Books by Chris Harman
A People's History of the World: From the Stone Age to the New Millennium
by Chris Harman
Chris Harman describes the shape and course of human history as a narrative of ordinary people forming and re-forming complex societies in pursuit of common human goals. Interacting with the forces of technological change as well as the impact of powerful individuals and revolutionary ideas, these societies have engendered events familiar to every schoolchild—from the empires of antiquity to the world wars of the twentieth century.
In a bravura conclusion, Chris Harman exposes the reductive complacency of contemporary capitalism, and asks, in a world riven as never before by suffering and inequality, why we imagine that it can—or should—survive much longer. Ambitious, provocative and invigorating, A People’s History of the World delivers a vital corrective to traditional history, as well as a powerful sense of the deep currents of humanity which surge beneath the froth of government.
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A People's History of the World: From the Stone Age to the New Millennium
by Chris Harman
Building on A People’s History of the United States, this radical world history captures the broad sweep of human history from the perspective of struggling classes.
An “indispensable volume” on class and capitalism throughout the ages—for readers reckoning with the history they were taught and history as it truly was (Howard Zinn)
From the earliest human societies to the Holy Roman Empire, from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, from the Industrial Revolution to the end of the twentieth century, Chris Harman provides a brilliant and comprehensive history of the human race. Eschewing the standard accounts of “Great Men,” of dates and kings, Harman offers a groundbreaking counter-history, a breathtaking sweep across the centuries in the tradition of “history from below.”
In a fiery narrative, he shows how ordinary men and women were involved in creating and changing society and how conflict between classes was often at the core of these developments. While many scholars see the victory of capitalism as now safely secured, Harman explains the rise and fall of societies and civilizations throughout the ages and demonstrates that history moves ever onward in every age.
A vital corrective to traditional history, A People's History of the World is essential reading for anyone interested in how society has changed and developed and the possibilities for further radical progress.
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Zombie Capitalism: Global Crisis and the Relevance of Marx
by Chris Harman
We've been told for years that the capitalist free market is a self-correcting perpetual growth machine in which sellers always find buyers, precluding any major crisis in the system. Then the credit crunch of August 2007 turned into the great crash of SeptemberOctober 2008, leading one apologist for the system, Willem Buiter, to write of "the end of capitalism as we knew it."
As the crisis unfolded, the world witnessed the way in which the runaway speculation of the "shadow" banking system wreaked havoc on world markets, leaving real human devastation in its wake. Faced with the financial crisis, some economic commentators began to talk of "zombie banks"financial institutions that were in an "undead state" and incapable of fulfilling any positive function but a threat to everything else. What they do not realize is that twenty-first century capitalism as a whole is a zombie system, seemingly dead when it comes to achieving human goals.
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Russia: From Workers' State to State Capitalism (International Socialism)
by Anthony Arnove, Tony Cliff, Chris Harman, Ahmed Shawki
To millions throughout the world, the Russian workers' state offered new hope. People everywhere turned from the grim alternatives of a declining capitalismunemployment, poverty, the threat of new warsto place their hopes in the government that the soviets, councils of working people, put into power in Russia.
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The Lost Revolution: Germany 1918 to 1923 (International Socialism)
by Chris Harman
Chris Harman unearths the history of the lost revolution in Germany—the swastika entered modern history on uniforms of the counterrevolutionary troops of 1918–1923—and reveals its lessons for struggles for a better world.
Chris Harman is the author of many books, including A People's History of the World.
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