Can anyone recommend a good introduction to left wing politics?

[Zapatismo]

Hey all,

Firstly, it's my first post. I'm a student in Australia and have been studying politics for a year now. I'm still only getting into far left politics but so far it is very interesting.

Anyway, my main question is whether anyone can recommend any guides to left wing politics? For example, any book which outlines the differences in ideology between various strands of anarchism, socialism etc. I would like to get a base understanding of different terminology and ideas used within these fields.

Thanks!

[FieldHound]

Won't be a popular answer but wikipedia's a good place to start. Full of errors but will be the same anywhere you look.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_ideologies

Then go for Marx and Engel's Communist Manifesto and Malatesta's Anarchy.

[Tim Cornelis]

Introduction to Political Ideologies in general: muhammadgozyali.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/politics-ideologies.pdf (PDF WARNING). It's an okay book, it details different currents within ideologies. The communism part is somewhat flawed in that it recognises three strands of communism, classical, orthodox, and neo-marxism, while in reality there's many more.

[The Idler]

I don't think there are any good books detailing all the left ideologies.