Those of us who live outside of North America may well be surprised to read of the momentous class battles which saw hundreds of thousands of working people give their support to Socialist ideas

Eugene V. Debs was one of the very best products of American Labor movement. He was one of the millions of workers engaged in mass struggles for the most basic of rights waged during the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Two decades as a union fighter led Debs to adopt revolutionary socialist conclusions. He did so while in Chicago's Woodstock Jail, a few months before his 40th birthday.

For the remaining thirty years of his life Debs devoted himself to convincing working people in the US that the road to their emancipation was through the overthrow of American capitalism.

Through the selection of Debs speeches and writings put together in Eugene V. Debs Speaks you see where the class battles are at their hottest, there is Debs; writing, speaking and even using his election campaigns to aid the workers involved in struggle.

Debs delivers the cold hard truth about American capitalism and it's institutions. Much in the same way as another working class leader who made his mark some 40 years later - Malcolm X.

Eugene Victor Debs was sentenced to ten years in prison for the anti-imperialist speech he gave in Canton, Ohio in 1918. It is a fire-breathing speech full of love for the oppressed and hatred of the imperialist oppressor. After you buy this book, read this speech first. It tells you about the U.S. rulers today-and their wars. The speeches in this well-rounded book (with a superb introduction by James P. Cannon), provide socialist answers to the big questions workers face today, as well as yesterday. His writings on the capitalist prison system are especially relevant. Debs, who spent four years behind bars himself, salutes the humanity of his fellow prisoners and points to the real criminal-"Capitalism is inherently a criminal system for it is based upon the robbery of the working class and cornerstoned in its slavery." Not much question about what he would think about U.S. wars and the anti-working class measures involved in Homeland Security. Like Malcolm X, Debs shows that the U.S. working class can indeed produce great leaders.

A refreshing collection of Debs' speeches and writings. Debs was a railroad worker and union official, imprisoned for his role in the 1894 Pullman strike. He became a socialist in prison, was several times the Socialist Party's candidate for president, and became the a symbol of labor and Marxism for a generation.

"What's the matter with Chicago?' is a lively examination of the how capitalism affects human life. Other items discuss the labor movement of his time, the early American Federation of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World. His 1918 Canton Ohio speech, recorded by a police spy stenographer, blasted the First World War as imperialist, hailed the Russian revolution, and landed Debs a ten-year sentence in federal prison.

Sufrimos una época de guerras y revolución porque el sistema actual, fundado en la avaricia individual, padece cada vez más de sus trastornos mortales. Ya que año con año se avecina la Tercera Guerra Mundial, la editorial Pathfinder nos aconseja aprender de las otras dos ocasiones en que nos llevó al borde de la barbarie.

Los libros de Cannon no son sobre el pasado, sino cómo sacar mayor ventaja de las aperturas y oportunidades que necesariamente se van a presentar en el camino para forjar partidos de los trabajadores de común acuerdo en aprender de las luchas de los explotados donde sea que surgen y unidos en la trayectoria de construir un mundo libre del capitalismo.

Cannon era miembro fundador del movimiento del Obrero Mundial (IWW), los antecedentes del Partido Comunista y el Partido mismo. En los 20 era dirigente de la Defensa Internacional del Obrero (ILD) y fue representante norteamericano en el presidio del Internacional Comunista con Lenin y Trotsky.

Dado que el estalinismo ya no trompea el camino para que los luchadores se reúnen, hoy en día el movimiento comunista no necesita valerse del nombre "trotskista" para diferenciarse de los estalinistas; con este simple cambio de nomenclatura el contenido de La historia del trotskismo estadounidense sigue en pie de lucha. Traza la continuidad ideológica y marca la pauta para que detengamos la marcha de los explotadores hacia su tercera guerra mundial, que ellos mismos no pueden parar debido a su permanente caída en la taza de ganancias.

cCannon never explains numbers here. Yet, this is the history of a group of revolutionists who went from two or three leaders of the Communist party who learned of Trotsky's critique of Stalin, to a group of a few dozens--The Generals without an Army they were call. They went from only a few ideas to merging and mixing with new currents of workers who came forward as the CIO Upsurge came forward. Their principles helped spark the organization of revolutionary workers in the great strikes in Minneapolis in 1934 and aftewrwards, then to influence workers in the sit down strikes in Flint and Dearborn and Detroit. Then to find thousands of young workers, intellectuals, and student youth in the Socialist party and battle the reformists there, to build Found the Socialist Workers party, found with thousands of members before World War II. But this is not about those numbers. Through most of history, real revolutionists real communists have been forced to fight in small organizations like the movement Cannon built. What this is about is the principles, the ideas, the lessons, the history, how to do things theoretically, how to do them practically, and how to do them right.

For those who wonder whether the American working class is capable of revolution -- read this book and be convinced by an engaging scrapper and committed working class hero who was there at the very beginning. Millions placed their hopes for a new dawn on the young Russian revolution, only to be betrayed by Stalin. Cannon tells the story of how he found his way out of the impasse, stumbling on a document by Leon Trotsky at a Moscow convention in 1928. He smuggled it out (in the days before photocopies and computer discs, no mean feat) and spent the next ten years involved in political faction fights, world-changing strikes, mobilizations against fascism...all leading up to the founding of the Socialist Workers Party in the US in 1938. Descriptions of building a fledgeling revolutionary party without funds for a telephone or office rent, are woven in with discourse on the implications of international debate on whether to defend the USSR in the looming world war. He explains the tactical manoevres, gives acerbic thumbnail sketches of various characters -- and makes hard work and fighting for what's right look like a very realistic option.

Cannon never explains numbers here. Yet, this is the history of a group of revolutionists who went from two or three leaders of
the Communist party who learned of Trotsky's critique of Stalin, to a group of a few dozens--The Generals without an Army they
were called. They went from only a few to merging and mixing with new currents of workers who came forward as the CIO Upsurge came forward. Their principles helped spark the organization of workers in the great strikes in Minneapolis in 1934 and aftewrards, then to influence workers in the sit down strikes in Flint and Dearborn and Detroit, and to lead demonstrations of tens of thousands against American Nazis. Then to find hundreds of young workers, intellectuals, and student youth in the Socialist party and battle the reformists there, to build Found the Socialist Workers party, founded with more than a thousand members in 1938. But this is not about those numbers. Through most of history, real revolutionists real communists have been forced to fight in small organizations like the movement Cannon built. What this is about is the principles,
the ideas, the lessons, the history, how to do things theoretically, how to do them practically, and how to do them right.

Like all of Cannon's writing, there is so much humor, wit, and much wisdom about not only politics but life on this planet in general.

Aquí se ve la historia temprana de cómo construyeron el núcleo de un partido revolucionario de las masas que participará en la revolución norteamericana que viene. También es la historia de la lucha por la continuidad comunista internacional con su guía de acción frente la más grande obstáculo a la victoria revolucionaria que hubo desde los veinte hasta los cuarenta ( y más despues ): el estalinismo, el contrario del comunismo.

También aquí se cuenta la historia de la participación de este núcleo en la lucha dentro de la clase trabajadora norteamericana como dirigentes de algunas de las huelgas más militantes de esos años.

Finalmente se explica la estrategia para vencer el fascismo: seguir el ejemplo del frente unido, como hizo el partido bolchevique en la Rusia en 1917 durante su trayectoria al poder. ¡Nosotros los trabajadores necesitamos hoy y necesitáramos mañana entender esta experiencia en todos nuestros países para vencer sobre la marcha capitalista actual hacia fascismo y la guerra mundial!

Sufrimos una época de guerras y revolución porque el sistema actual, fundado en la avaricia individual, padece cada vez más de sus trastornos mortales. Ya que año con año se avecina la Tercera Guerra Mundial, la editorial Pathfinder nos aconseja aprender de las otras dos ocasiones en que nos llevó al borde de la barbarie.

Los libros de Cannon no son sobre el pasado, sino cómo sacar mayor ventaja de las aperturas y oportunidades que necesariamente se van a presentar en el camino para forjar partidos de los trabajadores de común acuerdo en aprender de las luchas de los explotados donde sea que surgen y unidos en la trayectoria de construir un mundo libre del capitalismo.

Cannon era miembro fundador del movimiento del Obrero Mundial (IWW), los antecedentes del Partido Comunista y el Partido mismo. En los 20 era dirigente de la Defensa Internacional del Obrero (ILD) y fue representante norteamericano en el presidio del Internacional Comunista con Lenin y Trotsky.

Dado que el estalinismo ya no trompea el camino para que los luchadores se reúnen, hoy en día el movimiento comunista no necesita valerse del nombre "trotskista" para diferenciarse de los estalinistas; con este simple cambio de nomenclatura el contenido de La historia del trotskismo estadounidense sigue en pie de lucha. Traza la continuidad ideológica y marca la pauta para que detengamos la marcha de los explotadores hacia su tercera guerra mundial, que ellos mismos no pueden parar debido a su permanente caída en la taza de ganancias.

Cannon was a central founder and leader of the working class wing of the Communist Party. He was expelled for organizing opposition to the Stalinization of this party. In these writings Cannon explains the dangers of Stalinism and contrasts it with the revolutionary Marxist alternative that he and a number of other workers were in the process of founding. These writings also touch on little known but important working class struggles before the thirties, like the textile battles of the south and the mineworkers "save the union" movement. Cannon's insights on politics as well as his fine writing ability make this a good read, and an important one for those wanting to discover their roots in the fight for a revolutionary party.

In 1928 James P. Cannon is one of the central leaders of the US Communist Party known through the labor and civil liberties movement as the leader of the International Labor Defense,sent to Moscow to represent his faction in the party. In 1928 Cannon along with two of his assistants happen about Trotsky's critique of the draft program of the Communist International. They decides that these are the right ideas, and they fight for them, knowing they will lose offices, and jobs, not knowing but facing being attacked in the streets, their homes burglarized, pilloried through the labor movement from a leader of tens of thousands to a leader of a dozen. This book shows what Cannon's faith in his ideas meant and how they struggle to build a nucleus of a real movement because of the faith of ideas and in the revolutionary capacities of humanity. Anyone who thinks that Marxism had anything seriously to do with the US Communist party should read this book. Anyone who wants the courage to fight for a real future for the working and farming majority of humanity should read this book.

The Left Opposition in the Communist Party USA, expelled in 1928, fought to maintain the traditions of the Russian Revolution against the corruptions and crimes of the bureaucracy of Stalin. This collection of writings by its central leader debates the issues at stake: the future of the USSR, the revolutionary potential in the U.S., revolutionary work in the labor unions, the South and the fight against racism, and much more.

Fighting for what's right means that when the government threw the leaders of the Socialist Workers Party and fighting labor leaders into jail in 1941 for defying Roosevelt's war drive and Tobin, the bureaucrat that ran the Teamsters union then, Cannon and the other revolutionists respond by explaining why they were socialists, how the fight for a workers and farmers government in this country will proceed. This book has all the answers to any question about the fight for socialism, not only in the USA but anywhere else. It also contains a lot of history, a lot of humor, and a lot of Cannon's generous wisdom and wit.

One of the chief founders and continuators of communism in the U.S., Cannon helped lead working class opposition against two world wars. The government put Cannon on trial. This book is the transcript of his courtroom testimony. He answers questions about the fundamentals of socialism-many of them posed by a very hostile government prosecutor. Despite the tense environment, Cannon speaks as though he were addressing interested co-workers during lunch-break in a factory. Down-to-earth, logical, witty, and with a deep and passionate grounding in Marxism. Cannon's assumption is that socialism, clearly explained, will make sense to workers. This approach--rather than talking-down or sugar-coating a la the Greens and other reformists-is the correct approach. As workers see their hopes of health, security, dignity and justice going down the tubes with the unfolding capitalist crisis, they want to hear the unvarnished truth about capitalism and socialism. This book gives it.

A real-life trial, with an exasperated and somewhat ineffectual prosecutor, an interesting defendant - and world revolution as the topic. Ever wonder whether communists aim to kill individual capitalists? How can you be a socialist if the majority of working people today don't agree they need socialism? Why take away the property of the wealthy that they have obtained by legal means? James P. Cannon answered each one of these questions, and many more, in his 1941 trial on charges of sedition. A wonderful, easy-to-read guide for anyone trying to understand Marxism. Excellent for high school students.

¡Un libro fascinante y revelador!

Cuando los capitalistas norteamericanos se prepararon para buscar el dominio mundial a través de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, intentaron obstaculizar oposición a sus planes con leyes represivas y ataques contra el movimiento obrero dentro de los EE. UU. En 1941 encausaron a 13 dirigentes del Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores y del movimiento sindical, en un juicio amañado culpándoles con ser subversivos.

Pero los socialistas aprovecharon la lucha, utilizando el corte capitalista como tribuna donde explicaron las ideas e historia del movimiento comunista. También lanzaron una campaña de defensa que sigue siendo ejemplar hoy en día.

Este libro publica la transcripción del testimonio de James P. Cannon, secretario nacional del partido, presentando sus ideas y contestando a los fiscales del gobierno. Resultó una de las mejores introducciones al movimiento socialista que conozco.

También presenta un debate entre Cannon y otro revolucionario, Grandizo Munis, sobre la estrategia de los socialistas en hacerle frente al reto capitalista. Cannon explica lecciones importantissimas en cuanto a cómo defenderse en tales circunstancias.

Aquí un dirigente obrero dentro de las entrañas de la Bestia Imperio
Yanki -durante su juicio por "sedición", o sea la conspiración para
derrocar el gobierno- explica como la clase trabajadora y sus aliados
puede tomar el poder estatal en los mismos Estados Unidos. También
explica porque el estalinismo es el oppositivo del comunismo (como Fidel
Castro lo llamó años después). Cannon, el acusado, describa la
experiencia de los trabajadores "trotskistas" en la dirección del
sindicato de camioneros en Miniápolis, Minnesota durante una epoca de combate de clases en este país. También detalle la
política comunista en contra las amenazas del fascismo y la guerra
mundial. Aunque este juicio fue en 1940, nos pone claro como contestar
estas cuestiones políticas fundamentales que la crisis del capitalismo
mundial nos enfrenta hoy en día.

Aquí un dirigente obrero en las entrañas de la bestia imperial yanqui - durante su juicio por " conspirar derrocamiento del gobierno de E.U."-como la clase trabajadora y sus aliados pueden tomar el poder estatal en los mismos Estados Unidos. También explica el estalinismo como el oppositivo del comunismo ( como Fidel llamó años despues ) , la experiencia de los trabajadores " trotskistas" en la dirección del sindicato de camioneros en Minneapolis, Minnesota , y la politica comunista en contra las amenazas del fascismo y guerra mundial. Aunque este juicio fue en 1940, ¿ no es claro que entender como contestar estas cuestiones politicas son fundamentales enfrentar en accioón obrera el crisis del capitalismo mundial de hoy día ?

This volume of Socialist Workers Party leader James P. Cannon?s writings is dated to a tumultuous time. The Stalinized Communist International, and the German Communist Party, refused to wage an effective struggle against the rise of Hitler to power, causing a defeat felt by workers and farmers around the globe. This defeat was as unnecessary as it was massive. This caused not a whimper of protest within that movement. Communists who defended the traditions of the Communist International of Lenin?s time, led by Leon Trotsky, became convinced that the official Communist movement had now become an obstacle, not an opportunity, for world revolution. They moved to gather their forces into a new revolutionary movement. In doing so, they also searched for, and found, groups of revolutionary-minded workers from other backgrounds, who themselves had been deeply affected by the political and economic turmoil of the 1930s.

Amazon lists this book as out of print, but Pathfinder has reprinted this book in an attractive new edition with more pictures, better type, notes etc. Most revolutionists today fight in small groups awaiting for and seeking out mass struggles by the working class. This is the story of the Communist League of America, the small group of American supporters of Leon Trotsky who went from the peak of the depression with its inactivity and defeats f to the big struggles in 1934 including the Minneapolis Teamster Strikes led by the SWP.
This is the record of Cannon with the support to Trotsky fighting for a clear principled way to turn the movement to the potential of workers resistance, to struggles by Blacks around the Scottsboro frame-up among other things, and at the same time building internationalist principles.
This is also the story of how the CLA and the world movement led by Trotsky realized that the Stalinist capitulation to Hitler in 1933 meant the Comintern was dead, and a new revolutionary international was required.
Everything Cannon writes has a certain wit and wisdom about it, where the value goes beyond the political to the personal and beyond. Even though these were tough times, there is even a glint of humor to be discovered where you might least expect it

This collection of writings and speeches, steeped in the workers struggles of the 1930s and the leadership challenges of forging a communist workers party, really impressed me with how relevant and useful they are today. James P. Cannon was a young organizer for the IWW and early Socialist Party, a founding member and leader of the Communist Party in the United States in the 1920s, and central leader of the cadre who fought to maintain the Bolshevik's revolutionary course against the Stalinist degeneration of the Soviet Union and Communist International from the late 1920s on.

Here you will find week-by-week, sometimes day-by-day, news, analysis, and proposals for action. Cannon writes as a participant and leader of a workers party involved in organizing coal miners, textile strikes, the big 1933 New York hotel strike, the historic Minneapolis Teamsters strikes of 1934. He takes up key international questions: the evolution of the Stalinist leadership in the Soviet Union, the rise of fascism in Germany, and the difficult, persistent efforts led by Leon Trotsky to rebuild a new revolutionary international movement. Many of his writings detail questions of party leadership, lessons of faction and tendency struggles, or answer key practical questions: "what to do next?"

I'd strongly suggest reading this along with Cannon's "History of American Trotskyism" that covers the same historic period, "Teamster Rebellion" by Farrell Dobbs, and current writings that pick up the struggle today, including "Their Trotsky and Ours" and "Capitalism's World Disorder" by Jack Barnes.

The reminiscences in this book are a wonderful insight into the personal and political life of James P. Cannon, a key revolutionary figure in the 20th century. Cannon took on tremendous challenges, such as standing up to the rise of Stalinism and speaking out against US entry in World War II. His actions sometimes isolated him from former comrades and coworkers and even landed him in prison. But as these stories show, Cannon took these events in stride. His goal was to build a revolutionary party that could lead the working class to power and he knew it wouldn't be smooth sailing. He embraced life, never lost his sense of humor, and was always ready for the next battle, whatever the odds. Because of their many years of close collaboration, this book contains some anecdotes and background information about Cannon's companion, Rose Karsner, another pioneer communist in the United States.

If you haven't read History of American Trotskyism or The First Ten Years of American Communism, both by Cannon, pick those up as well.

James P. Cannon began his political life in the days of Eugene V. Debs. He became a partisan of the 1917 Russian Revolution, a founder of the Communist Party of the U.S., a defender of Leon Trotsky, the leader of the Socialist Workers Party, and a fighter against imperialism and capitalism until his death in 1974. Thirty-three of his comrades, friends, and relatives review his life -- as a revolutionary, as a friend, a grandfather, and a human being. To be a true fighter, you must be a total person. This book explains an extraordinary example of that.

...
The bulk of this book is the speeches given at the 1974 New York Memorial Meeting for James P. Cannon, a leader of the IWW, the Communist Party, and the founder of the movement that became the Socialist Workers Party, a meeting I was privileged to attend. The speakers span several generations and range from Roger Baldwin who founded the American Civil Liberties Union to Jack Barnes, National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. In memorializing Cannon as a thinker, a fighter, an activist, a writer, they speak not just of the importance of one human being, but of the legacy of principled working class politics, the lessons of struggle, and the faith in humanity that Cannon brought from the generations of fighters that preceded him, from the generations he represented. Though it has been 28 years since this meeting, we need the lessons, the principles and the struggles concentrated in these speeches.

James Cannon reveals himself as a scrapper from the old school - equipped with a sense of humour, great finesse and lots of courage. In the pages of this book, he recounts the beginning of his political life. It's the story of thousands of men and women in the United States who were inspired by the Russian revolution in 1917, a revolution that was the creation of workers and farmers just like them, but who became disoriented by Stalin's crimes. Despite all the setbacks, a lot of these people still sought a path to victory over the injustices meted out by the bosses, the KKK and the warmongers preparing World War II. Cannon regales the reader with tales of debates and actions by communists who plunged into the huge union strike battles of the 1930s, who organized to gain a hearing from the new generation - and who exhibited incredible tactical agility and political imagination! A very readable book - a good present for a young person. Makes you want to follow in the footsteps of Cannon and his cohorts, and dare to build something better than the future offered us by Chrétien, Bush, Blair and company.

« Le trotskysme n'est pas un nouveau mouvement, une nouvelle doctrine, mais la restauration, la renaissance du marxisme véritable tel qu'il a été exposé et appliqué au cours de la révolution russe et des premiers jours de l'Internationale communiste. »

C'est avec ces mots que commence cette histoire magnifique du mouvement ouvrière révolutionnaire dans les Etats-unis entre 1920 y 1940. C'est un livre qu'on peut lire comme un romain, mais qui exige la lecture attentive pour pouvoir obtenir toutes ces richesses. Un livre qui doit être dans la bibliothèque de chaque travailleur militant.

James P. Cannon était un jeune militant des Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), membre fondateur y dirigeant de Parti Communiste aux Etats-unis dans les années 1920, dirigeant des militants que ont lutté contre la dégénération staliniste du mouvement communiste et secrétaire national du Parti Socialiste des Travailleurs. L'histoire raconté dans cette livre présent des exemples importants de direction ouvrière, questions de théorie et programme dans le développement d'un parti prolétarienne, du travail de masses, el la vie interne du parti. Il analyse les événements mondiales les plus importantes -- la victoire de la révolution russe, la crise économique y el auge de lutte ouvrière des années 1930, le fascisme, le stalinisme, la guerre civile en Espagne ... Toutes pour aider une nouvelle génération de militants de connaître su histoire et préparer mieux les luttes ouvrières aujourd'hui.

Cannon never explains numbers here. Yet, this is the history of a group of revolutionists who went from two or three leaders of the Communist party who learned of Trotsky's critique of Stalin, to a group of a few dozens--The Generals without an Army they were called. They went from only a few to merging and mixingwith new currents of workers who came forward as the CIO Upsurge came forward. Their principles helped spark the organization of revolutionary workers in the great strikes in Minneapolis in 1934 and aftewrards, and then to influence workers in the sit down strikes in Flint and Dearborn and Detroit, and to lead demonstrations of tens of thousands against American Nazis. Then to find thousands of young workers, intellectuals, and student youth in the Socialist party and battle the reformists there, to build Found the Socialist Workers party, founded with thousands of members before World War II. But this is not about those numbers. Through most of history, real revolutionists real communists have been forced to fight in small organizations like the movement Cannon built. What this is about is the principles, the ideas, the lessons, the history, how to do things theoretically, how to do them practically, and how to do them right. Like all of Cannon's writing, there is so much humor, wit, and much wisdom about not only politics but life on this planet in general.

This is a wonderful collection of articles written for the socialist press over more than thirty years, and masterful examples of sharp writing that clarifies, educates and inspires.

Cannon writes from the midst of workers' struggles, from the international defense campaigns to defend victims of capitalist frame-ups, to the powerful strikes of truck drivers, seamen and other workers in the 1930s, from the bloody upheaval of World War II to the subsequent wars of colonial conquest Washington waged in Korea and Southeast Asia. Some of his pieces are biting exposes of the hypocrisy and brutality of capitalist society; others take on big questions of leadership and organization posed to working class activists striving to form militant trade unions and revolutionary political parties.

I found particularly compelling Cannon's observations on the character and lives of the many militants and leaders of workers struggles he knew and worked with over decades, including Eugene Debs, Big Bill Haywood, Frank Little, Sacco and Vanzetti. And as a counterpart, his biting analysis of labor bureaucrats, and the cops, courts, politicians and bosses of the capitalist class who strive so hard to keep workers enslaved in their profit-driven society.

Cannon paints vivid pictures of people like his friend Frank Little'a Native American who was lynched after World War I for being an anti-imperialist and a labor organizer. After reading Cannon's tribute, Little became one of my heroes. He is a good hero, too--especially today when racist thugs (often with a badge) are targeting Blacks, immigrants and others. These brief journalistic glimpses show that Cannon knew how to write as well as he knew how to fight. Sacco and Vanzetti, Charlie Chaplin, Hiroshima and Jim Crow are among the many topics. But the moral courage of working class fighters in a capitalist world--some fighters, well-known, others totally obscure--this is Cannon's primary theme

This is an expanded collection of the popular journalistic writing of James P. Cannon the founding leader of the American communist movement who stood up to Stalinism and founded the movement that became the Socialist Workers Party. These articles span the pre W.W.I struggles of the International Workers of the World, the revolutionary trade unionism of the Minneapolis Strikes of the 1930s, to the struggle against the 1950s McCarthyism. What shines in this collection is both Cannon's wit, and his wisdom, as well as his ability to communicate on the level of pure human feeling as well as objective politics in his "smaller" pieces like his movie reviews, reaction to the death of a fighter, reactions to advances in science. This is a the kind of book to put at your beside and read an article every day for the joy of reading it, as well as the political lessons.