"Democracy is the road to socialism." --Karl Marx Socialism was one of the formative forces of the modern world, and its complex history stretches back nearly three centuries. But what, exactly, does socialism mean? This informative and impartial guide takes you through socialism's origins to its contemporary interpretations, covering: Socialism's founders, including Sir Thomas More, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels Types of socialism, such as Maoism, syndicalism, communism, and green socialism Basic constructs and beliefs, and current misconceptions Socialism's impact on America, including the Red Scare, the Catholic Worker Movement, and the Cold War Featuring an unbiased but comprehensive view of this controversial theory, The Everything Guide to Understanding Socialism is the ultimate resource if you want to learn more about an age-old concept turned modern-day political firestorm.

In the four volumes of The Development Trajectory of Eastern Society and the Theories and Practices of Socialism, the author re-examines Marx and Engel’s theories on the development trajectory of the Eastern societies by integrating theoretical analysis of Marxist theories and a historical investigation of socialist revolution and construction around the world. This volume discusses the victories and failures of the 100-year trajectory of socialism. Since the Russian Revolution of October 1917, socialism has been practiced for nearly a hundred years in countries at various stages of development. The author provides a proper synthesis of the lessons derived from socialism’s first hundred years as well as China's reforms and interaction with the world. In addition, he analyzes Marx and Engels' socialist theories and their significance for contemporary social development in Eastern societies. Readers who study Marxism, Marxist philosophy, philosophical history and the history of philosophy will find this volume of immense interest.

Socialism: Origins, Expansion, Decline, and Attempted Revival in the United States This book is an attempt to address all the important economic aspects of socialismthe concepts and theories, the historical attempts to implement socialist economic systems, and the endeavor to establish socialism in the United States. Part I reviews the origins and ideas of socialism, which reflect an aspiration radically to transform the market system, the great advantages of which were explained by Adam Smith. Part II reviews the establishment of Marxist-Leninist economic systems in the USSR and the East European countries. The movement featured central economic planning, which survived from the 1920s until about 1990; its failure was the attempt of statist organization to crush the market system and replace it with Stalinist command planning. Central planning was meticulously copied in the bloc countries of East Europe, in China, in India, and elsewhere. The national replications of central economic planning always produced the same disappointing, usually disastrous results. Efforts to reform the system always failed. Meanwhile, the democratic countries of Western Europe established socialist parties and policies, but in less than a century after Marx, the great hopes of socialism to achieve successful and productive nationalization of industries on the basis of a national economic plan had been recognized as unproductive and undesirable. Part III reviews the failed attempt to establish a viable socialist party in the United States. The real thrust toward socialism, originally launched by the New Deal of Roosevelt, came when Barak Obama, a thoroughly indoctrinated and dedicated socialist, ascended to the US presidency. This socialism is an attempt to expand income redistribution and social welfare policies and to pursue massive industrial regulation and unconstitutional interventions in the private sector. The implications of these policies are discussed together with the associated loss of market freedoms and personal liberties.

In TV Socialism, Anikó Imre provides an innovative history of television in socialist Europe during and after the Cold War. Rather than uniform propaganda programming, Imre finds rich evidence of hybrid aesthetic and economic practices, including frequent exchanges within the region and with Western media, a steady production of varied genre entertainment, elements of European public service broadcasting, and transcultural, multi-lingual reception practices. These televisual practices challenge conventional understandings of culture under socialism, divisions between East and West, and the divide between socialism and postsocialism. Taking a broad regional perspective encompassing Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Imre foregrounds continuities between socialist television and the region’s shared imperial histories, including the programming trends, distribution patterns, and reception practices that extended into postsocialism. Television, she argues, is key to understanding European socialist cultures and to making sense of developments after the end of the Cold War and the enduring global legacy of socialism.

Toward a New Socialism offers a critical analysis of capitalism's failings and the imminent need for socialism as an alternative form of government. This book demonstrates that capitalism is destructive and limiting to the many ongoing campaigns to increase freedom, equality, and security. Dr. Richard Schmitt joins with Dr. Anatole Anton to compile a volume of essays exploring the benefits and consequences of a socialist system as an avenue of increased human solidarity and ethical principle. The essays offer a new definition of socialism by investigating the theories and principles of socialism, its influence on social institutions, and its role in work dynamics. Raising important and unavoidable questions for contemporary society, Toward a New Socialism is a vital resource for scholars of political theory and the globalization movement, as well as a necessary read for every citizen under capitalism.

This book discusses socialism and democracy. It approaches socialism not as a label but as an ideology. Based on a careful examination of what socialism is, traced back to Karl Marx, this book explains the tense relationship between socialism and democracy and how it has influenced political thought and practice in both Europe and America. This book carefully avoids conventional wisdom, seeking instead to originate its definition and analysis of socialism in its political theory and practice. Building on the relationship between socialism and democracy, the book explores how this uneasy roommate agreement may affect America’s future.

Socialism Unbound first appeared in 1990. The Berlin Wall had just fallen and the Soviet Union was in a crisis that soon would turn into its death throes. Mikhail Gorbachev was still in power and, incredibly, it seemed as if his sclerotic communist state might yet make way for a new form of socialism with democratic political foundations. Movements committed to liberal constitutionalism, whose dynamics still remain theoretically undeveloped, were taking to the streets almost everywhere in Eastern Europe. Hopes on the left were high. In the popular imagination, however, the final collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 seemed to vindicate the policies of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Laissez-faire became the rallyingcry for most former dissidents and the new party professionals in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, in the West, attempts to temper market excesses were condemned as anachronistic. Left politics suddenly stood discredited. Indeed, soon enough, the attack on "socialism" would turn into an attack on welfare liberalism and the values associated with the 1960s.

Reproduction of the original: Twentieh Century Socialism by Edmond Kelly

How do we make social democracy? Should we seize the unknown possibilities offered by the future, or does real change develop when we focus our attention on the immediate present? The modern tradition of social revolution suggested that the present is precisely the time that needs to be surpassed, but can society change without an intimate focus on today's experience of social injustice? In Socialism and the Experience of Time, Julian Wright asks how socialists in France from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century tried to follow a democratic commitment to the present. The debate about time that emerged in French socialism lay beneath the surface of political arguments within the left. But how did this focus on the present relate to the tradition of revolution in France? What did socialism have to say about social experience in the present, and how did this discussion shape socialism as a movement? Wright examines French socialism's fascination with modern history, through a new reading of Jean Jaurès' multi-authored project to write a 'socialist history' of France since 1789. Then, in four interlocking biographical essays, he analyses the reformist and idealist socialism of the Third Republic, long side-lined in the historical literature. With a sometimes emotional focus on the present times of Benoît Malon, Georges Renard, Marcel Sembat, and Léon Blum, a personal history unfolds that allows us to revisit the traditional narrative of French socialism. This is not so much a story of the future hope for revolution, as an intimate account of socialism, intellectual engagement, and the human present.

In the context of sustained economic and environmental crises, marked by extreme inequalities of wealth, rising xenophobia, racism and precarity, never has the need for a radical change of system been so pressing. This book is an invitation to think the world otherwise. The author breathes new life into socialist thought through the deployment of an intersectional lens, bringing diverse struggles for emancipation both within and outside the Global North into dialogue with one another. In doing so, he offers the kind of bold and holistic thinking the present situation calls for.