On Reading. posted by Richard Seymour

Something odd is happening. In an era of global polarisation of all kinds, some of the most fundamental ideological precepts that one might have taken as agreed, already victorious, truisms, are being challenged. On the one hand, the cynosures of liberal ideology are losing their hegemony. Tolerance, openness, religious freedom, respect for the Other - all that is meeting growing resistance from a section of the population for whom it was never more than a cover for bigotry anyway. Similarly, for most Marxists, it has been shocking enough to discover that a number of erstwhile allies have reached shockingly different conclusions to us on the matter of imperialism, while claiming that they are truly consistent with their intellectual roots and that their faith in the liberatory power of imperialism is not heterodox.

Basic assumptions are having to be revisited, old arguments dredged up, canonical material critically scoured. For that reason, I think socialists and those newly drawn into the radical Left are probably reading and absorbing more information now than they might have done for a generation. In particular, philosophical and sociological arguments that might at one time have seemed obvious or pedantic are regaining considerable importance. The Middle East is an obvious hot topic, while America is a continuing conundrum. Fighting Facism is also an urgent task, particularly for the European Left.

Anyway, I'm seeking book recommendations from you, the public, the consumers and purveyors of bloggery. Stack em up in the comments box. Meanwhile, check out this online library of radical and socialist books. You can search by subject, author, title or whatever. I've just found it particularly useful for locating a copy of Ron Aaronson's Sarte and Camus, an account of that stormy friendship and intellectual rivalry.