Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology
These are posts about books from the blog Base and Superstructure. Occasionally I’ll read a book worth talking about, and write some thoughts on it. These cover a wide range of topics from the blog.
A couple of years ago, I wrote one of my most widely read posts on this blog – a list of anti-capitalist films! In this post, I’ll take a look at 5 anti-capitalist books. I’m limiting the list to anti-capitalist books beginners will find useful.
Enjoy!
Welcome to the first book post of 2021! As with December, I’ve added a TV show to this one.
Let’s take a look at what I’m reading in the new year.
With the December monthly reading list, I’ve added some TV shows! I’ve been starting and finishing a few shows lately. It just so happens that things came together recently and I finished three great shows.
In his new (first!) book – The Cult of Smart – Freddie deBoer argues that neoliberalism created around itself a myth of meritocratic success. He calls it…well…the cult of smart.
Let’s take a look at what Freddie has to say. The Cult of Smart gives us plenty to chew on.
Robert Caro’s series The Years of Lyndon Johnson sounds like a bad idea for lots of reasons. At a minimum, LBJ seems rather outré. I mean, a white southerner who rose through the ranks of the racist southern Democratic Party of the 1940s and 1950s? Yes, LBJ ushered through important Civil Rights legislation. And then he followed it up by prosecuting the disastrous Vietnam War. To top it off, the Great Man Theory of history went out of style decades ago. Though leftists and liberals disagree on much, it seems they can at least agree that Great White Men ought not drive history so much.
But, despite these concerns, Caro’s project works. I mean, it works. It works really, really well. Let’s take a look at The Years of Lyndon Johnson.
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