"Looks back at the history of Posadism to explore why this largely discredited movement has elicited so much recent interest."—Art in America
 
Advocating nuclear war, attempting communication with dolphins, and taking an interest in the paranormal and UFOs, there is perhaps no greater (or stranger) cautionary tale for the Left than that of Posadism. Named after the Argentine Trotskyist J. Posadas, the movement’s journey through the fractious and sectarian world of mid-20th century revolutionary socialism was unique. This book is a “dumpster dive” into the weird and wonderful world of the Posadists.
 
Although at times significant, Posadas' movement was ultimately a failure. As it disintegrated, it increasingly grew to resemble a bizarre cult, detached from the working class it sought to liberate. The renewed interest in Posadism today, especially for its more outlandish fixations, speaks to both a cynicism towards the past and nostalgia for the earnest belief that a better world is possible. Chapters include:
 
*Revolutionary Youth or Patriotic Youth
*The Death Throes of Capitalism
*The Origins of Posadism
*Flying Saucers, the Process of Matter and Energy, Science, the Revolutionary and Working-Class Stuggle, and the Socialist Future of Mankind
*What Exists Cannot be True
*Why Don’t Extraterrestrials Make Public Contact
*UFOs to the People
 
In the Introduction, A.M. Gittlitz writes, “Insurrection or first contact could come any day, Marxists and ufologists both tell us, but both are far more likely if we desire them, embracing a sentiment enigmatically expressed in a meme come before its time, a poster on the wall of rouge FBI agent Fox Mulder in the ‘90s sci-fi noir The X-Files: hovering alongside a granny image of a comically unconvincingly flying saucer and the words I WANT TO BELIEVE".
 
Drawing on considerable archival research, and numerous interviews with ex- and current Posadists, I Want to Believe tells the fascinating story of this most unusual socialist movement and considers why it continues to capture the imaginations of leftists today.

Kawai Eijirō was a controversial figure in Japan during the interwar years. Dedicated to the idea that the socialist aspiration for economic equality could be combined with a classical liberal commitment to individual political and civil rights, he antagonized both Marxists and Japanese nationalists. He was hounded by the government as a leftist and brought to trial during World War II.

This is the first study of Kawai in English. Atsuko Hirai examines the family and school influences that contributed to the development of Kawai’s thought, and analyzes the manner in which the ideas of such Western philosophers as Kant, Hegel, John Stuart Mill, Marx, T. H. Green, and the British labor ideologues were absorbed into a receptive and creative East Asian mind. The events of Kawai’s life are intertwined with the development of his idealist political philosophy, all culminating in a trial of unprecedented scale.