this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2023
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What did you read in 2023 and what will you be reading in 2024? (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by Parsani@hexbear.net to c/theory@hexbear.net
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What did you or are you planning on reading?

I was very bad at reading books this year, so I'm going to make a better habit of it this year. Here is my short list so far for 2024:

  • The Eye of the Master
  • Palo Alto
  • The Long 20th Century (and maybe Adam Smith in Beijing?)
  • Socialist States and the Environment
  • The Capital Order
  • Collapse of Antiquity
  • (maybe I'll finish) Vol 1 of Wallersteins The Modern World-System, but probably not
  • reread Capital vol 1
  • Intelligence and Spirit
  • XYZT

Also:

  • one of Ilyenkovs books?
  • something about or by Hegel. I've only read the introduction to the philosophy of history
  • one of Losurdos books
  • Maybe the Grundrisse instead of capital vol 1
  • Marx's Inferno
  • Bataille's book on prehistoric art

Pls share what you have or plan to read so I can get some recommendations! I posted in c/theory but fiction is welcome too.

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[โ€“] BynarsAreOk@hexbear.net 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Sorry no books to recommend, but I did read this in its entirety, its extremely based and should be almost mandatory, the 2023 study Capitalism and extreme poverty: A global analysis of real wages, human height, and mortality since the long 16th century by Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel.

I think it is extremely good, maybe not definitive but getting this close to a scientific measure of the effects of capitalism beginning from the colonial era and debunking some extremely important myths like capitalism was beneficial or that inequality was already common. On the contrary, they get realy close IMO to proving at the very best Capitalism did not improve anything and at worst it only caused massive inequality, poverty and death.

As I said it is so good I would even say its mandatory reading and even though its not a book it should be easily adapted into one.

[โ€“] MF_COOM@hexbear.net 6 points 2 years ago

Yeah I read that very carefully too. I think it has some weaknesses (mainly that it conflates capitalism and being on the receiving end of imperialism, but also that he's pretty hand-wavy with the effects of structural adjustments) but the China data is really where his argument shines.