So You Want To Understand Imperialism: an introductory reading list
This is part 1 of my theory recs; rather than dumping hundreds of titles into a Google doc and releasing it into the wild, I figured it would be less overwhelming to break them down by topic. This list is obviously non-exhaustive, and I might add some links to it at a later date, but it contains what I consider fundamental readings. Some books I was initially going to include here I kept for future posts instead, because they cover intersecting topics like settler colonialism or political economy.
You will be able to find all the recs under this tag. Drop me a message if one of the links is broken and I’ll do my best to replace it. Happy learning!
- National Liberation and Neocolonialism 101, selected writings by Lenin, Nkrumah, Amilcar Cabral, Che Guevara, and Bill Fletcher
- Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism — V. I. Lenin + The Internationalist Lenin: Self-determination and anti-colonialism — Vijay Prashad
- Capital, Volume I, Chapter Thirty-One: Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist — Karl Marx
- How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (audiobook also available) — Walter Rodney + The World Turned Upside Down: Rodney’s 1972 masterpiece — Leo Zeilig
- Divided World, Divided Class — Zak Cope
- Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism — Kwame Nkrumah
- The Wretched of The Earth — Franz Fanon
- Towards the African Revolution — Franz Fanon
- The African Liberation Reader (Vols. 1 - 3)
- The Open Veins of Latin America — Eduardo Galeano
- Cuba’s achievments and America’s Wars — Fidel Castro
- Killing Hope — William Blum
- The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World — Vincent Bevins (no free PDF because it was published this year, but I linked an Amazon alternative for purchase)
- NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe — Daniele Ganser
- The CIA As Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World — Douglas Valentine
- How to Read Donald Duck — Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart
- Rambo and the Swarthy Hordes — Michael Parenti
- Against Empire — Michael Parenti
- The Face of Imperialism — Michael Parenti
- The Law of Worldwide Value — Samir Amin + Samir Amin at 80: An Introduction and Tribute — John Bellamy Foster
- Discourse on Colonialism — Aimé Césaire
- The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British Empire — John Newsinger
