/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.16617125]

What are good political books to read? I'm thinking of starting with Mein Kampf, not because I'm /pol/tard but because I'm impressed how Hitler managed to turn shitty country into the superpower. Is it worth reading though?

[Anonymous No.16617132]

>turn a shitty country into a superpower
>not managed to turn europe's most industrialized nation with the most educated population into a pile of rubble

You wanna learn about turning a shithole into a superpower, read about lenin and stalin

[Anonymous No.16617146]

>>16617125
Plato's Republic

[Anonymous No.16617159]

>>16617132
>Be so badass that you order the murder of children and are too pussy to pull the trigger yourselves
Literally more morally corrupt than Shakespeare villains.

[Anonymous No.16617198]

>>16617125
Domenico Losurdo
Gramsci

[Anonymous No.16617199]

>>16617125
Start with the greeks.

[Anonymous No.16617204]

>>16617199
no

[Anonymous No.16617207]

>>16617125
you should probably read a history book about Weimar instead

[Anonymous No.16617220]

>>16617125
>I'm thinking of starting with Mein Kampf, not because I'm /pol/tard but because I'm impressed how Hitler managed to turn shitty country into the superpower.
Terrible idea, Hitler wrote it before he his ascent to power. If you want to read about how he did that you'll be better advised to read Hitler's Revolution by Richard Tedor and Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933-1944 by Franz Neumann

[Anonymous No.16617246]

>>16617159
Neither hitler nor stalin were good boys. But the soviet government DID turn an agrarian feudal shithole into a superpower.

[Anonymous No.16617380]

>>16617125
The real superpower was the USSR and now China.
Mein Kampf is an autobiography of hitler where he starts whining about muh jews, basically just a diary desu of a /pol/tard.
Start with the Greeks, then continue with the capitalists, to then continue with the socialists/communists.

[Anonymous No.16617418]

>>16617125
Go read "the prince." Hitler was effective because he was a really good orator, and he dedicated a ton of time to cultivating his image. Absolute dictatorships are generally a lot more effective when the guy at the helm enjoys overwhelming popular support.

[Anonymous No.16617440]

>>16617125
>Hitler managed to turn a shitty country into a superpower

KEK

You want to understand fascism? Read Umberto Eco's essay Ur Fascism. Maybe you'll realize how you're being manipulated.

[Anonymous No.16617471]

>>16617380
That picture is ludicrously dishonest when it's not just stating things that are actually good as if they're negative. Also just lol at the USSR being more of a superpower than the US

[Anonymous No.16617479]

>>16617440
>Ur Fascism
no u

[Anonymous No.16617615]

>>16617380
1. nothing wrong with that, unemployment has a precise economic definition outside of whatever the legal definition of it is, read Keynes
2. nothing wrong with that, so long as they weren't driven out of the existing labour supply
3. nothing wrong with that
4. nothing wrong with that + the part about wages is a blatant lie
5. nothing wrong with that
6. nothing wrong with that as long as it works
7. nothing wrong with that
8. no argument to support why it was unsustainable, how come our modern economy works just fine with government share of GDP at 40%? why does it matter if government spending goes into railways or tanks? Keynes said burying money underground and paying companies to dig it out would still be better than doing nothing if all else is politically unattainable so why would it matter where public spending goes?
9. as did the Red Army, more non-arguments
10. as did the USSR
tl;dr Third Reich was far superior economically and politically to USSR so commies have to invent pseudoarguments to justify their choice of USSR over the Reich

[Anonymous No.16617641]

[Anonymous No.16617647]

>>16617641

[Anonymous No.16617702]

>>16617440
Never said I support fascism. I'm only interested in his ideas.

>>16617199
>>16617220
>>16617418
>>16617641
Thank you for your contributions anons, I think I'll start with greeks and then go on towards modern stuff.

[Anonymous No.16617729]

>>16617159
Yeah, that Hitler guy was pretty bad. He never even visited the camps.

[Anonymous No.16617749]

>>16617729
For what it's worth, fuck Hitler too.

[Anonymous No.16617762]

at least his people didn't starve

[Anonymous No.16617821]

>>16617220
>>16617380
>>16617418
>>16617440
>>16617749
>>16617729

These excerpts contain useful insight. This ist the Ford Translation

>To truly “learn” history means to open your eyes and discover the forces that cause historical events to happen. The art of reading and of learning means remembering the important parts and forgetting the unimportant.

>His fellow-citizens are astonished at his lack of national enthusiasm. They see theater and
movies, trashy literature, and yellow press day-by-day pouring out poison. Then, they are
surprised at the low morality and the national indifference of the people. They do not
realize movie trash, cheap journalism and the like would never produce the skills needed to
recognize the greatness of the Fatherland! I finally realized something I had never even
dreamed of before. The ability to “nationalize” a people is primarily a question of creating
healthy social conditions that can be used to educate the individual. Only when upbringing
and school training have taught a man the political greatness of his own Fatherland will he
achieve an inner pride that comes from belonging to such a great people. You can fight only
for something you love. You can love only what you respect. You can respect only what you
know

>Isn’t every accomplishment of genius in
this world the result of the one genius going against the inertia of the masses? What is the
statesman supposed to do if flattery fails to win the crowd’s approval for his plans? Is he
supposed to accept it? Is he supposed to abandon the tasks which he knows are vital to the
people and go home or retire? Does he quit even if he knows failure resulted from the
stupidity of his fellow citizens? Or is he to stay regardless? In a case like this, doesn’t a man
of real character fall into hopeless conflict between his insight and his honorable intentions?
Where is the dividing line between duty to the community and duty to one’s personal
honor? Shouldn’t every true leader refuse to be degraded by acting as a political juggler? On
the other hand, shouldn’t every juggler feel a call to go into politics since the ultimate
responsibility falls on some undefined mob and not him? Must our parliamentary majority
lead to the total destruction of the leader concept? Can anyone believe that this world
comes from the brain of majorities and not from the heads of individuals?

[Anonymous No.16617830]

The Federalist Papers is a good introduction to the American system of government, and by implication, the American approach to politics.

[Anonymous No.16617843]

>>16617132
This OP, Hitler didn't turn a shit hole into a superpower it was already one in a rut. You should read more European history if you think Germany is some kind of second rate power.

[Anonymous No.16617857]

>>16617199
7/30
I am eh failure

[Anonymous No.16618594]

>>16617125
Read mein kampf if you're really interested. If from nothing else than a historical perspective it's interesting. It's literally written by the most important (at least infamous) man of the last few hundred years.
I'm reading it atm, a little more than halfway through. There are certainly some good points made, after all it would be hard not to make at least a few in a book that size, but most of the time he's talking about specifics of austrohungarian politics, and making wholly unsubstantiated claims about how people felt and how this justifies his actions.
It's one of those books that would have been really good if it were boiled down to about a tenth of the length.
Overall, a bit rambly and unfocused, but pretty awesome at times.

[Anonymous No.16619223]

The communist manifesto. Absolutely essential.

For something more modern definitely read Capitalist realism by Fisher, but only when you have a solid grasp on marxism. You will be ready for it once you realize Democrats (yes, even AOC and Sanders) have nothing to do with socialism

[Anonymous No.16619234]

>>16617125
Democracy in America. Easy to read, visionary and still very relevant.

[Anonymous No.16619236]

>>16617132
>You wanna learn about turning a shithole into a superpower, read about lenin and stalin
Just as inaccurate. Russia had been powerful for several centuries already and it industrialized like everyone else did.

[Anonymous No.16619257]

>>16617641
>nietzsche
Lol

[Anonymous No.16619262]

Aristotle's Politics is the best book to start with, though Plato is superior in every way.

[Anonymous No.16621011]

>>16617125
The Fate of Empires by John Glubb.

[Anonymous No.16621289]

>>16619236
wrong

[Anonymous No.16621303]

>>16617132
not a commie but this.

[Anonymous No.16621341]

>>16621289
Russia fought off Napoleon's army 100 years earlier. They were contributing in droves to physics and chemistry and literature and painting and music. There had been a series of reforms to help the serfs have more autonomy and rights, there was a nascent public education program and they had reformed their banking system to lend at low or zero interest to the working class.

The Soviets massacred millions of them, forced them to give up their religion, forced them to work in whatever the insane government decided, forced them to repeat communist propaganda under pain of exile or death, ethnically cleansed and culturally demolished entire regions, reinstated usurious central banks, and they call it a miraculous success because they managed to industrialize(just like everyone else did) and they provided things like worker rights and feminist and gay stuff(again just like other countries during the 20th century), and Russia was already a very formidable country militarily and intellectually so it naturally continued to be and accelerated alongside industrialization and the global surge in scientific progress of the early 20th century.

[Anonymous No.16621481]

>>16619236
>Russia had been powerful for several centuries already and it industrialized like everyone else did.
It had indeed been powerful for a few centuries, since about Peter the great, but is they still did not modernize and reform like the western and central European nations did.
Serfdom was abolished in 1861,and it was done it such a bad manner that many previous serfs ended up more destitute after the reformation than their lives as serfs.
Industrialization was a slow process in Russia and public schooling was lacking throughout the 19th century, literacy severely lagged behind the western nations.
Stalins industrialisation effort was commendable and impressive, but not as impressive as is often claimed. Industrialisation in Russia had been artificially hampered by the conservative Tsars.

[Anonymous No.16622313]

>>16617132
100% this

[Anonymous No.16622323]

>>16621341
where the fuck do you get your history from? Breitbart?

[Anonymous No.16622429]

>>16621341
damn this truly retard shit

[Anonymous No.16623060]

test

[Anonymous No.16623959]

>>16622429
>>16622323
>namecalling instead of actual arguments
you sure showed him anons

[Anonymous No.16623994]

>>16617146
This is right, read this first and go from there.

[Anonymous No.16624025]

>>16617615

[Anonymous No.16624040]

>>16617125
start with eric hoffer - true believer and then you will know what to read.

[Anonymous No.16624638]

>>16623959
They are right Russia lost a war to Japan. They were the least developed major nation of Europe. they beat Napolean for the same reason they beat Hitler, Bodies.

[Anonymous No.16624666]

>>16622323
>>16622429
faggots who can't even argue their own position but think they're smart

[Anonymous No.16624786]

best version of black's law dictionary?
heard some newer versions are "cucked"?

[Anonymous No.16625199]

>>16617125
Read Dalton's translation of Mein Kampf, you can get it on library genesis, and make up your own mind instead of listening to anonymous users on a Taiwanese wrestling website.

[Anonymous No.16625501]

>>16617125
>I'm thinking of starting with Mein Kampf
I'm halfway through so far and I would recommend it. It gives good insight into the context of how Hitler formed his views, and more importantly how the NSDAP was so effective with their propaganda and rhetoric even before they were in power. Really fascinating stuff that's still very relevant today imo.
I'm reading the Ford translation because it touts itself as being the "uncensored" edition of the book (but mostly because it's what they had on audible).