Capitalists and Conquerors is a series of path-breaking essays in the political sociology of education on topics hotly debated within the educational community. In this volume Peter McLaren addresses some of the most daunting political challenges of the current times, including the globalization of capitalism, the United States' drive towards world domination, strategies, tactics and models of resistance to neoliberalism and the ravages of empire-building, the role of the educator as a social agent and public citizen, the purposes and possibilities of public schooling, and the struggle for socialism. As a Marxist-humanist philosopher and social theorist, McLaren is able to offer new philosophical premises and socialist principles for building an alternative to capitalism. The passion, poetry and fierce political conviction for which McLaren is known is very much present in this volume.

With the onset of Austerity Capitalism and Immiseration Capitalism, and with the increasing commodification, marketisation and privatisation of society and of education, Marxist Theory and Marxist Education Theory have taken on a new urgency. In this collection of essays, written from a classic Marxist perspective, Dave Hill lays bare how the capitalist class in the knowledge industry/academia, use ideological (and repressive) state apparatuses, such as education, to divide, disarm and demoralise critical, Marxist analysis and activism. This title is co-published with Aakar Books. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

This book involves a conscious attempt to bridge progressive academic scholarship with activist groups and communities in Ireland and beyond. Taking Howard Zinn’s maxim “You can’t be neutral on a moving train” seriously, the book attempts to examine Irish society, as much as it is possible to do so, from the point of view of those who are actively fighting against ongoing attacks on the pay, conditions, rights and protections that were won by working people through the decades of the twentieth century. This effort comes at a time when the predatory nature of the capitalist system is being revealed on a daily basis, and its consequences exacerbated simultaneously across the globe. The chapters deal with the various impacts of world capitalism in Ireland, from the revolutionary upheavals of the early twentieth century, to the current economic crash. The individual perspectives of contributing scholars and activists differ substantially; they would not usually be found within the same publication. Nonetheless, they collectively manage to highlight the capitalist character of Irish society, and provide an analysis of its features that is specifically Marxist. They demonstrate that there are alternative ways of looking at Irish history, Irish political economy and the issues currently impacting on the working population and various marginalised or vulnerable groups. They show that the class struggle continues unabated and that progressive social change, now more than ever, requires the development of an organised resistance.

This Fist Called My Heart: The Peter McLaren Reader, Volume I is “at the same time an homage, a gathering, an intellectual activist’s...toolkit, a teacher’s bullshit detector, a parent’s demand list and an academic’s orienting topography. This collection of essays...represents some of the most central and important work of Peter McLaren; work he has done on behalf of people’s liberation and humanization over more than three decades. [It provides] readers with an opportunity to develop a deep understanding of McLaren’s intellectual history and academic development, and the thinking processes that lead to his current framework and intellectual/philosophical/political situatedness in humanist Marxism. Through these gathered and sequentially presented essays, readers will be able to ‘see’ McLaren in the process of his theory construction, over time, without missing his essence of struggling for a just society that promotes the full humanity and liberation of all people. [Here,] we have curated some of the most exemplary essays along the trajectory of Peter McLaren’s long and impactful career. These pieces track and document Peter’s intellectual grow as one of North America’s most important intellectuals and advocates for critical pedagogy; his theorizing of the discursive and the everyday through post-modernist and post-structural lenses; his contributions to the literature and practice of critical multiculturalism; his stirring work on capitalist empire, and valiant struggles to resist it; through to his foundational, long held connection and cutting edge contribution to the field of humanist Marxism.” “Whether you are a neophyte to McLaren’s work or a long time student of it; an Enlightenment modernist or an avid poststructuralist; a liberal, social democrat, Anarchist or Marxist; an undergraduate, emeritus professor or a community activist; a feminist, critical race theorist or LGBT scholar; an educationalist, sociologist, engineer or physicist, it is our sincere hope and belief that you will find provocation, inspiration, solidarity and hope in the work of Peter McLaren that we present here.” Marc Pruyn & Luis Huerta-Charles “This Fist Called My Heart: The Organization of These Volumes.”

We live in a world where thousands make massive profits out of the labours of others, while those others exist as wage slaves, millions of whom die of starvation and poverty-related illness every year. The fundamental aim of Marxism is the overthrow of the anarchic, exploitative and eco-destructive system of world capitalism and its replacement by world socialism and equality. To build a socialist world is a task of gargantuan proportions, but one that Marxists believe is eminently achievable. This book addresses some of these challenges from within educational theory. The key theoretical issues addressed are: utopian socialism poststructuralism and postmodernism transmodernism globalisation, neo-liberalism and environmental destruction the new imperialism critical race theory. Marxism and Educational Theory compellingly and informatively propels the debate forward in the pursuit of that socialist future. In that quest, suggestions are made to connect theoretical issues with the more practical concerns of the school and the classroom. With a specially written Foreword by Peter McLaren, this timely book will be of interest to academics and students interested in educational theory, the sociology of education, sociology, politics, philosophy and critical theory.

Extends Marxist analysis to include key concepts from the work of neo-Marxists Antonio Gramsci and Louis Althusser. It looks in detail at racism in the U.K. and the U.S. and goes on to examine the differences between schooling and education, and their relationship to racism in those two countries and in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Commerce meets conquest in this swashbuckling story of the six merchant-adventurers who built the modern world, as told by “Canada’s Simon Winchester” (Globe and Mail). Through the Age of Heroic Commerce, from the 17th to the 19th centuries, a rogue’s gallery of larger-than-life merchant kings ruled vast tracts of the globe and expanded their far-flung monopolies to generate revenue for their shareholders, feather their own nests and satisfy their vanity and curiosity. Their exploits changed the world during an age of unfettered globalization, mirroring a world we know today. Merchant Kings looks at each ruling monopoly through its greatest merchant king and considers their stories together for the first time: Jan Pieterszoon Coen of the Dutch East India Company Pieter Stuyvesant of the Dutch West India Company Robert Clive of the English East India Company Alexandr Baranov of the Russian-American Company George Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company Cecil John Rhodes of the British South Africa Company