all societies are the authoritarian rule of one class over another. This is what is meant by ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’. To quote Lenin:
“And the dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e., the organization of the vanguard of the oppressed as the ruling class for the purpose of suppressing the oppressors, cannot result merely in an expansion of democracy. Simultaneously with an immense expansion of democracy, which for the first time becomes democracy for the poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the money-bags, the dictatorship of the proletariat imposes a series of restrictions on the freedom of the oppressors, the exploiters, the capitalists. We must suppress them in order to free humanity from wage slavery, their resistance must be crushed by force; it is clear that there is no freedom and no democracy where there is suppression and where there is violence. / Engels expressed this splendidly in his letter to Bebel when he said, as the reader will remember, that ‘the proletariat needs the state, not in the interests of freedom but in order to hold down its adversaries, and as soon as it becomes possible to speak of freedom the state as such ceases to exist.’/ Democracy for the vast majority of the people, and suppression by force, i.e., exclusion from democracy, of the exploiters and oppressors of the people--this is the change democracy undergoes during the transition from capitalism to communism.” Lenin, State and Revolution
Overall, although there are a lot of good ideas and explanations, the book is overly simplistic like it’s placating to liberals who just looked up ‘socialism’ on Wikipedia for the first time in their lives. But worse than that, the authors are collectively speaking from a utopian perspective, not a scientific one. So yeah, it’s kinda fluff.
Most importantly, the body text colored in red and cyan is a terrible design choice that makes the text strain on the eyes. Either black or a dark gray would’ve been the obvious choice.
Sorry if this was kind of a bitter rant than a review. It's late right now. Maybe I'll delete it later, I don't know. The book is not that bad for the most part, you know. If you’re new to leftism/anti-capitalism, go read it. You might glean something from it.
Edit: Actually, don't read this. It's just bad. Read Marx and Engels instead. Start with Engels' "Principles of Communism".
“And the dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e., the organization of the vanguard of the oppressed as the ruling class for the purpose of suppressing the oppressors, cannot result merely in an expansion of democracy. Simultaneously with an immense expansion of democracy, which for the first time becomes democracy for the poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the money-bags, the dictatorship of the proletariat imposes a series of restrictions on the freedom of the oppressors, the exploiters, the capitalists. We must suppress them in order to free humanity from wage slavery, their resistance must be crushed by force; it is clear that there is no freedom and no democracy where there is suppression and where there is violence. / Engels expressed this splendidly in his letter to Bebel when he said, as the reader will remember, that ‘the proletariat needs the state, not in the interests of freedom but in order to hold down its adversaries, and as soon as it becomes possible to speak of freedom the state as such ceases to exist.’/ Democracy for the vast majority of the people, and suppression by force, i.e., exclusion from democracy, of the exploiters and oppressors of the people--this is the change democracy undergoes during the transition from capitalism to communism.” Lenin, State and Revolution
Overall, although there are a lot of good ideas and explanations, the book is overly simplistic like it’s placating to liberals who just looked up ‘socialism’ on Wikipedia for the first time in their lives. But worse than that, the authors are collectively speaking from a utopian perspective, not a scientific one. So yeah, it’s kinda fluff.
Most importantly, the body text colored in red and cyan is a terrible design choice that makes the text strain on the eyes. Either black or a dark gray would’ve been the obvious choice.
Sorry if this was kind of a bitter rant than a review. It's late right now. Maybe I'll delete it later, I don't know. The book is not that bad for the most part, you know. If you’re new to leftism/anti-capitalism, go read it. You might glean something from it.
Edit: Actually, don't read this. It's just bad. Read Marx and Engels instead. Start with Engels' "Principles of Communism".
May 25, 2017
The 2016 election and it's disgusting processes and results led many people to look around and say "there's got to be something better than this" and lo, Jacobin sprung from the shadows to present a handy little guidebook to a nice little ideology called Socialism.
You don't have to agree with everything in this book and it obviously won't answer every single question you have about how a socialist society would be implemented but it does a cracker jack job of giving the basics (or ABC's if you will) of what Socialism is, it's beliefs and why it is what it is.
At times it was a bit head in the clouds idealistic for me but it is a book about a dream for a better society, so you can't really fault it for that. Still, rise up my fellow workers and seize the means of learning about socialism from this handy little notebook.
Other random con; I hated the shape of the book. It was too easily warped by basic reading. Cute illustrations though.
You don't have to agree with everything in this book and it obviously won't answer every single question you have about how a socialist society would be implemented but it does a cracker jack job of giving the basics (or ABC's if you will) of what Socialism is, it's beliefs and why it is what it is.
At times it was a bit head in the clouds idealistic for me but it is a book about a dream for a better society, so you can't really fault it for that. Still, rise up my fellow workers and seize the means of learning about socialism from this handy little notebook.
Other random con; I hated the shape of the book. It was too easily warped by basic reading. Cute illustrations though.
December 4, 2017
Pamflet agitasi propaganda menyenangkan dari Indoprogress dan Ultimus-nya Amerika. Bersama Oscar Wilde dan Einstein, saya mantap mendukung ide sosialisme. Di buku ini dijelaskan beragam hal dan pertanyaan yg sering ditunjukan pada sosialisme: Bukankah kapitalisme juga membebaskan dan demokratis? Sosialisme kedengaran bagus di teori, tapi bukankah tabiat manusia yg bikin mustahil ide itu terwujud? Hubungan dengan rasisime? Feminisme? Kerusakan ekologi? Apa sosialis itu pasifis? Bukankah orang kaya berhak menjaga uangnya? Bukankah sosialisme bakal berakhir dalam kediktatoran? Apa sosialisme hanya konsep barat? Kenapa sosialisme banyak ngebacot soal pekerja? Akankah sosialisme jadi dunia yg membosankan?
June 14, 2016
A handy booklet presenting the basic tenets of socialism through a series of short essays addressing some of its most common and important objections. Each essay explains how socialists approach a topic such as race, feminism, democracy, imperialism, human nature, class, or the environment, and and integrates it into a broad understanding of politics and economics. The books proposes socialism to be a viable systemic alternative to capitalism for those hoping to achieve true equality, democracy, prosperity, sustainability, and economic justice.
October 15, 2017
As one might expect from a book published by Verso & Jacobin, this read like a series of Jacobin articles. But pretty much all good, introductory level explainer articles, not esoteric or controversial theory. There were a couple pieces that I don't know that I agree with, but overall this was a really great rundown of basic concepts of socialist theory/practice, with some good concrete examples!
February 23, 2019
This is an excellent, easy to read overview of democratic socialist thought in 21st century America. For those whose understanding of socialism is limited to vague ideas about the views of Marx or - worse - American Cold War propaganda, this book answers some of the questions and challenges the misconceptions many have about socialism; it also illustrates the relevance of socialist ideas to modern life and the possibilities socialism offers for solutions to the challenges our society faces.
July 14, 2017
Clearly and succinctly outlines the socialist thought system for today's age in an FAQ format. Tackles the most common retorts which also helped me to refactor some of my own unconscious biases. It's good! If you're a progressive liberal disappointed with what the proponents of your ideology have wrought in the world, why not consider good old democratic socialism?
January 1, 2019
A solid, entertaining overview of (one strand of) contemporary socialist thought, ‘A Primer on Socialism’ might be more fitting. Much of the book (depending on the author) relies on concepts that a total neophyte may not be familiar with. If not as ‘Socialism for Dummies’, ABCs of Socialism succeeds as a refresher and inspiration for the politically conscious.
August 9, 2016
Jacobin continues to knock them out of the park.
Discusses a lot of basic questions about socialism while outlining a future I want to take part in.
They've made a free pdf available here: https://s3.jacobinmag.com/issues/jaco...
Discusses a lot of basic questions about socialism while outlining a future I want to take part in.
They've made a free pdf available here: https://s3.jacobinmag.com/issues/jaco...
September 30, 2016
A great primer on democratic socialism - the book we need to be ubiquitous, now. The aesthetic is welcoming, well-crafted, cogent, and enjoyable - propaganda with a human face. The PDF is available for free here - share it!
https://s3.jacobinmag.com/issues/jaco...
https://s3.jacobinmag.com/issues/jaco...
February 10, 2017
Solid intro to Socialist ideas. Would gift to an open minded teenager.
April 11, 2017
Not exactly "ABCs" but still informative. I think it did miss it's purpose with its structure a bit.
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