In recent years, socialism has crept back into popular conversation. But what, exactly, is socialism? What was the historical record of past socialist movements? What would a socialist system look like today? And how exactly can we organize for change?

Jacobin founder Bhaskar Sunkara’s The Socialist Manifesto was written to answer some of these questions – and it’s now out in an accessible 288-page paperback format.

Our current politics don’t seem to offer much of a future at all. Our only choices appear to be either a technocratic neoliberalism that embraces the rhetoric of social inclusion but not equality, or a right-wing populism channeling anger into the worst directions.

To be a socialist today is to believe that more, not less, democracy will help solve social ills — and to believe that ordinary people can shape the systems that shape their lives. The Socialist Manifesto is a small tool in the struggle to bring about that better world.

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