“The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose—especially their lives.” —Eugene V. Debs

Capitalism is a global system of violence and exploitation, and war a means by which national ruling classes compete with one another and subjugate less powerful nations. It is not ruling elites who suffer the consequences, but regular people.

In a moment of US/Israeli escalation and the terrifying prospect of widening war, we've put together a reading list about capitalism, imperialism, and the politics and strategies of anti-war resistance movements of the past and present. 

In a sweep through seven centuries from 1350 to 2050, the work explains how catastrophes—pandemics, wars, and climate crisis—have shaped the destiny of empires and world orders.

In his retelling of the boldness and tragedy of the Zhina uprising in Iran, Hamid Dabashi asks: What constitutes the success of revolutions and how do we measure their failures?

This collection of Howard Zinn's speeches on protest movements, racism, war, and US history, many never before published, covers more than four decades of his active engagement with the audiences he inspired with his humor, insight, and clarity. 

An urgent and accessible analysis of the key structures of state violence in our world today, and a clarion call to action for their abolition.

Just days after the US military covered up the death by friendly fire of Pat Tillman, Rory Fanning—who served in the same unit as Tillman—left the Army Rangers as a conscientious objector. Disquieted by his tours in Afghanistan, Fanning sets out to honor Tillman’s legacy by crossing the United States on foot. The generous, colorful people he meets and the history he discovers help him learn to live again.

This classic book is the first truly comprehensive history of American imperialism. 

In these intimate and wide-ranging conversations, Eqbal Ahmad discusses nationalism, ethnic conflict, the politics of memory, and liberation struggles around the world.   

A leading international relations expert uncovers the key stages that led from the end of the Cold War to the War in Ukraine.

A much-needed and comprehensive critique of recent US national security policies in both the Trump and Biden administrations.

In Border and Rule, one of North America’s foremost thinkers and migrant justice organizers delivers an unflinching examination of migration as a pillar of global governance and gendered racial class formation. 

A revelatory and wide-ranging series of interviews with award-winning writer Arundhati Roy, touching on US empire, Indian nationalism, a writer’s work, and more.

In this still-indispensable collection of essays written in the 1950s and 60s, Hal Draper grapples with the role of the United States in the world, situating post-war American imperialism in a global picture of capitalist competition and expansion. 

Staughton Lynd was one of the principal intellectuals and activists making the radical argument that the U.S. intervention in Vietnam was illegal under domestic and international law. 

The Tragedy of American Science explores how the U.S. economy’s addiction to military spending distorts and deforms science by making it overwhelmingly subservient to military interests. 

My Seditious Heart collects the work of a two-decade period when Arundhati Roy devoted herself to the political essay as a way of opening up space for justice, rights, and freedoms in an increasingly hostile world. Radical and superbly readable, these essays speak always in defense of the collective, of the individual and of the land, in the face of the destructive logic of financial, social, religious, military, and governmental elites.  

In this rich dialogue on surveillance, empire, and power, Arundhati Roy and John Cusack describe meeting NSA whistleblower Ed Snowden in Moscow. 

A brilliant indictment of US imperial power. 

The definitive account of GI resistance to the Vietnam War, with an introduction by Howard Zinn. 

Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan describe, in their own words, the crimes of war they witnessed.

Explores the distinctive instruments of American ascent to global domination and hegemony--including covert intervention, client elites, psychological torture, and surveillance. 

The Violent American Century addresses the U.S.-led transformations in war conduct and strategizing that followed 1945. 

Indefensible powerfully argues for a genuine internationalism that supports mass struggles for freedom and democracy, no matter what regime they are fighting against, and suggests steps that can be taken to end ongoing violence while promoting democracy and human rights. 

This book aims to fill a gap in studies of the BRICS grouping of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). It provides a critical analysis of their economies, societies and geopolitical strategies within the framework of a global capitalism that is increasingly predatory, unequal and ecologically self-destructive.

The Changing Face of Empire is a devastating anatomy of the U.S. military’s new six-point program for twenty-first-century war.  

 A reporter’s first-hand, close-up-and-personal look at the impact of our recent wars on America’s unlucky soldiers.

From Mark Twain to the movement against the war in Vietnam, this is the story of ordinary Americans challenging empire.

In this essential work, journalist Ali Abunimah takes a comprehensive look at the shifting tides of the politics of Palestine and the Israelis in a neoliberal world and makes a compelling and surprising case for why the Palestine solidarity movement just might win.

Joe Allen examines the lessons of the Vietnam era with the eye of both a dedicated historian and an engaged participant in today’s antiwar movement.

Here, with critical notes and context, are V.I. Lenin’s Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism and Nikolai Bukharin’s Imperialism and World Economy. They are both essential for understanding the nature of imperialism and war historically—and today.

This volume assembles and translates for the first time the main documents from the debate about imperialism which raged among European Marxists prior to World War I.

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