Ben Burgis – författare

Many serious leftists have learned to distrust talk of logic and logical fallacies, associated with right-wing "logicbros". This is a serious mistake. Unlike the neoliberal technocrats, who can point to social problems and tell people "trust us", the serious Left must learn how to argue and persuade. In Give Them an Argument, Ben Burgis arms his reader with the essential knowledge of formal logic and informal fallacies.

Between the decline of the labor movement, the aftershocks of the falls of so-called "actually existing socialism," and the long exile of even social democrats from the levers of real power, we have gotten far too used to thinking of leftism as a performative exercise in expressing our political commitments rather than a serious effort to achieve left-wing goals in the real world. Cancelling Comedians While the World Burns calls for a smarter, funnier, more strategic left.

While his post-9/11 turn to the right has defined Christopher Hitchens for the last two decades, we may now be in a position to rehabilitate his long pre-9/11 career as a left-wing polemicist. Burgis reminds readers about what was best in Hitchens's writings and helps us gain a better understanding of how someone whose whole political life was animated by the values of the socialist left could have ended up holding grotesque positions on Iraq and the War on Terror. Burgis' book makes a case for the enduring importance of engaging with Hitchen's complicated legacy.

Capitalism isn't working. But is there a plausible alternative? The Blueprint lays one out: a system where workers control every lever of production, and competitive markets and state planning coexist side by side. Drawing on the history of socialist experiments and the economic debate over planning and markets, The Blueprint confronts the hardest questions about what went wrong in the past-and why it can go right in the future. The result is a socialism worthy of the twenty-first century.

Capitalism isn't working. But is there a plausible alternative? The Blueprint lays one out: a system where workers control every lever of production, and competitive markets and state planning coexist side by side. Drawing on the history of socialist experiments and the economic debate over planning and markets, The Blueprint confronts the hardest questions about what went wrong in the past-and why it can go right in the future. The result is a socialism worthy of the twenty-first century.

Since his passing in 2009, Cohen has been subject to sustained scrutiny and praise as his influence continues to grow. This companion volume situates Cohenian thinking in contemporary debates about capitalism, liberalism, libertarianism, liberal socialism and democratic socialism. This book will be essential reading for scholars of political philosophy, political economy and critical theory, in particular those with a focus on Marxism and socialist thought.The book presents both well-established and up-and-coming scholars’ readings of Cohen, offering generational perspectives on his work and its contemporary implications. The book is divided into three parts, with the first part focusing solely on Cohen’s defense of Marx and his foundation of analytical Marxism, in particular his classic book Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defense. The second part examines the normative ‘turn’ of Cohen’s work later in life, in particular his deep engagement and complex relationship with the tradition of liberal egalitarianism, while the third part broadens the scope of the book to a discussion of Cohen’s relationship with more distant theoretical traditions.

Since his passing in 2009, Cohen has been subject to sustained scrutiny and praise as his influence continues to grow. This companion volume situates Cohenian thinking in contemporary debates about capitalism, liberalism, libertarianism, liberal socialism and democratic socialism. This book will be essential reading for scholars of political philosophy, political economy and critical theory, in particular those with a focus on Marxism and socialist thought.The book presents both well-established and up-and-coming scholars’ readings of Cohen, offering generational perspectives on his work and its contemporary implications. The book is divided into three parts, with the first part focusing solely on Cohen’s defense of Marx and his foundation of analytical Marxism, in particular his classic book Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defense. The second part examines the normative ‘turn’ of Cohen’s work later in life, in particular his deep engagement and complex relationship with the tradition of liberal egalitarianism, while the third part broadens the scope of the book to a discussion of Cohen’s relationship with more distant theoretical traditions.