Michael Parenti

(1933-2026)

Michael Parenti was an American Marxist historian, political scientist, and prolific author whose work focused on class struggle, media hegemony, and anti-imperialism. Best known for seminal works like Democracy for the Few and Blackshirts and Reds, Parenti was a leading "people's intellectual" who famously bridged the gap between academia and the labor movement. His analysis consistently exposed the capitalist state's role in managing both domestic exploitation and global empire, making him a central figure in modern Marxist-Leninist and anti-war thought.

Works

Myths of "Humanitarian" Intervention [Against the Current No. 59] (November/December, 1995)

Keeping the Rich Invisible: How Census Bureau Hides the Super-rich [Against the Current No. 74] (May/June, 1998)

Globalization and Democracy: Some Basics [Common Dreams] (May 25, 2007)

Gender Savagery in Guatemala [Common Dreams] (Jul 08 ,2007)

Mother Teresa, John Paul II, and the Fast Track Saints [Common Dreams] (Oct 22, 2007)

Bad Boys, Nasty Boys: Out of the GOP's Closet [Common Dreams] (Feb 06, 2008)

Dubious Design [Common Dreams] (Apr 11, 2008)

Afghanistan, Another Untold Story [Common Dreams] (Dec 02, 2008)

Capitalism's Self-Inflicted Apocalypse [Common Dreams] (Jan 21, 2009)

North Korea: "Sanity" at the Brink [Common Dreams] (Jun 20, 2009)

The Honduras Coup: Is Obama Innocent? [Common Dreams] (Jul 08, 2009)

Italian American Identity: To Be or Not To Be [Common Dreams] (Aug 27, 2009)

What Do Empires Do? [Common Dreams] (Feb 13, 2010)

Pedophiles and Popes: Doing the Vatican Shuffle [Common Dreams] (May 10, 2010)

Death and Profits: The Utility Protection Racket [Common Dreams] (Oct 14, 2010)

Money Is Still the Name of the Game [Common Dreams] (Dec 09, 2010)

Banksters, Racketeers and the 'Mafioso' We Should Be Worried About [Common Dreams] (Jan 20, 2011)

Profit Pathology and Disposable Planet [Common Dreams] (Feb 27, 2011)

Class Warfare Indeed [Common Dreams] (Oct 02, 2011)

Occupy America [Common Dreams] (Nov 09, 2011)

Free-Market Medicine: A Personal Account [Common Dreams] (Jan 27, 2012)

The Nobel Peace Prize for War [Common Dreams] (Oct 18, 2012)

85 Billionaires and the Better Half [Common Dreams] (Feb 18, 2014)

1918: On When a War Ended (Though Others Would Follow) [Common Dreams] (Oct 27, 2014)

Secondary Literature

The Time Has Come: End All Aid to Apartheid Israel [Signatory] (Socialist Action Vol.6 No.4, April 1988)

Hoist on their own petards, by Dragan Plavsic [Book Review] (International Socialism No. 91, Summer 2001)

Roman history from below?, by Neil Faulkner [Book Review] (Summer 2004)

Michael Parenti, The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome, by Chris Gray [Book Review] (Revolutionary History Vol. 8 No. 4, 2004)

External Links

The Michael Parenti Political Archive [Personal Web Archive]