Reading Group

Theory informs praxis! We engage in ongoing political education in socialist history and thought.

Currently Reading

"Bad Mexicans" by Kelly Lytle Hernandez

Join the Reading Group for our coverage of “Bad Mexicans”!

Hernandez tells the story of the magonistas, who bravely resisted U.S. imperialism and created a successful social revolution in the 20th century. This story showcases some of the lives of the individual magonistas in addition to the role this has played in American history. All are welcome for this fun evening of solidarity, education, and community; whether or not you have finished the reading.

Our political reading group meets every other Tuesday, 6:15-8pm:

Sept. 15th, 6:15 – 7:45 pm (Ch 1-13)
Sept. 29th, 6:15 – 7:45 pm (Ch 14-25 & Conclusion)

Fireside Books & More, 2421 Broadway, Redwood City (by Caltrain station)
Virtual: Google Meet

What to expect: Peninsula DSA’s reading group sessions will kick off with comradely icebreakers followed by a guided discussion. We have until the bookshop closes at 8pm. Light refreshments and KN94 respirators provided. Wearing DSA gear is encouraged!

BYO book! Please consider ordering your copy of our reads from our friendly hosts, Andrew and Taylor at Fireside Books & More, by visiting their Bookshop.org storefront or emailing orders@firesiderwc.com.

Past Reads

2026

A custom collection of short local history reads from East Palo Alto, San Mateo, and more.
Romance of American Communism by Vivian Gornick
Transgender Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue by Leslie Feinberg
Lucy Parsons: An American Revolutionary by Carolyn Ashbaugh
Feminism for the 99% by Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Battacharya, and Nancy Fraser
The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism (2018) by Kristen Ghodsee
Revolutionary Suicide (1973) by Huey P. Newton
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880) by Friedrich Engels
“Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920) by Vladimir Lenin

2021

“Capitalism and Class Struggle” (2020) by Vivek Chibber, from The ABCs of Capitalism series from Jacobin and Catalyst Journal
“Capitalism and the State” (2020) by Vivek Chibber, from The ABCs of Capitalism series from Jacobin and Catalyst Journal
“Understanding Capitalism” (2020) by Vivek Chibber, from The ABCs of Capitalism series from Jacobin and Catalyst Journal

2020

‘Disband, Disempower, and Disarm’: Amplifying the Theory and Practice of Police (2018) by Meghan G. McDowell and Luis A. Fernandez
Mistaken Identity: Mass Movements and Racial Identity (2018) by Asad Haider
No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age by Jane McAlevey
On Contradiction (1937) by Mao Zedong
On Practice (1937) by Mao Zedong
Production for Use (1983) by Pieter Lawrence
Stalinism and Bolshevism: In Defense of October by Leon Trotsky
War is a Racket (1935) by Major General Smedley Butler

2019

Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003) by Angela Y. Davis
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? (2009) by Mark Fisher
Civil Disobedience (1849) by Henry David Thoreau
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (2017) by Richard Rothstein
The Communist Manifesto (1848) by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx
In Defense of Housing: The Politics of Crisis (2016) by David J. Madden and Peter Marcuse
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968) by Paolo Friere
“The Strategy of International Class Struggle and the Political Fight Against Capitalist Reaction in 2019” (January 3, 2010) by James Cogan, Joseph Kishore, and David North
“Toward Transformative Justice: A Liberatory Approach to Child Sexual Abuse and Other Forms of Intimate and Community Violence” (2007) by generation FIVE

2018

How Nonviolent Struggle Works (2013) by Gene Sharp
“The Lesser Evil? The Left, the Democrats and 1984” (November 2, 2018) by Mike Davis