Suggested Readings to accompany
the production of
AN ILIAD
at the New York Theatre Workshop

 

Revolution Books’ reading lists for the New York Theatre Workshop plays will include books and DVD’s which illuminate the history and themes in the plays. We looked for companion novels, films and non-fiction works which reveal something about the deep-structure contradictions beneath the play’s plot/setting. The recommendations reflect RB’s purpose as a place to find the books and engagement about why the world is the way it is and how it could be radically changed. 

 

The Iliad by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles
This is the translation upon which AN ILIAD is based. Library Journal writes that "Fagles avoids the anachronizing of Robert Fitzgerald's translation, while being more literal than Richard Lattimore’s… it suggests the vigor and manner of the original while producing readable poetry in English.”  Paper, $17

 

Myths of the Ancient Greeks by Richard P. Martin (2003)
A clearly-presented introduction to the Greek myths, with maps of Ancient Greece. This book will help sort out the characters and the story being told in AN ILIAD. Professor Martin teaches Greek and Latin literature at Stanford Univ. Paper, $15

 

Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction by Helen Morales
A short essay on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome. An exploration of the role and power of myth in lived human experience that is dense and philosophical-- not a retelling of the myths. Includes a timeline - from 800 BC ("Early Greece") to 2007, plus a comprehensive reference section and further reading section.  From the Oxford University Press series.  Paper, $11.95

 

"Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State" by Frederick Engels
This famous volume by Engels’ was the first work to offer a materialist analysis of how the development of the productive forces created the basis for private property and classes in human society, spurring war (as well as the subjugation of women).    One chapter presents a brief history of ancient Greece situating it in the history of the emergence of classes. Paper, $10

“War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” by Chris Hedges (2002)
In this book written in 2002, Pulitzer-prize-winning correspondent Chris Hedges unfolds the horrors of war while making the argument that war holds an attraction because it allows people “to escape the banality of everyday life” and offers a “heroic” experience in a collective setting. He argues that war is inevitable and that he wrote the book to help people understand it. Hedges was a correspondent for the New York Times until 2005. He now writes weekly in Truthdig.com and appears in many other publications. He has taught at Columbia, NYU and Princeton. Revolution Books has 4 first edition hard cover copies donated and signed by the author. Hard cover, $25.00

 “Theater of War: In Which the Republic Becomes an Empire” by Lewis Lapham (2003)
Former Harpers’ magazine editor, Lewis Lapham challenged the “War on Terror” when few others in the mainstream media would.  “Lapham writes from a long and honorable tradition of speaking truth to power, and he is among the wittiest, most lucid stylists. . . "  -- Boston Globe      Paper,$14

 

“War and Peace” by V.I. Lenin  
Written 1914-1915, this essay by V.I. Lenin is a polemic against other the communist parties of that time who had reneged on their pledge to oppose their own governments in World War I and had instead joined with their ruling classes in supporting their respective “fatherlands."  Lenin: "It is not the business of [Communists] to help the younger and stronger robber (Germany) to rob the older and over-gorged robbers.  [Communists] must take advantage of the struggle between the robbers to overthrow them all.  To be able to do this, the [Communists] must first of all tell the people the truth, namely, that this war is in a treble sense a war between slave-owners to fortify slavery."   Lenin went on to lead the first proletarian revolution in October1917.  Paper, $8

“Problems of Strategy in China’s Revolutionary War,” from Selected Works of Mao Tsetung, Volume 1. (1936)
Mao wrote this essay in 1936 while leading the Red Army in a revolutionary civil war against the ruling Kuomingtang party who were then collaborating with the Japanese invasion of China. In 1949 when the Red Army won, Mao addressed a mass rally in Beijing declaring: “The Chinese people have stood up.”   Mao wrote in 1936: “History knows only two kinds of war, just and unjust.  We support just wars and oppose unjust wars.  When human society advances to the point where classes and states are eliminated, there will be no more wars, counter-revolutionary or revolutionary, just or unjust...”  Volume 1, $25 (rare)

To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, by Adam Hochschild  (2011)
World War I stands as history's first great imperialist world war, a war that also gave rise to the first communist revolution (in Russia).
In a riveting narrative with haunting echoes for our own time, historian Adam Hochschild focuses on Britain and the long-ignored moral drama of the war's brave critics up against the patriotic loyalists backed by the UK government’s “xenophobic torrent” of pro-war propaganda.  Washington Post: “Hochschild’s depiction of life in the trenches is so vivid that some readers may have difficulty stomaching it…”   Hard cover, signed by the author, $28

MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN, the play by Bertolt Brecht
Written in response to the Nazi invasion of Poland during World War 2, Brecht sets his play during the Thirty Years War in the 1600s in Europe. He follows Anna Fierling (Mother Courage), as she trails the armies across Europe, selling provisions from her canteen wagon amidst the carnage.  Frequently interpreted as a plucky pragmatist or even a heroine, Brecht’s Mother Courage is actually an object lesson in complicity-- how a poor peddler can get drawn into selling her soul in wars launched by and for the rich.
Paper, $11

DVD: "Theater of War" directed by John Walters (2010)
A documentary about the making of the Public Theater's 2006 production of MOTHER COURAGE, (performed in Central Park during the Iraq war). Interviews with actors Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, playwright Tony Kushner who did the new translation of the play, George C. Wolfe who directed it, and Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater. The film includes incredible archival footage of Brecht and recounts his escape from Hitler Germany to U.S. only to be hounded by the House Un-American Activities Committee. An exploration of the nature of theater, politics, war, and the human being's place in it all. "This film left me shaken, yet glad to be shook."-- a reviewer on Amazon      DVD, $29.95

Sand Queen, a novel by Helen Benedict (2011)
A novel that reveals the grotesque way the US empire wages war in the 21st century. Nineteen-year-old Kate Brady joined the army to bring honor to her family and democracy to the Middle East. Instead, she finds herself in a forgotten corner of the Iraq desert, guarding a makeshift American prison. There, Kate meets Naema Jassim, an Iraqi medical student whose father and little brother have been arrested and detained. Kate and Naema promise to help each other, but the stresses of war soon strain their intentions. “Ms. Benedict pulls off this audacious gambit because she is an exceptional writer and storyteller. Her gritty depiction of a soldier’s life in the Iraq desert is particularly well done. Sand Queen is powerful precisely because Helen Benedict is so pissed off.”—New York Journal of Books             

Benedict isthe author of five novels and five books of nonfiction. Sand Queen, is based on the research for her most recent nonfiction book, The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq. She is a professor of journalism at Columbia University.  Hardcover, signed by the author, $25

Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) by the Revolutionary Communist Party
This is a constitution intended as a basic model for governing a new society beginning Day 1 after the revolution in North America. On the question of war it says, in part:  “…in accordance with its internationalist orientation… the New Socialist Republic in North America renounces all wars of aggression and domination, and all occupation of other countries in pursuit of such domination and aggression, and will not station its forces, nor establish bases, in another country, except in circumstances where this is clearly in accord with the wishes of the masses of people in that country and where such action would actually be a manifestation of the internationalist orientation and other fundamental principles and objectives set forth in this Constitution and would contribute to the advance of revolutionary struggle in the world in accordance with these principles and objectives….The New Socialist Republic in North America will not develop, and will not use, nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction...”  Paper $8

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SAVE THE DATE! Sunday, March 11, 7:30pm
A panel discussion at Revolution Books on AN ILIAD with
DENIS O’HARE, LISA PETERSON, KATHLEEN CHALFANT and ANDY ZEE
More information to come.

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 REVOLUTION BOOKS  *   146 W. 26th Street  *   212-691-3345   *  revolutionbooksnyc.org