Monthly Review Press

NEW! Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya: Lessons for Africa in the Forging of African Unity by Horace Campbell

NEW! Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya: Lessons for Africa in the Forging of African Unity by Horace Campbell

In this incisive account, scholar Horace Campbell investigates the political and economic crises of the early twenty-first century through the prism of NATO’s intervention in Libya. He traces the origins of the conflict, situates it in the broader context of the Arab Spring uprisings, and explains the expanded role of a post-Cold War NATO. Campbell points out that while political elites in the West were quick to celebrate the intervention in Libya as a success, the NATO campaign caused many civilian deaths and destroyed the nation’s infrastructure. Furthermore, the instability it unleashed in the forms of militias and terrorist groups have only begun to be reckoned with, as the United States learned when its embassy was attacked and personnel, including the ambassador, were killed. Campbell’s lucid study is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand this complex and weighty course of events.

The Contradictions of “Real Socialism” reviewed in Socialism & Democracy

The Contradictions of “Real Socialism” reviewed in Socialism & Democracy

The issue of “Real Socialism” has plagued the global Left since 1917. Michael Lebowitz brings to bear on it a sharp focus, informed not only by a thorough reading of Marx, but also by many years of activism, leavened by the extensive contacts he has gained with Cuban and Venezuelan protagonists during his recent years of residence in their respective countries. The main empirical reference in his present book is to the Soviet experience, in particular, to its last three decades (the 1950s to the 1980s), by which time the regime’s structures and institutions were firmly in place. While the general stance of recognizing the contradictions of this period has a long lineage, Lebowitz’s particular approach to defining them is new and fruitful.

The Contradictions of "Real Socialism" reviewed on Organizing Upgrade

The Contradictions of "Real Socialism" reviewed on Organizing Upgrade

People should read this book for the very reason that it is not a blueprint for socialism, but because it provides a basis for deep ongoing discussions of what socialism should look like in the twenty-first century. I think that many of the theoretical points are the basis for a discussion on how socialists in the USA should be acting, what struggles are key, and how our struggles now lay a basis for a socialist future.

What Every Environmentalist Needs To Know about Capitalism reviewed in the Australian Journal of Environmental Education

What Every Environmentalist Needs To Know about Capitalism reviewed in the Australian Journal of Environmental Education

What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism is an important book on many levels. The authors’ ability to condense a large number of very complex environmental issues in a short and concise manner is commendable. Large-scale environmental issues provide context to the magnitude of the problem, while localised examples of devastation provide strong arguments for its impact, cause for concern and urgent need to respond.

Read an Excerpt from Race in Cuba by Esteban Morales Domínguez on LINKS

Read an Excerpt from Race in Cuba by Esteban Morales Domínguez on LINKS

Our friends at Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal have posted an excerpt from the new MR Press book Race in Cuba: Essays on the Revolution and Racial Inequality by Esteban Morales Domínguez. Read the first chapter, “Challenges of the Racial Question in Cuba.”

Read Alice Walker's Foreword to One Day in December in Monthly Review

Read Alice Walker's Foreword to One Day in December in Monthly Review

Nothing makes me more hopeful than discovering another human being to admire. My wonder at the life of Celia Sánchez, a revolutionary Cuban woman virtually unknown to Americans, has left me almost speechless. In hindsight, loving and admiring her was bound to happen, once I knew her story. Like Frida Kahlo, Zora Neale Hurston, Rosa Luxemburg, Agnes Smedley, Fannie Lou Hamer, Josephine Baker, Harriet Tubman, or Aung San Suu Kyi, Celia Sánchez was that extraordinary expression of life that can, every so often, give humanity a very good name.

March 11: Fred Magdoff Lecture at MIT, Cambridge MA & April 8: Lecture in Troy, NY

March 11: Fred Magdoff Lecture at MIT, Cambridge MA & April 8: Lecture in Troy, NY

Join Fred Magdoff for a discussion of “The Environmental Crisis and Capitalism” on March 11 at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and a discussion of “Depletion of the World’s Resources” on April 8 in Troy, New York. Fred, a frequent contributor to Monthly Review and MR Press author, is professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont. He is author of numerous articles and books on agriculture, world food problems, and the environment. He is coauthor with John Bellamy Foster of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism.

The Unlikely Secret Agent reviewed in the Washington Post

In The Unlikely Secret Agent, Ronnie Kasrils, who served as South Africa’s minister for intelligence services, remembers his late wife and the remarkable life she lived. He paints his portrait with the honesty of a good biographer but always with the bittersweet memory of a great love lost. “It is a huge testament to her inner strength and will,” he writes, “that she remained staunch and true to her principles and commitment through the decades.” And it’s a testament to his that he was able to sculpt his recollections into such a poignant and beautiful book.