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

(See also: PDSA’s recommended media resources.)

Currently Reading

"The Romance of American Communism" by Vivian Gornick

Join the Reading Group for our coverage of The Romance of American Communism!

Vivian Gornick’s cult classic weaves interviews with dozens of CPUSA members together to create a vivid oral history tracing the rise and fall of the party. Join us to discuss what inspired a generation of Americans to devote themselves so passionately to the Communist Party, what led so many of them to leave the party heartbroken, and what lessons socialists today can draw from their experiences.

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

• Tuesday July 7—Romance of American Communism, pgs 1-65
• Tuesday July 21—Romance of American Communism, pgs 66-129
• Tuesday August 4—Romance of American Communism, pgs 130-202
• Tuesday August 18—Romance of American Communism, pgs 203-265

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

• 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

2025

• Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis (2024) by Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis
• Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology from Capitalism (2020) by Wendy Liu
• Blackshirts & Reds: Rational Fascism and the Defeat of Communism (1997) by Michael Parenti
• Wage-Labor and Capital (Lohnarbeit und Kapital) (1847) by Karl Marx
• The State and Revolution (Государство и революция) (1917( by Vladimir Lenin
• What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis (2025) by Malcolm Harris
• ABCs of Socialism by Jacobin + Verso.
• Ideas for the Struggle (2004, revised 2016) by Marta Harnecker.
• Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) by Vladimir Lenin.

2024

• Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World (2023) by Malcolm Harris.
• San Francisco Reds: Communists in the Bay Area, 1919-1958 (2024) by Robert W. Cherny.

2023

• The Wretched of the Earth (1961) by Frantz Fanon.

2022

• How to Read Marx’s Capital (2021) by Michael Heinrich, in tandem with Capital: A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2021) by Andreas Malm (Ecosocialism WG crossover!)
• The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World (2020) by Vincent Bevins
• Why Marx Was Right (2011) by Terry Eagleton

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