Reading with Comrades discussion

Hi guys, this is my first time writing here so I'm not sure if this is the right sort of question but I'm looking for some suggestions. I'm currently reading Zinn's People's History and while it provides some good context about the emergence of certain social forces and dynamics it doesn't really get into the finer historical details (it would be impossible given the subject of the book) like Chomsky or someone else maybe would. I'm looking to read things that are more specific and deal with just one or two important ideas, rather than just a summary of histories. What I'm looking for specifically is books with a left perspective that are either primarily or tangentially about technology and technological progression throughout history. I recently graduated with a degree in Mech. Engineering so I'm looking to learn more about how technology has been utilized by the state (seems obvious how in an American contexy) and also by popular social movements. If anyone has any recommendations along these lines I would love to hear them. Thank you!!!

John F

Hi John, I'm not sure this is what you're looking for, but you may want to check out Homo Sapiens and Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari. They both deal with the evolution of humankind and a lot of technology stories there, but I especially like Homo Deus because it poses the philosophical question "if we automate almost everything, what will be the point of most humans, without a job to fulfill them?". More importantly, with concentration of power and money in the hands of a few, will we just ignore the masses?

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction - Rachel Maines

The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution - Shulamith Firestone

Transgender Health and Medicine: History, Practice, Research, and the Future - Dana Jennett Bevan

The Gene: An Intimate History - Siddhartha Mukherjee

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present - Harriet A. Washington

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants - Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Secure and the Dispossessed: How the Military and Corporations are Shaping a Climate-Changed World - Nick Buxton & Ben Hayes

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia - Sabrina Strings

Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit - Barry Estabrook

People' Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons - Ashley Dawson

Reproductive Rights and Wrongs (Revised Edition): The Global Politics of Population Control - Betsy Hartmann

Renewing Destruction: Wind Energy Development, Conflict and Resistance in a Latin American Context - Alexander Dunlap

The Violent Technologies of Extraction: Political ecology, critical agrarian studies and the capitalist worldeater - Alexander Dunlap and Jostein Jakobsen

City, Country, Empire: Landscapes In Environmental History - by Jeffry M Diefendorf, Kurk Dorsey

Caliban and the Witch - Sylvia Federici

eugenics x racism x fat phobia x sexism, and eco-fascism are good places to start here

I second Yuval Noah Harari!

These are about digital technology specifically but I’d also recommend The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power and Surveillance Valley: The Rise of the Military-Digital Complex. More general but specifically American history: The Tragedy of American Science: From Truman to Trump, and that author’s others book: A People's History of Science: Miners, Midwives, and Low Mechanicks

These look great! Thank you all

John wrote: "Hi guys, this is my first time writing here so I'm not sure if this is the right sort of question but I'm looking for some suggestions. I'm currently reading Zinn's People's History and while it pr..."

John,

Don't know if you're still interested, but two works very apropos to your question are David F. Noble's America by Design and Forces of Production.