Contemporary Socialist Books

[JTC]

There are a great many Socialists books out there, fiction and non-fiction. But it seems all of the books I have found so far are primarily from the 1970's/80's and from the early 20th century during the burgeoning socialist movement. However I am interested in contemporary Socialist fiction and non-fiction books which deal with theory, application, and living in capitalist society. The only contemporary thinkers and writers that get close for me are Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Slavoj Zizek, and China Mieville. Are there any others I should be aware of?

[The Idler]

What a good question. If you like Mieville you may like Kim Stanley Robinson a science fiction writer whose Mars Trilogy came out in the 1990s. You might also like Antonio Negri whose work was translated into English in the 2000s although I don't necessarily agree with him. You might also like David Harvey whose most notable works have been in the 2010s.

[Hrafn]

Ah, if you only spoke Swedish...

[ℂᵒиѕẗяᵤкт]

I don't know if one can regard Piketty as having written a socialist book, but his work has garnered some attention in the Left.

[The Idler]

Ah, if you only spoke Swedish...
Were you thinking of Göran Therborn?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6ran_Therborn

[Hrafn]

Were you thinking of Göran Therborn?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6ran_Therborn

Fiction, actually. There are some very modern versions of our classic "proletarian literature".

[JTC]

Are there any books that deal with living in a capitalist society?

[Creative Destruction]

Reclaiming Marx's "Capital" and The Failure of Capitalist Production, both by Andrew Kliman, both represent a good progression of socialist politics and theory in the modern left.

[The Idler]

Are there any books that deal with living in a capitalist society?
Can you elaborate?

[Creative Destruction]

I don't know if one can regard Piketty as having written a socialist book, but his work has garnered some attention in the Left.

it's sad that it has.

[ℂᵒиѕẗяᵤкт]

To rednoise,

I'm still slogging through Marx's version. What are some of the shortcomings of Piketty's Capital?

[BIXX]

Its liberal. Calls for reforms.

[Prometeo liberado]

David Graeber (sp) considers himself an anarchist but Debt: The first 5000 years is a must read.

[JTC]

Can you elaborate?

Of course. A lot of socialist books deal with theory and how to organize a society after capitalism, but not many (none that I've seen) have dealt with issues of living within a capitalist society. Such as, how does one do the least to support the capitalist system while still living within one? What jobs could be considered capitalist or anti-capitalist? How does one deal with debt in a capitalist system? Should one buy food (if one is poor) from retail stores or avoid it at all costs? Should one ever be a manager or supervisor or would this be considered exploitative? Questions such as this and answers to these seem to be greatly lacking in the literature.

[FieldHound]

I agree

[The Idler]

Of course. A lot of socialist books deal with theory and how to organize a society after capitalism, but not many (none that I've seen) have dealt with issues of living within a capitalist society. Such as, how does one do the least to support the capitalist system while still living within one? What jobs could be considered capitalist or anti-capitalist? How does one deal with debt in a capitalist system? Should one buy food (if one is poor) from retail stores or avoid it at all costs? Should one ever be a manager or supervisor or would this be considered exploitative? Questions such as this and answers to these seem to be greatly lacking in the literature.
Thanks for elaborating but communism is not a lifestyle and the most I could suggest is Naomi Klein.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

Of course. A lot of socialist books deal with theory and how to organize a society after capitalism, but not many (none that I've seen) have dealt with issues of living within a capitalist society. Such as, how does one do the least to support the capitalist system while still living within one? What jobs could be considered capitalist or anti-capitalist? How does one deal with debt in a capitalist system? Should one buy food (if one is poor) from retail stores or avoid it at all costs? Should one ever be a manager or supervisor or would this be considered exploitative? Questions such as this and answers to these seem to be greatly lacking in the literature.

I think this shows a basic misunderstanding of socialism, to be honest. For example, you ask which jobs are capitalist. Well, all of them are. Every job takes place in the capitalist system. Whether you "support" capitalism or not is irrelevant to the capitalist, in the end.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Its liberal. Calls for reforms.

do you only read books that confirm your own worldview?

[Creative Destruction]

do you only read books that confirm your own worldview?

well, the op asked for books about socialist theory and application. Piketty's book is not about socialist theory or application. it wrongly puts forth the idea of underconsumption and proposes, as an end solution, a global tax on the wealthy (which is a logical conclusion for underconsumptionists). it says nothing about overturning the system.

[Creative Destruction]

Of course. A lot of socialist books deal with theory and how to organize a society after capitalism, but not many (none that I've seen) have dealt with issues of living within a capitalist society. Such as, how does one do the least to support the capitalist system while still living within one? What jobs could be considered capitalist or anti-capitalist? How does one deal with debt in a capitalist system? Should one buy food (if one is poor) from retail stores or avoid it at all costs? Should one ever be a manager or supervisor or would this be considered exploitative? Questions such as this and answers to these seem to be greatly lacking in the literature.

as the Idler pointed out, communism is not a lifestyle, so the reason why you haven't seen any books about this is because it's not a concern of socialists. no one cares that you buy from WalMart or if you buy from the farmers market. the result is the same. or that you take a supervisor position... i've known several perfectly good Marxists who were supervisors or business owners. Engels was a factory owners. workers were still exploited in the process of exchanging those commodities. that's what we're concerned with as socialists. what you seem to be looking for is some liberal social democratic organization to tell you what you should or should not buy, etc. maybe get in with lifestyle anarchists, i guess, if that's your bag.

[JTC]

Thanks for elaborating but communism is not a lifestyle and the most I could suggest is Naomi Klein.

Well I'm not a communist so there's that. But I'm not talking about socialism here, I'm talking about living within a capitalist society. We all live within a capitalist society and we all make choices in how we interact with that society. My question relates to how we can minimize the exploitation of others in a capitalist society, i.e. How do we best exercise anti-capitalism in a capitalist society?

[JTC]

I think this shows a basic misunderstanding of socialism, to be honest. For example, you ask which jobs are capitalist. Well, all of them are. Every job takes place in the capitalist system. Whether you "support" capitalism or not is irrelevant to the capitalist, in the end.

Of course, technically all jobs are capitalist, but I think one could say the job of a laborer is more "anti-capitalist" or socially productive than the job of a hedge fund manager. And obviously the capitalist could care less what job I choose just as long as he/she is making a profit, but as an anti-capitalist I care. I care whether my job is socially productive or more exploitative than the other jobs we can "choose" in a capitalist society.

[Q]

This is another source of non-fiction books. (http:// http://cpgb.org.uk/home/books)