This book has truly been eye-opening, sparking deep conversations at home with my partner. It’s forced me to confront my American lens, which has been a slow and at times painful process, but it’s essential for my growth. What I’ve learned feels both heavy and necessary. Drawing connections between past and present events in the United States has made the current moment even more unsettling. These types of works are crucial for anyone trying to understand the world with a broader perspective, and I’m so grateful for the space you’ve create to do that. Thank you for sharing this journey with us—it’s been incredibly meaningful. 💗
Whitney, thank you so much for sharing your reflection. I agree, reading these books and connecting them to what we're witnessing unfold in real time is simultaneously maddening and terrifying. It's all proving that the colonial project and subsequently, the U.S. empire has had a lot of time to seemingly perfect its exploitative/destructive ways. And, now we're seeing it all not only take form abroad, but also within the U.S.
It's a lot, especially because we *know* things don't have to be this way. We could be living on a timeline drastically different than this one.
Nonetheless, thank you for being here and going on this journey with me. <3
I'm so grateful to have had a reason to pick up this book. I completed my MA in Latin American Studies, yet this book was never required reading, (which in retrospect is crazy) but was referenced frequently. So thank you!
For so long the average American has been ignorant of the scale of exploitation that this country exports to so called "undeveloped" countries that we scoff off at, and whose instability and "lack of progress" we assume proves our superiority. American capitalists (the same ones we hold up as the ultimate examples of success) would continue to exploit the American working class as cruelly as they did/do abroad if it were not for the wins of the various workers' movements throughout American history. I think that as it becomes apparent that the world's resources may soon be exhausted, capitalists are pulling out all the stops to roll back workers' protections here to grab as much of what remains as quickly as possible. The US economy is booming, but all other measurements of human flourishing (mental health, education, etc.) within the states are dropping. The more I look around the more I feel like we're all living in a company town. Sure we get paid, but every basic human need is commodified, and the price is set by the market, which American capitalists claim needs to be as deregulated as possible in order to be "fair" (fair for whom?). The level of exploitation that we have exported for so long is coming back home, because this war machine needs A LOT of human labor to generate the power it needs to keep running. The power grab we're seeing right now resembles the history of so many Latin American countries before the oligarchs/dictators took their winnings and fled, leaving the country in collapse. We take for granted that it can't happen here, but again, the same strategies we've exported abroad are coming home now. It is critical that we learn more about how the working people both here and abroad have organized in the past as we explore strategy today, so I'm very much looking forward to the next book.
This book has truly been eye-opening, sparking deep conversations at home with my partner. It’s forced me to confront my American lens, which has been a slow and at times painful process, but it’s essential for my growth. What I’ve learned feels both heavy and necessary. Drawing connections between past and present events in the United States has made the current moment even more unsettling. These types of works are crucial for anyone trying to understand the world with a broader perspective, and I’m so grateful for the space you’ve create to do that. Thank you for sharing this journey with us—it’s been incredibly meaningful. 💗
Whitney, thank you so much for sharing your reflection. I agree, reading these books and connecting them to what we're witnessing unfold in real time is simultaneously maddening and terrifying. It's all proving that the colonial project and subsequently, the U.S. empire has had a lot of time to seemingly perfect its exploitative/destructive ways. And, now we're seeing it all not only take form abroad, but also within the U.S.
It's a lot, especially because we *know* things don't have to be this way. We could be living on a timeline drastically different than this one.
Nonetheless, thank you for being here and going on this journey with me. <3
My aunt and I are joining your book club. Excited for the readings!
Yay!!! Welcome!!! Thanks for being here. 🤍
I'm so grateful to have had a reason to pick up this book. I completed my MA in Latin American Studies, yet this book was never required reading, (which in retrospect is crazy) but was referenced frequently. So thank you!
For so long the average American has been ignorant of the scale of exploitation that this country exports to so called "undeveloped" countries that we scoff off at, and whose instability and "lack of progress" we assume proves our superiority. American capitalists (the same ones we hold up as the ultimate examples of success) would continue to exploit the American working class as cruelly as they did/do abroad if it were not for the wins of the various workers' movements throughout American history. I think that as it becomes apparent that the world's resources may soon be exhausted, capitalists are pulling out all the stops to roll back workers' protections here to grab as much of what remains as quickly as possible. The US economy is booming, but all other measurements of human flourishing (mental health, education, etc.) within the states are dropping. The more I look around the more I feel like we're all living in a company town. Sure we get paid, but every basic human need is commodified, and the price is set by the market, which American capitalists claim needs to be as deregulated as possible in order to be "fair" (fair for whom?). The level of exploitation that we have exported for so long is coming back home, because this war machine needs A LOT of human labor to generate the power it needs to keep running. The power grab we're seeing right now resembles the history of so many Latin American countries before the oligarchs/dictators took their winnings and fled, leaving the country in collapse. We take for granted that it can't happen here, but again, the same strategies we've exported abroad are coming home now. It is critical that we learn more about how the working people both here and abroad have organized in the past as we explore strategy today, so I'm very much looking forward to the next book.