foxmoon's review against another edition
3.0
Three and a half stars.
I picked out this book expecting to find a series of somewhat utopian essays from anticapitalist thinkers describing what their vision of a “Socialist U.S.A.” might look like. However, it was not really like that at all. Overall this is still a worthwhile and accessible anthology, but of essays that critique capitalism and the organization of society more often than conceptualize about a socialist version of it. Some absolutely do stick to the "imagine" theme and offer persuasive and compelling visualizations that stir up hope for a socialist (or sometimes reformist or anarchist or syndicalist) future, but many describe only what not to do.
Something that I found to be frustrating about the book is that it appears to be based on submissions rather than a collaborative effort. For example, nearly every chapter begins with its own historically-based introduction, which would be useful if one were reading these as individual essays; unfortunately, in chapter book format it just becomes repetitive reading 20 different authors’ interpretations of the history of neoliberalism. For this reason I found it easier to read over a long period of time at a rate of one essay per sitting rather than reading it as complete book. My favorites include the essays by Arun Gupta on agriculture, Mat Callahan on art and intellectual property, and Kazembe Balagun on anti-racism.
This is a valuable book to keep on your shelf and flip through on days you're feeling beat down by society. If you’d like to read another book that imagines socialism in the U.S.A., I recommend “Socialism …Seriously” by Danny Katch. If you’d like to read another book that offers similar critiques of society and poses solutions from a left-leaning perspective I recommend “Alternatives to Economic Globalization” by John Cavanaugh.
I picked out this book expecting to find a series of somewhat utopian essays from anticapitalist thinkers describing what their vision of a “Socialist U.S.A.” might look like. However, it was not really like that at all. Overall this is still a worthwhile and accessible anthology, but of essays that critique capitalism and the organization of society more often than conceptualize about a socialist version of it. Some absolutely do stick to the "imagine" theme and offer persuasive and compelling visualizations that stir up hope for a socialist (or sometimes reformist or anarchist or syndicalist) future, but many describe only what not to do.
Something that I found to be frustrating about the book is that it appears to be based on submissions rather than a collaborative effort. For example, nearly every chapter begins with its own historically-based introduction, which would be useful if one were reading these as individual essays; unfortunately, in chapter book format it just becomes repetitive reading 20 different authors’ interpretations of the history of neoliberalism. For this reason I found it easier to read over a long period of time at a rate of one essay per sitting rather than reading it as complete book. My favorites include the essays by Arun Gupta on agriculture, Mat Callahan on art and intellectual property, and Kazembe Balagun on anti-racism.
This is a valuable book to keep on your shelf and flip through on days you're feeling beat down by society. If you’d like to read another book that imagines socialism in the U.S.A., I recommend “Socialism …Seriously” by Danny Katch. If you’d like to read another book that offers similar critiques of society and poses solutions from a left-leaning perspective I recommend “Alternatives to Economic Globalization” by John Cavanaugh.
raeerin22's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.25
A little disjointed to read but interesting
june_moon's review against another edition
3.0
Three and a half stars.
I picked out this book expecting to find a series of somewhat utopian essays from anticapitalist thinkers describing what their vision of a “Socialist U.S.A.” might look like. However, it was not really like that at all. Overall this is still a worthwhile and accessible anthology, but of essays that critique capitalism and the organization of society more often than conceptualize about a socialist version of it. Some absolutely do stick to the "imagine" theme and offer persuasive and compelling visualizations that stir up hope for a socialist (or sometimes reformist or anarchist or syndicalist) future, but many describe only what not to do.
Something that I found to be frustrating about the book is that it appears to be based on submissions rather than a collaborative effort. For example, nearly every chapter begins with its own historically-based introduction, which would be useful if one were reading these as individual essays; unfortunately, in chapter book format it just becomes repetitive reading 20 different authors’ interpretations of the history of neoliberalism. For this reason I found it easier to read over a long period of time at a rate of one essay per sitting rather than reading it as complete book. My favorites include the essays by Arun Gupta on agriculture, Mat Callahan on art and intellectual property, and Kazembe Balagun on anti-racism.
This is a valuable book to keep on your shelf and flip through on days you're feeling beat down by society. If you’d like to read another book that imagines socialism in the U.S.A., I recommend “Socialism …Seriously” by Danny Katch. If you’d like to read another book that offers similar critiques of society and poses solutions from a left-leaning perspective I recommend “Alternatives to Economic Globalization” by John Cavanaugh.
I picked out this book expecting to find a series of somewhat utopian essays from anticapitalist thinkers describing what their vision of a “Socialist U.S.A.” might look like. However, it was not really like that at all. Overall this is still a worthwhile and accessible anthology, but of essays that critique capitalism and the organization of society more often than conceptualize about a socialist version of it. Some absolutely do stick to the "imagine" theme and offer persuasive and compelling visualizations that stir up hope for a socialist (or sometimes reformist or anarchist or syndicalist) future, but many describe only what not to do.
Something that I found to be frustrating about the book is that it appears to be based on submissions rather than a collaborative effort. For example, nearly every chapter begins with its own historically-based introduction, which would be useful if one were reading these as individual essays; unfortunately, in chapter book format it just becomes repetitive reading 20 different authors’ interpretations of the history of neoliberalism. For this reason I found it easier to read over a long period of time at a rate of one essay per sitting rather than reading it as complete book. My favorites include the essays by Arun Gupta on agriculture, Mat Callahan on art and intellectual property, and Kazembe Balagun on anti-racism.
This is a valuable book to keep on your shelf and flip through on days you're feeling beat down by society. If you’d like to read another book that imagines socialism in the U.S.A., I recommend “Socialism …Seriously” by Danny Katch. If you’d like to read another book that offers similar critiques of society and poses solutions from a left-leaning perspective I recommend “Alternatives to Economic Globalization” by John Cavanaugh.
dostojevskijs's review against another edition
2.0
This is a book consisting of a series of essays about a possibility of a socialist USA. It is divided up into three sections – why capitalism is bad, what a socialist USA would mean and how to get there.
The U.S. is more or less infamous for its anti-communism agenda; and for many, socialism is synonymous with communism. In a way, they are right as communism is a branch within the socialist tree. But because of the propaganda, mostly done in the 50's and 60's during the Cold War, most Americans view socialism as something bad. They instantly think about Mao's China or Kim Jong-un's North Korea. Because of that, this book definitely caught my interest right away. That's very likely because I personally stand by socialism and its values; I'm not at all supportive of capitalism and therefore, to read about ideas about how to make one of the largest capitalist countries into a socialist country was way too interesting to pass up on.
But I felt the book spent most of its time trying to battle the ”socialism equals communism” thought concept – and it did an awful job at actually succeeding. There's quite a few socialist countries and yet, the book keeps mentioning communist nations without trying to explain the obvious and very big differences between socialism and its daughter communism. That being said, none of those countries are truly communist either. They are at best corrupt communist countries which more or less just means they are non-communist nations claiming to be. I felt that was a big flaw in the book because they were quite bad at trying to get their points and arguments across as to how and why socialism would succeed as the main ideology in the US.
The essays varied in quality quite a lot; somewhere really good and it was for those I pushed myself to finish the book. It definitely contains a lot of interesting thoughts, point of views and ideas. I do feel like I'm taking something with me after finishing the book, but none of them really have anything to do with why the US should become a socialist nation, how it will be done and how it will benefit the community in many ways. There's a lot of talk about benefits, yes, but there's a lot of talk and few suggestions. That does disappoint me as that is what the book claims to be. How to make the US socialist. It mostly contains a bunch of dreams of how it could look like. But how do we get there? And what is really the difference between socialism and communism? I doubt many who didn't know before reading the book truly knows it now.
The U.S. is more or less infamous for its anti-communism agenda; and for many, socialism is synonymous with communism. In a way, they are right as communism is a branch within the socialist tree. But because of the propaganda, mostly done in the 50's and 60's during the Cold War, most Americans view socialism as something bad. They instantly think about Mao's China or Kim Jong-un's North Korea. Because of that, this book definitely caught my interest right away. That's very likely because I personally stand by socialism and its values; I'm not at all supportive of capitalism and therefore, to read about ideas about how to make one of the largest capitalist countries into a socialist country was way too interesting to pass up on.
But I felt the book spent most of its time trying to battle the ”socialism equals communism” thought concept – and it did an awful job at actually succeeding. There's quite a few socialist countries and yet, the book keeps mentioning communist nations without trying to explain the obvious and very big differences between socialism and its daughter communism. That being said, none of those countries are truly communist either. They are at best corrupt communist countries which more or less just means they are non-communist nations claiming to be. I felt that was a big flaw in the book because they were quite bad at trying to get their points and arguments across as to how and why socialism would succeed as the main ideology in the US.
The essays varied in quality quite a lot; somewhere really good and it was for those I pushed myself to finish the book. It definitely contains a lot of interesting thoughts, point of views and ideas. I do feel like I'm taking something with me after finishing the book, but none of them really have anything to do with why the US should become a socialist nation, how it will be done and how it will benefit the community in many ways. There's a lot of talk about benefits, yes, but there's a lot of talk and few suggestions. That does disappoint me as that is what the book claims to be. How to make the US socialist. It mostly contains a bunch of dreams of how it could look like. But how do we get there? And what is really the difference between socialism and communism? I doubt many who didn't know before reading the book truly knows it now.
laread's review against another edition
4.0
This collection of essays covers a range of topics, and the final section on the "how" is good and practical. Recommended as explanation of what's wrong and how to fix it -- and I do mean that in the most sweeping systemic sense.
jacquelynjoan's review
5.0
Very interesting. They have a chapter on so many different topics. There will be many things that almost anyone will find interesting. Quick pace too, because it's lots of 10-20 page essays.
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