The following is a suggested reading list from the Socialist Party of Michigan on socialism and related topics. While the Socialist Party of Michigan has officially approved the selection of writings presented on this list, not all of the views expressed within the writings listed necessarily reflect those of the Socialist Party of Michigan or Socialist Party USA.
Links to the text of writings listed are provided directly on this page whenever possible. If you come across a broken link or if you know of an online link to the text of any listed writing which we have not provided, please send us an email at spmi@spmichigan.org
Revised on 3/19/2009
Michael Albert, Is Socialism Still on the Agenda? (2001)
Stewart Bird, Solidarity Forever: An Oral History of the I.W.W. (Lake View Press, 1985) (Book Info)
James P. Cannon, America’s Road to Socialism (Pathfinder Press, 1953) (Book Info)
James P. Cannon, Socialism on Trial (1941)
Aim’ C’saire, Discourse on Colonialism (Monthly Review Press, 1953/2001) ((Book Info)
Eric Thomas Chester, Socialists and the Ballot Box: An Historical Analysis (Praeger Publishers, 1985) (Book Info)
Eric Thomas Chester, True Mission: Socialists and the Labor Party Question in the U.S. (Pluto Press, 2004) (Book Info)
Noam Chomsky, Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies (South End Press, 1989) (Google Books Excerpts)
Noam Chomsky,Deterring Democracy (excerpts) (1992)
Noam Chomsky, The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many (excerpts) (1994)
Noam Chomsky, Class Warfare : The Attack on Working People (Audio) (A K Press Distribution, 1996)
Noam Chomsky, Secrets, Lies, and Democracy (excerpts) (1994)
Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky (New Press, 2002) (Book Info)
Noam Chomsky Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance (Macmillan, 2003) (Google Books Excerpts)
Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, Manufacturing Consent (1998)
Tim Davenport, Early American Marxism: Socialist Party of America (1897-1946)
Tim Davenport (ed.)., Socialist Party of America Downloadable Documents: (1897-1908), (1909-1916), (1917-1918), (1919), (1920-1924), (1925-1946)
Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race and Class (Vintage Press, 1981) (Chapter 13 text)
Angela Y. Davis, Women, Culture and Politics (Vintage Press, 1991) (Book Info)
Angela Y. Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete? (Seven Stories Press, 2003) (Book Info)
Harry DeBoer, How to Win Strikes (1987)
Eugene V. Debs, The Socialist Party and the Working Class (1904)
Eugene V. Debs, Revolutionary Unionism (1905)
Eugene V. Debs, Unionism and Socialism: A Plea for Both (1907)
Eugene V. Debs, Danger Ahead (1911)
Eugene V. Debs, This is Our Year: But Two Parties and But One Issue (1912)
Eugene V. Debs, Sound Socialist Tactics (1913)
Eugene V. Debs, When I shall Fight (Appeal to Reason, 1915) (Excerpt)
Eugene V. Debs, The Canton, Ohio Anti-War Speech (1918)
Eugene V. Debs, Walls and Bars: Prisons and Prison Life in the ‘Land of the Free’ (1927) (Book Info)
Eugene V. Debs (William Pelz, ed.), The Eugene V. Debs Reader: Socialism and the Class Struggle (Institute of Working Class History, 2007) (Book Info)
Farrell Dobbs, Teamster Rebellion (Pathfinder Press, 1972) (Book Info)
Sol Dollinger and Genora Johnson Dollinger, Not Automatic: Women and the Left in the Forging of the Auto Workers’ Union (Monthly Review Press, 2000) (Book Info)
Hal Draper, The Two Souls of Socialism (1970)
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
J. David Edelstein, Social Democracy versus Revolutionary Democratic Socialism (1990)
Albert Einstein, “Why Socialism?” (Monthly Review, May 1949)
Friedrich Engels, The Principles of Communism (1847)
Friedrich Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880)
Dianne Feeley, David Finkel and Christopher Phelps, Why Socialism? Revolutionary Politics for a New Century (Solidarity, 1995)
Erich Fromm, Marx’s Concept of Man (1961)
Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin, Detroit: I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution (South End Press, 1998) (Google Books Excerpts))
David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford University Press, 2005).(Google Books Excerpts))
David Harvey, The New Imperialism (Oxford University Press, 2003). (Google Books Excerpts)
Nancy Holmstrom, “The Socialist Feminist Project” (Monthly Review, March 2003)
Nancy Holmstrom, The Socialist Feminist Project: A Contemporary Reader in Theory and Politics (Monthly Review Press, 2002) (Book Info)
Bell Hooks, Feminism is for Everybody (South End Press, 2000) (Book Info)
Leo Huberman, “The Debs Way” (Monthly Review, October 2003; January 1956 reprint)
Richard W. Judd, “Restoring Consensus in Flint, Michigan: The Socialist Party in Municipal Politics, 1910-1912”, Excerpted From Socialism in the Heartland: The Midwestern Experience, 1900-1925, Donald T. Critchlow, Ed., (University of Notre Dame Press, 1986), p. 90-116
Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam (Speech at Riverside Church: April 04, 1967).
Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go From Here? (1967)
Martin Luther King Jr., Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution (1968)
Martin Luther King Jr., The Drum Major Instinct (1968)
Edwin L. Laing, You Don’t Have to Be a Saint to Be a Socialist (2000)
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution (1905)
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Introduction to Marx, Engels, Marxism (International Publishers, 1915/1986) (Book Info)
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916)
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin The State and Revolution (1917)
Jack London, The Iron Heel (1908)
Jack London, Revolution (and Other Essays) (Macmillan, 1909)
Rosa Luxemburg, Organizational Questions of the Russian Social Democracy (Leninism or Marxism?) (1904)
Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution (1908)
Rosa Luxemburg, The Russian Revolution (1918)
Karl Marx, Comments on James Mill (1844)
Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844)
Karl Marx, Wage-Labor and Capital (1847)
Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852)
Karl Marx, Value, Price and Profit (1865)
Karl Marx, The Civil War in France (1871)
Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program (1875)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Holy Family (1845)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels ‘The German Ideology’ (1846)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Address to the Central Committee of the Communist League (1850)
George Novack, An Introduction to the Logic of Marxism (Pathfinder Press, 1971) (Book Info)
George Novack, Pragmatism versus Marxism (Pathfinder Press, 1983) (Book Info))
George Novack, The Origins of Materialism (Pathfinder Press, 1993) (Book Info)
Art Preis, Labor’s Giant Step: The First Twenty Years of the CIO, 1936-55 (Pathfinder Press, 1972) (Book Info)
John Reed, Ten Days That Shook The World (1919)
Terrence Restivo, The Building of a New Left Conglomerate in the City of Ann Arbor: VOICE, the Black Action Movement and the Human Rights Party (1965-1975) (2006)
David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class (Verso, 1999) (Google Books Excerpts)
Murray Smith Towards an International Socialist Alliance (International Socialist, Autumn 2000)
Thomas J. Sugrue The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton University Press, 2005) (Google Books Excerpts)
Leon Trotsky, Our Political Tasks (1904)
Leon Trotsky, Lessons of the Paris Commune (1921)
Leon Trotsky, The History of the Russian Revolution (1930)
Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed (1936)
Leon Trotsky, The Transitional Program (1938)
Leon Trotsky, Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It (1944 pub.)
Robert W. Tucker, The Debs Caucus: A Party Within a Party (1970)
Lise Vogel, Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory (Rutgers University Press, 1987) (Book Info)
Clara Zetkin, Selected Writings (International Publishers, 1984) (Book Info).
Howard Zinn, Growing Up Class-Conscious (Excerpted from You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Pantheon Press, 1995).
Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present (Harper Perennial, 2003)