I’m looking for the popular science books that are adequate from the Marxist point of view or don’t go in that field at all. Like, “Sapiens: A Brief History Of Humankind” is recommended everywhere, but I think someone here on lemmygrad wrote that it has questionable moments. I read in English and Russian. Any kind of science will do. Thanks!
What kind of topics are you looking for?
Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything is good. I read it before I knew anything about Marxism, so I’m unsure of any anti communist messages. At Home is good, too.
Anything by JBS Haldane will be good. I enjoyed What I Require from Life. Some of his stuff is on Marxists.org.
[Edit: I forgot Isaac Asimov. His writing if great. Quite easy to read. And he wrote a book on just about everything (I think he wrote at least one book in every category of the Dewey Decimal System).]
If you’re looking for climate related stuff, you could try one of John Bellamy Foster’s books. Some are difficult—very academic. But he’s written one or two books for a public audience. Maybe with co-authors.
There’s also Naomi Klein, who is kind of Marxist (my guess is a Marxist who doesn’t want to alienate her publisher and Western audience). Try This Changes Everything. Note that it’s not the newest book and some of it will seem very obvious today, especially to those who accept that humans are responsible for climate change. But it is a decent book and you’ll see some Marxist themes very early on. IIRC the transformation of quantity into quality is introduced in the first few pages.
Andreas Malm is another Marxist who looks at climate. Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty-First Century is a good read, and it’s short. His Fossil Capital is good, too, but it’s a bit heavier-going.
If you count maths as science, you can’t go wrong with Mathematics for the Million by Lancelot Hogben. He’s written on loads of topics. The Loom of Language looks good (I’ve only skimmed it so far). It’s a popular account if linguistics and language learning.
I’ll also add that almost every author comes with their problems. On the one hand, I try to read authors I disagree with. On the other hand, I can’t avoid them! Even ‘Marxists’ can write things that can be infuriating.
If you’re interested in science, I’d recommend that you read books on topics that you’re interested in, almost regardless of the author. While reading, be critical but enjoy the good bits. Plus, if everyone is reading Sapiens and you’ve read it, too, and spotted the questionable elements, you can have really interesting discussions with others who have read the book. You’ll be able to challenge the problematic bits and propagandise without ‘bringing up politics all the time’ (which for some reason people say to me – how rude).
The more familiar you become with science (or any subject), the easier it will be to read the more academic texts (including those written by Marxists) and this will give you access to books with fewer ‘questionable moments’ (I know how tedious those books can be!).
I’m mostly interested in genetics and biology, but curious about other fields too, so thank you for the range of books listed!
I think you’ll get on with Haldane, then.
There’s always David Attenborough and Jane Goodall, too. They’ve both flirted with anti-capitalism in the past (I’m unsure whether this comes through in their work).
Paul Burkett writes about Marxism and the environment. He writes similar books as, and has co-written with, John Bellamy Foster. Both are worth reading, but I’m not sure if I’d say they wrote ‘popular science’ (in general, that is – they might have a book or two each that is more like poplar science rather than ‘Marxist approaches to science’, which is what I’ve come across). You might just want to try some and see what it’s like – you can always come back later if they’re not what you’re after right now.
A book that tangentially covers ‘nature’ (not necessarily as would a biologist or geneticist) is Raj Patel and Jason W Moore, A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet. (Even if you just read the chapter on nature – although, it is an engaging read, so you might continue after that taster.)
A word of warning – many of the authors I’ve suggested write about climate change and it can get depressing reading one such book after the next. The remedy is to read about China’s reforestation efforts and Cuba’s carbon neutrality in between 🌳🌲🏞️