Liberated Texts, Collected Reviews: Volume One

Edited by Louis Allday and Mahmoud Najib

  • "Books differ from all other propaganda media... because one single book can significantly change the reader's attitude and action to an extent unmatched by the impact of any other single medium... this is, of course, not true of all books at all times and with all readers - but it is true significantly often enough to make books the most important weapon of strategic (long-range) propaganda." Chief of the CIA's Covert Action Staff, 1961

    Liberated Texts is dedicated to reviewing works of ongoing relevance that have been forgotten, underappreciated, suppressed or misinterpreted in the cultural mainstream since their release. This inaugural collection brings together all twenty-one review essays published on the Liberated Texts website in 2021, accompanied by an introduction written by its Founding Editor, Louis Allday.

    The books under discussion in this volume broach a wide range of topics including Zionist colonialism and Palestinian resistance, Marxism in Africa, the US' defeat in Vietnam, everyday life in the DPRK, anti-indigenous racism in Canada, Soviet pedagogy, and the events of 9/11.

  • 1. Liberated Texts: The Power of Books as Propaganda
    Louis Allday

    2. Fascisation as an Expression of Imperialist Decay: Rajani Palme Dutt’s Fascism and Social Revolution
    Alfie Hancox

    3. Imperialism and the Deep State: Peter Dale Scott’s The Road to 9/11—Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
    Patrick Higgins

    4. Mutiny in Vietnam: Richard Boyle’s Flower of the Dragon: The Breakdown of the U.S. Army in Vietnam
    Marlon Ettinger

    5. Penetrating Curtains of Deceit: I.F. Stone’s The Hidden History of the Korean War
    Tim Beal and Gregory Elich

    6. Socialist Construction in Korea: Suzy Kim’s Everyday Life in the North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950
    Ju-Hyun Park

    7. Revolution as Historic Necessity: Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China
    Lewis Hodder

    8. The Cause of Anti-colonialism and Liberation is One: Fayez Sayegh’s Zionist Colonialism in Palestine
    Louis Allday

    9. A History of the Anonymous Masses: Rosemary Sayigh’s Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries
    Steven Salaita

    10. Liberation, Wonder, and the “Magic of the World”: Basel al-Araj’s I Have Found My Answers
    Hazem Jamjoum

    11. Ireland’s Struggle for Self-determination: Robbie McVeigh and Bill Rolston’s Ireland, Colonialism and the Unfinished Revolution
    Chris Beausang

    12. The Capitalist Roots of Anti-Indigenous Racism in Canada: Howard Adams’ Prison of Grass
    Owen Schalk

    13. Independence with Blood: The Decolonial Vision of the Malayan Conscious Youth Movement’s Political Testament
    Fadiah Nadwa Fikri

    14. Walter Rodney’s Lost Book: One Hundred Years of Development in Africa
    Leo Zeilig

    15. African Socialism in Retrospect: Karim Hirji’s The Travails of a Tanzanian Teacher
    Zeyad el-Nabolsy

    16. Critiquing Human Rights Like It Matters: Issa Shivji’s The Concept of Human Rights in Africa
    Paul O’Connell

    17. Insurgent Theory in Times of Crisis: Dani Wadada Nabudere’s The Political Economy of Imperialism
    Corinna Mullin

    18. Reflections on Workers’ Organization: Makhan Singh’s History of Kenya’s Trade Union Movement to 1952
    Noosim Naimasiah

    19. Entrenching Inequality: The European Dependency School’s Underdeveloped Europe
    Sam Parry

    20. A Pedagogy of the Collective—From the Soviet Union to Latin America: Makarenko, His Life and Work
    Alex Turrall

    21. Reading Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society in the Neoliberal University
    Justin Podur

    22. A Pedagogy of Nature: Vasily Sukhomlinsky’s My Heart I Give to Children
    Alex Turrall

  • February 2022
    Ebb Books
    350 Pages
    ISBN 9781739985226

£12/$16 Paperback

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