Bøger udgivet af Verso Books

The industrial revolution, which transformed 19th-century labour, brought about fundamental changes in the lives of working-class families. This book examines in detail the ways in which large-scale economic changes shape the microcosm of personal life.

Kathy Acker was one of the original, subversive and influential writers of the late 20th century. This is a collection of essays on Acker's work, including Peter Wollen's primer, and Avital Ronell's meditation on friendship and mourning. It reveals his project, and the ways in which fiction can penetrate the heart of political and cultural life.

A war that has killed over a million Iraqis was a ';humanitarian intervention', the US army is a force for liberation, and the main threat to world peace is posed by Islam.Those are the arguments of a host of liberal commentators, ranging from Christopher Hitchens to Kanan Makiya, Michael Ignatieff, Paul Berman, and Bernard-Henri Levy. In this critical intervention, Richard Seymour unearths the history of liberal justifications for empire, showing how savage policies of conquestincluding genocide and slaveryhave been retailed as charitable missions.From the Cold War to the War on Terror, Seymour argues that the colonial tropes of ';civilization' and ';progress' still shape liberal pro-war discourse, and still conceal the same bloody realities.

Discusses US-Latin relations in the 1950s. Drawing equally on cultural and political materials, Van Gosse investigates the alliance of North American intellectuals, old leftists and rebellious youth which came together through the inspiration of Fidel Castro's revolutionary guerillas.

The essays collected in this volume develop the theoretical perspective initiated in Laclau and Mouffe's Hegemony and Socialist Strategy in three main directions. First, by exploring the specificity of social antagonisms and answering the question ';What is an antagonistic relation?', an issue which has become increasingly crucial in our globalized world, where the proliferation of conflicts and points of rupture is eroding their links to the social subjects postulated by classical social analysis. This leads the author to a second line of questioning: what is the ontological terrain that allows us to conceive the nature of social relations in our heterogeneous world, a task that he addresses with theoretical instruments coming from analytical philosophy and from the phenomenological and structuralist traditions. Finally, central to the argument of the book is the basic role attributed to rhetorical movements metaphor, metonymy, catachresis in shaping the ';non-foundational' grounds of society.

For Alain Badiou, theatreunlike cinemais the place for the staging of a truly emancipatory collective subject. In this sense theatre is, of all the arts, the one strictly homologous to politics: both theatre and politics depend on a limited set of texts or statements, collectively enacted by a group of actors or militants, which put a limit on the excessive power of the state. This explains why the history of theatre has always been inseparable from a history of state repression and censorship.This definitive collection includes not only Badious pamphlet Rhapsody for the Theatre but also essays on Jean-Paul Sartre, on the political destiny of contemporary theatre, and on Badious own work as a playwright, as author of the Ahmed Tetralogy.

Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability argues for a rethinking of comparative literature focusing on the problems that emerge when large-scale paradigms of literary studies ignore the politics of the ';Untranslatable'the realm of those words that are continually retranslated, mistranslated, transferred from language to language, or especially resistant to substitution.In the place of ';World Literature'a dominant paradigm in the humanities, one grounded in market-driven notions of readability and universal appealApter proposes a plurality of ';world literatures' oriented around philosophical concepts and geopolitical pressure points. The history and theory of the language that constructs World Literature is critically examined with a special focus on Weltliteratur, literary world systems, narrative ecosystems, language borders and checkpoints, theologies of translation, and planetary devolution in a book set to revolutionize the discipline of comparative literature.

Revolutionary novelist, historian, anarchist, Bolshevik and dissidentVictor Serge is one of the most compelling figures of Soviet history. Set against some of the momentous events of the twentieth century, Victor Serge reveals dauntless vigor of a man whose views often reflect the struggles of our own time.

Often controversial, the "London Review of Books" informs and entertains its readers with a fortnightly dose of all things cultural. Bringing together some of the choicest pieces from recent years, this anthology presents contemporary discursive journalism.

With The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class, Kees van der Pijl put class formation at the heart of our understanding of world politics and the global economy. This landmark study dissects one of the most decisive phenomena of the twentieth centurythe rise of an Atlantic ruling class of multinational banks and corporations. A new preface by the author evaluates the book's significance in the light of recent political and economic developments.

Verso Counterblast on the philosopher, or 'crass booby', Bernard Henri Levy.

The Conspiracy is the last and most acclaimed novel by French writer and activist Paul Nizan, who died two years after its publication fighting the Germans at the Battle of Dunkirk. Hailed by Jean-Paul Sartre as Nizan's masterpiece, the book centers upon the figure of Bertrand Rosenthal, a misguided philosophy student studying in pre-war Paris. Eager to foment a revolution and having little grasp of his own motives, Rosenthal draws a small group of disciples into a conspiracy both fatuous and deadly. Simultaneously, he plunges into a forbiddenand ultimately tragiclove affair as the intertwined plots move inexorably toward their twin destinations of betrayal and death.The Conspiracy won the coveted Prix Interalli in 1938. This new edition includes Walter Benjamin's critique of the book, available here for the first time in English.

Mass protest movements in disparate places such as Greece,Argentina, and the United States ultimately share an agendatoraise the question of what democracy should mean. These horizontalistmovements, including Occupy, exercise and claim participatorydemocracy as the ground of revolutionary social change today.Written by two international activist intellectuals and based on extensiveinterviews with movement participants in Spain, Venezuela,Argentina, across the United States, and elsewhere, this book is anexpansive portrait of the assemblies, direct democracy forums, andorganizational forms championed by the new movements, as wellas an analytical history of direct and participatory democracy fromancient Athens to Zuccotti Park. The new movements put forwardthe idea that liberal democracy is not democratic, nor was it ever.

A comprehensive analysis of the philosophy of the dialectic by the doyen of cultural criticism.

This illustrated guide to the changing architecture of London argues that new developments are a deliberate distraction from the city's economic and political problems.

Leading commentators examine the Afghan debacle and its parallels with previous British and Soviet occupations

An analysis of the discourse of victimhood in Judaism.

Presents an historical examination of Christianity in an attempt to find its social roots. This book offers a detailed study of the Bible and its long standing fascination for 'ordinary and unimportant' people.

Examines the ideology and literature behind the colonization of Palestine, from the late nineteenth century onwards. Exploring Zionism's origins in Central-Eastern European nationalism and settler movements, this title shows how its texts can be placed within a discourse of western colonization.

Confronts the great machinery of deception in which we live, and which threatens to destroy our civilization. In particular, the author takes to task a group of prominent intellectuals who have exaggerated the threat posed by the so-called forces of unreason - religion, postmodernism and other "mumbo-jumbo".

Presents an argument as to how the changes of the late twentieth century have altered Enlightenment notions of "emancipation."

A biography of Theroigne de Mericourt, a woman who fought for the French revolution, was rejected by fellow-revolutionaries and went mad, ending her days in an asylum. The author uses her life to reflect on the role of women in politics and contemporary attitudes towards madness.

Written by a Communications Officer for the train-drivers'union ASLEF, this volume exposes the history of mismanagement of Britain's rail network since privatization. A new afterword brings the story up to date, including details on the Potter's Bar accident.

This study serves as a survey of analytical Marxists' contributions to the understanding of historical materialism, exploitation, class structure, method, politics and ethics - which Marcus Roberts brings right up to date with some considerations on John Roemer's recent work on models of socialism.

In this clearly argued book, Rowlands argues that it is simply unjust to harm animals. As conscious beings, they have interests that cannot be disregarded. Using principles of justice, he argues that animals have moral rights and examines the consequences of this claim.

This volume focuses on women whose lives are entangled in the workings of the Mafia, drawing on courtroom testimonies, interviews, contemporary journalism and recent research. Individual narratives illuminate women's experiences, both as victims or active opponents.

Bestselling investigation into the myth and reality of working-class life in contemporary Britain

An unprecedented collection of feminist voices from four millennia of global history