Change the World Without Taking Power: the meaning of revolution today John Holloway Pluto Press, 277pp, £17.99 ISBN 0745324665 Our Hidden Lives Simon Garfield Ebury Press, 536pp, £6.99

John Holloway's Change the World Without Taking Power has become the bible of anti-capitalist activists across the world. The language is impenetrable at times, but it's fascinating to read a defence of Marxism in 2005.

The revised edition includes an epilogue that takes in the events of 9/11, the war on terror and the Iraq invasion. It's a million miles away from new Labour: "that capitalism is a catastrophe for humanity becomes more obvious every day". By way of contrast, Simon Garfield's Our Hidden Lives is an oral history of the years of austerity just after the Second World War. Not strictly speaking a book about politics, it nevertheless gives the context to the postwar political consensus that still profoundly affects the way we live today.

Extract from Change the World Without Taking Power

"What on earth do we do?. . .That capitalism is a catastrophe for humanity becomes more obvious every day. Bush, Blair, Iraq, Israel, Sudan and the slaughter and the torture. Our scream has intensified over the last couple of years. 'Am raging and incandescent and very frustrated because I can't figure out where to put all this anger.' A letter from a friend expresses the frustration of millions.

The rage is silent and also vociferous. It is embittered, furious frustration but it is also Argentina and Bolivia and the anti-war movement with its demonstrations of millions. A movement of movements, a cacophony of movements."

Extract from Our Hidden Lives

Thursday, 14 February 1946
Maggie Joy Blunt
"Yesterday I tasted banana again. One of the girls brought sandwiches and gave us all a portion. I have seen them about. A young girl in a cinema queue near me the other day was holding one in her hand. The children are getting them. But I have heard of one or two of the very young ones who have never seen a banana before - who are frightened of them. I suppose that adults have been talking about them so much that the children have the idea there is something mysterious or magical about them. Their shape, colour and characteristics are all strange, too - there is no other fruit comparable to them. One little boy had his banana brought to him as a special treat when he was in bed. It was ready peeled but he would not eat it until the light was turned out.

Mrs Mop didn't come this morning. Last week she left the place looking extra specially tidy and bright, and I only hope now it was not a 'fare- well do'."

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