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Reviews the book "Karl Marx: The Burden of Reason (Why Marx Rejected Politics and the Market)," by Allan Megill.

Reviews the book "The Paper Bullet," by Otis Carney.

This article comments on several articles about the phenomena of war and peace in relation to sociology. Several authors recognize the threat posed to Marxism by the phenomenon of war. Weaker sociologists will take refuge in useful phrases, such as relative autonomy, uneven development and determination in the last instance. One of the legacies of Marxism is the division between base and superstructure, and its idea that political decisions are the effects, but not the causes of economic change. Class analysis comes to the fore only in two papers, one by John Mattausch, the other by Graham Day. Mattauch's unconcealed nostalgia for mass working class support sits unhappily with the fact that the majority of activists are state class radicals. Other papers are more interested in peace movements than in peace. They make no reference to the actual effect of such movements, for example, in contributing to the pre-war strategy of Adolph Hitler. Only one paper offers a definition of war. This occurs as a prelude to David Riches' discussion of the peaceful Eskimos. War, according to Riches, is the authorized employment of physical force against other persons, as means by which groups competing for control of public resources and benefits attempt to influence the outcome of the competition in their favor.

Reviews the book "Gender Politics and Post-Communism: Reflections From Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union," by Nanette Funk and Magda Mueller.

Reviews the book "Communism in Italy and France," edited by Donald L.M. Blackmer and Sidney Tarrow.

The article reviews the book "The Greening of Marxism," edited by Ted Benton.

Reviews the book "The Fate of Marxism in Russia," by Alexander Yakovlev, translated by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick.

Reviews the book "The Burn," by Vassily Aksyonov, translated by Michael Glenny.

The article presents abstracts of studies in comparative sociology. They include "Who Votes Left After the Fall of Communism? The Czech Republic in Comparative Perspective," "Political Involvement in Transition: Who Participated in Central and Eastern Europe?," and "Perceptions, Attributions and Policy in the Economic Domain: A Theoretical and Comparative Analysis."

Reviews the book "Transforming Post-Communist Political Economies," edited by Joan M. Nelson, Charles Tilly and Lee Walker.

The article reviews the book "Marxism and Democracy," Joseph V. Femia.

Reviews the book "Marxism and the Metropolis. New Perspectives in Urban Political Economy," edited by W.K. Tabb and L. Sawers.

Reviews the book "The Prospects for Communist China," by W. W. Rostow.

Reviews the book "The Penkovskiy Papers," by Oleg Penkoveskiy.

The article reviews the book "Transformation From Below: Local Power and the Political Economy of Post-Communist Transitions," edited by John Gibson and Philip Hanson.

Reviews the book "Management Reform in Eastern and Central Europe: Use of Pre-Communist Cultures," edited by Magoroh Maruyama.

The article reviews the book "Analyzing Marxism: New Essays on Analytical Marxism," edited by Robert Ware and Kai Nielsen.

Presents the 'La profezia psichica,' by A. Carotenuto published in the 1978 issue of the journal 'Giornale Storico di Psicologia Dinamica.'

Reviews the book, "Communism and the Politics of Inequalities," edited by Daniel Nelson.

Romain Ducoulombier, author of Camarades!, a study of the origins of the French Communist Party, belongs to a different ideological context to earlier authors on the subject, such as Kriegel, Wohl or Robrieux. But though Ducoulombier claims originality for his work, there is little genuinely new here. He fails to grasp the impact of the Russian Revolution on the French working class and has little understanding of the dynamics of the Communist International. He stresses the 'asceticism' and 'messianism' of the early Communist Party without giving a precise meaning to these terms. Worst of all, Ducoulombier concentrates on archival material while saying remarkably little about the French Communist Party's actual activities, notably work in the trade unions, anti-militarism and anti-colonialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Life in a Muslim Uzbek Village: Cotton Farming After Communism," by Russell Zanca.

Late in 2008 was published by the Napvilag Publishing House the monography on Lenin by Tamás Krausz. The book of Krausz, the leading figure of Russian studies in contemporary Hungary, who enjoys international fame, is in fact aimed to be a reconstruction of social history. According to the author of the present paper, Tamás Krausz was able to produce with his book on Lenin an achievement of importance not only because it is rooted in his immense knowledge about Russian history in the 19th and 20th centuries, but also because he has published in the past three decades several valuable articles which, directly or indirectly deal with Lenin himself, his ideas and policies. The reviewed analyses, chapter by chapter, the strengths and weaknesses of the monography, by contrasting it with the renowned biography published by Robert Service in 2000, which was based on the three-volume work of the same author which appeared between 1985 and 1995. The author of the present article thinks that Lenin's achievement can best be understood in the background of the profoundly transformed character of existing capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews two books including "Press Box Red: The Story of Lester Rodney, The Communist Who Helped Break the Color Line in American Sports," by Irwin Silber and "What's My Name Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States," by David Zirin.

Reviews the non-fiction book 'Communism in Australia: A Supplementary Resource Bibliography, c. 1994-2001,' compiled by Beverley Symons and Stuart Macintyre.

Reviews the book "Transforming Socialist Economies: The Case of Poland and Czechoslovakia: Studies of Communism in Transition," by Martin Myant.

Reviews the book "The Stratified State: Radical Institutionalist Theories of Participation and Duality," by William M. Duggar and Walker M. Duggar.

The article reviews the book "The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism," by Janos Kornai.

Reviews the book "Communist Political Systems: An Introduction," by Stephen White, John Gardner and George Schopflin.

Reviews the book "Eurocommunism: The Italian Case," edited by A. Ranney and G. Sartori.

Reviews the book "Communism in Indochina," by Joseph J. Zasloff and MacAlister Brown.

Reviews the book 'After the Fall: The Failure of Communism and the Future of Socialism,' edited by Robin Blackburn.

Reviews the book "Modern Interpretations of Marx," edited by Tom Bottomore.