If you're new to the history of the American War in Vietnam, this is the place to start. And if you think you've heard it all, then this is the place to start again. Jonathan Neale has combined compassion and clarity, to produce a hugely informative and deeply moving narrative.

Stripping away the mythologies (liberal and conservative alike) surrounding this 20th century atrocity, Neale presents the war from the bottom up as the intertwined tragic histories of two working classes, the Vietnamese and the American. As a result he is able to offer a cogent and convincing explanation of both the course of the war and its ultimate impact on two societies wracked by inequality.

Neale provides a sober account of the evolving priorities of the American and Vietnamese elites, and of the manner in which their strategic assumptions were driven off course, shaped and reshaped, by upsurges from below. Not for a moment does he avert his eyes from the core of the story - the suffering and sacrifices of the Vietnamese masses. At the same time he rightly restores the American working class resistance to the war - most powerfully and decisively within the US military itself - to its central place in the saga.
Mike Marqusee.

The Middle East 'peace process', writes Edward Said, introducing this latest collection of his recent articles and essays, 'depoliticises Palestinian society and sets it squarely within American-style globalisation. Just to have a Palestinian institute of folklore research or a Palestinian university or a Palestinian medical association is therefore not enough, any more than nationalism is enough.'

He argues for the goals of real liberation to be restated and, if necessary, redefined. Though he himself is not entirely clear what this may mean, the guidelines for the argument, which recur time and again in his writings, are far in advance of mainstream Palestinian political thinking: firstly, that the peace process is a cover for Zionism's crushing victory over the Palestinians; secondly, the Arafat leadership is a catastrophe, a petty dictatorship, which has made far too many concessions to the Israelis; but thirdly, that Palestinian liberation will eventually reassert itself in a much more democratic form.
John Rose.

No other book has so brilliantly exposed the way big business has taken over areas that are supposed to be under democratic control in modern Britain.

George Monbiot's examples range from the companies' influence on the planning laws in local councils, to the way firms direct what happens in universities, to corporate direction of global financial institutions.

A devastating series of chapters on the Private Finance Initiative shows that these projects are guided by the needs of profiteers, not what is best for public services.

Above all, George Monbiot reveals the way business has penetrated the heart of Whitehall and the cabinet. Companies even get New Labour ministers to lobby against their own departments' regulations.

The book also has a very useful guide to the fate cats who Blair has officially installed as ministers, advisers and heads of quangos.

Captive State makes you gasp at the way that under New Labour business has seized direct control of our lives. It will make you more determined to do something to fight back.
Charlie Kimber.

For a growing section of young people whose lives have been changed since the Battle of Seattle, Kevin Danaher is becoming known as one of the leaders of the movement.

Globalize This! tells the story of what happened when the World Trade Organisation's Millennium Round meetings were halted in Seattle at the end of November 1999. The contributors to the book are supporters of, and many were participants in, that event. They have also continued to be participants in the numerous struggles, small and large, that have taken place since, consciously identifying with the movement for global justice.

This book is not only worth reading for its content. Collectively its articles present a window into the new movement. There is a sense of the new mood of struggle - the anger, the passion, and a remarkable clarity of purpose in challenging a system gone bad.
Abbie Bakan.

Any book that starts with a call (from Ralph Nader) for 'movement building across national borders' deserves a closer look. This is part of a promising looking series of short books (including two by Noam Chomsky) which argue against many of the barbarities of modern capitalism. It was wrtten as an intervention before Seattle and concludes with concrete demands on the WTO, while also putting the case very strongly against the WTO in its current form. It offers mini case studies on environmental and food safety issues, gives a clear account of how the WTO ignores human and workers' rights, and highlights the WTO's attacks on local accountable democracy. The US ruling class is also sharply criticised for its collusion with the WTO's drive for profit at any cost. Its main thrust is that 'people don't know what the WTO is doing to our world'. The events outside the WTO meeting in Seattle have ensured millions across the globe do know. This book should help anyone to have the arguments against the WTO at their fingertips for widening the anti-capitalist movement.
Matt Kelly.

Socialist Worker editor Chris Harman has written an invaluable guide to the IMF and World Bank. It is full of facts and arguments.

This is a short and easily readable critique of globalisation theory from a Marxist perspective. Robert Went argues against the triumphalist view that globalisation is 'levelling up' different countries under the benign auspices of the free market. He provides a sober balance sheet of the changes that have taken place in the world capitalist system in the 1980s and 1990s, and concludes that while there are new challenges there are also new opportunities for the left.

One of the strengths of this book is that it contains clearly presented data relating to trade flows, exports and government collusion with multinationals' attacks on workers. Sometimes his arguments are very succinct and occasionally face the danger of becoming a list of interesting points rather than a fully developed Marxist explanation. However, this is a thought-provoking book that is quick to read and provides useful summaries of the arguments.
Rachel Aldred.

How do 1,700 steel workers locked out by their boss fight back? This book has the answers, by documenting a bravem example of struggle against all the odds.

These events in the 1990s show you where the mood of Seattle and anti-capitalism came from.

Burdened with the weight of trade union degeats and facing an international company - forced to fight, where do you go from there?

Understanding what will motivate people to continue fighting and what methods can help to win are all a matter of strategy. In the heat of the moment these lessons are often learnt along the way, sometimes not.

Old fashioned trade unionism, pickets, and coalitions with the community and environmental protesters brought a man who controls a quarter of the world's aluminium production to his knees.

Read this to arm yourself for the struggles to come.
Theresa Bennett.

This is a refreshing book to read. The author sets out his stall at the start - class is not about lifestyle or even income, but power in society, about a social relationship between the capitalist and the worker. What follows is a fascinating look at every aspect of class in the US and a brilliant demolition of the idea that 'we're all middle class now'. It is bursting with facts and figures to prove the point, and much else besides. Zweig looks at the underclass, 'the poor', the expansion of white collar jobs, the growth of unions and how workers have economic power.

This is not written as a book for dry academic study, although it is carefully researched. Rather, Zweig wants the book to be used by union reps and activists. He wants it to be used as a tool to help strengthen the labour movement. This it should certainly do, and although his conclusions are more about reforming the system than smashing it, any book which puts class at the centre of the current debate about how we change the world is hugely welcome.
Judith Orr.

The current hysteria over what colour Britain's population will be in 100 years time demonstrates the obscene racism that permeates much of the British media. It will also fuel further attacks on refugees and black people in general. Therefore this new book is most refreshing.

Hayter explains how Britain's population is the product of successive waves of immigration going back 15,000 years, and that it has never been a homogeneous 'white' nation. Her research shows that human beings have always migrated, the reasons being wars, famine, persecution and economic survival.

The book contains many moving and heartrending accounts of the experiences of asylum seekers detained at the Campsfield House and Harmondsworth centres, where the author has been actively involved in campaigns.

The book draws a sharp contrast between the economic liberalisation for the free movement of capital and the harsh, degrading and often violent border controls put up to prevent people from migrating.

Hayter completely rejects as phoney the liberal demand for non-racist immigration controls. As she states, all controls legislate those who belong and those who don't - therefore they are inherently racist.

This is an excellent book that is highly recommended for socialists and anti-racists.
Talat Ahmed.

Two years ago nuclear tests in India and Pakistan shocked the world. After all, these countries have gone to war three times since independence. The reality of nuclear warheads being deployed in this unstable region is too horrific to contemplate. This book, by two leading journalists and activists based in India, with an introduction by novelist Arundhati Roy, provides a fascinating account of the nuclear path taken by India and Pakistan since the 1960s.

Despite Western condemnation, the authors explain how nuclear technology in both countries has been provided courtesy of the main nuclear powers - particularly the US. With India and Pakistan coming closer to armed conflict over Kashmir, the authors expose the lunacy of deterrence as a means of keeping peace and make a passionate case for complete disarmament. They give heartening descriptions of the protests and anger that greeted these tests, giving the lie to the idea that ordinary people were carried away in a nationalistic frenzy. This is a very welcome book written by activists involved in the emerging anti-nuclear movement on the subcontinent.
Talat Ahmed

Walter Mosley is famous for being Bill Clinton's favorite novelist. But the latest book by the American crime writer must have sent Clinton into a frenzy.

It is a short anti-capitalist manifesto. It is 100 pages of rage against the way the world system chews people up and spits them out.

Mosley hates the way "capitalism has no race or nationality. Capitalism has no humanity. All that exists in the capitalist bible is the margin of profit, the market share."

"We are all part of an economic machine. Some of us are cogs, others ghosts, but it is the machine, not race or gender or even nationality, that drives us." Mosley is uncertain about how to change the system, but he certainly knows what is wrong with it.

Bookmarks has specially imported copies of this book, which was previously unavailable in Britain. Do yourself a favour and get one.
Sam Ashman

Basically, this book is brilliant. It is a thoroughly convincing demolition job of the latest guise for claims that human behaviour and society are determined by our biology, specifically by our genes - evolutionary psychology.

It is written by people who know what they are talking about but is accessible, with a few exceptions, to readers without specialised knowledge.

The self proclaimed Darwinians behind "EP", as it is dubbed, claim that selection of genes during the course of human evolution has produced a series of "universal" human attributes. Funnily enough these all seem to reflect prevailing ideas and stereotypes in contemporary Western industrial society. So we are told that men are naturally aggressive and promiscuous, while women are more reserved and "coy".

Alas, Poor Darwin is a marvellous new collection of essays which systematically demolishes every one of such claims. It is edited by social scientist Hilary Rose and biologist Steven Rose, who both contribute sharp essays dealing with particular aspects of evolutionary psychology.

For a devastating critique of what has become an all too pervasive fashion, both in scientific circles and wider society, this book is an absolute must.
Paul McGarr

The current row over asylum seekers sparked by William Hague playing the race card inevitably leads onto larger questions about international migration.

Western politicians like to create the distinction between "refugees" and "economic migrants", even as they close their borders to both groups.

But as Jeremy Harding points out in his powerful 100 page polemic it is the same economic and political system - capitalism - that propels those fleeing violence and oppression, and those fleeing hunger and hopelessness.

Migration has always been a central part of capitalism, from the first mass forced migration, the Atlantic slave trade, onwards.

Western economies have always drawn on immigrants to fill labour shortages, whether it be "Turkish guest workers" in Germany after World War Two, the nurse from Barbados, or today's computer whizkid from India.

Harding maps the brutal behaviour of the British government towards refugees, and demonstrates how the policy is shot through with racism.

He argues convincingly that workers from the developing world should be seen for the positive contribution they can and do make to Western society.

After all, the poor and desperate across the world are, as Harding rightly illustrates, people like us.

Buy this book.
Hassan Mahamdallie

Hassan Mhamdallie is the author of Refugees are Welcome Here, now updated in a second edition. Only £1

This new collection of some of the best of Paul Foot's writing from the 1990s shows just why he was named Campaigning Journalist of the Decade.

As Tony Benn has said, "Paul foot is one of the most outstanding journalists of his generation - courageous, clear, principled and influential."

Articles of Resistance contains such gems as "Why this man is not fit to be mayor", an early article from the London Evening Standard on Jeffrey Archer, "The secret policeman's balls up", on the miscarriage of justice that was the Bridgewater Four case, and "Don't back the biggest bully in the Balkans", on the bombing of Serbia.

He celebrates his "Heroes and Heroines" with pieces on the Levellers, Lenin, Marx and Doris Lessing, amongst many others.

Paul exposes injustice, cheers resistance to the system and slices through the lies and spin of politicians, Tory and Labour, and their business friends.

Whether it is a detailed exposé of the Lockerbie disaster or a short polemic on famine, Paul's writing is a joy to read. This book is no exception and should be read by every socialist.
Kevin Ovenden

Tony Cliff's autobiography is a treat for anyone who is a socialist at the the beginning of the 21st century.

It tells how he became a revolutionary at probably the worst time in the 20th century - just as Hitler came to power in Germany, destroying the world's biggest working class organisations.

Cliff was born in Palestine, the son of Jewish settlers from the old Russian Empire. As a young revolutionary he was forced to confront the horror of what Nazism was doing - many of his own relatives perished in the death camps.

He goes on to tell how he came to Britain after the Second World War, determined to fight for socialism.

The Labour government of the time responded in a manner which would have brought joy to the heart of Ann Widdecombe or Jack Straw - by deporting him to Ireland. He was only allowed to rejoin his family in London in the early 1950's.

Capitalism was booming and socialist revolution seemed a very remote prospect, but Cliff realised that the other side of the boom was permanent war preparations and the threat of nuclear destruction.

He slowly built up a small revolutionary socialist group, the precursor of the present Socialist Workers Party, which was transformed by the events of 1968 and the big strikes in Britain in the early 1970s.

The final pages are a fascinating account of the impact this party has had over the last 20 years - during the Great Miners' Strike of 1984 - 85, twice taking the initiative in crushing the hope of Britain's Nazi organisations, the National Front and the British National Party, through the activity of the Anti Nazi League, and proclaiming that socialism still had a future after the collapse of Stalinism in 1989.

The new anti-capitalist mood at the very end of the century is a vindication of everything Cliff has fought for over 70 years. A World to Win can help to educate as well as inspire the new generation coming to socialist politics. Read it for yourself.
Chris Harman

These essays, by a whole range of individuals who opposed Nato's bombing of Yugoslavia last year, are generally excellent. In the first section Peter Gowan and others detail the international political background to the bombing by focusing on US plans to exploit Russia's collapse by expanding Nato eastwards. The analyses are insightful, although the dispiriting impression they leave is that US power is almost irresistible. We are giving no idea of what force, if any, could defy the onward march of US imperialism and so justify the question mark in this book's title.

The second section has incisive attacks by Alex Callinicos, among others, on Nato's claim that it fought a humanitarian war, while the third highlights how outside intervention has exacerbated Balkan economic and political problems. David Chandler explains how Nato's colonisation of Kosovo was tried in Bosnia with glaringly undemocratic results.

The final two sections include an entertainingly acerbic Harold Pinter speech about Nato and an essay by Gazi Kaplan, an Albanian, who stresses our duty to oppose the nationalism of our own nation first. This is a very useful book.
Dragan Plavsic

At a time when the Labour Party is tearing itself apart in London, there is no better time to read this Marxist history. It is an invaluable book, especially as Blair is arguing that the split between Labour and the Liberal Party was a mistake.

If you want to know how and why Labour was founded, if it was ever a socialist party, and how it responded to the Russian Revolution and the General Strike of 1926, you'll find it here.

The book covers the founding of the welfare state, the Wilson and Callaghan governments of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Tory 1980s.

Blair often tries to use Labour's history to bash the left. This book is the socialist response.
Pete Jackson

On 6 May 1999 New Labour managed the impossible - it lost the Rhondda, a Labour heartland for most of the last century, to Plaid Cymru. The defeat came on the heels of the election of Alun Michael as leader of the Welsh Labour Party.

In Dragons Led by Poodles: The Inside Story of a New Labour Stitch-Up, Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, exposes the electoral college, which made each MP's vote worth those of 300 ordinary members.

This book offers a useful insight into New Labour's fixing, although Flynn does not argue for a wholesale alternative to Tony Blair.

The New Labour stitch-up was repeated in London. The result? Alun Michael has been dumped as leader in Wales, and Ken Livingstome won London Mayor, standing as an independent!
Pete Jackson

No Logo is aimed at the millions across the world who are not satisfied with the trashy future offered by the multinationals and the governments that support them. Klein is a radical journalist from Canada. She explodes the empty promises of globalisation and the idea that letting the market rip leads to wider prosperity and broader choice.

She shows how Wal-Mart, the biggest retailer in the US, routinely removes magazines from its stores which do no fit the company's 'family values'. She writes about the 4,000 US schools where Pizza Hut dominates the catering. Children who get the equivalent of free school meals are not allowed to eat at the Pizza section. Klein also shows the brutal sweatshop exploitation condoned by clothing companies who trade on their 'stylish' image.

But No Logo is much more than a catalogue of corporate crime. It charts the revolt against the corporations, from attempts to unionise in Indonesia and the Philippines to the anti-sweatshops movement which is now so strong on US campuses.

This book makes you angry about the stifled existence which the system offers humanity. But it also leaves you hopeful that there is a massive hope for change.
Charlie Kimber

By the time of the four day bombing campaign in 1998 by the US and Britain, more than 1 million Iraqis, many of them children, had died as a result of UN-imposed sanctions on Iraq.

The sanctions continue, and so do the bombs. Though rarely making the news, let alone the headlines, US and UK forces dropped over 1,800 bombs in 1999. Only Vietnam comes close to this length of US operation.

This book contains a decisive rebuttal of every myth about Iraq, from the claims about its possession of chemical and biological weapons to the insidious lie that Iraq is deliberately withholding and stockpiling food and medicines.

There are contributions from writers of the calibre of John Pilger, Robert Fisk, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, together with Denis Halliday, former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, plus eyewitness accounts and extensive new data on the impact of sanctions.

This is a definitive and powerful indictment of one of the greatest war crimes of the last quarter of the 20th century
Mark Thomas