Full Description
Socialism is a yearning for justice, community, and the greater realization of human potential. Cornel West calls it "the best accessible and reliable treatment we have of what socialism is, was, and should be."
Understanding Socialism is a plainspoken text that disarms false narratives, confronts past failures, and offers a path to a fresh and modern understanding of socialism, by outlining what democracy in the workplace could look like.
Wolff not only explains what socialism is and has meant to its various proponents, he also looks at the transition from feudalism to capitalism as a model to help us visualize an evolution from our current socioeconomic state.
Understanding Socialism explores how socialist theory was used and applied to help shape the histories of countries such as Russia and China, and beyond. Wolff also analyzes the successes and defeats of those countries, the world's reactions to them, and how they offer important lessons for the building of a democratic, worker-controlled 21st-century socialism.
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: A Brief History: How Socialism Got to Its Here and Now
Chapter 2: What Is Socialism?
Chapter 3: Capitalism and Socialism: Struggles and Transitions
Chapter 4: Russia and China: Major Experiments in Constructing Socialism
Chapter 5: Two Anti-socialist Purges: Fascism and Anti-communism
Chapter 6: Socialism's Future and Worker Co-ops
Conclusion
About the Cover: The Red Rose as a Symbol of Socialism
About the Author
About Democracy at Work
Further Reading
