N e w F r o m V e r s o Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere The New Global Revolutions PAUL MASON In this compelling new book, Paul Mason explores the causes and consequences of this great unrest. From Cairo to Athens, Wall Street and Westminster to Manila, Mason goes in search of the changes in society, technology and human behaviour that have propelled a generation onto the streets in search of social justice. In a narrative that blends historical insight with first-person reportage, Mason shines a light on these new forms of activism, from the vast, agile networks of cyberprotest to the culture wars and tent camps of the Occupy movement. The events, says Mason, reflect the expanding power of the individual and call for new political alternatives to elite rule and global poverty. “The writing style of this reportage is compact, urgent, present-tense, declarative, and addictive.” Andy Beckett, Guardian “He’s lively, funny and engaging, trading in the energy derived from the thrill and significance of what he’s witnessing.” Phil Harrison, Time Out Paperback / 978 1 84467 851 8 / £12.99/$19.95 / 244 pages / January 2012
The Metamorphoses of Kinship MAURICE GODELIER With marriage in decline, divorce on the rise, the demise of the nuclear family, and the increase in marriages and adoptions among same-sex partners, it is clear that the structures of kinship in the modern West are in a state of flux. In The Metamorphoses of Kinship, the worldrenowned anthropologist Maurice Godelier contextualizes these developments, surveying the accumulated experience of humanity with regard to such phenomena as the organisation of lines of descent, sexuality and sexual prohibitions. “This is a blockbuster of a book. Nothing like it has been written since Levi-Strauss’s Structures élémentaires de la parenté (1949) or Meyer Fortes’s Kinship and the Social Order (1969). Yet in the sweep of its evidence and argument, Godelier’s summa is more ambitious and far-reaching than either of these. It is at once a major intervention in the discipline of anthropology, and a work of the widest human interest ... The book is both a monument of scholarship and a gripping set of reflections on universal experience. It is certain to be read and discussed for years to come.” Jack Goody, New Left Review Hardback / 978 1 84467 746 7 / £30.00/$49.95 / 654 pages / April 2012
Rebel Cities From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution DAVID HARVEY Long before the Occupy movement, modern cities had already become the central sites of revolutionary politics, where the deeper currents of social and political change rise to the surface. Consequently, cities have been the subject of much utopian thinking. But at the same time they are also the centers of capital accumulation and the frontline for struggles over who controls access to urban resources and who dictates the quality and organisation of daily life. Is it the financiers and developers, or the people? “David Harvey provoked a revolution in his field and has inspired a generation of radical intellectuals.” Naomi Klein “Harvey is a scholarly radical; his writing is free of journalistic clichés, full of facts and carefully thought-through ideas.” Richard Sennett Hardback / 978 1 84467 882 2 / £12.99/$19.95 / 206 pages / April 2012
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The Faith of the Faithless SIMON CRITCHLEY The return to religion has perhaps become the dominant cliché of contemporary theory, which rarely offers anything more than an exaggerated echo of a political reality dominated by religious war. Somehow, the secular age seems to have been replaced by a new era, where political action flows directly from metaphysical conflict. The Faith of the Faithless asks how we might respond Following Critchley’s Infinitely Demanding, this new book builds on its philosophical and political framework, also venturing into the questions of faith, love, religion and violence. “A thoughtful, illuminating exploration…erudite and measured.” Publisher’s Weekly “[A] movingly optimistic work...’Everything to be true must become a religion,’ Wilde says, and Critchley, poetically and persuasively, suggests ways in which this might be accomplished. ” Stuart Kelly, The Guardian “[A] sustained and fascinating reflection on the place of religion in political discourse.” Giles Fraser, The New Statesman Hardback / 978 1 84467 737 5 / £16.99/$22.95 / 302 pages / February 2012
The Imperial Messenger Thomas Friedman at Work BELÉN FERNÁNDEZ “Filleting the silliest man on the planet needs a sure scalpel, and Belén Fernández wields hers with deadly finesse.” Alexander Cockburn, editor of CounterPunch Paperback / 978 1 84467 749 8 £9.99/$16.95 / 204 pages / November 2011
The Impostor BHL in Wonderland JADE LINDGAARD and XAVIER DE LA PORTE “Cruel enough to be funny, serious enough to be credible ... The angle and method of the two journalists has the merit of simplicity: to take Bernard-Henri Lévy at face value, in other words to read his books, articles, interviews, to watch his films, to listen to his public talks and interventions in the media.” Télérama Paperback / 978 1 84467 748 1 £9.99/$16.95 / 288 pages / February 2012
Michael Ignatieff The Lesser Evil? DERRICK O’KEEFE “This is an important book that anyone who cares about Canada’s political future should own and read.” The Columbia Journal Paperback / 978 1 84467 615 6 £9.99/$16.95 / 192 pages / November 2011
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Dispatches from the Dark Side On Torture and the Death of Justice GARETH PEIRCE “The great theme of her book and, arguably, her professional life too [is] that justice dies when the law is co-opted for political purposes.” Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian “A timely reminder of the darker side of lawlessness in freedom’s name.” Shami Chakrabarti, The Observer “An antidote to the current propaganda.” John Pilger, New Statesman Paperback / 978 1 84467 759 7 / £7.99/$14.95 / 154 pages / February 2012
Introduction to Antiphilosophy BORIS GROYS “One of the most astute commentators on the art scene today.” New Left Review “Groys has claimed a defining role in the reception of the Russian avant-garde” Radical Philosophy Hardback / 978 1 84467 756 6 £16.99/$26.95 / 272 pages / April 2012
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Cities Under Siege The New Military Urbanism STEPHEN GRAHAM “Look, you’re just going to have to read this book... after a while you begin to wonder whether books like this will be allowed to be published for much longer. ” Nicholas Lezard, Guardian “An agit-prop classic” Glasgow Herald Paperback / 978 1 84467 00762 7 £14.99/$26.95 / 432 pages / November 2011
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