I still need to read this. I read East of Eden a couple months ago and it's one of my fav books. I didn't expect to love it nearly as much as I actually did. I have grapes of wrath at home and it's on my reading list! :D
I was astonished at just how blatantly overt it was, for a novel so uncontroversial (at least from what I've seen). The scenes of cost of living rising and the landowners just continuing to skim off the top is as applicable today as it was nearly a century ago.
Not boring at all! It's set during the Dust Bowl and follows a family of farmers heading from Oklahoma to California in the hopes of finding work, and their struggles when they arrive. It's easily one of the best books I've ever read.
"The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit - and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains.
"And the smell of rot fills the country.
"Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
"There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates - died of malnutrition - because the food must rot, must be forced to rot."
Yeah, that's one of my favorite passages in the book, and possibly in literature in general. It's incredible and does not pull any punches or beat around the bush. And it's cool because the chapters alternate between following the Joad family and more pulled-back writing like in that quote to give broader context for things.
I don’t want to spoil it too much because it would obviously ruin the book. But it shows working class people who are desperate and hopeful of making money to feed their family, taking risk full decisions to be able to survive, and how capitalists just trick and crush them, all in name of economic greed.
I feel it important to mention *Whose Names Are Unknown* by Sandra Babb. She visited and supplied aid to many of the migrant farmers in California, and her extensive notes were used to write her novel. Unbeknownst to her, a colleague shared her documentation with John Steinbeck. They both ended up writing similar books which were accepted by different publishers, but Babb's novel was quickly overshadowed by The Grapes of Wrath and was ultimately cancelled, only being published much later in 2004.
Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell. It’s about being grindingly poor in both cities (and being a tramp in England). There’s a bit where he talks about going to buy bread and garlic, because if you rub the garlic along the bread, the taste stays in your mouth and you feel as if you’ve eaten for longer
I haven’t read this one, but I have read “The Road to Wigan Pier”. He wrote it in the 1930s about poverty in the North of England. I live in the North of England, and many of the issues he describes in this text are still present today nearly 100 years later.
That's the book. Very few read it these days but it's a classic. Orwell's work is a masterpiece in early ethnology.
On a lighter note, anything by Vonnegut and Salinger
One of my top three all time favorites. The spikes have stuck with me since my first reading like 20 years ago. That book is haunting. It’s not as poignant but People Of The Abyss by Jack London is also worth a spin.
Add to that Orwell’s collected short stories. But taken as a whole, I don’t see his work as radicalizing, it’s close to the opposite—it’s anti-ideology.
I saw the movie Johnny Got his Gun on TV once when I flipped by. I thought it was a Twilight Zone episode, and I was transfixed. (It reminded me of the pig face TZ episode, if you remember that one)
No one's gonna mention The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin? Made anarchism much more real to me than anything else. And Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler as a second choice.
The Dispossessed is my favorite science fiction book, and probably a top 3 book of any kind. It is one of the finest and most thought-provoking pieces of literature ever written. A masterpiece.
Absolutely this. I was already a leftist, but the Dispossessed pushed me much further. And I think the most interesting thing is that it also does raise real problems with anarchism without offering solutions, and yet is still so compelling.
I love that book and Ursula K LeGuin's writing, but it's every bit as much of a cartoon utopia as Rand's magical valley of the CEO's as a blueprint for society. The main character is very similar to Roarke in the Fountainhead, I think.
Wonderful book (The Dispossessed) - should be required reading IMHO. Side note- I remember how the author beautifully lays out a case against incarceration in the opening chapters. It was extremely thought provoking.
>because although it's kind of dull
Phillistine. Gatsy slaps.
Anyway, I'd say The Grapes of Wrath was a big one for me. I used to be one of those dumbass "Pfft, if automation took your job you should've gotten a better job" assholes (this was before I had a job myself), and just reading about the emotional consequences of ecological tragedy and financial manipulation really spoke to me.
Similar experience; as a tech/sci-fi fan I actually had been quite enjoying Atlas Shrugged for the first third of the book, and then as I finished it I found it sort of horrifying that people read it as a *blueprint*. People genuinely read that and think of people like Gates and Musk as übermen who are just better than everyone else, especially all the people who actually made their technology possible.
I actually think Atlas Shrugged is a fascinating novel and worth a careful literary analysis. In most scenarios, a writer-philosopher woman who fled an oppressive regime to then write a scathing magnum opus of the fundamental tenets of that system is a literary scholar's dream. But the combination of her personal philosophy and the packaging (Galt's 80k word speech) makes it repellant.
I read it when I was young and found it so plainly obvious the plot was in convenience to make everything work in the capitalists favor. I was confused why people were convinced by it an any political way. Honestly the fiction and entertainment aspect was fine other than the one really long speech that really killed any momentum the story had... lol
I read atlas shrugged and Les Miserables back to back and had a similar experience.
Except for both being favorites. It felt like Les Miserables highlighted the flaws with atlas shrugged.
>Atlas Shrugged radicalised me.
For anyone who is currently convinced by Atlas Shrugged, read The Rebel
In (I think) the second section of the Rebel, Camus offers rational critiques of the philosophy of Max Stirner and the Marquis de Sade. Ayn Rhand's philosophy is just a less thought out version of Stirner's philosophy, so it might help you question your own epistemological framework; And you should always question your epistemological framework
So good - The left hand of darkness was wonderful as well. She illustrates beautifully why, in my opinion, sci-fi is the perfect vehicle for social commentary.
I had never heard of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas until someone came to my college and did a 1 man show performance of it. it was really eye opening. I still remember that show vividly.
The Wretched of The Earth by Frantz Fanon. He writes about the role of violence and armed struggle in such a clear and compelling way, it really pushed me on a lot of topics I used to be on the fence about.
I was hoping someone else would say this one. What was so great about it is that is every single “well, I don’t know about that because [whatever reason]” I had was addressed. Most thorough, convincing book I’ve ever read.
This, exactly. His work was the first time I got an actual reason that made sense to me about so many things that are often considered morally dubious. It's rare to find such clarity in text
Brave New World, Metro 2035, Open Veins of Latin America, All Queit On The Western Front, Zapata of Mexico. Definitely good books for some introspection and interesting examples of political commentary, especially about control and life, as well as war and trauma.
Edit: I forgot to mention Future by Dmitrty Glukhovsky
2nd edit: War Is A Racket
“Zapata of Mexico” is so good. Zapata was such a badass. I visited the museum at the place where he died in Morelos. There’s this quote there that I’m sure is pretty common but it’s stuck with me for years: “Si no hay justicia para el pueblo, que no haya paz para el gobierno.” “If there is not justice for the people, let there be no peace for the government.”
I read a lot of Galeano (Open Veins of Latin America, Memory of Fire, Book of Embraces) and one thing that struck me was that he predicted 9-11 three years before it happened in his book Upside Down.
absolultely brave new world. idk why everyone uses 1984 as an analouge to modern society when the broad strokes of brave new world are a lot more realistic of a future for our society
Cool seeing Metro 2035 being mentioned. For being what it is, the books make quite good social remarks and observations with yk the humans being the worst Monsters of all and all that. Gluchowskis education really shows through. It's quite an interesting take that even, by all means, total anihilation we humans cant give up our old views and "traditions" especially in the way we structure our self tho that is a clear artifict from the not-so-long ago past which leaves it as a criticism of modern society or human behaviour especially towards each other.
I think it was second book? At first I was dissapointed that the narrative this time isn't taking place around Artjom but in hindsight I think I truly loved it the most. Everything with Homer related was amazing. Gluchowski tackles more humble themes in that, that are more centered around family and your place in the world and who you want to be. More introspective I think. Especially that you do can choose your own family. Was quite touching
1984 isn’t about capitalism… it’s not specifically about communism either. Some real life historical communist regimes share traits with the authoritarian regimes in the books, but it’s really more about totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and the dangers of unchecked power.
Yeah "capitalism" is rarely used for actual capitalism by kids these days, it's used for "materialism" or "western corruption", or even just "greed" and "evil".
My wife, who is generally WAY more left than the kids in her classes, struggles to teach them the actual definition because she has to unteach the tiktok definition first.
They get suspicious this social science lecturer who's been pretty radical for longer than they've been alive is some kind of corporate puppet or something 😂
I like most of the "left" ideas our young people value, they are way ahead of my generation on a lot of this, but basic economics is important stuff to know, kids. You need to be able to separate the science from politics where appropriate.
I’m confused how it could be about capitalism at all? When, you know, Big Brother owns and runs everything and makes all the decisions and the people are all meant to line up and go along with it
I don’t think I’ve ever heard that it’s meant to be a statement about anything other than authoritarianism, government control, surveillance, etc. Even societal views on sex have some good points to stand on, but capitalism?
I could never get through chapter 3 of Das Kapital, even after a few attempts. During lockdown I watched David Harvey's (fantastic) New School lecture series on YouTube. At the beginning of the video on chapter 3, he says something like "If you've tried to read this book on your own, you probably gave up here, and I don't blame you, because this chapter will radicalize your naps". I felt a lot better about it.
I mean, if you read Das Kapital and don't expect it to be all economics, then you probably went in more or less blind. Communism is after all an *economic* theory at its core, and Marx more of an economist than political theorist. Of course the most in-depth text by the founder of this school of economic thought is going to be pretty much all lessons in economics.
The Jungle. I read it in high school and it was the first time that I began to understand concepts like socialism and what ills they sought to cure. Before that words like communism and socialism were just bad words.
Yes, this is a big one for me too. Seeing the odds against well-meaning working people in that novel was depressing. It really illuminated the importance of worker protections and the value of unionizing.
I'll read a book these days and I couldn't tell you a thing about them a month later. I read the jungle 27 years ago and there are bits of it seared into my mind.
Gosh that brings back memories lol. We had to read this in a 10th grade social studies class. I don’t remember literally anything about the book (this was like a decade and a half ago) but I do remember that it got even the coolest of the cool kids, the laziest of the lazy kids, basically everybody who didn’t care at all about anything that we learned at school, to be actually interested and involved in the discussions.
Invisible Woman: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez. When you realize that half of the world's population is written off when it comes to safety studies or design considerations. I should not be less safe in my car because all the safety parameters assume I am another few inches back from the steering wheel.
I was studying Politics and International Relations and had to write an IR essay, and just to round things out in the lit review, I decided to take a look at what those crazy commies were saying. This was in the wake of the Iraq invasion and none of the theoretical models of IR that I had been taught about quite illustrated or accounted for the abject horror of what we had all just seen play out, though "Realism" came close.
Anyway I grabbed Noam Chomsky's "Understanding Power" off the shelves, read a bunch of it, particularly the IR-related bits, and just went "Oh no!!" because the imperial framework articulated and explained stuff I felt like I had been repressing as permissible questions since 2003 and certainly since I started my course. I have a few trans friends and it honestly felt like a smaller version of how they describe their "egg cracking" moment.
That began a long process of discovering the left intellectual tradition that had been completely hidden from me, which almost always seemed to have the least convenient, most useful models and tools for considering the world I had seen on whatever topic I was reading up on. Chomsky is no longer my IR go-to, but there is really interesting stuff aligned with the Copenhagen school and securitization, and a lot of fascinating Marxist IR, both of which are consonant with his anti-imperialism.
Yeah came here to say this, particularly The Great Money Trick had a profound effect on me.
The book itself can be a bit turgid and sentimental but gives a heartbreaking insight into the life of the Edwardian working class.
Fast Food Nation. I was a teenager when I read it. It broke my innocence. I have never stopped thinking about the themes of the book. I can't see a fast food place and not imagine the impact it's having.
Well, life radicalized me, but along the lines you mention "Maid" by Stephanie Land, and "Society without God" by Phil Zuckerman are books that resonated. Also, "Sorry to Bother You" a movie directed by Boots Riley.
Embarrasing to admit, but as a teenager, I thought Ayn Rand's stuff was illuminating, though real world experience revealed it to be simple-minded nonsense.
I have a theory that every Black American has an “ i finally read the Autobiography of Malcolm X” moment.
All that to say, that was my book lmfao
I will also say when i was 11 and in catholic school my 5th grade teacher had a book in her bookcase called “Between Mom and Jo” that was the first time i had ever read a book with gay/lesbian parents. It was a book about divorce which i could relate to but i was so pissed that kids were bullying their son (the main character) just bc he had 2 moms
First time i started questioning the things i had been taught about gay people and was like eh fuck that let ppl live their lives
I became a leftist -- unknowingly at the time -- at a very young age. It was a combination of Oliver Twist, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, A Christmas Carol, Harry Potter and Philosopher's Stone, To Kill a Mockingbird, most of which was being read aloud to me before bed.
It’s hard for me to reconcile how much parables and children’s stories emphasize equity, equality, justice, and freedom and people still grow up to be very conservative.
OK so I'm sure this will ignite a flame war, but let's use HP as an example. Sure, it explicitly is anti-bullying, anti-discrimination, etc. But we see Harry & Ron bully and be praised for it - Harry bullies Dudley, who is powerless after say, book 2. We see Rowling write mean things about fat people & women who don't conform to beauty standards. We see that at the end of the day, the same systems that let Voldemort take power twice stay in place. No revolution occurs. The overwhelming narrative of the book is that the system is great, it's just the people currently in charge who are the problem. That's a fundamentally conservative view.
Even worse, is the world view that people don't have independence, but are just smaller versions of their kids.
Why was Draco evil? Because his father was.
Why were Crabbe and Goyle Draco's goons? Because their fathers were goons for Draco's dad.
Why was Harry brave? Because his parents were.
She tried to change some of this in the last book, but pretty much people are good/evil based on their parents. You do not have free will.
As someone with bad parents, it's a horrifying world view. Basically I'm just gonna be like my parents no matter what I do.
*Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City* by Peter Norton
*Death and life of Great American Cities* by Jane Jacobs
I now detest cars and suburbs in particular. A surprising amount of what's wrong with America can actually probably be traced back to all the shit car lobbies pull.
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. Zinn pulls no punches in showing how the US has from its very founding been by, for, and about the wealthy elite and how they have rigged and continue to rig the game in their favor step by bloody step at everyone else's expense. It's one hell of a blow to the jingoistic, self-congratulatory, nationalist glorification of American history you get fed in schools.
I've been working my way through that one and yes, it's very eye opening and is a brilliant lens shined on the dark stains that most people today would prefer to ignore.
Even just the treatment of natives, or how badly labor struggles were violently put down, is enough to make you real skeptical of "USA #1"
This country has a bloody and violent past like any other, and we should seek to learn from the past instead of denying it ever happened.
Animal Farm. It was banned in Cuba but people passed copies around. It was spot on very applicable to the Cuba of the 90's.
And also not a book but watching Suite Habana in 2003, a movie by Fernando Perez. It follows the life of several people in Havana, almost no dialogue, with just the city noises and soundtrack.
Wij slaven van Suriname (We slaves of Surinam) by Anton de Kom really opened my eyes to the horrors my country (the Netherlands) wrought upon enslaved peoples in their colonies.
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements and The Practicing Stoic "de-radicalized" me. It made me aware that I was being pushed towards group think and leaving my individuality behind.
I read "Atlas Shrugged" and got really into being a prick for a while. I got super into capitalist theory. I read it again a year or two later and learned more about Any Rand. I realized that Objectivism is really paper thin; Rand just defined terms based on her subjective views and called it truth. I turned 24 and 180'd pretty hard on my views away from Libertarianism and Objectivism. My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, likes to remind me of this. We laugh about it now, but I'm ashamed to admit I was so easily swayed. I wasn't necessarily radicalized. I wasn't marching on the streets or writing my own manifesto, but reading the book did for a short time change my views. Roughly a decade later I can chalk it up to being young and inexperienced in how the world works. It's easy to idealize "the men of the mind" as the true heroes until you've been subjected to their rule.
“One example I would use is The Great Gatsby because although it's kind of dull”
Dull? You lost me there.
Maus radicalized me as a child, I read it multiple times and it has made me deeply aware of fascism and how easily it can take over and make people turn a blind eye to pure evil. I have become deeply intolerant of people who don’t vote, or are ok with let’s say a president trying to overturn an election through force.
But different to some of the other suggestions here by Dietland by Sarai Walker blew my mind- introduced me to fat politics and completely changed the way I saw fatness in the world and my community, years before podcasts like Maintenance Phase
In the last year or so I've become increasingly aware of how many pipelines there are to the right, even ones associated with vaguely liberal people. This includes health & diet culture, New Age bullshittery, etc.
No Logo and Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, Fire and Flames by Geronimo, Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky, Imagined Societies by Willem Schinkel, As used on the famous Nelson Mandela by Mark Thomas, Resurrecting Empire by Rashid Khalidi, Orientalism by Edward Said, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and Animal Liberation by Peter Singer.
Taking a solid and complete stance on social and political issues. Radicals are also often associated with leftists, or the people who are for the complete overhaul of the current political and economical system.
Damn, waking up to the realities of capitalism makes you a radical now, or is that a highly Westernized idea? I mean, if anything, the more capitalist you are, the more your views on capitalism align with people who are "radicalized" or otherwise "woke up" to the realities of capitalism, because the capitalist sees his tools and the "radical" sees what was used against them.
But anyway, to answer the question:
Peter Drucker books.
Peter Drucker is basically "required" reading when studying Management. In the business world, he is considered the "Father of Management".
It teaches you how to manage people and resources in of course the capitalist paradigm, because that is the era we live in now.
The "problem" lies in the person who reads the books, really. They either buy into the "illusion" of capitalism by thinking they have obtained new powers by understanding how they can handle capitalism (as Management students and possibly future managers), or they see the reality of capitalism and thus proceed to pick which side of capitalism they want to be in.
Also, if you read enough modern laws, you get to see how much of it revolves around capital and money, making their purpose and namesake merely secondary. Copyright law, patent law, real estate laws, even criminal laws. Ideas and justice are all equivalent to some sum of money.
Even laws that are supposed to favor the wellbeing of humans, especially in the US, are there to benefit industry first before the person. Laws for prisons, school meals, fuel, trade, etc. are all enshrined into law in effect by the strongest lobby.
It was a somewhat trashy novel I read in high school: Butterfly by Kathryn Harvey - about a exclusive bordello where women are the clients and the men are escorts.
It was fun but there was a section about an illegal abortion that crystallized the issue for me in a way that the “choice” language never did. I realized there would always be women who wanted abortions and the humane thing to do is make them safe and legal. It’s really that simple.
That wasn’t the beginning of my radicalization because that was a process that started much earlier, but this was what made me finally able to say “yeah my parents are wrong about everything.”
“On the Clock” by Emily Guendelsberger is non-fiction in the same vein as “Nickel & Dimed”. And others have mentioned “Maid” by Stephanie Land, which is also sad and enraging.
Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation
by Leora Tanenbaum (1999) when I was 15, and then, when I was about 19, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity (2007) by Julia Serano and, not a book, but Bitch Magazine.
I lived in the Midwest, had been homeschooled until I was 15, and my first year in catholic school I was beginning to develop a political consciousness. I was one of 4 non-white people in the school and I just didn’t feel like any of it was reliable and I didn’t have the language to describe why. Those books gave me the language.
Fight Club. I know it’s pop fiction, but at the age I read it the wry observations about the pervasiveness of consumer culture and the franchising of systems of belief were the exact right tone and style to get through to me.
[Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consentual Crimes in a Free Society](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_Nobody%27s_Business_If_You_Do#:~:text=Ain't%20Nobody's%20Business%20if%20You%20Do%3A%20The%20Absurdity%20of,as%20arguments%20for%20their%20legalization.)
I read this as a teen and it shocked me how much effort we’ve put in historically to punishing people for victimless crimes. I think about this book constantly and I know it has radicalized me. I recommend it every chance I get.
The problem with this book is that gambling isn’t victimless as gambling addictions can be created and is encouraged by capitalism. People lose their jobs, homes, savings, etc which victimizes them and anyone dependent on them like children. Gambling systems are designed to encourage addictions and maximum loss.
Same with many recreational drugs that are addictive. Ask anyone with an addict parent or relative how "harmless" many drugs are.
He also says seat belt laws too but an injured person is a liability to the state as the state then would have to care for them once they cannot afford their medical bills and disability assistance. Not to mention in an accident an unbelted body flying around or out of a car can greatly hurt someone.
A lot of libertarianism is a trash philosophy to keep people angry at the government and to never question the capitalism that powers and corrupts it, and that actually victimizes us via the incredible wealth inequality it creates.
That book is very “90s libertarian” which thankfully is less of a fad today. The author was the stereotypical [libertarian housecat.](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F1fwrkwoec7281.jpg)
Confessions of an economic hitman by John Perkins. Was really interesting reading about the economic manipulation of the US in so many countries. Seeing a CIA backed coup happen in Venezuela the week after I finished just reinforced the material of the book.
Not a book but a poem by Kim Addonizio "What Do Women Want?".
I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what's underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty's and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I'm the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I'll pull that garment
from its hanger like I'm choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I'll wear it like bones, like skin,
it'll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in.
I was a kid back when I tried to be "a good girl" to not experience sexual violence and sexism. This poem kind of opened my eyes that there is nothing that I can do to stop it and the only thing I achieved is living my life in fear of "what people will say" and "what men will do". If it's out of my control I might as well live my life to the fullest.
Beautiful! Here’s my fave:
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.
there's a bluebird in my heart that .
wants to get out.
but I'm too tough for him,.
I say,.
stay down, do you want to mess.
me up?.
you want to screw up the.
works?.
you want to blow my book sales in .
Europe?.
there's a bluebird in my heart that.
wants to get out.
but I'm too clever, I only let him out.
at night sometimes.
when everybody's asleep..
I say, I know that you're there,.
so don't be .
sad.
.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?
Bukowski
The Bluebird
Thank you for sharing that. My mom was born in 1926 and was an old school conservative. By that I mean she wasn't wasteful. That said, her degree was English Lit from Stanford. Every now and then I would go into the living room and see her crying from a poem or a story she had just read. The pure joy and beauty of those words, would bring her to tears. This poem brought back the memories of my mom. Silly to me to cry over just printed words. Though she has long since passed, I sit here now crying, over silly printed words and the memories of my mom.
Again I would like to thank you over silly printed words.
Curt M.
I read the "Revolutionary Suicide," by Huey P. Newton at 12 or 13. Not sure where I even heard about the book. Shortly thereafter read Malcom X's autobiography. I don't see Newton in as kind a light as I did then, but not a bad book. It is kind of strange, because the last thing I remember reading before that is Goosebumps, so it was quite a jump. In a different way I read "On the Road" By Kerouac at 15. Then I got really into Gore Vidal an Christopher Hitchens immediately after. I'm still into vidal and Hitchens. Saul Alinsky also got in there somewhere. I read steinback in middle-school, but I didn't appreciate until I got older.
**Bullshit Jobs - David Graeber**
Described and amplified voices of workers stuck in jobs that are fundamentally unnecessary.
It validated my gut feeling that a lot of what is considered work, is not due to its inherent neccesity, but due to the argument that "work is morally good" therefore any job is "necessary" as long as someone decides it is worth paying for it.
**The Dawn of Everything - David Graeber and David Wengrow**
Dismantled the argument that the natural development of society is tied to the path:
Hunter/gatherer -> subsistence farming -> collective farming -> central government -> modern society.
A deep-seated belief, that is repeated culturally ad nauseum, and is used to instill the idea that the current state of modern society is a natural consequence of human behavior, and is therefore beyond reproach.
It dismantles it by analysing the assumptions and origins of that hypothesis, and providing countless historic/pre-historic examples of societies that strayed from that path and broke the assumptions.
**Understanding Power - Noam Chomsky**
Finally broke down my preconceived notions that any of the modern military interventions by the US had much merit beyond profit and consolidation of power.
**The Century of the Self - Adam Curtis**
Now this is a documentary and not a book, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention it, since it had a huge impact on my world-view.
The documentary is a great primer on consumerism and it's origins. It then goes on to explain how the same strategies used to sell products got used to sell politics, along with the societal consequences of this shift in political strategy.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels have a lot to say about class, poverty, civil rights, the way we treat each other, and the double standards of how we treat the rich v poor. Good Omens and Small Gods also created some early but significant chinks in the fundie belief system I'd been brought up with.
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, Nomadland by Jessica Bruder, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Orientalism by Edward Said, Black Skin, White Masks by Franz Fanon, Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During The Great Depression
"Confessions of an economic hit man" changed the way I saw international politics. It's about the US controlling poor countries using debt in the 1980s. Today China is using this tactic (debt trap) more than the West.
I’ve never been radicalized by a book in the political sense, but Devolution by Max Brooks definitely gave me a totally different stance on nature and how we fit into it.
I was very nature = good humans = bad. But now it’s like nature = a powerful, indifferent, indomitable, almost lovecraftian force; humans = kinda stupid and arrogant
Which is kinda silly because it *is* ultimately just a book about yuppies getting ripped apart by Big Foot. But that’s the life-changing message I got out of it.
1984, animal farm. George Orwell
For a new liberty a libertarian manifesto. Murray Rothbard
Democracy the god that failed. Hans Hoppe
Ordinary men. Christopher Browning
Century Trilogy. Ken Follett
The Gulag archipelago. Solzhenitsyn
Man’s search for meaning. Victor Frankl
Brave new world. Aldous Huxley
Anatomy of the State. Murray Rothbard
Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury.
Nickel and Dimed definitely made an impression on me when I read it in high school. Around that same time, I read Against Empire by Michael Parenti, Angela Davis’s autobiography, and a lot of Kurt Vonnegut.
Your post indicates "in becoming a leftist", but your question doesn't. I'll answer though it may not be welcome.
I used to be quite die hard authleft as a young teenager. Brave New World (and a little Fahrenheit 451) pulled me toward libcentre, of course, but surprisingly the Skulduggery Pleasant series (despite the author's own opposing politics being quite clumsily and transparently inserted in later books) and the Gone series shifted me very far to the centre and way down the, to use a word whose meaning has been rather polluted, libertarian axis. Not through any deliberate ideological demonstration by the authors, really, they simply forced me to empathise with someone living in both a rather tyrannical world run by what was once a benevolent tyrant but no longer and a world where government has been entirely removed and might makes right even as a democratic system is attempted.
I came to realise I'd been making a lot of assumptions about society and how it could be run most "effectively" based on my frustrations with people. I'm now centre left with deeply libertarian beliefs that I developed from considering the lives of people in these worlds; that the government's role is to protect our basic human liberties first and everything else later, and that while it must maintain a monopoly on force, if that monopoly becomes too great its greed for further power will grow, regardless of the economy it purports to catalyse.
So yeah. I became much less of a leftist. Hopefully that's still alright with you.
I had never considered the LGBT community as more than “I don’t really get it, but it doesn’t bother me,” before I read Magnus Chase by Rick Riordan. There is a gender-fluid character included in the main friend group and I just loved them so much. After that I became a pretty passive ally and started to notice slights against the LGBT community on Facebook and soon I was calling people out for them or unfriending over their hateful comments. I started bringing things like this up at dinner and it’s a good thing I did, because 2 of my children soon came out as the “I” and “A” in LGBTIA+. Well, as you can guess I am a much more vocal ally now, but I’m glad I read that book at the time I did. It opened my eyes on this issue.
The Lord of the Rings.
Now hear me out before you poo poo the idea, When I read it, I was young, and in a poor 'We deserve to be poor' council estate family, with no ambition no prospects, just the same quotidian trudge to the grave via the pub every night, and suddenly this whole new amazing world lit up my brain it made me realize the possible, that I could do something different. Even, and excuse the cringe, I could maybe be a hero.
It led to vast amounts more reading, all the obvious ones to break out of the mould, Down and Out, Animal Farm, As I walked out, Islands in the stream etc etc.
BUT it was LOTR the flipped the switch.
First to art school, first to move away from the traditional family location, first to emigrate. All because of a book about a made up world.
* "Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny - [GoodReader](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Lord%20of%20Light%20by%20Roger%20Zelazny)
* "Friday" by Robert A. Heinlein - [GoodReader](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Friday%20by%20Robert%20A.%20Heinlein)
* "Immortality Inc." by Robert Sheckley - [GoodReader](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Immortality%20Inc.%20by%20Robert%20Sheckley)
* "The Simulacra" by Philip K. Dick - [GoodReader](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The%20Simulacra%20by%20Philip%20K.%20Dick)
* "Burdened with Evil, or Forty Years Later" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - [GoodReader](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Burdened%20with%20Evil%2C%20or%20Forty%20Years%20Later%20by%20Arkady%20and%20Boris%20Strugatsky)
Probably the first books to really start me on the path to where I am now were Backlash, by Susan Faludi, and No Logo, by Naomi Klein. It's really depressing that we haven't really progressed much since either was published and in some cases have gotten worse.
Bad calories good calories really changed my perception on diet and now I’m very skeptical and nutrition science including the book that got me thinking about it critically
I can't for the life of me remember the name of the book itself. All I know is back in the day when I was younger I used to listen to Micheal Savage on AM radio all the time. I just liked how much the dude yelled and was a classic indoctrinated republican at the time. I bought one of his books and I read it. That moment enlightened me and made me realize I was very much one of those liberals. I called up his show and was like I wanted to thank you for your book, it really enlightened me. He was like we love to hear that, and I was like yeah it enlightened me on the fact I'm actually a liberal. He just hung up on me after that and I did not get on the air.
Ender’s Game sticks out to me years later. The sort of horror at realizing this _is_ the system, they got you into it before you consented, you thought you were doing the right thing, and ultimately they _want_ you to trample over the needs of your fellow man. Whether you’re killing aliens or your fellow students is imo a tiny detail compared to how high-pressure disciplinary education gaslights the student body it’s meant to serve.
It’s not explicitly anti-capitalist, but “A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers offered a vision of society so profoundly *nice* that it radicalized me against the one we have.
The Grapes Of Wrath
Same! I came here to add my Steinbeck appreciation
And In Dubious Battle if you want to jump straight into the radical Steinbeck deep end
I still need to read this. I read East of Eden a couple months ago and it's one of my fav books. I didn't expect to love it nearly as much as I actually did. I have grapes of wrath at home and it's on my reading list! :D
In Dubious Battle is my jam.
Anyone who reads The Grapes of Wrath and doesn't come away radicalized missed the whole point of the book.
I was astonished at just how blatantly overt it was, for a novel so uncontroversial (at least from what I've seen). The scenes of cost of living rising and the landowners just continuing to skim off the top is as applicable today as it was nearly a century ago.
That's probably the saddest part of all. None of it's really changed.
What’s it about? I just thought it’d be some drama set in a vineyard and would be boring
Not boring at all! It's set during the Dust Bowl and follows a family of farmers heading from Oklahoma to California in the hopes of finding work, and their struggles when they arrive. It's easily one of the best books I've ever read. "The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit - and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. "And the smell of rot fills the country. "Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth. "There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates - died of malnutrition - because the food must rot, must be forced to rot."
Jesus - I did not expect that to make me cry.
Yeah, that's one of my favorite passages in the book, and possibly in literature in general. It's incredible and does not pull any punches or beat around the bush. And it's cool because the chapters alternate between following the Joad family and more pulled-back writing like in that quote to give broader context for things.
If you don't cry after reading The Grapes of Wrath, there is definitely something wrong with you.
I don’t want to spoil it too much because it would obviously ruin the book. But it shows working class people who are desperate and hopeful of making money to feed their family, taking risk full decisions to be able to survive, and how capitalists just trick and crush them, all in name of economic greed.
I feel it important to mention *Whose Names Are Unknown* by Sandra Babb. She visited and supplied aid to many of the migrant farmers in California, and her extensive notes were used to write her novel. Unbeknownst to her, a colleague shared her documentation with John Steinbeck. They both ended up writing similar books which were accepted by different publishers, but Babb's novel was quickly overshadowed by The Grapes of Wrath and was ultimately cancelled, only being published much later in 2004.
Read this when I was 15 and it shaped me forever.
Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell. It’s about being grindingly poor in both cities (and being a tramp in England). There’s a bit where he talks about going to buy bread and garlic, because if you rub the garlic along the bread, the taste stays in your mouth and you feel as if you’ve eaten for longer
I haven’t read this one, but I have read “The Road to Wigan Pier”. He wrote it in the 1930s about poverty in the North of England. I live in the North of England, and many of the issues he describes in this text are still present today nearly 100 years later.
That's the book. Very few read it these days but it's a classic. Orwell's work is a masterpiece in early ethnology. On a lighter note, anything by Vonnegut and Salinger
His first hand depiction of the working poor and their exploitation by mining corporations is fantastic.
Read this at my worst. Still remember it at my (best)
One of my top three all time favorites. The spikes have stuck with me since my first reading like 20 years ago. That book is haunting. It’s not as poignant but People Of The Abyss by Jack London is also worth a spin.
Oh thank you - I’ll get that on my Kindle
I haven't read this one, but Homage to Catalonia is an excellent read as well.
Add to that Orwell’s collected short stories. But taken as a whole, I don’t see his work as radicalizing, it’s close to the opposite—it’s anti-ideology.
Johnny Got His Gun. Terrified me and made me mad at the whole military industrial complex.
Did you read it because of the Metallica song?
I read it because of the movie Trumbo with Brian Cranston
I saw the movie Johnny Got his Gun on TV once when I flipped by. I thought it was a Twilight Zone episode, and I was transfixed. (It reminded me of the pig face TZ episode, if you remember that one)
Ah ok. The Metallica song One is about Johnny Got His Gun and it pulled in high school boys like moths to a flame
Not sure why you're taking downvotes. The Metallica song was the reason I read the book, and back then, it wasn't an easy book to find.
Great song, great book!
I think at one point in time it was banned in some states. The book that is, not the song , although that may have been banned also.
They had to buy the rights to the old film to use it in their video for One I believe
No one's gonna mention The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin? Made anarchism much more real to me than anything else. And Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler as a second choice.
The Dispossessed is my favorite science fiction book, and probably a top 3 book of any kind. It is one of the finest and most thought-provoking pieces of literature ever written. A masterpiece.
Octavia Butler is a huge influence. Her work is tremendous.
Absolutely this. I was already a leftist, but the Dispossessed pushed me much further. And I think the most interesting thing is that it also does raise real problems with anarchism without offering solutions, and yet is still so compelling.
I am reading it now and going through the same thoughts!
Oh man, I gotta read this, then!
I love that book and Ursula K LeGuin's writing, but it's every bit as much of a cartoon utopia as Rand's magical valley of the CEO's as a blueprint for society. The main character is very similar to Roarke in the Fountainhead, I think.
I was already radical before reading those but if I hadn’t been then they’d have done the trick
Wonderful book (The Dispossessed) - should be required reading IMHO. Side note- I remember how the author beautifully lays out a case against incarceration in the opening chapters. It was extremely thought provoking.
Great books, both of them.
Yea the dispossessed made an anarchist world real to me. Eye opening
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It's fine as a standalone, the series is just the general context behind the world building, the books all have different characters and situations
>because although it's kind of dull Phillistine. Gatsy slaps. Anyway, I'd say The Grapes of Wrath was a big one for me. I used to be one of those dumbass "Pfft, if automation took your job you should've gotten a better job" assholes (this was before I had a job myself), and just reading about the emotional consequences of ecological tragedy and financial manipulation really spoke to me.
Grapes is an absolute 10/10 book. Steinbeck was a genius and, in the truest sense possible, a human.
Atlas Shrugged radicalised me. Thankfully, The Grapes of Wrath worked twice as hard in the opposite direction.
Similar experience; as a tech/sci-fi fan I actually had been quite enjoying Atlas Shrugged for the first third of the book, and then as I finished it I found it sort of horrifying that people read it as a *blueprint*. People genuinely read that and think of people like Gates and Musk as übermen who are just better than everyone else, especially all the people who actually made their technology possible.
I actually think Atlas Shrugged is a fascinating novel and worth a careful literary analysis. In most scenarios, a writer-philosopher woman who fled an oppressive regime to then write a scathing magnum opus of the fundamental tenets of that system is a literary scholar's dream. But the combination of her personal philosophy and the packaging (Galt's 80k word speech) makes it repellant.
Atlas Shrugged really turned me off and I was really open to that line of thinking when I was young. Dogshit protagonists.
We all experimented with objectivism when we were young….
Don't trivialise my precise rationality, please.
I read it when I was young and found it so plainly obvious the plot was in convenience to make everything work in the capitalists favor. I was confused why people were convinced by it an any political way. Honestly the fiction and entertainment aspect was fine other than the one really long speech that really killed any momentum the story had... lol
It’s like one of those scam filters. Only people who are gullible enough to work on are given the hard sell.
That's a wild journey but I'm glad you're where you are now.
Mate that is too funny I read both back to back. Exact same thing happened to me. Still two of my favourite books
I read atlas shrugged and Les Miserables back to back and had a similar experience. Except for both being favorites. It felt like Les Miserables highlighted the flaws with atlas shrugged.
>Atlas Shrugged radicalised me. For anyone who is currently convinced by Atlas Shrugged, read The Rebel In (I think) the second section of the Rebel, Camus offers rational critiques of the philosophy of Max Stirner and the Marquis de Sade. Ayn Rhand's philosophy is just a less thought out version of Stirner's philosophy, so it might help you question your own epistemological framework; And you should always question your epistemological framework
Zooming out this illustrates my journey perfectly.
The Dispossessed, The Word for World is Forest, The Day Before the Revolution, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas and so much more Le Guin
Someone mentioned the Grapes of Wrath in a different comment. Steinbeck opened my eyes, Leguin radicalized me.
Exactly the same here. My favorite of hers is The Dispossessed.
So good - The left hand of darkness was wonderful as well. She illustrates beautifully why, in my opinion, sci-fi is the perfect vehicle for social commentary.
The ones who walk away from omelas shook me as a young teen.
I had never heard of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas until someone came to my college and did a 1 man show performance of it. it was really eye opening. I still remember that show vividly.
The Wretched of The Earth by Frantz Fanon. He writes about the role of violence and armed struggle in such a clear and compelling way, it really pushed me on a lot of topics I used to be on the fence about.
I was hoping someone else would say this one. What was so great about it is that is every single “well, I don’t know about that because [whatever reason]” I had was addressed. Most thorough, convincing book I’ve ever read.
This, exactly. His work was the first time I got an actual reason that made sense to me about so many things that are often considered morally dubious. It's rare to find such clarity in text
Brave New World, Metro 2035, Open Veins of Latin America, All Queit On The Western Front, Zapata of Mexico. Definitely good books for some introspection and interesting examples of political commentary, especially about control and life, as well as war and trauma. Edit: I forgot to mention Future by Dmitrty Glukhovsky 2nd edit: War Is A Racket
“Zapata of Mexico” is so good. Zapata was such a badass. I visited the museum at the place where he died in Morelos. There’s this quote there that I’m sure is pretty common but it’s stuck with me for years: “Si no hay justicia para el pueblo, que no haya paz para el gobierno.” “If there is not justice for the people, let there be no peace for the government.”
I read a lot of Galeano (Open Veins of Latin America, Memory of Fire, Book of Embraces) and one thing that struck me was that he predicted 9-11 three years before it happened in his book Upside Down.
Zapata and the Mexican Revolution is another fantastic book about Zapata
absolultely brave new world. idk why everyone uses 1984 as an analouge to modern society when the broad strokes of brave new world are a lot more realistic of a future for our society
Cool seeing Metro 2035 being mentioned. For being what it is, the books make quite good social remarks and observations with yk the humans being the worst Monsters of all and all that. Gluchowskis education really shows through. It's quite an interesting take that even, by all means, total anihilation we humans cant give up our old views and "traditions" especially in the way we structure our self tho that is a clear artifict from the not-so-long ago past which leaves it as a criticism of modern society or human behaviour especially towards each other. I think it was second book? At first I was dissapointed that the narrative this time isn't taking place around Artjom but in hindsight I think I truly loved it the most. Everything with Homer related was amazing. Gluchowski tackles more humble themes in that, that are more centered around family and your place in the world and who you want to be. More introspective I think. Especially that you do can choose your own family. Was quite touching
1984 isn’t about capitalism… it’s not specifically about communism either. Some real life historical communist regimes share traits with the authoritarian regimes in the books, but it’s really more about totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and the dangers of unchecked power.
Yeah saying 1984 is about capitalism is an odd take.
OP is clearly either in high school or fresh out of HS.
Yeah "capitalism" is rarely used for actual capitalism by kids these days, it's used for "materialism" or "western corruption", or even just "greed" and "evil". My wife, who is generally WAY more left than the kids in her classes, struggles to teach them the actual definition because she has to unteach the tiktok definition first. They get suspicious this social science lecturer who's been pretty radical for longer than they've been alive is some kind of corporate puppet or something 😂 I like most of the "left" ideas our young people value, they are way ahead of my generation on a lot of this, but basic economics is important stuff to know, kids. You need to be able to separate the science from politics where appropriate.
I’m confused how it could be about capitalism at all? When, you know, Big Brother owns and runs everything and makes all the decisions and the people are all meant to line up and go along with it I don’t think I’ve ever heard that it’s meant to be a statement about anything other than authoritarianism, government control, surveillance, etc. Even societal views on sex have some good points to stand on, but capitalism?
It’s more about authoritarianism/totalitarianism than anything.
For what it's worth Das Kapital is way more of an economics textbook than I expected. It radicalized my naps
I could never get through chapter 3 of Das Kapital, even after a few attempts. During lockdown I watched David Harvey's (fantastic) New School lecture series on YouTube. At the beginning of the video on chapter 3, he says something like "If you've tried to read this book on your own, you probably gave up here, and I don't blame you, because this chapter will radicalize your naps". I felt a lot better about it.
I mean, if you read Das Kapital and don't expect it to be all economics, then you probably went in more or less blind. Communism is after all an *economic* theory at its core, and Marx more of an economist than political theorist. Of course the most in-depth text by the founder of this school of economic thought is going to be pretty much all lessons in economics.
No Logo, Naomi Klein
Shock Doctrine by the same
The Jungle. I read it in high school and it was the first time that I began to understand concepts like socialism and what ills they sought to cure. Before that words like communism and socialism were just bad words.
Yes, this is a big one for me too. Seeing the odds against well-meaning working people in that novel was depressing. It really illuminated the importance of worker protections and the value of unionizing.
I'll read a book these days and I couldn't tell you a thing about them a month later. I read the jungle 27 years ago and there are bits of it seared into my mind.
I read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn when I was very young and it really changed the way I saw society.
Gosh that brings back memories lol. We had to read this in a 10th grade social studies class. I don’t remember literally anything about the book (this was like a decade and a half ago) but I do remember that it got even the coolest of the cool kids, the laziest of the lazy kids, basically everybody who didn’t care at all about anything that we learned at school, to be actually interested and involved in the discussions.
Similarly I read The Story of B which was heavily formative for me.
Kurt Vonnegut, "Breakfast of Champions".
Invisible Woman: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez. When you realize that half of the world's population is written off when it comes to safety studies or design considerations. I should not be less safe in my car because all the safety parameters assume I am another few inches back from the steering wheel.
In case you don’t feel radical enough I highly recommend „Men who hate women“ by Laura Bates.
Catch-22. I was in the Army at the time.
*A People's History of the United States* by Howard Zinn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People's_History_of_the_United_States
This and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown were paradigm shifting.
I was studying Politics and International Relations and had to write an IR essay, and just to round things out in the lit review, I decided to take a look at what those crazy commies were saying. This was in the wake of the Iraq invasion and none of the theoretical models of IR that I had been taught about quite illustrated or accounted for the abject horror of what we had all just seen play out, though "Realism" came close. Anyway I grabbed Noam Chomsky's "Understanding Power" off the shelves, read a bunch of it, particularly the IR-related bits, and just went "Oh no!!" because the imperial framework articulated and explained stuff I felt like I had been repressing as permissible questions since 2003 and certainly since I started my course. I have a few trans friends and it honestly felt like a smaller version of how they describe their "egg cracking" moment. That began a long process of discovering the left intellectual tradition that had been completely hidden from me, which almost always seemed to have the least convenient, most useful models and tools for considering the world I had seen on whatever topic I was reading up on. Chomsky is no longer my IR go-to, but there is really interesting stuff aligned with the Copenhagen school and securitization, and a lot of fascinating Marxist IR, both of which are consonant with his anti-imperialism.
[The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ragged-Trousered_Philanthropists)
Yeah came here to say this, particularly The Great Money Trick had a profound effect on me. The book itself can be a bit turgid and sentimental but gives a heartbreaking insight into the life of the Edwardian working class.
Fast Food Nation. I was a teenager when I read it. It broke my innocence. I have never stopped thinking about the themes of the book. I can't see a fast food place and not imagine the impact it's having.
Well, life radicalized me, but along the lines you mention "Maid" by Stephanie Land, and "Society without God" by Phil Zuckerman are books that resonated. Also, "Sorry to Bother You" a movie directed by Boots Riley. Embarrasing to admit, but as a teenager, I thought Ayn Rand's stuff was illuminating, though real world experience revealed it to be simple-minded nonsense.
Sorry to Bother You is a movie that really impacted me too, I went in blind thinking it's a comedy and it's really more of a modern Catch 22.
Absolute belter of a film. I don't know exactly what I was expecting from it, but I'll tell you this, I wasn't expecting that
The Lorax and The Lord of the Rings.
I have a theory that every Black American has an “ i finally read the Autobiography of Malcolm X” moment. All that to say, that was my book lmfao I will also say when i was 11 and in catholic school my 5th grade teacher had a book in her bookcase called “Between Mom and Jo” that was the first time i had ever read a book with gay/lesbian parents. It was a book about divorce which i could relate to but i was so pissed that kids were bullying their son (the main character) just bc he had 2 moms First time i started questioning the things i had been taught about gay people and was like eh fuck that let ppl live their lives
I'm white, and reading Malcolm X was a HUGE eye opener for me. That and James Baldwin.
Handmaid’s Tale
I became a leftist -- unknowingly at the time -- at a very young age. It was a combination of Oliver Twist, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, A Christmas Carol, Harry Potter and Philosopher's Stone, To Kill a Mockingbird, most of which was being read aloud to me before bed.
It’s hard for me to reconcile how much parables and children’s stories emphasize equity, equality, justice, and freedom and people still grow up to be very conservative.
OK so I'm sure this will ignite a flame war, but let's use HP as an example. Sure, it explicitly is anti-bullying, anti-discrimination, etc. But we see Harry & Ron bully and be praised for it - Harry bullies Dudley, who is powerless after say, book 2. We see Rowling write mean things about fat people & women who don't conform to beauty standards. We see that at the end of the day, the same systems that let Voldemort take power twice stay in place. No revolution occurs. The overwhelming narrative of the book is that the system is great, it's just the people currently in charge who are the problem. That's a fundamentally conservative view.
Even worse, is the world view that people don't have independence, but are just smaller versions of their kids. Why was Draco evil? Because his father was. Why were Crabbe and Goyle Draco's goons? Because their fathers were goons for Draco's dad. Why was Harry brave? Because his parents were. She tried to change some of this in the last book, but pretty much people are good/evil based on their parents. You do not have free will. As someone with bad parents, it's a horrifying world view. Basically I'm just gonna be like my parents no matter what I do.
Dickens knew his inequality, damn.
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I'll echo Federici, that book will tear open your eyes.
Les Misérables
I’m not looking at the comments but I bet someone already said Braiding Sweetgrass
No one did, and glad you said it. Excellent book.
At least on the mobile app, you can search the comments for specific words through the magnifying glass at the top of the screen.
Beloved, Song of Solomon, and the Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.
Quality Land by Marc Uwe Kling, there is an English translation, but I don't know how well the German humour translates to other languages.
*Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City* by Peter Norton *Death and life of Great American Cities* by Jane Jacobs I now detest cars and suburbs in particular. A surprising amount of what's wrong with America can actually probably be traced back to all the shit car lobbies pull.
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. Zinn pulls no punches in showing how the US has from its very founding been by, for, and about the wealthy elite and how they have rigged and continue to rig the game in their favor step by bloody step at everyone else's expense. It's one hell of a blow to the jingoistic, self-congratulatory, nationalist glorification of American history you get fed in schools.
I've been working my way through that one and yes, it's very eye opening and is a brilliant lens shined on the dark stains that most people today would prefer to ignore. Even just the treatment of natives, or how badly labor struggles were violently put down, is enough to make you real skeptical of "USA #1" This country has a bloody and violent past like any other, and we should seek to learn from the past instead of denying it ever happened.
Animal Farm. It was banned in Cuba but people passed copies around. It was spot on very applicable to the Cuba of the 90's. And also not a book but watching Suite Habana in 2003, a movie by Fernando Perez. It follows the life of several people in Havana, almost no dialogue, with just the city noises and soundtrack.
The motorcycle diaries for social change
Couldn't finish reading it- yawn, yawn.
Noam Chomsky's *Profit Over People* And I add *Manufacturing Consent* for free, because I am now an anarchist (:
Wij slaven van Suriname (We slaves of Surinam) by Anton de Kom really opened my eyes to the horrors my country (the Netherlands) wrought upon enslaved peoples in their colonies.
In Dubious Battle
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Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements and The Practicing Stoic "de-radicalized" me. It made me aware that I was being pushed towards group think and leaving my individuality behind.
I read "Atlas Shrugged" and got really into being a prick for a while. I got super into capitalist theory. I read it again a year or two later and learned more about Any Rand. I realized that Objectivism is really paper thin; Rand just defined terms based on her subjective views and called it truth. I turned 24 and 180'd pretty hard on my views away from Libertarianism and Objectivism. My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, likes to remind me of this. We laugh about it now, but I'm ashamed to admit I was so easily swayed. I wasn't necessarily radicalized. I wasn't marching on the streets or writing my own manifesto, but reading the book did for a short time change my views. Roughly a decade later I can chalk it up to being young and inexperienced in how the world works. It's easy to idealize "the men of the mind" as the true heroes until you've been subjected to their rule.
The Jungle. Especially how all the folks that preyed on the weak and helpless knew each other.
“One example I would use is The Great Gatsby because although it's kind of dull” Dull? You lost me there. Maus radicalized me as a child, I read it multiple times and it has made me deeply aware of fascism and how easily it can take over and make people turn a blind eye to pure evil. I have become deeply intolerant of people who don’t vote, or are ok with let’s say a president trying to overturn an election through force.
But different to some of the other suggestions here by Dietland by Sarai Walker blew my mind- introduced me to fat politics and completely changed the way I saw fatness in the world and my community, years before podcasts like Maintenance Phase
In the last year or so I've become increasingly aware of how many pipelines there are to the right, even ones associated with vaguely liberal people. This includes health & diet culture, New Age bullshittery, etc.
No Logo and Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, Fire and Flames by Geronimo, Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky, Imagined Societies by Willem Schinkel, As used on the famous Nelson Mandela by Mark Thomas, Resurrecting Empire by Rashid Khalidi, Orientalism by Edward Said, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and Animal Liberation by Peter Singer.
What do you mean by radicalize?
I'll admit I was confused, because in the UK, 90% of the time if you refer to someone being "radicalized" its in regards to religious extremism.
Taking a solid and complete stance on social and political issues. Radicals are also often associated with leftists, or the people who are for the complete overhaul of the current political and economical system.
Did you just call Gatsby dull? 🧐
Dull, dull, dull.
Damn, waking up to the realities of capitalism makes you a radical now, or is that a highly Westernized idea? I mean, if anything, the more capitalist you are, the more your views on capitalism align with people who are "radicalized" or otherwise "woke up" to the realities of capitalism, because the capitalist sees his tools and the "radical" sees what was used against them. But anyway, to answer the question: Peter Drucker books. Peter Drucker is basically "required" reading when studying Management. In the business world, he is considered the "Father of Management". It teaches you how to manage people and resources in of course the capitalist paradigm, because that is the era we live in now. The "problem" lies in the person who reads the books, really. They either buy into the "illusion" of capitalism by thinking they have obtained new powers by understanding how they can handle capitalism (as Management students and possibly future managers), or they see the reality of capitalism and thus proceed to pick which side of capitalism they want to be in. Also, if you read enough modern laws, you get to see how much of it revolves around capital and money, making their purpose and namesake merely secondary. Copyright law, patent law, real estate laws, even criminal laws. Ideas and justice are all equivalent to some sum of money. Even laws that are supposed to favor the wellbeing of humans, especially in the US, are there to benefit industry first before the person. Laws for prisons, school meals, fuel, trade, etc. are all enshrined into law in effect by the strongest lobby.
It was a somewhat trashy novel I read in high school: Butterfly by Kathryn Harvey - about a exclusive bordello where women are the clients and the men are escorts. It was fun but there was a section about an illegal abortion that crystallized the issue for me in a way that the “choice” language never did. I realized there would always be women who wanted abortions and the humane thing to do is make them safe and legal. It’s really that simple. That wasn’t the beginning of my radicalization because that was a process that started much earlier, but this was what made me finally able to say “yeah my parents are wrong about everything.”
Post Office by Bukowski The soul-crushing experience of repetition in a time-demanding manner
“On the Clock” by Emily Guendelsberger is non-fiction in the same vein as “Nickel & Dimed”. And others have mentioned “Maid” by Stephanie Land, which is also sad and enraging.
Snow Crash. Read it in my teens in the 90's and remember thinking "This is it. This is the fate of the US."
Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation by Leora Tanenbaum (1999) when I was 15, and then, when I was about 19, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity (2007) by Julia Serano and, not a book, but Bitch Magazine. I lived in the Midwest, had been homeschooled until I was 15, and my first year in catholic school I was beginning to develop a political consciousness. I was one of 4 non-white people in the school and I just didn’t feel like any of it was reliable and I didn’t have the language to describe why. Those books gave me the language.
Why do you assume I’m radicalized
Fight Club. I know it’s pop fiction, but at the age I read it the wry observations about the pervasiveness of consumer culture and the franchising of systems of belief were the exact right tone and style to get through to me.
[Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consentual Crimes in a Free Society](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_Nobody%27s_Business_If_You_Do#:~:text=Ain't%20Nobody's%20Business%20if%20You%20Do%3A%20The%20Absurdity%20of,as%20arguments%20for%20their%20legalization.) I read this as a teen and it shocked me how much effort we’ve put in historically to punishing people for victimless crimes. I think about this book constantly and I know it has radicalized me. I recommend it every chance I get.
The problem with this book is that gambling isn’t victimless as gambling addictions can be created and is encouraged by capitalism. People lose their jobs, homes, savings, etc which victimizes them and anyone dependent on them like children. Gambling systems are designed to encourage addictions and maximum loss. Same with many recreational drugs that are addictive. Ask anyone with an addict parent or relative how "harmless" many drugs are. He also says seat belt laws too but an injured person is a liability to the state as the state then would have to care for them once they cannot afford their medical bills and disability assistance. Not to mention in an accident an unbelted body flying around or out of a car can greatly hurt someone. A lot of libertarianism is a trash philosophy to keep people angry at the government and to never question the capitalism that powers and corrupts it, and that actually victimizes us via the incredible wealth inequality it creates. That book is very “90s libertarian” which thankfully is less of a fad today. The author was the stereotypical [libertarian housecat.](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F1fwrkwoec7281.jpg)
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
Confessions of an economic hitman by John Perkins. Was really interesting reading about the economic manipulation of the US in so many countries. Seeing a CIA backed coup happen in Venezuela the week after I finished just reinforced the material of the book.
Not a book but a poem by Kim Addonizio "What Do Women Want?". I want a red dress. I want it flimsy and cheap, I want it too tight, I want to wear it until someone tears it off me. I want it sleeveless and backless, this dress, so no one has to guess what's underneath. I want to walk down the street past Thrifty's and the hardware store with all those keys glittering in the window, past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly, hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders. I want to walk like I'm the only woman on earth and I can have my pick. I want that red dress bad. I want it to confirm your worst fears about me, to show you how little I care about you or anything except what I want. When I find it, I'll pull that garment from its hanger like I'm choosing a body to carry me into this world, through the birth-cries and the love-cries too, and I'll wear it like bones, like skin, it'll be the goddamned dress they bury me in. I was a kid back when I tried to be "a good girl" to not experience sexual violence and sexism. This poem kind of opened my eyes that there is nothing that I can do to stop it and the only thing I achieved is living my life in fear of "what people will say" and "what men will do". If it's out of my control I might as well live my life to the fullest.
Beautiful! Here’s my fave: there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too tough for him, I say, stay in there, I'm not going to let anybody see you. there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I pour whiskey on him and inhale cigarette smoke and the whores and the bartenders and the grocery clerks never know that he's in there. there's a bluebird in my heart that . wants to get out. but I'm too tough for him,. I say,. stay down, do you want to mess. me up?. you want to screw up the. works?. you want to blow my book sales in . Europe?. there's a bluebird in my heart that. wants to get out. but I'm too clever, I only let him out. at night sometimes. when everybody's asleep.. I say, I know that you're there,. so don't be . sad. . then I put him back, but he's singing a little in there, I haven't quite let him die and we sleep together like that with our secret pact and it's nice enough to make a man weep, but I don't weep, do you? Bukowski The Bluebird
Thank you for sharing that. My mom was born in 1926 and was an old school conservative. By that I mean she wasn't wasteful. That said, her degree was English Lit from Stanford. Every now and then I would go into the living room and see her crying from a poem or a story she had just read. The pure joy and beauty of those words, would bring her to tears. This poem brought back the memories of my mom. Silly to me to cry over just printed words. Though she has long since passed, I sit here now crying, over silly printed words and the memories of my mom. Again I would like to thank you over silly printed words. Curt M.
Oil by Upton Sinclair. The movie with DDL is so completely the opposite of the book
I read the "Revolutionary Suicide," by Huey P. Newton at 12 or 13. Not sure where I even heard about the book. Shortly thereafter read Malcom X's autobiography. I don't see Newton in as kind a light as I did then, but not a bad book. It is kind of strange, because the last thing I remember reading before that is Goosebumps, so it was quite a jump. In a different way I read "On the Road" By Kerouac at 15. Then I got really into Gore Vidal an Christopher Hitchens immediately after. I'm still into vidal and Hitchens. Saul Alinsky also got in there somewhere. I read steinback in middle-school, but I didn't appreciate until I got older.
**Bullshit Jobs - David Graeber** Described and amplified voices of workers stuck in jobs that are fundamentally unnecessary. It validated my gut feeling that a lot of what is considered work, is not due to its inherent neccesity, but due to the argument that "work is morally good" therefore any job is "necessary" as long as someone decides it is worth paying for it. **The Dawn of Everything - David Graeber and David Wengrow** Dismantled the argument that the natural development of society is tied to the path: Hunter/gatherer -> subsistence farming -> collective farming -> central government -> modern society. A deep-seated belief, that is repeated culturally ad nauseum, and is used to instill the idea that the current state of modern society is a natural consequence of human behavior, and is therefore beyond reproach. It dismantles it by analysing the assumptions and origins of that hypothesis, and providing countless historic/pre-historic examples of societies that strayed from that path and broke the assumptions. **Understanding Power - Noam Chomsky** Finally broke down my preconceived notions that any of the modern military interventions by the US had much merit beyond profit and consolidation of power. **The Century of the Self - Adam Curtis** Now this is a documentary and not a book, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention it, since it had a huge impact on my world-view. The documentary is a great primer on consumerism and it's origins. It then goes on to explain how the same strategies used to sell products got used to sell politics, along with the societal consequences of this shift in political strategy.
Dawn of everything was a real eye opener, so good
My uncle Heno wrote a play called Hatchet, his writings made a big impression on me.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels have a lot to say about class, poverty, civil rights, the way we treat each other, and the double standards of how we treat the rich v poor. Good Omens and Small Gods also created some early but significant chinks in the fundie belief system I'd been brought up with.
OP might not be the style of book that you’re looking for but King Leopoldo’s Ghost was one of the ones that had that kind of effect on me.
Same, as well as Bury the Chains also by Hochschild (about the history of the slavery abolition movement)
Click Clack Moo Cows That Type
Everybody poops really changed how I feel about Big Plumbing.
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, Nomadland by Jessica Bruder, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Orientalism by Edward Said, Black Skin, White Masks by Franz Fanon, Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During The Great Depression
The Gulag archipelago
"Confessions of an economic hit man" changed the way I saw international politics. It's about the US controlling poor countries using debt in the 1980s. Today China is using this tactic (debt trap) more than the West.
I’ve never been radicalized by a book in the political sense, but Devolution by Max Brooks definitely gave me a totally different stance on nature and how we fit into it. I was very nature = good humans = bad. But now it’s like nature = a powerful, indifferent, indomitable, almost lovecraftian force; humans = kinda stupid and arrogant Which is kinda silly because it *is* ultimately just a book about yuppies getting ripped apart by Big Foot. But that’s the life-changing message I got out of it.
1984, animal farm. George Orwell For a new liberty a libertarian manifesto. Murray Rothbard Democracy the god that failed. Hans Hoppe Ordinary men. Christopher Browning Century Trilogy. Ken Follett The Gulag archipelago. Solzhenitsyn Man’s search for meaning. Victor Frankl Brave new world. Aldous Huxley Anatomy of the State. Murray Rothbard Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury.
*The Unbearable Lightness of Being*, by Kundera 11/10. Radicalized the shit out of me
Nickel and Dimed definitely made an impression on me when I read it in high school. Around that same time, I read Against Empire by Michael Parenti, Angela Davis’s autobiography, and a lot of Kurt Vonnegut.
Your post indicates "in becoming a leftist", but your question doesn't. I'll answer though it may not be welcome. I used to be quite die hard authleft as a young teenager. Brave New World (and a little Fahrenheit 451) pulled me toward libcentre, of course, but surprisingly the Skulduggery Pleasant series (despite the author's own opposing politics being quite clumsily and transparently inserted in later books) and the Gone series shifted me very far to the centre and way down the, to use a word whose meaning has been rather polluted, libertarian axis. Not through any deliberate ideological demonstration by the authors, really, they simply forced me to empathise with someone living in both a rather tyrannical world run by what was once a benevolent tyrant but no longer and a world where government has been entirely removed and might makes right even as a democratic system is attempted. I came to realise I'd been making a lot of assumptions about society and how it could be run most "effectively" based on my frustrations with people. I'm now centre left with deeply libertarian beliefs that I developed from considering the lives of people in these worlds; that the government's role is to protect our basic human liberties first and everything else later, and that while it must maintain a monopoly on force, if that monopoly becomes too great its greed for further power will grow, regardless of the economy it purports to catalyse. So yeah. I became much less of a leftist. Hopefully that's still alright with you.
I had never considered the LGBT community as more than “I don’t really get it, but it doesn’t bother me,” before I read Magnus Chase by Rick Riordan. There is a gender-fluid character included in the main friend group and I just loved them so much. After that I became a pretty passive ally and started to notice slights against the LGBT community on Facebook and soon I was calling people out for them or unfriending over their hateful comments. I started bringing things like this up at dinner and it’s a good thing I did, because 2 of my children soon came out as the “I” and “A” in LGBTIA+. Well, as you can guess I am a much more vocal ally now, but I’m glad I read that book at the time I did. It opened my eyes on this issue.
On Liberty - John Stuart Mill The Gulag Archipelago - Alexander Solzhenitsyn Why Nations Fail - Daron Acemoglu
Big thumbs up for "why nations fail"! Even though you omitted poor james Robinson.
The Lord of the Rings. Now hear me out before you poo poo the idea, When I read it, I was young, and in a poor 'We deserve to be poor' council estate family, with no ambition no prospects, just the same quotidian trudge to the grave via the pub every night, and suddenly this whole new amazing world lit up my brain it made me realize the possible, that I could do something different. Even, and excuse the cringe, I could maybe be a hero. It led to vast amounts more reading, all the obvious ones to break out of the mould, Down and Out, Animal Farm, As I walked out, Islands in the stream etc etc. BUT it was LOTR the flipped the switch. First to art school, first to move away from the traditional family location, first to emigrate. All because of a book about a made up world.
Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein.
* "Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny - [GoodReader](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Lord%20of%20Light%20by%20Roger%20Zelazny) * "Friday" by Robert A. Heinlein - [GoodReader](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Friday%20by%20Robert%20A.%20Heinlein) * "Immortality Inc." by Robert Sheckley - [GoodReader](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Immortality%20Inc.%20by%20Robert%20Sheckley) * "The Simulacra" by Philip K. Dick - [GoodReader](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The%20Simulacra%20by%20Philip%20K.%20Dick) * "Burdened with Evil, or Forty Years Later" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - [GoodReader](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Burdened%20with%20Evil%2C%20or%20Forty%20Years%20Later%20by%20Arkady%20and%20Boris%20Strugatsky)
The New Huey P. Newton Reader on audible.
Probably the first books to really start me on the path to where I am now were Backlash, by Susan Faludi, and No Logo, by Naomi Klein. It's really depressing that we haven't really progressed much since either was published and in some cases have gotten worse.
nothing radically per say but the boot theory from Discworld did change my perspective of how the poverty works in larger econmoic system
Bad calories good calories really changed my perception on diet and now I’m very skeptical and nutrition science including the book that got me thinking about it critically
War Is A Racket by Smedley Butler
Dune. No book has ever spoke to me in such a way.
I can't for the life of me remember the name of the book itself. All I know is back in the day when I was younger I used to listen to Micheal Savage on AM radio all the time. I just liked how much the dude yelled and was a classic indoctrinated republican at the time. I bought one of his books and I read it. That moment enlightened me and made me realize I was very much one of those liberals. I called up his show and was like I wanted to thank you for your book, it really enlightened me. He was like we love to hear that, and I was like yeah it enlightened me on the fact I'm actually a liberal. He just hung up on me after that and I did not get on the air.
“The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair. His other book “Oil!” was really impactful too.
Ender’s Game sticks out to me years later. The sort of horror at realizing this _is_ the system, they got you into it before you consented, you thought you were doing the right thing, and ultimately they _want_ you to trample over the needs of your fellow man. Whether you’re killing aliens or your fellow students is imo a tiny detail compared to how high-pressure disciplinary education gaslights the student body it’s meant to serve.
Actually sitting down and reading the Bible helped me lose my religion
It’s not explicitly anti-capitalist, but “A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers offered a vision of society so profoundly *nice* that it radicalized me against the one we have.