A Brief Global History of the Left
by Shlomo Sand (Polity, £55)
What with the left’s notorious penchant for infighting, you could be forgiven for thinking there’s more that divides than unites it. Yet here, in this engrossing global history of the left, Israeli historian Shlomo Sand makes the case—very convincingly—that the true core of all leftist thought isn’t about the role of the state or the status of private property, but rather the pursuit of a single key principle: equality.
Taking us from the Levellers of 17th-century England to the Jacobins of the French Revolution, through the terror of Stalinism to the present day, Sand’s insistence that we judge all leftist ideology through the lens of equality is not just enlightening; it also helps explain the many supposed contradictions that arise when discussing such a diverse range of ideas.