A place to ask questions of Lemmygrad's best and brightest
Not sure what topic are you looking for specifically but these two help a lot:
Thank you
I always suggest Blackshirts & Reds to start out with as it does a great job at deconstructing the nature of anticommunist propaganda.
From there I'd suggest Reform and Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg in order to dispell the often reformist slant people trend towards.
Fron there probably State and Revolution by Lenin, as it is just a very good comprehensive text that allows people to see how Marxism should function.
After that then follow any number of ML reading guides, and intersperse it with other texts of interest that they may feel unknowledgeable about and want to improve.
I'd also recommend any book on the specific material conditions of your local community if it exists. For example, Palo Alto: A history of California Capitlism and the World should imo be read by every Californian communist at dome point (I'm still trying to get through it myself).
One thing to note about reading Lenin: While his works are (in my opinion) the best way to really solidify one's understanding of communism, they can also be a bit overwhelming for beginners or just in general people who are not familiar at all with late 19th early 20th century European politics, because of the large amount of discussion and references to contemporary political movements, figures, publications, etc.
It definitely takes a bit of patience and willingness to delve into that specific historical time. Which is why your recommendation of reading "Blackshirts and Reds" and "Reform or Revolution" before getting into Lenin is absolutely the right approach imo. Perhaps even add some of Engels' works such as "The Principles of Communism" and "On Authority" ("Socialism: Utopian and Scientific" is great but may be a bit daunting at this point) in there before Lenin.
Let them start with these books before reading theory.
Then give them this marxist theory reading list. Preferably, in this order. [Page count in (brackets)]
Note: It is optional but you can read Georges Politzer's "Elementary principles of philosophy" (171) to understand the philosophical part of Marxism i.e. Dialectical Materialism after reading the first 4-5 books on the list.
You can find all the texts for free on Prolewiki Library. There's also an Absolute Beginners' reading list there.
I know reading takes a lot of time and attention, so here is a resource list for Educational content.
Socialism 101 by Marxism Today
Socialism 201 by Marxism Today
Reading Marx's Capital by David Harvey
The Yellow Parenti Lecture. (Should definitely watch this first!)
Blowback (Put this rss address in your preferred podcast app)
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Thank you.
Michael Parenti’s Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media had a profound influence on my politics and was one of the two books that caused me to review my opinion of the Eastern Bloc. The other was Albert Szymański’s Human Rights in the Soviet Union.
Others have given great recommendations for what your friend should look into, so i will just add one thing that you definitely shouldn't suggest to them which is reading Das Kapital. That is an almost guaranteed recipe for someone to lose interest in socialism because of how long, technical and (for a newbie) boring of a work it is, despite its enormous, crucial importance to socialist theory. Literally anything else would be better.
Edit: Ok, since nobody has mentioned this i will also add that if your friend is interested in history it can be very interesting to read contemporary accounts such as "Ten Days That Shook The World" about the October Revolution. Or literally anything by Anna Louise Strong. I cannot recommend her enough to beginners as her writing style is very accessible. This is not socialist theory though, it's history. For beginner theory definitely refer to the reading recommendations in the other responses.
one thing that you definitely shouldn't suggest to them which is reading Das Kapital
Agree, it's not for beginners.
Thank you for recommending Anna Louise Strong. I will look into her works as well since i like history too.
Start with "When Serfs Stood Up in Tibet". It sounds counter-intuitive to start with such a late work of hers on a relatively niche topic, but you can read about the Soviet Union, Stalin, Mao, etc. elsewhere too, whereas When Serfs Stood Up is really unique in that it was the first firsthand western account of Tibet right in the immediate aftermath of its liberation, and it showcases a lot about how communists should strive to approach building a new society.