Bibliography on Alternatives to Capitalism

Compiled by Daniel S. Mesnik

What Comes Next? Proposals for a Different Society: A Preliminary Bibliography of Recent Proposals for a Different Society, With Critical Annotations
Thad Williamson
National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives, 1997

** This book may be all a study group needs to start out with and covers the major areas, pros and cons.
     It is relatively cheap, $15. 

PARECON: Life After Capitalism
Michael Albert
Verso, 2003

Moving Forward: Program for a Participatory Economy
Michael Albert
AK Press, 2000

The Political Economy of Participatory Economics
Michael Albert / Robin Hahnel
Princeton University Press,  1991

After Capitalism
David Schweickart
Bowman and Littlefield, 2002

After Capitalism: From Managerialism to Workplace Democracy
Seymour Melman
Knopf, 2001

Building Socialism Theoretically: Alternatives to Capitalism and the Invisible Hand
Special Issue of Science & Society, Spring 2002, Vol. 66, No. 1

Why Market Socialism? Voices from Dissent
Frank Roosevelt / David Belkin, editors
Foreword by Robert Heilbroner

Market Socialism: The Debate Among Socialists
David Schweickart / James Lawler / Hillel Ticktin / Bertell Ollman
edited by Bertell Ollman

Toward an Inclusive Democracy: The Crisis of the Growth Economy and the Need for a New Liberatory Project
Takis Fotopoulos
Cassell, 1997

See "Dialectical Naturalism: An Objective Ethics?".

Critique of the Gotha Experiment by Karl Marx (1875)
Text available online

May be interesting as a historical underpinning but may not have much relevance to America in our time and current crises.

“Compass Points: Towards a Socialist Alternative” by Erik Olin Wright
in New Left Review (v. 41, Sept-Oct 2006; pp. 93-124)
http://newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=2638
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Published%20writing/New%20Left%20Review%20paper.pdf [full text]

This article is incorporated into the forthcoming: Envisioning Real Utopias by Erik Olin Wright.
Manuscript-in-progress at http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/ERU.htm

Bibliography on “American Ennui”

Compiled by Daniel S. Mesnik

Note: Some may only be tangentially relevant but all arguably comment on aspects of American ennui.

Prisoners of the American Dream: Politics and Economy in the History of the U.S. Working Class
Mike Davis
Verso, 1986
W.W. Norton Company, Second Edition, May 2000

Mike Davis's brilliant exegesis attempts to answer the question: Why has the world's most industrially advanced nation never spawned a mass party of the working class?  [Amazon.com]

America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming our Wealth, Our Liberty, and our Democracy
Gar Alperovitz
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005

Could be placed on Alternatives list, but Alperovitz argues that Americans are finding ways to break from free from what I am calling "American Ennui."

Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think
George Lakoff
University of Chicago Press, Second Edition, 2002

Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know your Values and Frame the Debate
George Lakoff
Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004

What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
Thomas Frank
Metropolitan Books, 2004

Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-Battering System that Shapes their Lives
Jeff Schmidt
Rowman & Littlefield, 2000

See also Disciplined Minds web site.

The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power
Joel Bakan
Free Press, 2004

The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
Thomas Frank
University of Chicago Press, 1998

Ideology
David McLellan
University of Minnesota Press, Second Edition, 1995

See also Bibliography: Ideology by David McLellan.

Ideology and False Consciousness: Marx and his Historical Progenitors
Christopher L. Pines
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993

Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States
Sharon Smith
Haymarket Books, 2006

Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic
Chalmers Johnson
Metropolitan Books, 2006

Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire
Morris Berman
W.W. Norton, 2006

The Hegemony of Common Sense: Wisdom and Mystification in Everyday Life
Dean Wolfe Manders 
Peter Lang Publishing, 2006

For inquiries about study materials and study groups contact Dan Mesnik.

©2007 Daniel S. Mesnik

"Dialectical Naturalism: An Objective Ethics?" by Takis Fotopoulos

Marx and Marxism Web Guide

Ideology Study Guide