The reading list below was put together by our predecessor organization, the Young Socialist Alliance, back in the 1960s.
Young Socialist Alliance Introductory Reading List
Introductory Material
America’s Road to Socialism – James P. Cannon
Communist Manifesto – Karl Marx & Frederick Engels
Socialism: Utopian & Scientific – Frederick Engels
The State
Critique of the Gotha Program – Karl Marx
State and Revolution – V.I. Lenin
The Need for a Vanguard Party
History of American Trotskyism – James P. Cannon
Transitional Program – Leon Trotsky
The Problem of Reformism & Bureaucracy
Reform vs. Revolution – Rosa Luxemburg
Kirov Assassination – Leon Trotsky
Stalinism & Bolshevism – Leon Trotsky
Revolution Betrayed – Leon Trotsky
Marxist Economics
Wage, Labor & Capital – Karl Marx
Value, Price & Profit – Karl Marx
Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism – V.I. Lenin
Theory of Permanent Revolution
In Defense of October – Leon Trotsky
Fascism
Fascism – Leon Trotsky
Germany: The Only Road – Leon Trotsky
Whither France? – Leon Trotsky
Dialectical Materialism
Introduction to the Logic of Marxism – Warde
Black Liberation
Freedom Now – Socialist Workers Party Resolution
Marxism & the Negro Struggle – Cliffton DeBerry
How a Minority Can Change Society – George Breitman
Malcolm X: The Man & His Ideas – George Breitman
The Black Panther Party – Hulett
Vietnam
War and Revolution in Vietnam – Doug Jeness
How the US Got Involved in Vietnam – Scheer
Struggle for Indo-China – Hammer
Young Socialist Alliance Advanced Reading List
The State
In Defense of Marxism – Leon Trotsky
Origin of the Family, Private Property & the State – Frederick Engels
The Vanguard Party
Struggle for a Proletarian Party – James P. Cannon
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back – V.I. Lenin
What Is To Be Done? – V.I. Lenin
Left-Wing Communist: An Infantile Disorder – V.I. Lenin
First Ten Years of American Communism – James P. Cannon
The Problem of Reformism & Bureacracy
The Renegade Kautsky – V.I. Lenin
Third International After Lenin – Leon Trotsky
Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay – Leon Trotsky
Sectarianism and Bureaucracy – Fidel Castro
Marxist Economics
Two Essays on Imperialism – Germain
Critique of Political Economy – Karl Marx
Capital, Volume 1 – Karl Marx
Law of Value in the Workers State – Germain
Political Economy of Growth – Baran
Monopoly Capital – Paul Sweezy
New Economics – Preobrashensky
Theory of Permanent Revolution
Permanent Revolution – Leon Trotsky
theory of the Cuban Revolution – Joe Hansen
Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Spain – Felix Morrow
Historical Materialism & Dialectics
Materialist Conception of History – George Plekanov
Role of the Individual in History – George Plekanov
Ludwig Feuerbach – Frederick Engels
Anti-Duhring – Frederick Engels
Origins of Materialism – Warde
Materialism and Empirio-Criticism – V.I. Lenin
German Ideology – Karl Marx
Dialectics of Nature – Frederick Engels
Dialectical Materialism – Bukharin
Black Liberation
Origins of the New South – Woodward
Black Reconstruction in America – W.E.B. DuBois
Autobiography of Malcolm X – Alex Haley
Malcolm X Speaks – George Breitman
Last Year of Malcolm X – George Breitman
Labor History
Labor’s Giant Step – Art Preis
Notebook of an Agitator – James P. Cannon
Eugene Victor Debs – James P. Cannon
I.W.W. – James P. Cannon
I.W.W. – Brissenden
Marxist Method
Reader in Marxist Philosophy
Marxist Essays in American History
Marxism vs. Ultra-leftism – Germain
History of the Russian Revolution – Leon Trotsky
Civil War In France – Karl Marx
18th Brummaire – Karl Marx
Class Struggles in France – Karl Marx
Miscellaneous
My Life – Leon Trotsky
Problems of Everyday Life – Leon Trotsky
Intelligentsia and Socialism – Leon Trotsky
Their Morals & Ours – Leon Trotsky
Culture and Socialism – Leon Trotsky
Literature and Revolution – Leon Trotsky
On the Emancipation of Women – V.I. Lenin
