Ballbuster?: True Confessions of a Marxist Businessman [Paperback]

Bertell Ollman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 14, 2003

Bertell Ollman recounts the challenges of finding American distribution for his revolutionary board game Class Struggle (over 250,000 copies sold). His misadventures explode the myth of capitalism, showing the struggles small-business owners face. This revised edition updates readers on what has happened in Ollman’s life and work since 1983. “A delightfully well-written book that reveals the darker side of the entrepreneurial reaches for success.” — New York Daily News

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A delightfully well-written book that reveals the darker side of the entrepreneurial reaches for success." - New York Daily News

About the Author

Bertell Ollman is author and editor of many books on socialism, including the acclaimed Market Socialism: The Debate Among Socialists; How to Take an Exam...and Remake the World; Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society; and numerous others.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press; 2nd edition (January 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887128921
• ISBN-13: 978-1887128926
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,650,348 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and exhilarating memoir, March 4, 2008

By 

M. A. Krul (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ballbuster?: True Confessions of a Marxist Businessman (Paperback)

Bertell Ollman, now a professor of Political Science at NYU, wrote "Ballbuster" as a memoir detailing the period he spent as director of Class Struggle, Inc., a company aimed at producing and selling the Marxist board game "Class Struggle" that he (with others) designed. One would normally say that a Marxist businessman is a contradiction in terms, but as Ollman shows, this need not be true. As a modern day Friedrich Engels he and his fellow investors, all professors, lawyers and the like, build, develop and sell the board game.

Attempting to turn a profit while also selling as many games as possible, so that all across America and even beyond the term 'class struggle' might again become a household word, turns out to be a lot less simple than it seems. Moreover, it is, as one might expect, very hard to reconcile socialism with taking the position of the capitalist, so that Ollman gets mired more and more into the deep as the story progresses. The book contains all the details, from trying to advocate socialism at the New York Chamber of Commerce to dealing with strikes and unionization getting in the way of the game, and there's even a movie contract involved. At the same time, Ollman was fighting a lawsuit against his former employer, the University of Maryland, who had unconstitutionally denied him the chairmanship of the Poli Sci department because of his political views, and against rightist journalists Novack and Evans, who had libelled him over the case.

The combination of the difficulties of being a small business owner and trying to maintain a socialist good conscience as well as fighting a series of expensive and difficult lawsuits makes Ollman's relationships and personal mental health more and more strained. The vagaries of the market take their toll, and Ollman and his friends increasingly get in over their head as the situation spins out of control. But what makes this book so strong is Ollman's good humor and the intelligent observations, even taking time in between to write considerations on why socialists so often appear dour and humorless, and the possibilities of radical humor to be effective - something the game Class Struggle set out to do.

It is much worthwhile reading this book, both for people with broad socialist sympathies as for anyone who has or had a small business.