otis_punkmeyer's review
5.0
I struggled between giving this book 4 or 5 stars. If I could I would give it 4.5, because I have a few issues with the book, but not enough to justify 4 stars.
This book does an excellent job of both educating and combating the nonsense of the time (as it was written in 1977). I would say honestly the worst part of this book is how much of it is applicable today 44 years later. We still see so much of what Winston breaks down as right opportunism and pretend "leftism" in the movement for Black Liberation.
My biggest issue with the book itself is it seems at least some of the book was written without the rest in mind. What I mean by this is Winston makes much of the same points in chapters 10 and 11 as he did in chapters 5,7-9. This of course isn't inherently a bad thing but it seems to make the book a bit denser than is necessary. Some chapters I found myself blasting through reading 10-15 pages in one sitting whereas some chapters I could barely read 2 pages before needing to take a break. I think this is evident in the fact it is only 237 pages and I was halfway by mid-January but did not finish until now, March 6th.
Regardless as I said this book does a *lot* of things right and has helped me formulate and organize a lot of thoughts and opinions in my head. I look forward to pawning this off on others to read.
tl;dr The book was very good, but a little dense at times. The author wrote this book entirely to shit on Social Democrats and Maoists which is fine by me.
This book does an excellent job of both educating and combating the nonsense of the time (as it was written in 1977). I would say honestly the worst part of this book is how much of it is applicable today 44 years later. We still see so much of what Winston breaks down as right opportunism and pretend "leftism" in the movement for Black Liberation.
My biggest issue with the book itself is it seems at least some of the book was written without the rest in mind. What I mean by this is Winston makes much of the same points in chapters 10 and 11 as he did in chapters 5,7-9. This of course isn't inherently a bad thing but it seems to make the book a bit denser than is necessary. Some chapters I found myself blasting through reading 10-15 pages in one sitting whereas some chapters I could barely read 2 pages before needing to take a break. I think this is evident in the fact it is only 237 pages and I was halfway by mid-January but did not finish until now, March 6th.
Regardless as I said this book does a *lot* of things right and has helped me formulate and organize a lot of thoughts and opinions in my head. I look forward to pawning this off on others to read.
tl;dr The book was very good, but a little dense at times. The author wrote this book entirely to shit on Social Democrats and Maoists which is fine by me.
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