B U R E A U O F P U B L I C S E C R E T S |
Carl von Clausewitz, On War
[1832]
Classic analysis of war and military strategy. The abridged Penguin edition (ed. Anatol Rapoport) contains the
chapters of most enduring general interest.
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty;
The Subjection of Women
[1859, 1869]
On Liberty is one of the most eloquent defenses of freedom of thought and expression ever
written. Some freedoms, of course, are only disguised forms of class domination
(e.g. freedom of trade), so Mills analysis when he ventures into those
areas must be taken with a grain of salt.
The Subjection of Women
is just one of the pioneering feminist works written by Mill and his wife Harriet Taylor Mill.
For the others, see Essays on Sex Equality (ed. Alice
Rossi).
Clarence Darrow, Resist Not Evil
[1902]
This little book by Americas most admirable lawyer begins by noting the
exploitive role of states and armies, but concentrates primarily on
demonstrating the evil and folly of prisons, law courts, and the entire criminal
justice system.
A shorter statement of
the same positions can be found in Darrow’s Address
to the Prisoners in the Chicago Jail.
Georges Sorel, Reflections on Violence
[1908]
Trenchant defense of class violence and the tactic of general strikes.
From Georges Sorel (ed. John L. Stanley) is a good selection of other
writings by this erratic but often insightful thinker.
Randolph Bourne [1886-1918]
Bourne is most remembered for his lucid
and courageous analysis of the patriotic hysteria
that followed
Americas entry into World War I. The most important of
his essays, “War Is the Health
of the State,” is online
here.
Others can be found in several different anthologies of his
writings.
George Bernard Shaw, The Intelligent Womans Guide to Socialism,
Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism [1937]
There is much that is dated and dubious in this work it largely argues in
favor of a genuine social-democratic welfare state but also lots of lively
and provocative social criticism.
Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station: A Study of the Writing and Acting
of History [1940]
Interesting examinations of Babeuf, Fourier, Michelet, Renan, Taine, Marx,
Engels, Lassalle, Bakunin, Lenin and Trotsky.
Josef Weber’s article
The
Problem of Social Consciousness in Our Time includes some penetrating
appreciations and critiques of this book.
George Orwell [1903-1950]
Orwell is deservedly admired because of his efforts to combine a radical
social practice with common decency, a modest, low-key
personal style, and a concern
with down-to-earth issues of everyday life. He is not really all that radical,
nor is he free from compromises or confusions. But virtually all of his
nonfiction is worth reading Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road
to Wigan Pier, Homage to Catalonia, and his rich array of essays and reviews
(see the four-volume Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George
Orwell).
Of his six novels, 1984 and Animal Farm are of course basic.
The others are all mildly interesting. The weakest is A Clergymans Daughter,
but even it has one powerful section (the dramatic chorus of homeless folks at
the beginning of chapter 3).
Anton Pannekoek, Workers Councils
[1950]
Somewhat dry and dated, but still the classic work on this crucial topic.
Pannekoeks other book, Lenin as Philosopher, is a more specialized
work, concerned with critiquing Lenins pseudo-Marxian philosophy.
For more recent discussions of workers councils and related forms of
revolutionary self-organization, see René
Riesels article on councils,
Raoul Vaneigem’s little book on
Total Self-Management, and the
last two chapters of The Joy of
Revolution.
Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia
[1951]
Ive never found the Frankfort School (Marcuse, Adorno, Horkheimer, etc.)
very interesting. Their best insights can be found more clearly and concisely
expressed in Marx, Lukács, Korsch, Reich or
the situationists. Their turgid style and equivocal content make it only too
obvious that they are academics, and their primary appeal is to other academics,
to whom they provide a reassuring legitimation of the notion that there is
something radical about endlessly rehashing abstruse philosophical issues
without ever arriving at any practical decision.
If you want to sample the Frankfort School at its best, you might try
Adornos Minima Moralia. Its Nietzsche-style aphoristical form tends to
produce more concise and provocative remarks on a variety of subjects. But even
so, notice how many of Adorno’s observations amount to a helpless resignation, the
sense that one can do nothing because the system has conquered all. (There is
nothing innocuous left. . . . There is no way out of the entanglement. . . .)
Its all so gloomy and dispiriting. Nietzsche is just as scathing, but so much
more invigorating.
Walter Benjamin [1892-1940]
Somewhat the same criticisms could be made of Walter Benjamin as of the
Frankfort School, but to me he seems less pretentious, more open, honest and
sympathetic.
Illuminations and Reflections present some good selections of
his essays and other writings.
Karl Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power
[1957]
A comprehensive examination of what used to be referred to as the Asiatic
type of totalitarian social systems. The author also refers to them as
hydraulic systems, because agricultural economies that involve the
coordination of extensive irrigation works have tended to produce and reinforce
this kind of highly centralized state.
Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens
[1950]
An interesting study of the play element in culture.
Lewis Mumford, The City in History
[1961]
This is one of the best overviews of history ever written. In the
process of examining the pros and cons of every type of past society, Mumford
implicitly brings into view the factors that would make for a truly human
community.
Of Mumfords many other books I recommend Technics and Civilization, a
critical analysis of technological development whose sober insights contrast
glaringly with the simplistic hot air spouted about this topic by both
technophiles and technophobes; and Interpretations and Forecasts: 1922-1972,
a sampling of his essays on a wide range of other topics, from literature and
art to science and religion.
Paul Goodman [1911-1972]
Paul Goodman is another independent social critic I think very highly of. He
somehow manages to be imaginative and practical at the same time a rare
combination.
Read Communitas (a marvelous book about cities and city planning) and
at least some of his essays. Utopian Essays and Practical Proposals is a
good general selection. There are many other collections devoted to specific
areas: literature (Creator Spirit Come), media (Format and Anxiety),
youth (Growing Up Absurd), education (Compulsory Mis-education, The
Community of Scholars), psychology (Nature Heals, Gestalt Psychology),
politics (Drawing the Line, People or Personnel, Like a Conquered Province,
New Reformation).
Here is his
essay on radical filmmaking. And here is
another, Banning Cars from Manhattan.
Christopher Alexander et al., A
Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
[1977]
This book by architect Christopher Alexander
and his colleagues has some of the imaginative freshness of Goodmans
Communitas. Though less radical, it is much more comprehensive,
going into detail about 253 different patterns (topics or themes), ranging from broad
issues of community planning to fine points of arranging the rooms you live in.
Daniel Boorstin, The Image
[1961]
Conservative but insightful examination of the spectacularization of American
society. See Debords critiques of this book in
The Society of the Spectacle
##197-200.
Jacques Ellul, Propaganda
[1962]
An excellent
study of the manipulation of social
consciousness, not just by means of propaganda in the narrow sense, but also in
a broader, more all-pervasive sense approximating in some ways to Debords
concept of the spectacle.
Joseph Gabel, False Consciousness
[1962]
Examination of the parallels between social and psychological
forms of false consciousness. See Debords allusions to this book in the
last chapter of The Society of the Spectacle.
Josef Weber et al., Contemporary Issues: A Magazine for a Democracy of
Content
An unusually high-quality radical journal published in London and New York from
1948-1970. See my critical appreciation,
Josef Weber and Contemporary
Issues and two articles by Weber,
The Great Utopia and
The Problem of Social Consciousness
in Our Time.
Henri Lefebvre, Critique of Everyday
Life; Everyday Life in the
Modern World
[1958, 1968]
Lefebvre has lots of illuminating
insights
on life in modern capitalist society, but they aren’t very well organized and you have to wade
through a lot of turgid verbosity to find them. Compare the conciseness and
lucidity of Debord’s text on the same topic:
Perspectives for Conscious Changes in Everyday Life (which incidentally was
originally presented at a conference convened by Lefebvre).
Cornelius Castoriadis, Political and Social Writings
(3 vols.)
The first two volumes of this set (ed. David
Ames Curtis) contain the earliest and most
valuable of Castoriadiss work (1946-1960), when he was one of the key
contributors to the ultraleftist journal Socialisme ou Barbarie. The
third volume (1961-1979) contains more hot air, as he was becoming more
academic and ideological.
Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals
[1971]
Alinsky was a professional community organizer who would be hired by
progressive groups to help arouse and bring together different sectors of a
community so as to challenge the status quo and win reforms. His goals were
usually rather limited and his methods often involved very dubious compromises
(with local politicians, businesses, churches, etc.).
Nevertheless, Rules for Radicals is packed with provocative
and sometimes downright ingenious tactics that might be adapted for more radical
purposes.
His earlier book, Reveille for Radicals, is not so interesting.
Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (3 vols.)
[1973]
This is by far the most lucid and thorough exposition of nonviolent tactics
I have ever seen. Sharp
does not base his study on abstract ethical arguments, but on practical
historical experience. In the second volume, The Methods of Nonviolent Action
(the most important one if you arent
sure you want to read the whole thing), he
examines the pros and cons of no fewer than 198 specific tactics, in each case
giving historical examples of how they worked or failed in practice. Because
many of these tactics (strikes, boycotts, etc.) are generally valid and
essential, this work is recommended for all radicals, not just for pacifists.
[Advantages
and Limits of Nonviolence]
C. Northcote Parkinson, Parkinsons Law
[1957]
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
See
below.
Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle
[1969]
In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.
Though often hilarious, these two little works
are full of insightful social
analysis.
Parkinson and Peter have each written several other
interesting and entertaining books on related themes.
Section from Gateway to the Vast Realms: Recommended
Readings from Literature to Revolution, by Ken Knabb (2004).
No copyright.
Bureau of Public Secrets, PO Box 1044, Berkeley CA 94701, USA
www.bopsecrets.org knabb@bopsecrets.org