A very readable introduction to Marxist politics marred somewhat by a lack of explanation on a few key issues brought up, which makes the work as a whole feel slightly patronising - a bunch of examples are listed to back up easy to understand and accept points and then more confusing or contentious points are presented as facts. Also gives a pretty shitty accounting of feminism and toes the Trot (specifically the UK SWP) line slavishly.

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tombomp | otra reseña | Oct 31, 2023 |

A People's History of the World: From the Stone Age… por Chris Harman

An excellent book, well-written and gripping in a way few histories of this length are. Harman sets out his vision of the class-based progression of human societies and the rise and fall of different socio-economic systems with clarity and persuasive argument. While I might quibble a few points here and there, in the main this is a magisterial work which any student of history should absolutely read

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KatherineJaneWright | 8 reseñas más. | Jul 17, 2022 |

A People's History of the World por Chris Harman

I found this book offensive. There is really no other way to put it. It's blatantly one sided, with pointless character assassinations on one side and whitewashing on the other. The author uses a really insulting tactic of quoting other sources as if they were factual on disputed matters giving no background or differing sources or even any disclaimers. A lot of it is childish point scoring and "look how nasty capitalism is".

At the same time though, I found it interesting and I useful to see what the world looks like through the eyes of communism's number one fan. Funny how there are no fans of communism in countries that suffered through it.

Another problem with this book and pretty much any communist is they always compare capitalism in practice with communism in theory which is a pointless comparison. Want to debate which one is better in theory? Fine, but don't use examples from the real world to show how capitalism is broken because then we have to use examples from the real world for communism and that debate you have lost about 50 times over and still losing by such a wide margin it's embarrassing.… (más)

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Paul_S | 8 reseñas más. | Dec 23, 2020 |

A People's History of the World por Chris Harman

Well, it's not really
"... a narrative of ordinary people forming and re-forming complex societies in pursuit of common human goals."

and it's not at all, really, "a people's history". This book just happens to acknowledge (only occasionally) the populations behind the leaders, and is nothing more than the new historicism - which is great - marketed as "A people's history of X". Many recent history books talk at least as much about the human environment in which events happen.

So he sometimes used Marxist ideas to frame events. There's nothing odd about that: much less odd than talking about "raw economic forces" devoid of actual humans.

Histories of the world are always great, I think. This one was great too - otherwise it wouldn't have got 3 stars.… (más)

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GirlMeetsTractor | 8 reseñas más. | Mar 22, 2020 |

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