Hello hello. As someone who's terminally online, I'll often come across rather detailed arguments between folks who consider themselves leftist over points like, say, property rights or electoralism. All of this feels halfway between interesting and arcane to me, and it makes me wonder about the origins of these arguments, and how these various schools of leftism distinguish themselves from one another.
I had thought there must be a glut of books on the market that do this, but to my surprise, I haven't been able to find anything published that fits the bill. The closest things I've found appear to be written from a right-wing perspective, and though it's certainly conceivable that such a breakdown would be fair and impartial, I'm not interested in reading about these concepts from a text making explicit value judgments about this stuff, positively or negatively, if at all possible.
So: Does anyone have any recommendations for a book (not a website) that compares the origins and beliefs of various schools of leftism?
Even though it’s not solely focused on the “left”, a book I read for my undergraduate degree was “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion” and it was fascinating. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it as a way to understand biases. If you’re looking for leftist political thought (American? European?), look at a university’s reading list for a political science class/history of socialism class, etc. Bibliographies will be your friend. It’ll be tedious, but you’ll have quality information and opinions of experts. Best of luck. ✌🏻