Socialism

by Peter Lamb

Socialism has made a dramatic comeback in the 21st century. In the wake of financial crisis, mounting inequality and social decay, it seems more relevant than ever. Nobody who seeks to understand contemporary politics can ignore it.
 
In this book, leading scholar Peter Lamb identifies the key ideas and principles of socialism and explores different (often conflicting) interpretations that have appeared in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, from the early nineteenth century until today. He explores the different ways that socialist thinkers have conceptualised community, equality and liberty and shows how, despite overlap with other traditions, socialists have combined these ideas in common and distinct ways that make the socialist tradition uniquely valuable. Lamb goes on to trace the recent re-emergence of these ideas, and explain what will be required for such a revival to be popular, powerful and sustained.
 
This book will be invaluable to any student or scholar interested in political theory, socialism, communism or political ideologies, as well as to general readers striving to understand contemporary politics throughout the world.

148 pages, Paperback

Published November 25, 2019

Reviews

[Callum Hair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Lamb sets out a brief history of socialist thought and some of the consequences socialism has wrought to the countries which have tried it. Lamb isn't mindlessly apologetic for socialist movements, but rather takes a somewhat analytical view as to how socialism has or hasn't worked in its different degrees of application.

Most of the book is rather pedestrian until Lamb concludes with a discussion about capitalism. Lamb discusses one obvious drawback of capitalism: climate change. A fair point, but then he moves straight into the concerns with AI as a result of capitalism. Another fair criticism perhaps, but this janky transition highlights one disagreement I have with Lamb's approach. Rather than discuss some potential solutions to climate change (be they a carbon market/tax, investment in renewable R&D and investment in nuclear to name a few), he decides to move swiftly to the next doom and gloom scenario. So what we have is a book largely looking at socialist thought, and a brief conclusion of how capitalism is bad. There is no real analysis of how socialism is supposed to fix climate change, or AI for that matter.

There wasn't much in the way of data analysis in this book. What I am looking for in a book on political science is some research because I feel this helps me learn about the political system being discussed. Instead, in this book I feel like most of the time all I'm getting is so-and-so thinks society ought to be organised this way or that way - all the while providing little analysis on the costs and benefits of such policies.

[Hubert Petre · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a huge disappointment. I wondered at times if the author is human or an AI instructed to use as many quotes as possible. Moreover he seems to have given little or no thought to the need to convince the reader that socialism actually has some sort of interesting analysis to contribute, or any sort of future for that matter. Page after page is filled with strong statements the author makes no effort to explain, as if they were somehow self-evident. At times the sheer mass of non-sequiturs becomes unintentionally comical. My favorite came up in the introduction: "while Marxism-Leninism had not allowed women to flourish, capitalism, against which socialism continued to campaign, was linked with patriarchy, in other words male domination." And that is the full extent of the author’s reflection on the topic. Really. Not one more word to explain a statement that verges on the self-contradictory. If this is the best socialist thinkers can come up with, I can confidently predict that socialism has no future at all. Two stars for effort, and keeping it mercifully brief.

[Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to socialism.