My "To-do" list

[Nikolay]

I would like to become more knowledgeable on communist and anarchist theories. So I therefore made myself a "to-do" list, but I'll need help from my RevLeft comrades. :)

Thus far, I have the following books:

Capital Volumes 1, 2 & 3
Grundrisse
The State and Revolution

Books I plan on ordering very soon:

Wealth of Nations (this probably isn't a "leftist" book, but it'll help me to understand economics)
ABC of Anarchist-Communism
Conquest of Bread
Anarachist FAQ

Books you guys have recommended:





P.S. I don't care who the author is, however, I would like a relatively known author who's theories stick with Marx, Lenin, Berkman, Kropotkin, Mao, Bakunin etc. Also, books from these authors I'd also like to have. I'll do my own research too (yes I realize there's books in the recommended reading list, but I'm sure there's more books out there).

[Rusty Shackleford]

Add some short shit to that too! you will die trying to read huge books back to back. pepper in some smaller pamphlets like "Socialism: Utopian & Scientific" (Engels) and stuff like that.

[thesadmafioso]

Yeah, at the very least throw in a few political biographies or some historical fiction. That list is going to be nightmarish to handle without anything a bit lighter, and you get a good mix of history, theory, and readability with something like a biography or historical fiction.

[Nikolay]

Add some short shit to that too! you will die trying to read huge books back to back. pepper in some smaller pamphlets like "Socialism: Utopian & Scientific" (Engels) and stuff like that.


Yeah, at the very least throw in a few political biographies or some historical fiction. That list is going to be nightmarish to handle without anything a bit lighter, and you get a good mix of history, theory, and readability with something like a biography or historical fiction.

Thanks for the recommendations and advice.

I'll try to find some of the stuff you guys have suggested.

[Tommy4ever]

Black Flame is essential reading if you're looking into Anarchism.

Dude, I've recently finished reading Capital Volume 2 and unless you really economic formulae I wouldn't suggest lumping so much economics into your reading list. Go for some history and some 'lighter' theory.

The book I'm reading right now is rather good ''Revolutionaries'' by Eric Hobsbawm - its a collection of essays (largely from the 1960s) that deal with a wide variety of issues.

You might want to check out the Little Red Book for a bit of Maoism - just a bunch of qoutations, but you can read it in a day or two easily.

I'd also suggest biogaraphies - but make sure you get good ones. ;)

[ColonelCossack]

ohmy ohmy ohmy

some good semi-fiction books with strong revolutionary leftist bases are:
the ragged trousered philanthropists, by Robert Tressell,
the jungle, by Upton Sinclair.

Both are stories about how capitalism seriously ravaged the working classes in industrialised countries in the first half of the 20th century. The former has an amazing argument against money that will smash any capitalist you're talking to.

Yeah your list seems quite good...
Oh I also recommend reminiscences of the cuban revolutionary war , by Che Guevara, and homage to catalonia by George Orwell, both good autobiographies about two famous struggles against imperialism, fascism, capitalism, etc.- the cuban revolution and the spanish civil war, respectively :P

Most of the stuff I'd recommend's already been covered.
the state and revolution's really good though. can't really think of any more off the top of my head. :lol:

[The Idler]

Revolutionary Theory by Karl Korsch.

[thesadmafioso]

I have to second The Jungle, it was essentially the piece of historical fiction I had in mind when adding that genre to my suggestions. Great read that is combined with a substantial amount of socialist thematic content.

[Nikolay]

ohmy ohmy ohmy

some good semi-fiction books with strong revolutionary leftist bases are:
the ragged trousered philanthropists, by Robert Tressell,
the jungle, by Upton Sinclair.

Both are stories about how capitalism seriously ravaged the working classes in industrialised countries in the first half of the 20th century. The former has an amazing argument against money that will smash any capitalist you're talking to.

Yeah your list seems quite good...
Oh I also recommend reminiscences of the cuban revolutionary war , by Che Guevara, and homage to catalonia by George Orwell, both good autobiographies about two famous struggles against imperialism, fascism, capitalism, etc.- the cuban revolution and the spanish civil war, respectively :P

Most of the stuff I'd recommend's already been covered.
the state and revolution's really good though. can't really think of any more off the top of my head. :lol:

I read like a page or two of The State and Revolution before I bought it.. and I found it very easy to read. So I'm looking forward to that one. :)

Also, thanks to everyone so far. I'll be pretty busy with all these books over the next couple years. :lol:

[Belleraphone]

Wealth of Nations actually is a leftist book. Adam Smith proposed his idea under the conditions of "perfect liberty."

"Everybody reads the first paragraph of The Wealth of Nations where he talks about how wonderful the division of labor is. But not many people get to the point hundreds of pages later, where he says that division of labor will destroy human beings and turn people into creatures as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human being to be. And therefore in any civilized society the government is going to have to take some measures to prevent division of labor from proceeding to its limits."

[Bronco]

What have you read so far? I wouldn't think about reading Capital if you haven't read Wage, Labour & Capital and Value, Price & Profit which act as something of a precursor to Capital and both are short and easy to read.

For some short Anarchist writings I'd recommend Bakunin's Marxism, Freedom & the State, it doesnt go into depth about Anarchism but provides an excellent critique of authoritarian Socialism and it's dangers. Definitely do read Berkman's ABC of Anarchism, for me that book is the single most important text to give you an introduction to the theory and it's principles

[Sixiang]

Add some short shit to that too! you will die trying to read huge books back to back. pepper in some smaller pamphlets like "Socialism: Utopian & Scientific" (Engels) and stuff like that.

I second this immensely. I can honestly say that reading many of Marx and Engels's shorter works had more impact on me all together than any one larger work did. I think it is necessary to read the shorter works that focus on specific points as opposed to trying to find a dictionary-sized book that tries to encompass everything, but in the process ends up oversimplifying or forgetting things.

If you want to better understand Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Marxism-Leninism Mao Tse-tung thought, or whatever you want to call it, I recommend some of these if not all (some of them more or less cover the same things):

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels:
-Wage Labour and Capital
-Principles of Communism
-Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
-Critique of the Gotha Programme
-Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
-The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon
-Preface and Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
-Value, Price and Profit
-The Civil War in France

V.I. Lenin:
-What is to be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement
-Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
-"Left-Wing" Communism, an Infantile Disorder

Mao Tse-Tung:
-Five Essays on Philosphy
-On Protracted War
-On New Democracy

[Nikolay]

What have you read so far? I wouldn't think about reading Capital if you haven't read Wage, Labour & Capital and Value, Price & Profit which act as something of a precursor to Capital and both are short and easy to read.

For some short Anarchist writings I'd recommend Bakunin's Marxism, Freedom & the State, it doesnt go into depth about Anarchism but provides an excellent critique of authoritarian Socialism and it's dangers. Definitely do read Berkman's ABC of Anarchism, for me that book is the single most important text to give you an introduction to the theory and it's principles

I've read bits and pieces of Wage, Labour & Capital and Value, Price & Profit, I've also read the beginning of the ABC of Anarchism (I'd rather read it in book form instead of reading the whole thing on the internet :P).

I'll put Marxism, Freedom and the State on my list, along with most of the suggestions. :)

[StoneFrog]

Anton Pannekoek - Worker Councils (the book 1947, not to be confused with his shorter earlier work).

[Sun at Eight]

For very light reading, check out Cory Doctorow's For the Win (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_Win). I can't remember if someone described it here or elsewhere as a modern-day Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists. Basically, teenagers in various Asian countries who are paid to be "gold farmers" in online games form an online union along the lines of the IWW and help foment revolution by linking up with other workers. It's a lot of fun and free to read.

[Zugunruhe]

I think reading the entirety of Das Kapital would be great and teach you a lot, but good lord. There's so much to absorb and it's so complex; to truly understand all of it would take years. I mean, there are people who have spent years purely analyzing individual volumes. Here are a couple books and commentary on them:

The Essential Works of Lenin ed. Henry M. Christman: This is a literal collection of essays, pamphlets and portions of books written by Lenin, compiled by someone who has studied Lenin for years. It's a very digestible book, it's really great become familiar with Lenin's most influential works without reading absolutely everything.

Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman: This book is also very digestible. It was the second leftist book I read after the Communist Manifesto, and it has been very influential on my life. After learning more, I would say that Emma Goldman made few strides ideologically, but she did a lot to advance anarchism through her actions and it's interesting to read her thoughts. Emma Goldman also presents the sometimes overlooked position in theory about the ties between feminism and anarchism. I'm going to cut myself off before I go further, but Emma Goldman is one of the most amazing women in history and I could easily write a book about her. <3

Marx & Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy ed. Lewis S. Feuer: I have no idea if this book still exists, I found it at a used bookstore. It's basically a collection of Marx' and Engels' writings, but focused less on economic theory and more on the intersection of economics and philosophy. Good stuff.

Rules for Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky: This book is much more contemporary and basically talks about ways to affect the changes that we study and realize should happen, based on this literature. I like to call it "the manual for how to turn from an arm-chair socialist to a fully grown revolutionary".

The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine: It was originally written in support of the French Revolution and as a response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France but grew into its own creature. It's worth noting, though, that it's quite a bit older than the ideology of communism--Thomas Paine was long dead before Karl Marx was even born. I wouldn't consider it a bit of communist literature, but it's about the way that the government (or lack thereof) should interact with the people, and I learned a lot of great things from it.