ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
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Flawed dialogue on the definition of capitalism
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
Capitalism: A Conversation in Critical Theory
by Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi
(Polity, £17.99)
OVERLY abstract and with few historical illustrations of its generalisations, Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi nevertheless raise points of interest as they debate the definition of capitalism.
Taking a page or so in turn, they accept the basic Marxist assumptions of private ownership of the means of production, a free labour market and capital accumulation premised on the expansion of capital, with the system geared towards making profit instead of satisfying needs.
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