A review by mayayayayaa
The ABCs of Socialism by Bhaskar Sunkara

3.0

Maybe I’m at fault for not anticipating this based upon the title, but this book was fairly elementary. The essays lack cohesiveness and precision and are largely theoretical, which, while not inherently a bad thing, makes it difficult to pinpoint the work’s purpose. For someone who already agrees with the fundamentals of socialism, I don’t see this book as being particularly helpful. It lacks the statistics or empirical examples that could provide a more solid foundation to what is frequently criticized as a very idealistic and hypothetical ideology. Nor do I imagine it would appeal to a staunch capitalist, due to the slightly condescending tone and failure to make well crafted arguments backed in research. Perhaps I should have sought out the XYZs of socialism, or just read Marx himself.