There is a quickening of life on the left. But, politically, the left is still very weak and disoriented. This book traces the turns and realignments imprinted on this left over many decades by the ascendancy of Stalinism and by the post-Stalinist global reshufflings after 1989-9. Independent working-class politics needs a sense of its own path and its own compass. The left needs to emerge from defining itself primarily in a negative and reactive way, and rediscover what, positively, the real left must be for. This book is a companion volume to Socialism Makes Sense. which makes the case for unabridged socialist and anti-capitalist aims.
One of the best books I have read for some time. Forcefully and readably sketches and dissects the problems and confusions of the left, where they've come from, and so pointing the way to a renewed and properly grounded revolutionary left. The recent responses to Putin's imperialist invasion of the Ukraine are only the latest symptom in a much deeper and longer-standing rot. See https://workersliberty.org/left-disarray for more