This is the 2011 volume of the annual Socialist Register, which was founded by prominent British Marxists Ralph Miliband and John Seville in 1964 as "an annual survey of movements and ideas" from the political left. It is the first of two volumes analyzing the current global economic crisis sparked by financial meltdown in the United States. Its 15 essays seek to put the crisis in historical and theoretical perspective, analyze the centrality of financialization to the crisis, examine the impact of the crisis on the working class both socially and politically, address how the strategies currently being offered by governments are geared towards revitalizing neoliberal capitalism, and explore dimensions of the crisis in the US, Europe, Japan, and South Africa (the forthcoming volume will expand the geographic scope and examine the left's response to the crisis, among other topics). Annotation 2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
