Socialism
A Very Short Introduction, 2nd Edition

Newman's very short introduction has the problem that many of these introductions have in that they must cover very complicated and lengthy terrain in a 100 or so pages. Socialism is duly hard as it is both internally and externally contested as a term, has 200 years of emerging and failing models a......more

I'm hooked! Thanks to a review by another Goodreads contributor, Hrishabh Chaudhary, I discovered the "A Very Short Introduction" series produced by Oxford University. With dozens of titles covering subjects from physics to Aristotle, scholars take on the challenge of making what could easily be off......more

Surprisingly dense! At a brief 150 or so pages it still took me a minute to get through. I enjoyed the attempt to provide a fair overview of socialism. I especially enjoyed learning about Marx’s intellectual rivals. I made notes on many passages. Apologies to my local library for dog-earing so many......more

The book begins with a discussion on both the theories and practices of different socialistic thoughts, although it concentrates on the two most dominant socialist doctrines, viz. communism and social democracy. Then it shows both pros and cons of these socialist traditions. Finally it ends with an......more