How Revolutionary, Really, Was Christianity?

Amid renewed interest in the religion across the political spectrum, the historian of antiquity Tim Whitmarsh argues in his new book, Rome’s Age of Revolution, that Christianity’s success relied on the physical and cultural infrastructure of empire.

The Political Economy of Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance helps explain why people often turn away from problems they feel powerless to change: denial takes hold. That denial can weaken the solidarity required to change the conditions that leave people feeling powerless.

Anwar Shaikh and E. Ahmet Tonak work together at Tonak’s house in Massachusetts, 2017.

Anwar Shaikh Changed My Life

Economist Anwar Shaikh, who died this month, spent half a century turning Marx’s categories into hard numbers. His first teaching assistant and longtime collaborator remembers the man and the work.

Is Trump Crashing the Dollar Empire?

Economist Mona Ali on how the United States wields the world’s most powerful currency to shore up empire and its own ruling class — and how Trump’s careless moves might blow it all up.

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Chefs at work in the kitchens of the Grand Hotel in Torquay, England, on August 30, 1947.

The Political Economy of the Restaurant

Political organizer and chef Lewis Bassett’s The Full English offers a firsthand account of how English food has been shaped by industrialization, empire, and class from the vantage point of restaurants across the country.

Participants seen spelling out #TaxTheRich at the New York Public Library in Manhattan, on March 4, 2021.

Tax the Rich and Slash the Military Budget

The Left is often asked how it proposes to pay for programs like universal childcare, Medicare or All, and a green jobs program. Here’s how: tax wealth and capital the same way we already tax wages, and slash our bloated and destructive military budget.

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Empire became a campus sensation because it offered a master theory for globalization at a moment when old Marxist categories seemed exhausted. But the capitalist internationalism they saw as permanent has now crashed and burned.

Democratic candidate for the US Senate Troy Jackson (L) is joined on the stage by US Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders during his campaign rally in Biddeford, Maine, on October 11, 2026.

Workers Can Govern, but They Need Power First

A new book makes the most rigorous case yet for why so few working-class people hold office. But by treating the lack of workers in office as a law of electoral democracy, its authors underrate how much organized workers could change it.

Two men look at their smartphones as people gather and take photos outside the redeveloped Huanggang Port on October 12, 2026, in Shenzhen.

Exploring the Mirror World of the Chinese Internet

A complacent view contrasts the freedom of the US internet with the tight regimentation of the Chinese version. In reality, the two seem to be converging around a model of state and oligarchic control over online communities and debates.

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Jacobin is a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture.

$29.95
1 Year / 4 Issues
Digital Subscription
$39.95
1 Year / 4 Issues
Print + Digital Subscription