Michael Parenti

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Michael Parenti
Michael Parenti, Democracy and the Pathology of Wealth, 44m30s.jpg
Parenti in 2012
Born
Michael John Parenti

(1933-09-30) September 30, 1933 (age 88)
New York City, U.S.
Education
  • City College of New York (BA)
  • Brown University (MA)
  • Yale University (PhD)
Occupation
  • Political scientist
  • author
  • historian
  • activist
Notable work
  • Democracy for the Few
  • To Kill a Nation
  • Superpatriotism
  • Blackshirts and Reds
Political partyLiberty Union Party[a]
ChildrenChristian Parenti
Websitemichaelparenti.org

Michael John Parenti (born September 30, 1933) is an American political scientist, academic historian and cultural critic who writes on scholarly and popular subjects. He has taught at universities as well as run for political office.[1] Parenti is well known for his Marxist[2][3] writings and is a leading intellectual of the American Left.[4][5]

Education and personal life[]

Michael Parenti was raised by an Italian-American working-class family in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City.[6] After graduating from high school, Parenti worked for several years. Upon returning to school, he received a BA from the City College of New York, an MA from Brown University and a PhD in political science from Yale University.[7] Parenti is the father of Christian Parenti, an academic, author and journalist.[8][9]

Career[]

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For many years Parenti taught political and social science at various institutions of higher learning. Eventually he devoted himself full-time to writing, public speaking, and political activism.[10] He is the author of 20 books and over 300 articles.[7] His works have been translated into at least 18 languages.[11][non-primary source needed] Parenti lectures frequently throughout the United States and abroad.

Parenti's writings cover a wide range of subjects: U.S. politics, culture, ideology, political economy, imperialism, fascism, communism, democratic socialism, free-market orthodoxies, conservative judicial activism, religion, ancient history, modern history, historiography, repression in academia, news and entertainment media, technology, environmentalism, sexism, racism, Venezuela, the wars in Iraq and Yugoslavia, ethnicity, and his own early life.[12][13][14] His book Democracy for the Few,[15] now in its ninth edition, is a critical analysis of U.S. society, economy, and political institutions and a college-level political science textbook published by Wadsworth Publishing.[16] In recent years he has addressed such subjects as "Empires: Past and Present," "US Interventionism: the Case of Iraq," "Race, Gender, and Class Power," "Ideology and History," "The Overthrow of Communism," and "Terrorism and Globalization."[11]

In 1974, Parenti ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Vermont as the candidate of the democratic socialist Liberty Union Party; he came in third place, with 7.1% of the vote.[17][18] Parenti was once a friend of Bernie Sanders, but he later split with Sanders over the latter's support for the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.[19][20][21]

In the 1980s, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.[22] In 2003, the Caucus for a New Political Science gave him a Career Achievement Award.[7] In 2007, he received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from U.S. Representative Barbara Lee.[7]

He served for 12 years as a judge for Project Censored.[23] He also is on the advisory boards of Independent Progressive Politics Network and Education Without Borders as well as the advisory editorial boards of New Political Science and Nature, Society and Thought.[24][better source needed]

Appearances in media[]

Apart from several recordings of some of his public speeches, Parenti has also appeared in the 1992 documentary The Panama Deception, the 2004 Liberty Bound[25] and 2013 Fall and Winter documentaries[26] as an author and social commentator.

Parenti was interviewed in Boris Malagurski's documentary film The Weight of Chains 2 (2014).[27] He was also interviewed for two episodes of the Showtime series Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, speaking briefly about the Dalai Lama (Episode 305 – Holier Than Thou) and patriotism (Episode 508 – Mount Rushmore).

New York City-based punk rock band Choking Victim use a number of samples from Michael Parenti's lectures in their album No Gods, No Managers.[28]

Bibliography[]

Articles[]

Books[]

  • The Anti-Communist Impulse. Random House, 1970.
  • Trends and Tragedies in American Foreign Policy. Little, Brown, 1971.
  • Ethnic and Political Attitudes. Arno Press, 1975. ISBN 0-405-06413-6
  • Democracy for the Few. c.1974.
    • 8th edition, 2007.[15] ISBN 978-0-495-00744-9
  • Power and the Powerless. St. Martin's Press, 1978. ISBN 0-312-63372-6, ISBN 0-312-63373-4
  • Inventing Reality: The Politics of the Mass Media. 1986. ISBN 0-312-02013-9
    • 2nd Edition, 1993. ISBN 0-312-08629-6
  • The Sword and the Dollar: Imperialism, Revolution and the Arms Race. St. Martin's Press, 1989. ISBN 0-312-02295-6
  • Make-Believe Media: the Politics of Entertainment. St. Martin's Press, 1992. ISBN 0-312-05603-6, ISBN 0-312-05894-2
  • Land of Idols: Political Mythology in America. St. Martin's Press, 1993. ISBN 0-312-09497-3, ISBN 0-312-09841-3
  • Against Empire. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1995. ISBN 0-87286-298-4, ISBN 978-0-87286-298-2
  • Dirty Truths. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1996. Includes some autobiographical essays. ISBN 0-87286-317-4, ISBN 0-87286-318-2
  • Blackshirts & Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1997. ISBN 0-87286-329-8, ISBN 0-87286-330-1
  • America Besieged. San Francisco, Calif.: City Lights Books (1998). ISBN 0872863387. ISBN 0872863387.
  • History as Mystery. San Francisco, Calif.: City Lights Books (1999). ISBN 0872863573. ISBN 0872863646.
  • To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia. Verso, 2002. ISBN 1-85984-776-5
  • The Terrorism Trap: September 11 and Beyond. San Francisco, Calif.: City Lights Books (2002). ISBN 0872864057.
  • The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome. The New Press (2003). ISBN 1565847970.
  • Superpatriotism. San Francisco, Calif.: City Lights Books (2004). ISBN 978-0872864337.
  • The Culture Struggle. Seven Stories Press (2006). ISBN 1583227040. ISBN 978-1583227046.
  • Contrary Notions. City Lights Books (2007). ISBN 0872864820. ISBN 978-0872864825.[13]
  • God and His Demons. Prometheus Books (2010).
  • The Face of Imperialism. Paradigm (2011).
  • Waiting for Yesterday: Pages from a Street Kid's Life Bordighera Press (2013).
  • Profit Pathology and Other Indecencies Routledge (2015).

Book chapters[]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ In 1974, Parenti ran for Congress for Vermont's at-large district in the House of Representatives under the Liberty Union Party ticket.
  2. ^ The article Parenti wrote featuring in the first edition of the Prevailing Winds magazine was an adaptation from a lecture Parenti gave in Berkeley, California on November 26, 1993.

References[]

  1. ^ "How Bernie Sanders, an Open Socialist, Won Burlington's Mayoral Election". jacobinmag.com. Retrieved January 8, 2022.
  2. ^ Parenti, Michael (January 1, 1998). "The Increasing Relevance of Marxism". Socialism and Democracy. 12 (1): 115–121. doi:10.1080/08854309808428215. ISSN 0885-4300.
  3. ^ Boggs, Carl (June 1, 2012). "Reflections on Politics and Academia: An Interview with Michael Parenti". New Political Science. 34 (2): 228–236. doi:10.1080/07393148.2012.676401. ISSN 0739-3148. S2CID 147258248.
  4. ^ Lattin, Don (April 5, 2010). "Review: 'God and His Demons,' by Michael Parenti". SFGATE. Retrieved January 8, 2022.
  5. ^ Carr, Paul R. (2011). Does Your Vote Count?: Critical Pedagogy and Democracy. Peter Lang. p. 274. ISBN 978-1-4331-0813-6.
  6. ^ Parenti, Michael (August 2007). "La Famiglia: An Ethno-Class Experience". Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader. City Lights Books. pp. 403. ISBN 978-0-87286-482-5.
  7. ^ a b c d "Michael Parenti - The Humanities Institute - The Humanities Institute". Scripps CollegeScripps College. April 17, 2018. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  8. ^ Bergman, Tabe (January 1, 2019). ""Old-New" Directions in Political Communication: Taking Michael Parenti's Media Criticism as a Guide". Frontiers in Communication. 4. ISSN 2297-900X. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  9. ^ "Christian Parenti". John Jay College of Criminal Justice. January 31, 2018. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  10. ^ Parenti, Michael (1996). "Struggles in Academe: A Personal Account". Dirty Truths. ISBN 0-87286-317-4.
  11. ^ a b "Biography of Michael Parenti". Michael Parenti. Archived from the original on October 27, 2007. Retrieved December 25, 2007.
  12. ^ "Articles and Other Published Selections". Michael Parenti. Archived from the original on October 26, 2007. Retrieved December 25, 2007.
  13. ^ a b Parenti, Michael (August 2007). Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader. City Lights Books. pp. 403. ISBN 978-0-87286-482-5.
  14. ^ "Books by Michael Parenti". Michael Parenti. Retrieved December 25, 2007.
  15. ^ a b Parenti, Michael (February 2007). Democracy for the Few (Eight ed.). Wadsworth Publishing Company. p. 322. ISBN 978-0-495-00744-9.
  16. ^ CENGAGE Learning. "WADSWORTH CENGAGE Learning political science". Archived from the original on August 30, 2009. Retrieved January 3, 2008.
  17. ^ "Elections Results Archive". VT Elections Database.
  18. ^ Sanders, Bernie (1997). "You Have to Begin Somewhere". Outsider in the House.
  19. ^ Zeitlin, Matthew (June 13, 2019). "Bernie's Red Vermont". The New Republic. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  20. ^ http://52.38.63.81/en/2015/11/430927.shtml
  21. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Michael Parenti on Bernie Sanders". YouTube.
  22. ^ Parenti, Michael (September 2, 2013). "The State of the Discipline: One Interpretation of Everyone's Favorite Controversy - PS: Political Science & Politics". PS: Political Science & Politics. 16 (2): 189–196. doi:10.1017/S1049096500015043. ISSN 1537-5935. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  23. ^ "Michael Parenti". Project Censored. May 24, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  24. ^ Parenti, Michael. "Michael Parenti Political Archive". Retrieved January 2, 2008.
  25. ^ "Liberty Bound (2004)". BFI. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  26. ^ "Fall and Winter on iTunes". iTunes. December 1, 2013. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  27. ^ "The Stars of the Film - The Weight of Chains 2010 - - Boris Malagurski films". The Weight of Chains. September 18, 2019. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  28. ^ Manner, Lauri (June 14, 2001). "Choking Victim - No Gods / No Managers". Punknews.org. Retrieved January 13, 2022.

External links[]

Michael Parenti's articles
Audio
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