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    Wright's Writing

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    Excerpts from "Battle Cry of Freedom"
    • Sep 8, 2021
    • 11 min

    Excerpts from "Battle Cry of Freedom"

    In an effort to escape the dreary drumbeat of daily news, I'm reading James McPherson's mammoth Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era...
    The "paradox" of American freedom and slavery
    • Sep 1, 2021
    • 4 min

    The "paradox" of American freedom and slavery

    [Old student notes on the early United States.] Quoting Edmund Morgan, in his famous 1972 article “Slavery and Freedom: The American...
    Eleven Theses on Socialist Revolution
    • Aug 22, 2021
    • 16 min

    Eleven Theses on Socialist Revolution

    The good folks at DSA (of which I'm a proud member) were kind enough to publish the following article recently in their online...
    On the inhumanity of Illinois's government in the 1930s
    • Jun 26, 2021
    • 49 min

    On the inhumanity of Illinois's government in the 1930s

    In case anyone is interested in the history of the Great Depression, particularly in Chicago, here's an excerpt from a chapter of my...
    The secret history of automation
    • Jun 22, 2021
    • 12 min

    The secret history of automation

    Here are some notes on an unjustly neglected book by the great Marxist David F. Noble (social historian of technology) called Progress...
    Marxism and the solidarity economy
    • Jun 11, 2021
    • 74 min

    Marxism and the solidarity economy

    Another excessively long blog post. I recently published a long article ("Marxism and the Solidarity Economy: Toward a New Theory of...
    Introduction to my forthcoming book
    • Jun 10, 2021
    • 22 min

    Introduction to my forthcoming book

    If all goes well, I'll be publishing a book sometime in the not-too-distant future. It'll be called something like Popular Radicalism and...
    The rise of right-wing libertarianism since the 1950s
    • Apr 5, 2021
    • 30 min

    The rise of right-wing libertarianism since the 1950s

    Sometimes as I read books I like to simultaneously summarize them, to facilitate the intellectual digestion. And also to post my notes...
    A despairing rant
    • Sep 24, 2020
    • 4 min

    A despairing rant

    These are interesting times. We have the "privilege" to be living in the era when centuries of capitalist evolution are approaching their...
    The history of tax increment financing in Chicago
    • Sep 11, 2020
    • 35 min

    The history of tax increment financing in Chicago

    Here's a very dry paper I wrote for a class in 2012. I thought I should know more about urban public policy, so I decided to research the...
    DuBois's "Black Reconstruction"
    • Sep 10, 2020
    • 12 min

    DuBois's "Black Reconstruction"

    W. E. B. DuBois’s great work Black Reconstruction in America: 1860-1880, published in 1935, isn’t a very easy read. But it’s important as...
    From Steve Fraser's "The Age of Acquiescence"
    • Sep 8, 2020
    • 22 min

    From Steve Fraser's "The Age of Acquiescence"

    I just finished reading Steve Fraser's masterful The Age of Acquiescence (2014), which compares the popular responses to America's two...
    The commodification of education
    • Sep 5, 2020
    • 5 min

    The commodification of education

    David Noble's essay "Digital Diploma Mills," written in the 1990s, is a brilliant and still timely critique of the automation and...
    The Workers' Bill
    • Sep 4, 2020
    • 35 min

    The Workers' Bill

    Here's the last section of chapter 6 of my dissertation on the unemployed in Chicago during the Depression. The previous two sections are...
    On the Unemployed Councils and the Chicago Workers' Committee
    • Sep 3, 2020
    • 54 min

    On the Unemployed Councils and the Chicago Workers' Committee

    The last chapter of my dissertation on the unemployed in Chicago during the Great Depression is, I think, more interesting than the...
    The radical dimensions of mass consciousness, part 2
    • Aug 23, 2020
    • 25 min

    The radical dimensions of mass consciousness, part 2

    Here's the sequel to this post, from the last chapter of my Ph.D. thesis. It's just an excerpt. The main point of it is to argue against...
    The radical dimensions of mass consciousness, part 1
    • Aug 23, 2020
    • 45 min

    The radical dimensions of mass consciousness, part 1

    I'm kind of a "vulgar Marxist." In this respect, I suppose I'm a lot like people in the American ruling class, except that their values...
    Homeless men in the Great Depression
    • Aug 21, 2020
    • 53 min

    Homeless men in the Great Depression

    Here's another over-long blog post. It's a chapter from my dissertation, on homeless men during the Great Depression. I'm not sure it's...
    Fragments on Marxism and anarchism
    • Aug 17, 2020
    • 7 min

    Fragments on Marxism and anarchism

    April 2010.— One of the advantages of Marx’s equation of progress with the expansion of productive capacity is that it provides a clear...
    Thoughts on classical fascism
    • Aug 5, 2020
    • 6 min

    Thoughts on classical fascism

    [Student notes from ten years ago.] Reading Robert A. Brady’s classic Business as a System of Power (1943), which influenced Chomsky....
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    Wright's Writing

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