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Michael Parenti

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Michael John Parenti
Parenti in Berkeley, California in 2004
Born (1933-09-30) September 30, 1933 (age 90)
New York City, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Education
Occupations
Notable work
  • Democracy for the Few
  • Inventing Reality
  • Dirty Truths
  • Blackshirts and Reds
  • To Kill a Nation
  • Superpatriotism
SpouseSusan Parenti
ChildrenChristian Parenti
Awards
SchoolMarxism
Institutions
 
ThesisEthnic and Political Attitudes: A Depth Study of Italian Americans (1962)
Doctoral advisorRobert E. Lane
Main interests
Socialism · Imperialism · Political economy · Ideology

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 writings and lectures,[2][3] and is an intellectual of the American Left.[4][5]

Education and personal life[edit]

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 Ph.D. in political science from Yale University.[7] In recent decades, he has made his home in Berkeley, California. He is the father of Christian Parenti, an academic, author and journalist.[8]

Career[edit]

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After receiving his doctorate, Parenti taught political and social science at various institutions of higher learning, including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UI). In May 1970 while he was an associate professor at UI, he participated in a rally protesting the recent Kent State shootings and ongoing Vietnam War. At the rally he was clubbed by state troopers and then held in a jail cell for two days.[9] He was charged with aggravated battery (of a state trooper), disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. After being released on bond, he started a new teaching job at the University of Vermont (UVM) in September. The next month he returned to Illinois to stand trial before a judge. Despite multiple witnesses exonerating Parenti, the judge found him guilty on all three counts. Here's how he describes what happened next:

In June 1971 I returned to Illinois for sentencing. Because I was already employed outside the state and because a host of academic lights from around the country had sent in appeals on my behalf, I was saved from having to do time. Instead, I was given two years probation, a fine, and ordered to pay court costs.[10]

This incident effectively ended Parenti's career as a professor. In December 1971, after his UVM department voted unanimously to renew his teaching contract, the UVM board of trustees and conservative state legislators interceded and voted to not renew, citing Parenti's "unprofessional conduct."[11]

In subsequent years, he was unable to obtain a regular teaching position. He learned from sympathetic associates at the colleges he applied to that he was being rejected for his leftist views and political activism. He chronicles this period of his life in the essay, "Struggles in Academe: A Personal Account", published in Dirty Truths. He discusses the broader question of political orthodoxy in U.S. higher education in "The Empire in Academia" chapter of his 1995 book, Against Empire.[12] Because he couldn't earn a steady livelihood as a professor, Parenti began to devote himself full-time to writing, public speaking, and politics.

In 1974, he 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.[13][14] During his years in Vermont, Parenti befriended Bernie Sanders. However, the two men later split over Sanders' support for the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.[15][16]

In the 1980s, Parenti was a visiting fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.[17] 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.[18] 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.[19][20]

Published work[edit]

The first notable book in Parenti's writing career was Democracy for the Few. Originally published in 1974, it has since gone through nine editions and been used as a textbook in college political science courses. Democracy for the Few contains a critical analysis of the workings of American government with particular focus on the relationship between economic power and political power.[21]

As a rule, Parenti's books were never reviewed in mainstream publications. The one exception was Inventing Reality: The Politics of the Mass Media (1986). In a review in The New York Times, Michael Pollan wrote, "By documenting patterns of conservative bias in a dozen major news stories in the printed and broadcast press, Inventing Reality provides a valuable rebuttal to the drumbeat of criticism of the news media from the right. Unfortunately, Mr. Parenti is so simplistic and doctrinaire in accounting for this bias that he makes his book easy to dismiss." He went on to note how the author "paints the press in such broad, Marxist strokes that he ignores many details. He cannot, for example, adequately account for episodes of courage and independence, as during Vietnam and Watergate."[22] In a response to the review published as a Letter to the Editor, Parenti challenged Pollan's negative assessment.[23]

Parenti continued his exploration of mass media in Make-Believe Media: The Politics of Entertainment (1992). The book dissects numerous popular movies and TV programs which "have propagated images and themes that support militarism, imperialism, racism, sexism, authoritarianism, and other undemocratic values."[24] He describes what he believes is a pattern of unflattering portrayals of working-class people and trade unions, and he disputes the notion that the major studios are "giving audiences what they want." He later supplied a Foreword to Matthew Alford's 2010 book Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy in which he elaborated on his ideas from Make-Believe Media. Other leftist writers have been influenced by Parenti's media critique.[25]

Parenti's controversial 1997 book Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism explains the nature of fascism and also defends the Soviet Union and other communist countries from reflexive condemnation, arguing that they featured a number of advantages over capitalist countries, e.g., by ensuring less economic inequality. The Preface to Blackshirts and Reds begins:

This book invites those immersed in the prevailing orthodoxy of “democratic capitalism” to entertain iconoclastic views, to question the shibboleths of free-market mythology and the persistence of both right and left anti-communism, and to consider anew, with a receptive but not uncritical mind, the historic efforts of the much maligned Reds and other revolutionaries. [26]

He further argues that the Soviet Union's "well-publicized deficiencies and injustices" were exacerbated by the Russian Civil War, the Nazi-led multinational invasion (Operation Barbarossa), and other forms of capitalist intervention against the Eastern Bloc. Moreover, he claims that "pure socialists" and "left anticommunists" had failed to specify a viable alternative to the "siege socialism" implemented in the Soviet model.[27] By offering a rare defense of 20th century socialism, Blackshirts and Reds has elicited strong reactions from anarchist and leftist publications.[28] [29]

Appearances in media[edit]

Apart from recordings of several of his public speeches, Parenti has also appeared in the 1992 documentary The Panama Deception, the 2004 Liberty Bound[30] and 2013 Fall and Winter documentaries[31] as an author and social commentator.

In July 2003, Parenti was interviewed on the C-SPAN Booknotes program to discuss his work, The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome.[32]. He was also interviewed in Boris Malagurski's documentary film The Weight of Chains 2 (2014) about the former Yugoslavia.[33] He appeared in an episode of the Showtime series Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, speaking briefly about the Dalai Lama (Episode 305 – Holier Than Thou).[34]

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.[35]

Books[edit]

  • The Anti-Communist Impulse (1969) LCCN 72-85615
  • Trends and Tragedies in American Foreign Policy (1971) LCCN 74-161844
  • Ethnic and Political Attitudes: A Depth Study of Italian Americans (1975) ISBN 9780405064135
  • Power and the Powerless (1978) ISBN 9780312633738
  • The Sword and the Dollar: Imperialism Revolution and the Arms Race (1989) ISBN 9780312011673
  • Make-Believe Media: The Politics of Entertainment (1992) ISBN 9780312058944
  • Land of Idols: Political Mythology in America (1993) ISBN 9780312098414
  • Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media (2nd edition, 1993) ISBN 9781471731822
  • Against Empire (1995) ISBN 9780872862982
  • Dirty Truths (1996) ISBN 9780872863170
  • Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism (1997) ISBN 9780872863293
  • America Besieged (1998) ISBN 9780872863385
  • History as Mystery (1999) ISBN 9780872863576
  • To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia (2001) ISBN 9781859843666
  • The Terrorism Trap (2002) ISBN 9780872864054
  • The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome (2003) ISBN 9781565849426
  • Superpatriotism (2004) ISBN 9780872864337
  • The Culture Struggle (2006) ISBN 9781471610721
  • Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader (2007) ISBN 9780872864825
  • Democracy for the Few (9th edition, 2010) ISBN 9780495911265
  • God and His Demons (2010) ISBN 9781616141776
  • The Face of Imperialism: Responsibility-Taking in the Political World (2011) ISBN 9781594519185
  • Waiting for Yesterday: Pages from a Street Kid's Life (2013) ISBN 9781599540580
  • Profit Pathology and Other Indecencies (2015) ISBN 9781612056623

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

  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. p. 149. ISBN 978-0-87286-482-5.
  7. ^ a b c "Michael Parenti – The Humanities Institute – The Humanities Institute". Scripps CollegeScripps College. April 17, 2018. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  8. ^ "Christian Parenti". John Jay College of Criminal Justice. January 31, 2018. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  9. ^ Dirty Truths. City Lights Publishers. 1996. pp. 238–240. ISBN 9780872863170.
  10. ^ Dirty Truths. City Lights Publishers. 1996. p. 245. ISBN 9780872863170.
  11. ^ "Professor's Ouster Fought in Vermont". The New York Times. December 5, 1971.
  12. ^ Against Empire. City Lights Publishers. 1995. ISBN 9780872868618.
  13. ^ "Elections Results Archive". VT Elections Database.
  14. ^ Sanders, Bernie (1997). "You Have to Begin Somewhere". Outsider in the House.
  15. ^ Zeitlin, Matthew (June 13, 2019). "Bernie's Red Vermont". The New Republic. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  16. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Michael Parenti on Bernie Sanders". YouTube.
  17. ^ Parenti, Michael. "The State of the Discipline: One Interpretation of Everyone's Favorite Controversy". PS: Political Science & Politics. 16 (2): 189–196. S2CID 155444644. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  18. ^ "Michael Parenti". Project Censored. May 24, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  19. ^ Parenti, Michael. "The Michael Parenti Political Archive". Retrieved January 2, 2008.
  20. ^ "Political Scientist Michael Parenti To Speak At Muhlenberg". Muhlenberg College. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
  21. ^ "Democracy for the Few - 9th Edition". Cengage Group.
  22. ^ Pollan, Michael (April 6, 1986). "Capitalist Crusaders". The New York Times.
  23. ^ "Politics of the Press". The New York Times. May 4, 1986.
  24. ^ Parenti, Michael (1992). Make-Believe Media: The Politics of Entertainment. St. Martin's Press. p. vii.
  25. ^ Bergman, Tabe (January 1, 2019). ""Old-New" Directions in Political Communication: Taking Michael Parenti's Media Criticism as a Guide". Frontiers in Communication. 4. doi:10.3389/fcomm.2019.00023. ISSN 2297-900X.
  26. ^ Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism. City Lights Publishers. 1997. p. xiii. ISBN 9780872868199.
  27. ^ Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism. City Lights Publishers. 1997. pp. 45–53. ISBN 9780872868199.
  28. ^ "Worker's ice pick". The Anarchist Library. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  29. ^ Halpern, Max (November 9, 2023). "A Communist Review of Michael Parenti's Blackshirts and Reds". The Communist.
  30. ^ "Liberty Bound (2004)". BFI. Archived from the original on January 13, 2022. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  31. ^ "Fall and Winter on iTunes". iTunes. December 1, 2013. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  32. ^ "The Assassination of Julius Caesar". C-SPAN.org. July 28, 2023.
  33. ^ "The Stars of the Film – The Weight of Chains 2010 – - Boris Malagurski films". The Weight of Chains. September 18, 2019. Retrieved January 13, 2022.
  34. ^ "Penn & Teller: Dalai Lama and Tibet". YouTube. Retrieved July 17, 2024.
  35. ^ Manner, Lauri (June 14, 2001). "Choking Victim – No Gods / No Managers". Punknews.org. Retrieved January 13, 2022.

External links[edit]

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