Albert, Michael 1947-

views updated

ALBERT, Michael 1947-

PERSONAL:

Born April 8, 1947. Hobbies and other interests: General science reading, mystery and thriller/adventure novels, computers, sea kayaking, the game of Go.

ADDRESSES:

Office—18 Millfield St., Woods Hole, MA 02543 E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer and activist. Z Magazine, Woods Hole, MA, editorial writer and columnist. Formerly affiliated with South End Press (cofounder).

WRITINGS:

What Is to Be Undone: A Modern Revolutionary Discussion of Classical Left Ideologies, P. Sargent (Boston, MA), 1974.

(With Robin Hahnel) Unorthodox Marxism: An Essay on Capitalism, Socialism, and Revolution, South End Press (Boston, MA), 1978.

(Editor and contributor, with David Dellinger) Beyond Survival: New Directions for the Disarmament Movement, South End Press (Boston, MA), 1983.

(With others) Liberating Theory, South End Press (Boston, MA), 1986.

(With Robin Hahnel) Quiet Revolution in Welfare Economics, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1990.

(With Robin Hahnel) Looking Forward: Participatory Economics for the Twenty-first Century, South End Press (Boston, MA), 1991.

(With Robin Hahnel) The Political Economy of Participatory Economics, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1991.

Stop the Killing Train: Radical Visions for Radical Change, South End Press (Boston, MA), 1994.

Moving Forward: Programme for a Participatory Economy, AK (San Francisco, CA), 2000.

The Trajectory of Change: Activist Strategies for Social Transformation, South End Press (Cambridge, MA), 2002.

Parecon: Life after Capitalism, Verso Books (London, England), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Michael Albert has been a political activist for over three decades. He was a cofounder of South End Press, Z Magazine, and of its online presence, ZNet.

In 1974 Albert published his first book, What Is to Be Undone: A Modern Revolutionary Discussion of Classical Left Ideologies, in which he analyzes Marxism, Leninism, anarchism, and Maoism and discusses their failings, along with his belief that a new framework will be required to bring about social change in the United States. Mark R. Yerburgh, in Library Journal praised Albert's writing and found his analysis of 1960s activism to be "a model of clarity and perception." However, the critic noted that Albert's "chronic use of long quotations from the revolutionary pantheon becomes somewhat tedious." A reviewer for Choice observed that Albert is not a purist, but rather is more interested in what will work rather than adhering to any particular doctrine. The reviewer commented that his book "will be of interest primarily to those who are involved in or closely follow the intellectual trends of the New Left."

In 1983 Albert coedited, with David Delligner, a collection of nine essays written by American peace activists. Albert and Dellinger each contributed an essay; other authors include Noam Chomsky, Leslie Cagan, Jack O'Dell, Alex Cockburn, James Ridgeway, Paula Rayman, and Holly Sklar. A reviewer for Kliatt praised in particular Chomsky's essay on interventionism as an example of "cogently argued peace-directed writing," and felt that Dellinger's recollections on three decades in the peace movement "show the value of integrating peace work into a whole life." Overall, she found the book to be "disturbing," "challenging" and "inspiring," and commented that "it should be on the shelf of everyone concerned about the future of our world." Michael J. Moran, in Library Journal, felt that the "writing quality and extent of documentation are uneven," and that the selections on 1960s activism are occasionally "strident" while those dealing with racism and the labor movement "are sometimes sketchy and repetitive." However, Moran praised Chomsky's essay as well, and noted that "each selection is introduced by helpful prefatory comments that unify the book."

Albert has written a number of books on participatory economics—or "Parecon"—with coauthor and economics professor Robin Hahnel. He and Hahnel developed their model and began to write about it in the early 1990s. He continues to advocate this system of participatory self-management in Parecon: Life after Capitalism. In an interview for ZNet, Albert called this book his "best effort to motivate, describe, elaborate, and defend the vision." In this book he examines existing systems and then presents the ways in which his model would alter day-to-day living by creating a scenario in which everyone would be involved in the planning of output of their companies and individual and communal consumption. John Brady in Bad Subjects found that "a sense of utopian unreality pervades much of [the] book." He argued that it would be unlikely for a society's members to agree on collective priorities, and that "Albert makes no allowance either for the possibility of disagreement, its persistance, or the necessity of managing it through political action." However, a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews felt that Albert presents "a surprisingly elegant economic system owned in equal part by all citizens." The reviewer considered Albert's model "remarkable for its applicability, for weighing social opportunity costs in pursuing a general equilibrium of allocation … and in its admission of imperfection and elements that will need special attention." David Cromwell, writing for MediaLens, felt that Parecon "ought to become a landmark text that will underpin the struggle to reconstruct a system of economics" that puts an emphasis on the human aspect of the economy. He maintained that Albert "painstakingly sets out a practical programme for a genuinely democratically accountable system of economics."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Canadian Dimension, May-June, 1997, Henry Heller and Todd Scarth, "Class Interests of the Left" (interview), pp. 21-24; January-February, 1998, John Loxley, review of Thinking Forward: Learning to Conceptualize Economic Vision, pp. 40-41.

Choice, October, 1975, review of What Is to Be Undone: A Modern Revolutionary Discussion of Classical Left Ideologies, p. 1069.

Christian Century, April 30, 1975, John M. Swomley, Jr., review of What Is to Be Undone, p. 450.

Contemporary Sociology, March, 1981, Joe Feagin, review of Unorthodox Marxism: An Essay on Capitalism, Socialism, and Revolution, pp. 271-272.

Dollars & Sense, September-October, 1994, Benay Bubar, review of Stop the Killing Train: Radical Visions for Radical Change, p. 32.

Economic Journal, July, 1992, John Bonner, review of Quiet Revolution in Welfare Economics, p. 974.

Journal of Economic Issues, March, 1992, Doug Brown, review of The Political Economy of Participatory Economics, pp. 294-297.

Journal of Economic Literature, March, 1992, review of The Political Economy of Participatory Economics, pp. 324-325.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2003, review of Parecon: Life after Capitalism, p. 195.

Kliatt, April, 1984, Sarah W. R. Smith, review of Beyond Survival: New Directions for the Disarmament Movement, p. 46.

Library Journal, March 15, 1975, Mark R. Yerburgh, review of What Is to Be Undone, p. 588; December 1, 1981, Brent A. Nelson, review of Socialism Today and Tomorrow, p. 2320; July, 1983, Michael J. Moran, review of Beyond Survival, p. 1367; July, 1991, Michael Stevenson, review of Looking Forward: Participatory Economics for the Twenty-first Century, p. 110; April 15, 2003, Richard Drezen, review of Parecon, p. 100.

Los Angeles Times, March 16, 2003, Kevin Donegan, review of Parecon, p. E4.

Nation, September 24, 1983, E. P. Thompson, review of Beyond Survival, pp. 238-244; December 24, 1983, Barbara Ehrenreich, review of Beyond Survival, pp. 670-671.

Progressive, May, 1992, C. Boggs, review of Looking Forward, p. 38.

Village Voice, March 16, 1982, George Scialabba, review of Marxism and Social Theory and Socialism Today and Tomorrow, p. 42.

Women's Review of Books, November, 1983, Ann Ferguson, review of Marxism and Social Theory and Socialism Today and Tomorrow, p. 16.