Third Worldist Library

Over the years, I have been asked to compile my book recommendations in a more permanent place than social media. I have finally gotten around to it. The texts are not listed in any order since they are all excellent. In general, I consider all books within a section to be equally important. Each section has a brief note at the top. You will notice that the vast majority of these books are quite old. This is deliberate. In my experience, newer historical work is often garbage while older work is often superb (though there are always exceptions)–good scholarship is fundamentally timeless.

I have marked with stars (**) those sources that I have not read but have been praised by people I trust. I will continually update this list over time. Almost every source stated here can be found for free on libgen, archive.org, marxists.org, anna’s archive or through simple Google search. Naturally, if you’re a rich parasite, I recommend getting physical copies, especially in light of recent attacks on open-access.

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Paleo-Marxism

1. Marx:

   1. Capital, I-III

   2. Theories of Surplus Value, I-III

   3. Grundrisse

2. Emmanuel:

   1. Profit and Crises

   2. Unequal Exchange

   3. Appropriate or Underdeveloped Technology

3. Historical Materialism:

   1. Karl Marx’s Theory of History - Cohen

   2. Theory as History - Banaji

4. Popularization:

   1. ABC of Communism - Bukharin, Preobrazhensky

   2. Labor Aristocracy, Mass Base of Social Democracy - Edwards

   3. Unequal Exchange and the Prospects of Socialism - Communist Working Group

5. Veblen:

   1. Engineers and the Price System

   2. Theory of the Leisure Class

Soviet Union

1. Revolutionary Period:

   1. Bolshevik Revolution - Bunyan, Fisher, ed.

   2. History of the Russian Revolution - Trotsky

   3. History of the Civil War in the USSR, I-II - Gorky et al

2. History of Soviet Russia by Carr:

   1. Bolshevik Revolution, I-III

   2. Interregnum

   3. Socialism in One Country, I-III

   4. Foundations of a Planned Economy, I-III

   5. Twilight of the Comintern

3. Soviet Communism: A New Civilization, I-II - S & B Webb

4. Communist International 1919-43, I-III - Degras

5. Affirmative Action Empire - Martin

6. Stalinism and the Politics of Mobilization - Priestland**

7. Carley:

   1. Stalin’s Gamble**

   2. Stalin’s Failed Alliance**

Fascism & Other Capitalist Regimes

1. 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte - Marx

2. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy - Moore

3. Barrel of a Gun - First

4. Rise of the South African Reich - Bunting

5. Green Shirts and Others - Nagy-Talavera

6. European Civil War, 1917-45 - Nolte¹

7. American Frauds:

   1. Myers:

      1. History of the Great American Fortunes

      2. History of Tammany Hall

   2. Robber Barons - Josephson

8. Maier:

   1. Recasting Bourgeois Europe 

   2. In Search of Stability

9. Italy:

   1. Agrarian Elites and Italian Fascism - Cardoza

   2. Fascism in Ferrara - Corner

10. Germany:

    1. Collapse of the Weimar Republic - Abraham

    2. Behemoth - Neumann

    3. Social Policy in the Third Reich - Mason

11. India:

    1. Fascism: Essays on Europe and India - Banaji, ed.

    2. Hindu Nationalist Movement in India - Jaffrelot

12. Structures of Genocide:

    1. Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? - Mayer

    2. Destruction of the European Jews, I-III - Hilberg

Race, Class & Settler-Colonialism

1. South Africa:

   1. Class and Colour in South Africa, 1850-1950 - HJ & RE Simons

   2. Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand, 1886-1914, I-II - Van Onselen

   3. Black Gold: Mozambican Miner, Proletarian and Peasant - First

   4. Class, Race, and Gold - Johnstone

   5. Time Longer than Rope - Roux

   6. Year of Fire, Year of Ash - Hirson

2. USA:

   1. Black Reconstruction - DuBois

   2. Black Worker - Harris, Spero

   3. Settlers - Sakai

   4. Gentlemen of Property and Standing - Richards

   5. Indispensable Enemy - Saxton

   6. Invasion of America - Jennings

3. UK:

   1. Policing the Crisis - Hall et al

   2. Catching History on a Wing - Sivanandan

   3. Here to Stay, Here to Fight - Field, Bunce et al, ed.

4. Australia & New Zealand:

   1. A New Britannia - McQueen

   2. Fear and Hatred - Markus

   1. Farthest Promised Land - Arnold**

5. Brazil:

   1. The Negro in Brazilian Society - Fernandes

   2. Abolition of Slavery in Brazil - Toplin

6. Palestine:

   1. Land, Labor, and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1882-1914 - Shafir

   2. Shahak:

      1. Jewish History, Jewish Religion

      2. Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel

7. West Indies:

   1. Black Jacobins - James

   2. History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905 - Rodney

8. Comparative Studies:

   1. Race and State in Capitalist Development - Greenberg

   2. Traces of History - Wolfe

Annales & Adjacent

1. Feudal Society, I-II - Bloch

2. Pirenne:

   1. Mohammed and Charlemagne

   2. Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe

   3. Medieval Cities

3. Braudel:

   1. Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World, I-II

   2. Civilization and Capitalism, I-III

4. Hobsbawm:

   1. Age of Revolution

   2. Age of Capital

   3. Age of Empire

   4. Age of Extremes

5. Modern World Systems, I-III - Wallerstein**

6. Land and Lordship - Brunner

7. German Hansa - Dollinger

8. Martin Luther, A Destiny - Febvre

9. History of Russia from the Earliest Times to the Rise of Commercial Capitalism - Pokrovsky

10. Economic History of Spain - Vicens Vives**

Making of the Third World

1. Davis:

   1. Late Victorian Holocausts

   2. Planet of Slums

2. Soviet Collapse:

   1. Triumph of Broken Promises - Bartel

   2. Collapse - Zubok**

3. East & South Asia:

   1. History of the Chinese Communist Party, 1921-49 - Guillermaz

   2. Fanshen - Hinton

   3. Drums of War, Drums of Development - Glassman

   4. Origins of the Korean War, I-II - Cumings

   5. Where Shrimp Eat Better than People - Dunaway, Macabuac

   6. Sugarcane and Sugar in Gorakhpur - Amin

   7. Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India - Guha**

4. Latin America:

   1. We Eat the Mines and the Mines Eat Us - Nash

   2. Let Me Speak - Chungara

   3. Sugar and Hunger - Linhart

   4. Mexican Revolution, I-II - Knight**

   5. Peasants and Capital - Trouillot**

5. Arab World:

   1. Batatu:

      1. Old Social Classes and Revolutionary Movements of Iraq

      2. Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics

   2. Palestine:

      1. Gaza Strip: Political Economy of De-development - Roy

      2. Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries - Sayigh

      3. Revolution of 1936-1939 in Palestine - Kanafani

   3. History of Saudi Arabia - Vassiliev

   4. Egypt: Military Society - Abdel-Malek

   5. Rise and Fall of OPEC - Garavini

   6. Middle East Oil and the Energy Crisis - Stork

6. Africa:

   1. Unhappy Valley, I-II - Berman & Lonsdale

   2. French Colonialism in Tropical Africa, 1900-1945 - Suret-Canale

   3. America’s Wars on Democracy in Rwanda and the DR Congo - Podur

   4. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa - Rodney

   5. Silent Violence: Food, Famine, and Peasantry in Northern Nigeria - Watts**

Revolutionary Struggles

1. Italy:

   1. Proletarian Order - Williams

   2. Occupation of the Factories - Spriano

2. Russia:

   1. Lenin’s Political Thought, I-II - Harding

   2. Brief History of Russia, I-II - Pokrovsky

   3. 1905 - Trotsky

   4. Stalin - Suny

3. China, Korea, Vietnam:

   1. Red Star Over China - Snow

   2. Song of Ariran - Wales, San

   3. Viet Cong - Pike

   4. Ho Chi Minh - Duiker

4. France:

   1. Lefebvre:

      1. French Revolution, I-II

      2. Napoleon, I-II

   2. The Vendee - Tilly

   3. Paris Commune of 1871 - Jellinek**

5. Anglo-Saxon Treachery:

   1. From Chartism to Labourism - Rothstein

   2. Yankee Unions, Go Home! - Scott

6. Spanish-American Revolutions, 1808-1826 - Lynch**

7. Goya in the Democratic Tradition - Klingender

8. Merchant of Revolution - Zeman, Scharlau

9. Arabia without Sultans - Halliday

10. Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century - Wolf**

American Radicalism:

1. Radical Abolitionism:

   1. American Civilization - James

   2. American Negro Slave Revolts - Aptheker

   3. All on Fire - Mayer

   4. Lesson of the Hour - Ignatiev, ed.

   5. John Brown, Abolitionist - Reynolds

   6. DuBois:

      1. John Brown

      2. Black Reconstruction

2. Populism:

   1. Democratic Promise - Goodwyn**

   2. Tom Watson, Agrarian Rebel - Woodward

3. IWW / SPA:

   1. IWW: Study of American Syndicalism - Brissenden

   2. Industrial Workers of the World - Foner

   3. Joe Hill - Rosemont

   4. Bill Haywood’s Book - Haywood

   5. American Socialist Movement, 1897-1912 - Kipnis

   6. Bending Cross - Ginger

   7. Why Is There No Socialism in the United States? - Sombart

4. Age of Roosevelt, I-III - Schlesinger**

5. Civil Rights:

   1. Negroes with Guns - Williams

   2. Autobiography of Malcolm X

   3. Malcolm X Speaks - Breitman, ed.

   4. Black Panthers Speak - Foner, ed.

   5. Black Against Empire - Bloom, Martin**

Parapolitics

1. Aberration in the Heartland of the Real - Painting**

2. Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia - McCoy**

3. Phoenix Program - Valentine**

4. Israeli Foreign Policy: South Africa and Central America - Haapiseva-Hunter

5. Eye of the Chickenhawk - Dovey

6. Blowback - Simpson

1. The only full English translation is available at this link: https://theognisomegara.substack.com/p/ernst-noltes-european-civil-war-1917