The Regrettable Century

A little bonus episode for you this week. Here is the audio of a lecture that Kevin gave at the Cascadian Midsummer festival this summer about William Morris.  Check out Cascadian Midsummer here:  https://www.cmfest.org/ Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show Visit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

This week we continue our series reading from Rodney Hilton's collection of essays about the Crisis of Feudalism. These are pretty short essays, but we will no doubt be talking about them forever. Hilton, Rodney. Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism. A&C Black, 1985. Check out Varn Vlog: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show...

This week we discussed a book about the collapse of the Soviet Union and guess what, it wasn't the result of the United States' efforts to defeat the Evil Empire. It's much dumber and worse than that. Serhii Plokhy. 2015. The Last Empire : The Final Days of the Soviet Union. New York: Basic Books, A Member Of The Perseus Books Group. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the who...

The original dudes are back, with an original dudes topic revisiting our pessimism (because of intellect) and our optimism (because of will). No it's not just a doomer affectation that we can use to sound as cool as we look, its a critical method of engaging with the bleak reality that faces us. The only way out is through but getting through is possible. Revolutionary Pessimism: The Worst is Yet...

This week we start a new series where we read from Rodney Hilton's collection of essays about the Crisis of Feudalism. These are pretty short essays, but we will no doubt be talking about them forever. Hilton, Rodney. Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism. A&C Black, 1985. Check out Varn Vlog: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the...

Welcome to our fourth reading group episode on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. This week we discuss the revolutionary intellectual.  Traverso, Enzo. 2021. Revolution : An Intellectual History. London ; New York: Verso. https://www.versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take pa...

We think degrowth is going to be necessary, but we also think the debate about degrowth has been all wrong.  We read the newest issue of Monthly Review and had a discussion about the politics of degrowth. Planned Degrowth: Ecosocialism and Sustainable Human Development https://monthlyreview.org/2023/07/01/planned-degrowth/   Nine Theses on Ecosocialist Degrowth https://monthlyreview.org/2023/07/01...

Back with another book that Chris read in grad school, this time we are dealing with the problem of repopulating the Soviet Union after the Second World War.  Please forgive the intermittent audio problems with Jason's track, we are still trying to figure out how to record in the same room and actually make it sound good. Mie Nakachi. Replacing the Dead : The Politics of Reproduction in the Postwa...

This week the Law Boyz are back with a special guest, Kevin. We discuss the concept of the lumpenproletariat and their historical role as foot soldiers of reaction. Then we all argue about the police. Peter Stallybrass (1990) Marx and Heterogeneity: Thinking the Lumpenproletariat, Representations, No. 31, Special Issue: The Margins of Identity in Nineteenth-Century England, pp. 69-95 Nicholas Thob...

I know we said we were done with our Czechoslovak Socialism series, but like George Lucas we just couldn't leave well enough alone and have made a prequel. It turns out there is an interesting pre-history to Czechoslovak Socialist Republic that is worth discussing. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Suppo...

No Royal Road is back with part four of our discussion of Evegny Morozov's   "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason." Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show Visit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

Our third reading group episode on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. This week we discuss Concepts, Symbols, and Realms of Memory.  Traverso, Enzo. 2021. Revolution : An Intellectual History. London ; New York: Verso. https://www.versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part...

Kevin recently gave a talk about William Morris' transition from romantic anti-capitalism to Marxism and is thus well suited to school us on the subject. We decided to record it and share it with all of you.   How I Became a Socialist (William Morris) https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1894/hibs/hibs.htm Under an Elm-Tree, Or, Thoughts in the Country-Side (William Morris) https://www.ma...

This week we return to an old favorite topic of ours, the warm stream, romantic, or gothic in Marxism. This time we are joined by an accredited expert in all things gothic, Jon from the Horror Vanguard. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/horror-vanguard/id1445594437 https://twitter.com/TheLitCritGuy Bloch, Ernst, Neville Plaice, and Stephen Plaice. The Principle of Hope. Vol. 1. MIT Press, 1995...

Ukrainian Nationalism and Third Worldism in the Cold War This week we read and discussed Congo on the Dnipro: Third Worldism and the Nationalization of Soviet Internationalism in Ukraine by Thom Lloyd. The author discusses attempts by Ukrainian nationalists to appropriate the language of third world liberation struggles, but with a twist (spoiler alert, its a racist one). Loyd, Thom. "Congo on the...

The Patsocs are coming, the Patsocs are coming! There has been much fruitless discourse and claims of rising fascism among the keyboard proletarian vanguard about the problem of Social Patriotism. We got the original gang back together to talk about what the appropriate level for freaking out about it on the internet is. There is no contradiction between patriotism and socialism https://morningsta...

Welcome to our second reading group episode on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. This week we discuss BODIES.  Traverso, Enzo. 2021. Revolution : An Intellectual History. London ; New York: Verso. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a message (sorry we can't re...

No Royal Road is back with part four of our discussion of Evegny Morozov's   "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason." Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show Visit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

Just like the Prague Spring, it seems clear that the intentions of its participants were the opposite. The vast majority of Czechoslovaks who participated in the movements that brought down the republic were attempting to reform the socialist system, not destroy it. Krapfl, James. Revolution with a Human Face Politics, Culture, and Community in Czechoslovakia, 1989–1992. Cornell University Press,...

This week we discuss a couple of articles by Roland Boer about Lunacharsky, Lenin, and the project of godbuilding. This is our final episode with Mir before he goes off to Austria and Germany to learn all the sneakiest Jesuit tricks. Boer, Roland . “God in the World: Lenin, Hegel, and the God-Builders.” Heythrop Journal, 2015. Boer, Roland. “Religion and Socialism: A. V. Lunacharsky and the God-Bu...

Back again with another one, this time we are throwing one out to the middle aged men in the audience by talking about World War Two.  Edele, Mark. Stalinism at War : The Soviet Union in World War II. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a mess...

We are joined by Matthew and Julia for a continuation of our discussion about the French pension reforms. Matthew is our old comrade and friend from the days of Trot hyperactivism and Julia is an actually existing French person. Together  they  provide us their impressions of the struggle against Macron's pension reforms. Music: Komintern Sect-  Rêves de liberté Send us a message (sorry we can't r...

Welcome to the first of our reading group episodes on Revolution: An Intellectual History, by Enzo Traverso. This week we discuss TRAINS. Traverso, Enzo. 2021. Revolution : An Intellectual History. London; New York: Verso. https://www.versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussio...

No Royal Road is back with part three of our discussion of Evegny Morozov's  "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason." Check out Varn Vlog here: https://www.patreon.com/varnvlog Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show Visit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop

We are back with more books Chris read in grad school. This one is written by Rachel Applebaum (no relation to Anne) and discusses the Soviet Friendship programs, their successes, and failures. Head over to our Patreon and join for $2 a month to hear the whole episode and join the Discord to take part in the discussions. Support the show Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support...