Michael Parenti Books in Order

Michael Parenti examines anticommunism's influence on American foreign policy, questioning its role as the overriding justification for decisions abroad. His critique considers the assumptions behind a policy organized around opposition to communist states and movements.

This collection examines dissenting interpretations of American foreign policy, questioning its stated intentions and the interests behind its decisions. The contributors consider the consequences of overseas actions and challenge assumptions that commonly shape public understanding of international affairs.

Michael Parenti examines American government through the relationships between wealth, class and institutional power. Connecting formal political structures with economic interests, he argues that understanding public policy requires looking beyond constitutional arrangements to the groups that benefit from them.

An analysis of power in American society examines how institutions are structured and why authority tends to concentrate at the top. Parenti connects competing definitions of power with the social arrangements that distinguish influential groups from those with little control.

A study of Italian Americans in New York examines ethnic identity, assimilation and political attitudes. Based on Parenti's Yale doctoral research, it considers the relationship between community life and political outlook within an immigrant-descended population.

Michael Parenti challenges the idea of an impartial news media, examining how ownership, political interests and editorial choices shape public understanding. Case studies explore the distortion or omission of information and the consequences for democratic debate.

Michael Parenti examines the economic interests behind American foreign policy, military intervention and the arms race. He argues that protecting corporate markets and access to resources often takes precedence over the democratic principles invoked to justify overseas actions.

Examining film and television, Michael Parenti explores how entertainment shapes assumptions about society and political life. He considers portrayals that reinforce militarism, racism, sexism and authority, alongside works that challenge prevailing values or offer more progressive perspectives.

Michael Parenti challenges the belief that American society lacks a dominant ideology. His analysis examines political myths and assumptions that, he argues, obscure concentrations of power, narrow public debate and make substantial social reform harder to imagine.

Michael Parenti critiques American imperial power and the political language used to justify intervention abroad. Connecting overseas policies with domestic consequences, he argues that globalization benefits financial and corporate elites while weakening democratic institutions and living standards.

These essays examine political ideology, news media, class power and ethnic identity. Michael Parenti challenges familiar explanations of contemporary events, considering topics from terrorism and the Kennedy assassination to the social assumptions that shape public debate.

Michael Parenti examines fascism, capitalism and communism through a framework of class conflict. He explores the relationship between corporate power and authoritarianism, the collapse of socialist states and the consequences of market reforms in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Michael Parenti examines how moneyed interests shape American politics, media and public life. These essays connect economic power with everyday social problems, arguing that threats to democracy arise from concentrated influence within the country as well as external pressures.

Michael Parenti examines how powerful groups influence the writing and preservation of history. Essays challenge accepted narratives, investigate suppressed evidence and consider how historians’ institutions, professional pressures and class assumptions affect what becomes the public record.

Michael Parenti offers a critical account of the breakup of Yugoslavia and NATO’s intervention. Drawing on published sources and observations from a 1999 visit, he challenges prevailing explanations of the conflict and examines Western political and economic objectives.

Michael Parenti places the September 11 attacks and the subsequent war within a broader historical and political context. He examines religious violence, Afghanistan, American foreign policy and globalization while questioning how governments use crises to advance their agendas.

Michael Parenti reexamines the late Roman Republic and Julius Caesar’s assassination from the perspective of ordinary people. Focusing on class conflict, popular resistance and elite power, he challenges historical accounts shaped primarily by the interests of Rome’s wealthy nobility.

Michael Parenti distinguishes attachment to one’s country from unquestioning nationalism. Examining politics, religion, sport and the military, he argues that appeals to fear and national supremacy can suppress dissent and divert attention from democratic responsibilities.

Michael Parenti examines culture as a field of political conflict rather than a fixed set of traditions. Examples from art, science, medicine and everyday life explore how power and commercial interests shape beliefs, practices and social identities.

This collection brings together Michael Parenti’s writings on class, empire, media, culture and political history, alongside reflections on his own life. Revised essays and new material connect personal experience with his broader critique of concentrated wealth and power.

Michael Parenti examines the political power and historical abuses of organized religion, focusing on intolerance, exploitation and alliances with ruling elites. His critique distinguishes these institutions and movements from believers who pursue egalitarian or socially progressive aims.

Michael Parenti analyzes the relationship between American military expansion and global corporate power. He considers the effects on targeted societies and the domestic costs of empire, arguing that resources devoted to dominance abroad undermine public wellbeing at home.

Michael Parenti recalls growing up in a working-class Italian family in East Harlem. Through portraits of relatives, neighbors, school and street life, he explores the experiences and inequalities that helped shape his later political commitments.

Michael Parenti examines how the pursuit of profit shapes institutions, public services and environmental policy. Drawing connections between historical exploitation and contemporary inequality, he argues that concentrated economic power threatens both democratic gains and the long-term stability of capitalism.

This collection gathers Michael Parenti's articles, interviews, academic writing, and lecture transcripts. Subjects include imperialism, class conflict, religion, public utilities, and globalization, extending his political arguments across shorter works originally presented in several different forms.