Pretty much anything by Michael Parenti is great for people who are starting to educate themselves. Lenin is great as well, in particular I think these three books are essential reading:
The State and Revolution explains how capitalist democracies are organized and why reformism does not work
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism explains how capitalism evolves over time and the tendency towards monopolies
“Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder explains principled ways to organize and build a movement based on the experience of the Soviet revolution
i asked my friends to read state and revolution, it was definitely too big an ask and they needed a lot of help with context and explaining terms lenin used
Parenti is good for complete beginners, but I find Lenin is fairly accessible overall. His writing is pretty direct and to the point, and I’ve generally had positive feedback from people I’ve convinced to read these books.
Parenti’s incredible. State and rev has a lot of terminology and context you at least have to have spent a bit of time reading memes or in forums to understand. Imperialism is good but a little dense. It has a great point against reformism that I have shared with people, but I wouldn’t expect baby Lefties to read it. I haven’t read “left wing” communism, but it looks a little more advanced (but not inaccessible to those who’d try).
I find state rev is a good starter because a lot of the problems it discusses are precisely the ones people are starting to think about. Why does the government act the way it does, whose interests does it represent, can it be reformed. It does an excellent job dissecting these questions and showing that western democracies are in practice dictatorships of the bourgeoisie and why the dictatorship of the proletariat is the necessary solution. You’re right that there is some terminology and context that’s not as accessible for baby leftists, but you don’t really need to worry about that to get the core points it makes.
I do think that it would be great to take state and rev and to modernize it. Keep all the core arguments, but replace the examples and context with modern examples. It wouldn’t take a huge amount of work to do either as it’s not a really big text.
Pretty much anything by Michael Parenti is great for people who are starting to educate themselves. Lenin is great as well, in particular I think these three books are essential reading:
I wouldn’t say those are the most beginner books.
i asked my friends to read state and revolution, it was definitely too big an ask and they needed a lot of help with context and explaining terms lenin used
Parenti is good for complete beginners, but I find Lenin is fairly accessible overall. His writing is pretty direct and to the point, and I’ve generally had positive feedback from people I’ve convinced to read these books.
Parenti’s incredible. State and rev has a lot of terminology and context you at least have to have spent a bit of time reading memes or in forums to understand. Imperialism is good but a little dense. It has a great point against reformism that I have shared with people, but I wouldn’t expect baby Lefties to read it. I haven’t read “left wing” communism, but it looks a little more advanced (but not inaccessible to those who’d try).
I find state rev is a good starter because a lot of the problems it discusses are precisely the ones people are starting to think about. Why does the government act the way it does, whose interests does it represent, can it be reformed. It does an excellent job dissecting these questions and showing that western democracies are in practice dictatorships of the bourgeoisie and why the dictatorship of the proletariat is the necessary solution. You’re right that there is some terminology and context that’s not as accessible for baby leftists, but you don’t really need to worry about that to get the core points it makes.
I do think that it would be great to take state and rev and to modernize it. Keep all the core arguments, but replace the examples and context with modern examples. It wouldn’t take a huge amount of work to do either as it’s not a really big text.
I agree. You definitely need to teach someone some key terms first, though. In my experience it can go over people’s heads if you don’t.
For sure, and ultimately that’s those of us who already invested the time into learning this stuff are for. :)