Assassination of Julius Caesar fucking rules, everybody should check it out.

Not only does it deconstruct older, bourgeois historiographies about Rome and explain why it is that Rome is mythologized the way it is in the west, it uses ancient Rome as a model to understand how the interests of oligarchs converge with those of the (oligarch-run) state. Comparing the US with Rome is cliche at this point but Parenti uses historical materialism to make it actually useful. Once you read it you'll understand why reformism is a dead end; Caesar was a dyed-in-the-wool imperialist oligarch who understood that the contradictions in Roman society needed to be eased by some minor wealth redistribution and even that was so repulsive to his colleagues that they personally killed him with their own hands. What chance do AOCIA or Bernie or whomever the radlib flavour of the month stand?