Phil in SF reviewed Socialism... Seriously by Danny Katch
Surprisingly good after a bad beginning
4 stars
I started off really disliking this author's approach. The opening chapters are a diatribe against capitalism, and that almost always falls flat for me. Additionally, his early chapter describing a day in the life of some person on a bad day after the socialist revolution described a day of absolute hell, when I'm pretty sure he meant to describe something that wouldn't be too bad even on bad days. However, I was won over by his approach once he got to the chapters describing actual socialism. Unlike a lot of other writers that I've read and online socialists I've encountered, he actually engages with why some people are turned off by what is portrayed as socialism, and doesn't hand-wave away some of the things that give people pause.
This isn't the book that converts me to socialism, but it is a book that does make me look at it …
I started off really disliking this author's approach. The opening chapters are a diatribe against capitalism, and that almost always falls flat for me. Additionally, his early chapter describing a day in the life of some person on a bad day after the socialist revolution described a day of absolute hell, when I'm pretty sure he meant to describe something that wouldn't be too bad even on bad days. However, I was won over by his approach once he got to the chapters describing actual socialism. Unlike a lot of other writers that I've read and online socialists I've encountered, he actually engages with why some people are turned off by what is portrayed as socialism, and doesn't hand-wave away some of the things that give people pause.
This isn't the book that converts me to socialism, but it is a book that does make me look at it more favorably.