Monthly Review Press

Save Our Unions reviewed in Open Media Boston

Save Our Unions reviewed in Open Media Boston

February 20, 2024

At the beginning of 2013, American workers were reeling from body blows — in Michigan among other places. How does that state transmogrify from being the heart of the labor movement to a “right-to-work (for less)” locale, taking its place alongside the Deep South? This anti-worker plague swept through surrounding states. Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio, in that order, took away workers’ right to negotiate their conditions, even though this tack was defeated by a vote of the public in Ohio in November 2011. Indiana enacted a right-to-work law affecting private sector employees. A year after the Ohio vote, workers in Michigan were defeated on two referenda concerning government workers’ ability to negotiate. At that stage, what happened in the latter state shouldn’t have shocked anyone.

One Day in December reviewed in Z Magazine

One Day in December reviewed in Z Magazine

February 20, 2024

In the opening pages of a new biography, Alice Walker’s Foreword sets the stage for the poignant portrayal of a person with scant name recognition in North America. Until, that is, the publication of One Day in December. Author Nancy Stout divides the book into four parts: Pilón, Manzanillo, Sierra Maestra, and Havana, Cuba, the main places where Sánchez and scores of other Cubans resisted, eventually toppling the Cuban government and replacing it with a revolutionary regime.

America’s Education Deficit and the War on Youth reviewed on Counterfire

America’s Education Deficit and the War on Youth reviewed on Counterfire

February 20, 2024

Giroux asserts that a fundamental attack on democracy is currently occurring in the US, and urgent action is needed to defend democratic values against this assault. His view is that an examination of the education system provides evidence for this attack, and that education is itself both a key battleground, and the crucible in which the defence of democracy can be formed.

The Work of Sartre reviewed in LSE Review of Books

The Work of Sartre reviewed in LSE Review of Books

February 20, 2024

Although Jean-Paul Sartre was a popular and influential philosopher, he has not become as common a topic for serious scholarship as some of his peers. While Husserl and Heidegger are engines of continental thought, and Merleau-Ponty has a sizable following, Sartre tends to be used in introductory courses more than dissertations. Nonetheless, many philosophers do consider his work important and look forward to new insights about his legacy. The Work of Sartre promises to be such a book.

Alan Wieder discusses Ruth First and Joe Slovo on imiXwhatilike! Radio

Alan Wieder discusses Ruth First and Joe Slovo on imiXwhatilike! Radio

February 20, 2024

Alan Wieder is the author of Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid, recently released by Monthly Review Press. He is interviewed by Dr. Jared A. Ball for imiXwhatilike! Emancipatory Journalism & Broadcasting, about the lives of Ruth First and Joe Slovo, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, and revolution.

Michael Heinrich interviewed by Xiaoping Wei

Michael Heinrich interviewed by Xiaoping Wei

February 20, 2024

Michael Heinrich is the author of An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Marx’s Capital, published last year by Monthly Review Press. Here, he discusses his work and his interpretation of Capital with Xiaoping Wei, director of History of Marxism Philosophy in the Philosophy Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vice-director of History of Marxism Philosophy Society of China, and vice-director of Western Marxism Society of China.

Hell’s Kitchen and the Battle for Urban Space reviewed by Resolute Reader

Hell’s Kitchen and the Battle for Urban Space reviewed by Resolute Reader

February 20, 2024

In the period this book considered, Hell’s Kitchen, or “Manhattan’s Middle West Side” was considered by many commentators to be an area of poverty, corruption, crime and unsavoury types. In reality of course it was a home to thousands of working class people who carved their own lives out of the limited opportunities that they had … Subtitled, Class Struggle and Progressive Reform in New York City, 1894-1914, Joseph J. Varga’s new book is a detailed examination of the development of this district in New York, but more importantly, an attempt to understand, using the concept of the “production of space” how that urban space was shaped and, in turn, shaped those who inhabited it.

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