A pragmatic view of systemic social change.
A self-described "longtime leftist" sees new interest in post-Marxist, post–Cold War socialism.
Completing the trilogy he began with The Populist Explosion and The Nationalist Revival, journalist and political analyst Judis offers a cogent, incisive examination of growing interest in socialist ideals in the U.S., U.K., and Europe. “The failure of market capitalism,” he writes, “has been heightened by the threat posed by the novel coronavirus. All the weaknesses of the previous era—from the over-reliance on global supply chains to underfunded social services; from tax avoidance by the wealthy and large corporations to the immiseration of what are known as ‘essential workers’—have been laid bare.” The recession of 2008, worries over climate change, and Donald Trump’s presidency have all fueled anti-capitalist sentiments, causing membership in the Democratic Socialists of America to grow, especially among younger people. “In 2013,” writes the author, “the average age of a DSA member was sixty-eight.” By 2017, it was 33. New socialists, Judis asserts, “place a high importance on the ideals of justice as integral to socialism.” The author chronicles the evolution of socialism in the U.S., beginning with Eugene V. Debs and culminating in Bernie Sanders, who calls himself a “Swedish-style socialist,” and Elizabeth Warren, whose platform incorporated many socialist ideals. In the U.K., socialism has been embraced since 1918 by the Labour Party, although it’s recently been undermined by the candidacy of Jeremy Corbyn. New leadership, Judis points out, is essential to instituting needed reforms, including partial public takeover of the health care industry, transportation, and energy production and use; public financing of elections; a guaranteed annual income; and massive investment in public welfare. Contrary to assumptions by some on the left, nationalism is integral to socialism: Any socialist or economically progressive appeal, Judis warns, depends on a “clearly defined” citizenry, “their common commitment to the nation assumed.”
A pragmatic view of systemic social change.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73442-070-8
Page Count: 140
Publisher: Columbia Global Reports
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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