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The third part of our series on the IWW looks at the victorious battle to unionise steel — an industry dominated by migrant workers.

The Pass is a dark, emotional and claustrophobic insight into football shown through the eyes of Jason, a closeted footballer. Russell Tovey is excellent as Jason, especially as we see him initially as the cheeky, working class character he often plays in TV comedies such as Him and Her. However, this likeability soon diminishes. We...

Life, Animated is an award-winning film adapted from a book of the same name by Ron Suskind about his son, Owen. Owen is a young man with Autism Spectrum Condition. The film centres on the way that Owen’s lifelong special interest in Disney animated films has acted as a way for him to understand aspects...

“A good doctor controls their emotions in order to make a correct diagnosis.” This is the advice that young medic Jenny Davin tries to impress upon her intern Julien in the opening scenes of The Unknown Girl. Yet it is her barely suppressed emotions that drive Jenny into the obsessive mission at the heart of...

This is a fascinating, albeit flawed, account of science in Russia in the years before and after the 1917 Revolution. It is ambitious in scope, spanning the period from the revolution of 1905 to Stalin’s death in 1953, and covering topics as diverse as quantum mechanics, genetics, and psychology. One scientist mentioned in the book...

This book’s opening chapter, with its genesis of Marx’s vision of a socialist society, contains surprises. How many socialists know of the influence of William Thompson or John Bray, who promoted major elements of communism well before 1848 or the Paris Commune of 1871? Ranis goes on to assess struggles for worker-led cooperatives with rigour...

Grayson Perry has serious concerns about society in general and men in particular and this thought-provoking and engaging book lays them out clearly. Within the book he reveals his own youthful tendency towards smashing things in temper and how his broken home and violent stepfather caused him to flirt with joining the armed forces. Unfortunately,...

In this gripping political memoir Alfred Rosmer gives us a very clear, detailed look at what went on during his time in Moscow as a delegate to the Comintern and as a member of the executive committee to the Communist International, from 1920 through to Lenin’s death in 1924. The book begins with a useful...

This book presents a series of critical reflections on the faith and politics of Islam. In the process certain simplistic Western myths about Islam are also undermined. The book takes the form of interviews with Suleiman Mourad, Professor of Religion at Smith College, Massachusetts, conducted by historian Perry Anderson. The first section explores the composition...

Anyone who is feeling a little demoralised and frustrated by the lack of strikes in the UK should add this book to their Christmas list, and then make sure they take some time out to read it. Everyone knows about the booming Chinese economy, and many people know about the horrendous working conditions of those...

2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. This graphic novel is an accessible introduction to Russia’s “red year” and contributes to an important interpretation of the events. Most importantly, it puts working class people as the agents of their own change and is sprinkled with small but significant funny events that bring to...

Socialist Review contributors pick their literary and cultural highlights of 2016.