Description
Renowned American sociologist Charles Derber imagines a surprise encounter with Karl Marx's ghost in London's Highgate cemetery, leading to a night-long conversation about the problems plaguing the world. The economic crisis, climate change, war, the future of capitalism and the 'Arab Spring' are all discussed. The ghost reconsiders his theories as he speaks eloquently about American labour, environmental, gender and anti-racist struggles. The engrossing, funny and provocative conversation, with appearances from other ghosts such as John Maynard Keynes, offers new insights into the relevance and flaws of Marx's thought, indicating how we can get to a better world.
Table of Contents
Part 1 I Meet the Ghost; Chapter 1 Highgate Cemetery; Chapter 2 The Ghost; Chapter 3 Marx's Avatar; Chapter 4 The Ghost Begins to Talk and Explains His Ghostly Powers; Chapter 5 Marx as the Devil; Chapter 6 Tina; Chapter 7 TINA Arrives Exactly at the Wrong Time; Chapter 8 The Ghost Turns Sunny; Chapter 9 The Ghost Promises Me a New Story '¦ about the Great Transition; Chapter 10 Capitalism, Socialism, and the Great Transition; Chapter 11 I Am Not Promising You a Rose Garden: Tea Part Ies and the Alternatives of Evil; Part 2 TINA Can't Seduce This Ghost; Chapter 12 The Story Begins'”At Harvard Yard; Chapter 13 Communism Collapses and History Ends; Chapter 14 The Globalization of TINA; Chapter 15 Liberals and TINA; Chapter 16 Even the Left Has Given Up the Ghost; Part 3 Super-Capitalist Crises and the Regime of Death; Chapter 17 The Ghost Gets Socratic and Talks History; Chapter 18 The Ghost Talks about Capitalism and the Great Recession; Chapter 19 The Ghost Talks Crisis and Systemic Risk; Chapter 20 The Real Truth about the Great Recession of 2008'”and the Secret of Capitalist Crises; Chapter 21 Nickel and Dimed: Yes, It's Capitalism, Stupid; Chapter 22 Capitalism against Society: Extreme Inequality and Social Breakdown; Chapter 23 Mature Capitalism Equals Social Problems on Steroids; Chapter 24 The Great Recession: Is It the End of Capitalism as We Know It?; Chapter 25 Another Ghost, John Maynard Keynes, Joins the Conversation; Chapter 26 A Third Ghost, Hyman Minsky, Enters the Scene; Chapter 27 A Fourth Ghost, Milton Friedman, Makes a Surprise Appearance; Chapter 28 Lessons of the Crisis; Chapter 29 The Ghost Says That Capitalism Has Already Disappeared; Chapter 30 The Ghost Begins Mapping the Twenty-First Century; Chapter 31 The Time Crunch; Chapter 32 The War System in an Age of WMD; Chapter 33 Capitalism, Imperialism, and War without End; Chapter 34 War and Nationalism: The Culture of Capitalism and Winning the Hearts and Minds of Workers at Home; Chapter 35 Climate Change, Capitalism, and the Threat to Survival; Chapter 36 How Climate Change and Environmental Destruction Are in the DNA of Capitalism; Chapter 37 More on Unsustainable Capitalism'”the God of Growth and the Surfeit of Coerced Consumption; Part 4 The Ghost Doesn't Promise a Rose Garden; Chapter 38 Watch Out What You Wish For; Chapter 39 Retro-Alternatives and the Reactionary Classes; Chapter 40 Right Wing Populism and Today's Reactionary Classes; Chapter 41 Right-Wing Regime Change: The Weimar Syndrome, Neo-Fascism, and the Evils Lurking beyond Capitalism; Chapter 42 The Politics We Need to Be Afraid Of '¦ Very Afraid; Chapter 43 The Weimar Syndrome in the United States: Economic Crises and Culture Wars; Chapter 44 The Retro Left: The Ghost Confesses to Tragic Mistakes; Part 5 The Revolutions of the Great Transition and the Politics of Life; Chapter 45 The Spook Turns from Death to Life; Chapter 46 The Ghost Begins with Europe; Chapter 47 The Ascent of Life over Death in Social Democracy European-Style; Chapter 48 U.S. Triage versus the European Commons; Chapter 49 The European Difference '¦ in Democracy and Ownership; Chapter 50 Is European-Style Social Democracy Really the Answer for the United States and the World?; Chapter 51 The Solidarity Economy, the Socialism of Chavez, and the Diverse Flowers Blooming to Our South; Chapter 52 Morales' Bolivia and Indigenous Socialism; Chapter 53 Is IS for Real'¦ More Than Revolutionary Rhetoric?; Chapter 54 The Zapatistas and IS in Chiapas; Chapter 55 Costa Rica and Democracy without an Army or Greenhouse Gases; Chapter 56 China: Super-Socialist or Super-Capitalist?; Chapter 57 Mondragon, Co-ops, and Labor over Capital; Chapter 58 Alter-Capitalist and Post-Capitalist Flowers in the United States; Chapter 59 Social Democracy in America; Chapter 60 The Co-op Nation, American Style; Chapter 61 Post-Corporate America: Beyond the Corporation; Chapter 62 Localism: Community and Local Living Economies in the United States; Chapter 63 Positive Anarchy: Oppose the State but Don't Join It; Chapter 64 True Democracy: Politics, Part Icipatory Democracy, and the Constitution; Chapter 65 Alter-Globalization and Alter-Capitalism; Part 6 What to Do; Chapter 66 What Is to Be Done? The Ghost Talks about His Activist Life; Chapter 67 Revolution Lives! The New Revolutionary Generation in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Libya, Jordan, Algeria, and Yemen Astonishes the World; Chapter 68 Austerity Activism: European and U.S. Students and Workers Face Death by a Thousand Cuts; Chapter 69 What Makes Social Movements So Special?; Chapter 70 The Personal Case for Movements '¦ As Communities of Solidarity and Incubators of the New Society; Chapter 71 Stir Up Blessed Unrest '¦ Millions in Movement; Chapter 72 Nuts and Bolts: How to Get in on the Action; epilogue Epilogue: The Ghost Takes His Leave;
