Incisive, illuminating, eye-opening--an unsparing anatomy of the great ideological beast stalking our times, often whispered about and yet never so clearly in view.--David Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth

Neoliberalism is the dominant ideology of our time. It shapes us in countless ways, yet most of us struggle to articulate what it is. Worse, we have been persuaded to accept this extreme creed as a kind of natural law. In Invisible Doctrine, journalist George Monbiot and filmmaker Peter Hutchison shatter this myth. They show how a fringe philosophy in the 1930s--championing competition as the defining feature of humankind--was systematically hijacked by a group of wealthy elites, determined to guard their fortunes and power. Think tanks, corporations, the media, university departments and politicians were all deployed to promote the idea that people are consumers, rather than citizens.

One of the most pernicious effects has been to make our various crises--from climate disasters to economic crashes, from the degradation of public services to rampant child poverty--seem unrelated. In fact, they have all been exacerbated by the invisible doctrine, which subordinates democracy to the power of money. Monbiot and Hutchison connect the dots--and trace a direct line from neoliberalism to fascism, which preys on people's hopelessness and desperation.

Speaking out against the fairy tale of capitalism and populist conspiracy theories, Monbiot and Hutchison lay the groundwork for a new politics, one based on truly participatory democracy and private sufficiency, public luxury an inspiring vision that could help bring the neoliberal era to an end.

The widening wealth gap is all too familiar to many Millennials and GenZers, especially when home ownership and the lack of debt seem like faraway fantasies. And it's no surprise when they only hold about 4.6% of the country's wealth while Boomers held 22% at around the same age. So what happened to the promise of the American Dream?

In this new, final entry of his celebrated Hidden History Series, Thom Hartmann uncovers the rise of the American middle class through the progressive policies of FDR, through to its downfall with the increasing privatization and economic deregulations of the Reagan era.

He also explores potential solutions including:

• Wealth and inheritance taxes to lessen economic inequality
• Supporting unions through increasing labor rights
• Renationalizing public spaces and transportation

For the last twenty years, William I. Robinson has been developing a new theory of capitalism and the state; now his selected writings are collected in War, Global Capitalism and Resistance. His theory of capitalism, imperialism, and the state - describing a transnational capitalist world, a global police state, and the resistance to them - derives from earlier Marxists theories but also transforms and develops them. He applies his theory to such issues as education and migration, and the Israel-Palestine war, and calls for the creation of a new international to confront global capitalism. His writings challenge us to rethink our understanding of capitalism and the class struggle. This compact book contributes to contemporary Marxist theory and should be widely read and debated on the left.

Dan La Botz, co-editor of New Politics,

Never again! was the rallying cry after 1945, yet never again is now global. How did we get here? Wall Street, the Nazis, and the Crimes of the Deep State explores the role of Wall Street in promoting the rise of Hitler, funding the Nazi war machine, recruiting and rehabilitating ex-Nazis, and creating a transnational deep state inspired by Nazi methods. Wall Street has long preferred totalitarianism as the regime type most effective in crushing working-class resistance, and as capitalism once more enters a period of acute crisis, the aim is to replace liberal democracy with global technocracy--a novel, biodigital form of totalitarianism whose potential for social control exceeds anything imaginable by Hitler or Stalin.

Wall Street, the Nazis, and the Crimes of the Deep State illustrates how totalitarianism does not spring into existence fully formed. In the case of Nazi Germany, the descent into barbarism took place gradually, over many years. Today, the warning signs from history are flashing red. Unless the global technocratic coup being attempted is put down, we can expect the centralization of power in a New World Order, the return of slavery, the privatization of the global commons, and the transformation of society into a biodigital camp, bringing an end to the rule of law and normalizing the use of eugenics and a systematic mass murder of dissidents.

Todd McGowan forges a new theory of capitalism as a system based on the production of more than what we need: pure excess. He argues that the promise of more--more wealth, more enjoyment, more opportunity, without requiring any sacrifice--is the essence of capitalism. Previous socioeconomic systems set up some form of the social good as their focus. Capitalism, however, represents a revolutionary turn away from the good and the useful toward excessive growth, which now threatens the habitability of the planet.

Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, McGowan shows how the production of commodities explains the role of excess in the workings of capitalism. Capitalism and the commodity ensnare us with the image of the constant fulfillment of our desires--the seductive but unattainable promise of satisfying a longing that has no end. To challenge this system, McGowan turns to art, arguing that it can expose the psychological mechanisms that perpetuate capitalist society and reveal the need for limits. Featuring lively writing and engaging examples from film, literature, and popular culture, Pure Excess uncovers the hidden logic of capitalism--and helps us envision a noncapitalist life in a noncapitalist society.

A look at how much, and how little, has changed about class in America

One century ago, F. Scott Fitzgerald invited us into the lives of the rotten crowd, Jazz Age Americans with far more money than morals. In A Rotten Crowd America, Wealth, and One Hundred Years of The Great Gatsby, John Marsh welcomes us back to Fitzgerald's world to examine the rich and their reckless approach to human relationships, their poor taste in friends, and the harm they cause. Marsh leads us to wonder: What kinds of waste--economic, environmental, emotional--accompany a culture of wealth? What kinds of relationships do the wealthy form with those they rely upon to maintain their power--and how does capitalism and the need for the accumulation of wealth influence the bonds the rest of us form? On a surface level, how do the clothes people wear signal their status--and how do those fashions trickle down to the rest of us? And on a deeper level, how does racism drive a wedge between those who might otherwise stand up to the rich? As we move between 2025 and 1925 to consider how much--or little--has changed in the interim, A Rotten Crowd helps us discover what we can do about the obscene concentration of wealth in America today.

A plan for transitioning to a more sustainable world--while keeping the economy afloat

Ulrike Hermann is an economics correspondent whose books on social and economic policy issues are bestsellers in Germany. Here--translated by journalist and international broadcaster David Shaw--Ulrike explores how we might manage to transition to a more sustainable world without the collapse of the economy.

The End of Capitalism tells the story of Capitalism--from its beginnings in 1760 England, where textiles manufacturers had the idea to replace human workers with machines--and what it really means for the world when individual profits overshadow communal and environmental needs.

Hermann makes an argument for a circular economy, an economy where only what can be recycled is consumed. We know by now the ruinous effects of Capitalism on the climate and environment. While we hear that green growth is meant to be the savior, Ulrike argues that we need green shrinkage instead.

Her example for a solution is the British war economy of the 1940s. This is not a utopian scenario (it would involve personal restrictions and government planning) but a comprehensive example of how resources can be diverted.

An interesting and important read for serious thinkers who hope to upend Capitalism, The End of Capitalism offers a realistic alternative from an expert in the field. Readers of Rebecca Solnit, Naomi Klein and Rutgar Bregman; progressive-minded readers; and anyone interested in a different future should read this.

A comprehensive blueprint for a new post-capitalist order-which values our collective future over immediate economic gains

The fate of all economic systems is written in the energy flows they obtain from the natural world. Our collective humanity very much depends on nature-for joy, for comfort, and for sheer survival. In his prescient new book, The Physics of Capitalism, Erald Kolasi explores the deep ecological physics of human existence by developing a new theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between economic systems and the wider natural world.

Nature is full of complex and dynamic systems that are constantly interacting with our societies. The collective physical interactions of the natural world guide and forge many fundamental features of human societies and civilizations. Humanity does not exist on a magical pedestal above the rest of reality; we are just one slice in a grand continuum of physical systems that interact, combine, and transform over time. We too belong to the natural world. And it's this critical fact that controls the long-term fate of our economies and civilizations. Among all the living organisms that have called this blue marble home, humans are a very recent species. In that short period of time, we have managed to become one of the most dominant life forms in the history of the planet, creating powerful civilizations with elaborate cultures, large populations, and extensive trade networks. We have been nomads and farmers, scientists and lawyers, nurses and doctors, welders and blacksmiths. Our achievements are both astonishing and unprecedented, but they also carry great risks.

Throughout history, economic growth has depended heavily on people converting more energy from their natural environments and concentrating the resulting energy flows towards the application of specific tasks. The economic and demographic growth of human civilization over the last ten thousand years has profoundly impacted natural ecosystems throughout the planet, triggering major instabilities across the biosphere that threaten to reverberate on civilization and to destabilize its long-term trajectory. Swamped with multiple ecological challenges of historic proportions, global civilization now stands at a critical tipping point that deserves closer scrutiny. If we are to have any hope of addressing the difficult challenges we face, then we must begin by understanding them and appreciating their complexity. And then, we must act. This book offers a comprehensive blueprint for our collective future, pointing the way to a new post-capitalist order that can provide long-term viability and stability for human civilization on a global scale.

Sustainable Capitalism takes on the challenge of sustainability from a uniquely interdisciplinary and diverse perspective, offering both theory and tools for action. Topics range from an analysis of the foundations and definition of capitalism to the specific regulatory mechanisms that may be necessary to rein in its current, unsustainable trajectory. Readers will find nuanced and important analyses of options and potential outcomes that are not available in any other work. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the path we are on and how we might improve the lives of people around the globe.

https: //www.sustainablecapitalismbook.com/

Rainer Zitelmann examines the ten most common objections to capitalism: that capitalism leads to hunger and poverty, to rising inequality, to unnecessary consumption, to environmental destruction, to climate change and wars. Capitalism, its critics say, prioritizes profits over humanity, creates dominant monopolies, and undermines democracy. Zitelmann scrutinizes each of these arguments in turn and reveals the critical flaws that debunk them. He offers counter arguments to each charge, deploying a wealth of historical evidence and eye-opening facts to prove that it is not capitalism that has failed, but a century of anti-capitalist experiments.

All That Is Sacred Is Profaned is the text from Rhyd Wildermuth's popular introductory course on Marxism, now available in print. Written for those without privileged academic experience and those too busy trying to survive to read economic theory, this book uses real-world examples to explain how capitalism operates, why it came about, and how it might be stopped.

All That Is Sacred Is Profaned isn't just an economic or political text. Instead, Pagan and druid Rhyd Wildermuth teases out the intersections between Marx's ideas and the core worldviews of animism and Paganism: the magical transformation of the world through labor, the inspirited nature of the things we humans create and trade, and the sacred aspects of the world crushed beneath the demands of profit.

Deciphers the history of Black capitalist rhetoric-- and how it serves to enrich a minuscule few at the expense of the many

In his 1970 book The Myth of Black Capitalism, Earl Ofari Hutchinson laid out a rigorous challenge to the presumption that capitalism, in any shape or form, has the potential to rectify the stark injustices endured by Black people in America. Ofari engaged in a diligent historical review of the participation of African Americans in commercial activity in this capitalist country, demonstrating conclusively that the creation of a class of Black capitalists failed to ameliorate the extreme inequity faced by African Americans. Even Buy Black campaigns which aimed to keep resources in the community, he showed, reinforced a Black bourgeoisie which often enough exploited the Black underclass to increase their own wealth. Whether Black capitalists dared to go up against, or merely tried to find their place amongst, giant monopoly corporations, Ofari argued they would make little substantive progress in the lives of Black people. And whether calls for Black capitalism came from within the Black Power movement for Black economic autonomy, or were appropriated by the old-line Black elite, in the end the promotion of the myth of Black capitalism was a project of the Black elite which solely served the interests of the capitalist managerial class.

It was Richard Nixon who first introduced the notion of Black capitalism into mainstream American discourse, coopting the term at a time when African Americans comprised only 3% of the nation's employers. That number dwindled thereafter, and yet the term only gained cachet following the election of Barack Obama and the increased visibility of the Black elite. Thankfully, just as the rhetoric of 'Black capitalism is being resuscitated, it is being confronted once more. In this second edition of Earl Ofari's pathbreaking book, a Monthly Review Press classic, the author adds a new Introduction, which shows both the enduring strength of the ideology of Black capitalism and its continued inability to change the nature of what has always been a racialized system of production and distribution. Ofari reveals Black capitalism for what it really is: a diversion from the struggle for liberation that works at cross purposes with the fight against exploitation, and a fantasy which enriches a minuscule few at the expense of the many. The Myth of Black Capitalism argues definitively that only a direct assault on the oppression of Black people and the capitalist system itself can bring this exploitation to an end.

A fresh look on the welfare system--with a view beyond the state

With The Class Struggle and Welfare, David Matthews argues that we must understand the welfare state as a dialectical phenomenon--a product of class struggle. Confronting the hypocritical rhetoric of politicians who castigate welfare beneficiaries as lazy and workshy, Matthews points to clear evidence that the welfare state is essential to the prosperity and health of capitalist economies. At the same time, in the Marxist tradition, Matthews moves well beyond an analysis of welfare as simply an instrument wielded by capitalism for its benefit, arguing that proof of the class struggle scars the surface of every welfare system.

With chapters focusing on welfare issues, including social security, health, disability, housing, and education, Matthews examines historical and current developments in Britain as a basis for a wider understanding of the relationship between capitalism and welfare. The Class Struggle and Welfare shows that as welfare states grew exponentially throughout the advanced capitalist world over the course of a century, the intents, purposes and perceptions of the institution of welfare underwent a dialectical transformation. On the one hand, the services offered served to bolster capitalism. On the other hand, welfare systems in and of themselves were born of class struggle. In turn, even as current welfare systems reflect the values and the needs of the capitalist arena, the influence and imprint of the working class is plain to see. The Class Struggle and Welfare ultimately looks to the future, arguing that the working class must consider an alternative type of welfare system--one which looks beyond the state and truly reflects the values of equality, solidarity, and community.

The societies of the dominated periphery no longer can wait, said the great Egyptian economist Samir Amin, over half a century ago in the lively and readable book, Imperialism and Unequal Development. With every passing year, the material conditions of their vast masses becomes more intolerable, which the palliatives of capitalist integration becomes increasingly worthless, he continued, while noting that, in response to this acute and prolonged suffering, the renaissance of Marxism also characterized the very same years in which he wrote. This Marxist renaissance originated in those parts of the world, he showed, have been and continue to be the scene of decisive revolutionary struggles-that is, in the exploited and oppressed periphery of the world capitalist system, primarily, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

With the freshness and originality that readers came to expect from Amin Imperialism and Unequal Development dealt with an extraordinarily wide range of topics, from Historical Materialism: Capitalism and Socialism and Imperialism and Underdevelopment, to Problems of Transition and the Construction of Socialism. Pointing to the relationship between regions at the frontlines of capitalist and neocolonial degradation, and the renaissance in Marxist thought, Amin argued that Marxism has always been neither an economic theory, a sociological theory, nor a philosophy, but the social science of revolutionary socialist praxis.

Isaak Illich Rubin (12 June 1886, Dinaburg, now Latvia - 27 November 1937, Aktobe, now Kazakhstan) was a Soviet Marxian economist. His main work Essays on Marx's Theory of Value was published in 1924. He was executed in 1937 during the course of the Great Purge, but his ideas have since been rehabilitated.

Rubin's main work emphasised the importance of Marx's theory of commodity fetishism in the labor theory of value. Against those who counterposed Marx's early interest in alienation with his later economic theory, Rubin argued that Marx's mature economic work represented the culmination of his lifetime project to understand how human creative power is shaped, defined, and limited by social structures, which take on a uniquely objective economic form under capitalism. Significantly, Rubin is at pains to argue that simple commodity production is not a historical phenomenon that developed into capitalism, as it is often understood by both Marxists and critics of Marx; rather, it is a theoretical abstraction that explains one aspect of a fully developed capitalist economy. The concept of value, as understood by Rubin, cannot exist without the other elements of a full-blown capitalist economy: money, capital, the existence of a proletariat, and so on.

Rubin's work was never reissued in the Soviet Union after 1928, but in 1972 Essays on Marx's Theory of Value was translated into English by Fredy Perlman and Milos Samardzija. This work became a foundation stone of the value-form approach to Marxist theory, exemplified by Hans-Georg Backhaus, Chris Arthur, Geert Reuten, and the Konstanz-Sydney group (Michael Eldred, Mike Roth, Lucia Kleiber, and Volkbert Roth). In this interpretation of Marx, it is the development of the forms of exchange that is seen as the prime determinant of the capitalist economy rather than the content regulated by it. Capitalism is here understood as a method of regulating human labor by giving it the social form of an exchangeable commodity (the value-form), rather than a disguised or mystified system that is otherwise similar in content to other class-based societies.

According to Arthur, the rediscovery of Rubin's masterly exegesis was the most important single influence on the value form approach to Capital. (wikipedia.org)

This book is openly available in digital formats thanks to a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Many of today's insurgent Black movements call for an end to racial capitalism. They take aim at policing and mass incarceration, the racial partitioning of workplaces and residential communities, the expropriation and underdevelopment of Black populations at home and abroad. Scholars and activists increasingly regard these practices as essential technologies of capital accumulation, evidence that capitalist societies past and present enshrine racial inequality as a matter of course.

In Prophet of Discontent, Andrew J. Douglas and Jared A. Loggins invoke contemporary discourse on racial capitalism in a powerful reassessment of Martin Luther King Jr.'s thinking and legacy. Like today's organizers, King was more than a dreamer. He knew that his call for a radical revolution of values was complicated by the production and circulation of value under capitalism. He knew that the movement to build the beloved community required sophisticated analyses of capitalist imperialism, state violence, and racial formations, as well as unflinching solidarity with the struggles of the Black working class. Shining new light on King's largely implicit economic and political theories, and expanding appreciation of the Black radical tradition to which he belonged, Douglas and Loggins reconstruct, develop, and carry forward King's strikingly prescient critique of capitalist society.

WINNER, 2024 Jock Young Criminological Imagination Book Award, given by the Division on Critical Criminology & Social Justice of American Society of Criminology

A riveting indictment of a government that fails to help citizens in need of aid, protection, and
humanity

The Shaming State argues that Americans have been abandoned by a government that has relinquished its duties of care toward its citizens. Sara Salman describes a government that withholds care in times of need and instead shames the very citizens it claims to serve, both poor and middle class. She argues that the state does so by emphasizing personal responsibility, thus tacitly blaming the needy for relying on state programs. This blame is pervasive in the American cultural imagination, existing in political discourse and internalized by Americans. This book explores how shaming is exhibited by state and political institutions by showing the ways in which the state withholds care, and how people who need that care are humiliated for failing to be self-sufficient.

The Shaming State investigates the vanishing horizon of social rights in the United States and the dwindling of government support to both lower- and middle-class people. Focusing on Iraqi refugees and white home-owning New Yorkers, Salman demonstrates how both groups were faced with immense difficulty and humiliation when searching for access to assistance programs maintained by the government. Looking at the long-range trends, she argues that the last forty years have made the United States a market fundamentalist country, where the government does not offer unified aid and increasingly asks citizens to assume personal responsibility in the face of uncontrollable disasters. Whether it was Hurricane Katrina almost two decades ago or the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the indifferent and stagnant response by the American government not only amplified the consequences of these disasters but also increased hostility towards the vulnerable groups who needed help. Ultimately, The Shaming State tells stories of abandonment, loss, shame, and rage experienced by Americans and how the government has let them down time and time again.

Selfishness is essential to capitalism--or so both advocates and opponents claim. In Infinite Greed, Adrian Johnston argues that this consensus is mistaken. Through a novel synthesis of Marxism and psychoanalysis, he reveals how the relentless pursuit of profits is not fundamentally animated by human acquisitiveness. Instead, capitalism's strange infinite greed demands that individuals sacrifice their pleasures, their well-being, and even themselves to serve inhuman capital.

Johnston traces the mechanisms that compel capitalist subjects to obey the cold imperative to accumulate in perpetuity and without limits--and also without regard for the consequences for everyone and everything else. Facing crises such as spiraling wealth inequality and the profit-driven prospect of a looming ecological apocalypse, the rational self-interest of the majority would seem to dictate putting a stop to capitalist accumulation. By bringing together the Marxian critique of political economy with psychoanalytic metapsychology, Johnston shows why and how capitalism, rather than being responsive to people's rationally selfish interests, disregards and overrides them instead.

Unlike previous syntheses of Marxism and psychoanalysis, Infinite Greed pairs Freudian and Lacanian concepts with the economic heart of Marx's historical materialism. In so doing, Johnston brings to light the complex intertwining of political and libidinal economies keeping us invested and complicit in perpetuating capitalism and its ills.

A comprehensive survey of capitalism's colonialist roots and uncertain future

Those who control the world's commanding economic heights, buttressed by the theories of mainstream economists, presume that capitalism is a self-contained and self-generating system. Nothing could be further from the truth. In this pathbreaking book--winner of the Paul A. Baran-Paul M. Sweezy Memorial Award--radical political economists Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik argue that the accumulation of capital has always required the taking of land, raw materials, and bodies from noncapitalist modes of production. They begin with a thorough debunking of mainstream economics.
Then, looking at the history of capitalism, from the beginnings of colonialism half a millennium ago to today's neoliberal regimes, they discover that, over the long haul, capitalism, in order to exist, must metastasize itself in the practice of imperialism and the immiseration of countless people. A few hundred years ago, write the Patnaiks, colonialism began to ensure vast, virtually free, markets for new products in burgeoning cities in the West. But even after slavery was generally abolished, millions of people in the Global South still fell prey to the continuing lethal exigencies of the marketplace. Even
after the Second World War, when decolonization led to the end of the so-called Golden Age of Capitalism, neoliberal economies stepped in to reclaim the Global South, imposing drastic austerity measures on working people. But, say the Patnaiks, this neoliberal economy, which lives from bubble to bubble, is doomed to a protracted crisis. In its demise, we are beginning to see--finally--the transcendence of the capitalist system.