for lefties too stubborn to quit
I haven’t much of a clue what I want Santa to bring me this year. Perhaps Adrian Grant’s Irish Socialist Republicanism 1909-1936, or a year’s subscription to LookLeft. For that reactionary in your life, there’s this. Anyway, all suggestions, plaintive cries to your loved ones etc happily received.
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The Cedar Lounge Revolution
The postie showed up with Sam Gindin and Leo Pantich’s ‘The Making of Global Capitalism’ today so that’s my Christmas sorted.
Cool picture. I think the popularisation of the red Santa suit was due in part to Coca-Cola advertising campaigns.
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As ever I am sending no cards and buying presents only for the missus and the cat. Both of which are already taken care of.
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I was hoping that santa would bring me ‘The Tailor of Ulm: A History of Communism’, but I was informed this evening that it was unlikely to happen at this late stage. I’ll be in Dublin on Friday to do my christmas shopping so I think it’ll be a quick visit to Connolly Books to find something suitable as a replacement.
Apart from that, I think I’ll be wishing for world peace and the speedy downfall of capitalism.
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Very fine choice, but you could spend the rest of your life getting your head around it. Magri’s newspaper is now on its last legs, which will be a real blow to the Italian left.
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And, actually, if you’re interested in The Tailor of Ulm, you should also have a look at:
http://www.versobooks.com/books/476-the-comrade-from-milan
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Thanks for the suggestion Michael. If I survive Magri’s book I’ll certainly follow it with that. I have a feeling my christmas present next year will be some cardboard boxes and a stepladder into the attic. Either that or a new bookshelf. Like Tomboktu below I’m experiencing a backlog that’s proving impossible to work through and is growing by the month.
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Connnolly books rescued the day, twice. Picked up a copy of the Magri book and also CHTM while up in town today. Thank you Connolly books 🙂
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I saw the Magri when I was in there yesterday and thought of you. Good luck with it. It is a personal account (he was involved in a lot of the later history of the PCI), but he deals honestly with the events.
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Magri: was it the last copy?
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I only saw the one I’m afraid CMK, and I have it now.
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Damn! Was it paperback or hardback? When I went to order it several months ago it was only available in hardback at, I think, 40 euro+ which was too much.
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Hardback, €35 (special price to members of affiliates to the International Communist & Workers’ Parties, double that for CWI members).
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I bought someone a copy of Bertolucci’s The Conformist today.
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ejh’s ‘From Spain’ piece linked yesterday and his account of his struggle to master Spanish in middle-age and the general difficulty of learning new stuff as you get older had me nodding sadly in agreement……and then this post popped up and I thought ‘aha! you must mention that book you wanted to mention in the Xmas presents thread’ – and then I couldn’t remember what book that was. : (
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Ah Jesus. I read that ejh piece too. Say it ain’t so. And may you stay, ay, ay… forever young.
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The Come Here To Me book from… well… Come Here To Me! Just got it today in Hodges Figgis where they say it’s flying off the shelves. It’s brilliant stuff and a great gift.
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I bought Come Here To Me today for my Dad. As for my own reading, I’m still backed up from the Summer!!
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Heard CHTM is on its 2nd print run.
That’s the pressie sorted for the mother-in-law (I like her).
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A1
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CHTM is on the list for my Dad also. I might borrow it before he reads it though…
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Ian Cobain’s ‘Secret History of Torture’ (U.S. title). Published in Britain as ‘Cruel Britannia’.
‘What he has dragged from the darkness into the light shows that the Pat Finucane affair was by no means a one-off and certainly not peculiar to Northern Ireland, but followed a pattern of torture, murder and lies, which had for decades been a weapon in the arsenal of British ‘anti-terrorist’ operations.’-Eamonn McCann
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/eamon-mccann/britain-cant-hide-from-the-truth-of-torture-in-its-name-16249879.html
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Atlas of the famine looks very useful but upwards of sixty euro at the moment so probably better spent for the time being. Might get a few Wendy Brown bits and this collection of essays on Landowning, society & settlement in the 19th century
http://geographypublications.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=68
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I’m torn between Octonauts and Moshi Monsters myself, it’s the State Capitalism v Degenerated Workers State clash of the toy world.
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They’re both the wrong present you mean?
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Where’s your Christmas Spirit?
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A couple of union colleagues who have grandchildren were discussing this:
http://www.chuggington.com/
and decided that it’s not pro-union, but it does have a strong health and safety message. The gender politics are a bit dubious.
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Speaking of kids, a couple of things I got last year were WWF subscriptions and Puffin Post subscriptions. The money for the first goes towards conservation of rare animals and it gave them a massive interest in wildlife, the snow leopard being a favourite topic of conversation. And the Puffin Post thing is a book club which over the last year got my eldest reading in the same intensive way I remember from the same age. I’d recommend them both (he said sounding a bit mumsnet).
I often see Chuggington around the place but had one previous nightmarish experience with a train set which has soured me on them for good.
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Having a boy about to turn 4 in a month I’m subjected to a litany of cartoons. Chugginton is not pro union, but it is not nearly as bad as Thomas the tank engine. I’ve watched countless episodes now and have seen all of the new movies. I hate (yes actually hate) sir toppem hat. The theme of dukes, sirs and ladies not to mention the continued and relentless persecution of diesels is enough to make me want to stab sir toppem hat in his jowelly neck. Sorry for the vitriol but anyone forced to Day of the Diesels fifty times will understand.
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Sir wants Ivor the Engine, sir does. Decent working choo-choo.
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“but had one previous nightmarish experience with a train”.
You don’t mean… you were the subject of A Bash in the Tunnel by Flann? You’re pullin our legs now, Eamonn.
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No, I was on a train in Europe and I thought I’d met this old lady but then she vanished and no-one else had seen her and then I discovered she’d been taken prisoner by Nazis and we had to decouple the train and they chased us until we got to Switzerland. And to make it worse it was all in black and white.
I won’t even get into the time I tried to go railing from Ennis as far as Kilkee.
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Are ye right there Eamonn are ye right? Last night I dreamed I was Ivor the Engine. Tonight I will listen to the soundtrack of Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
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But did you enjoy the cricket?
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Don’t follow Ejh. But one of my enduring nationalist and sporting regrets is not buying the tshirt that Philosophy Football brought out after “we” beat “you” at the cricket a couple of years back. It was a plain green tshirt with the cricket score and match details on it. Gobbledegook to all true Irishmen – but if Carlsberg did gobbledegook then this was the best gobbledegook in the world!
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Don’t follow Ejh
I imagine Eamonn will.
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I would have if it hadn’t been rained off. Ah, I do enjoy indulging in a bit of Hitchcock arcana on a miserable December evening.
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I am off out to get the newly released “All Noble Things: The Political Philosophy of Enda Kenny: his Life and Influences” by Paul D. Wintermute. I have heard that it is a complicated and hefty tome, but it should keep me busy during these long, cold nights.
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Does it come with crayons?
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Aren’t there three versions of this book?The picture only one,the coloring one(especially for LatC)and the fantasy fighting one(if Enda should kiss one of the Troika’s arses go to page 72.if Enda should learn to speak German go to page 52 or go to the local corner shop and announce the creation of one job(part time) go to page 21.
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The Eamon Gilmore autobiography (We will not be) Bound For Glory is brilliant too.
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Given his recent praise for Labour TDs with the guts to vote for the budget, he should call his book ‘Profiles in Courage’
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You all jest, but you should not. This book charts many, many years of constant engagement and dialogue with modernity. It seeks to provide the background and the foundations for the discourse that now has successfully flowed through our society. This alone makes this a breakthrough and stand-out work of our time. That it concerns a deep and ,dare it be said, reticent and obscure thinker of our times only compounds the significance of the research the Mr. Wintermute has portrayed here. He gives us an insight into Irish society and ourselves, that we have never before experienced.
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I hope someone gets me the fantasy one for Christmas, it sounds terrific.
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I got an early present of Kevin O’Connor’s biography of the Jewish Communist Dublin artist, Harry Kernoff (Liffey Press, €19.95). It’s a lovely physical object, with 16 pages of really good colour plates of HK’s works, and good detail on the artist’s life. Unfortunately, the author’s engagement with Kernoff’s politics is disappointing – but maybe we shouldn’t be too greedy at Christmastime
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eamonncork-you mightn’t get it for Christmas but there are rumours going around(flying around even) on social media that every resident/household of/in the state will get a free copy in 2013 to celebrate 1 the EU Presidency 2 our return to the markets….some people on politics.ie claim that each copy will be signed by the man himself,that sounds too good to be true.
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The Pat Rabbitte biography ‘If I was fucking chocolate I’d fucking eat myself’ looks good.
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I think it was Eamonncork a while back who recommended this book, Stayin’ Alive, on the American working class in the 1970s. Finally bought it and while it is very depressing in parts, its also very good. The lessons don’t just apply to the United States either.
I found Bruce Nelson’s book on Irish nationalism and race very interesting:
I also read an early draft of this book, an oral history of anti-fascism in Britain which I’m looking forward to seeing in its final version soon:
http://www.zero-books.net/authors/dave-hann&i=9
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Glad you liked Stayin’ Alive Brian. I thought it was brilliant and was going to recommend it again in this thread because I got it as a Christmas present last year. Hope all is well.
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An interesting oral history of Irish anti fascism is contained in Undertones, a history of fascism and anti fascism in Ireland
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I would recommend ‘ Our Great Spring Victory’ by Van Tien Dung. A Vietnamese account of the 1975 offensive that led to the end of the Vietnam war. Published by Monthly Review Press.
If Santa was coming this year, I would hope he would bring ‘The Hunt’ by Carla Del Ponte, former Chief Prosecutor at the ‘ War Crimes Tribunal’ or Carla spills the beans on what really happened in Kosovo.
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