Or books us (517 Ergebnisse)

Paperback. Zustand: New. Long treated as a moral icon, Gandhi remains one of the most demanding and misunderstood political thinkers of the modern era.There is much that will surprise in these pages : Mahatma Gandhi was not a pacifist; he believed in the right of those being attacked to strike back and regarded inaction as a result of cowardice to be a greater sin than even the most ill-considered aggression. Gandhi's calls for the sacrifice of lives in order to shame the oppressor into concessions can easily seem chilling and ruthless.Drawing on extensive readings of Gandhi's copious oeuvre, Norman Finkelstein sets out, in clear and concise language, the basic principles of Gandhi's approach and applies this thinking to the Israel-Palestine conflict.The wave of protest movements that gathered force in the early 2010s-from Occupy to the uprisings that inspired it- renewed global attention to Gandhi's work on nonviolent resistance, articulated during the struggle for Indian independence and later echoed in Tahrir Square, Puerta del Sol, and Zuccotti Park. Yet admiration for Gandhi's influence has often obscured the rigor and severity of his thinking.This book confronts that gap directly, examining Gandhi's insistence on courage as an active and demanding virtue, his rejection of passivity and moral evasion, and his belief that resistance must be judged by its consequences in human lives. Central to this argument is Gandhi's conviction that peaceful resistance, however exacting, is ultimately less costly in human terms than armed opposition, and that the role of a protest movement is not to persuade people of something new but to compel them to act on behalf of what they already accept as right.In doing so, it restores the sharp political edge of Gandhi's thought and demonstrates its continuing relevance to contemporary struggles for justice and democracy.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. . A police officer kills a twelve-year-old boy. It's caught on video. The officer gets off. A police officer strangles a man selling cigarettes. It's caught on video. The officer gets off. A police officer shoots a man in his car. It's live-streamed. The officer gets off.It happens over and over again. The culprit here, alongside the cops, is Qualified Immunity (QI), a legal principle which Reuters describes as "a nearly failsafe tool to let police brutality go unpunished and deny victims their constitutional rights."Originally intended to protect cops from being sued over good faith mistakes, courts have interpreted QI so broadly that police are shielded from accountability in all but the rarest of circumstances. Only when the exact same abusive behavior was already deemed unconstitutional by a court in the exact same jurisdiction can victims succeed in a prosecution.Above the Law recounts 12 cases in which justice was denied because of QI. The stories are accompanied by infographics, timelines, and contextualizing background to create a concise and compelling indictment of an outrageously unjust legal principle that must be changed.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. We all know the book: it's been hailed as one of the most important documents on how the world economy works, or doesn't work, and it's been a colossal bestseller since it first appeared in 2014, with more than 1.5 million copies sold. Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century makes a powerful case that wealth, and accumulated wealth, tends to stay where it lands: and with the passage of time, just gets bigger. and bigger. But how many of us who bought or borrowed the book-or even, perhaps, reviewed it-have read more than a fraction of its 696 pages? How many more shuddered at the thought of committing $40 to such a venture? And how many of Piketty's groundshaking concepts have gone unappreciated, all for want of intellectual stamina?Deliverance is at hand in the form of Pocket Piketty, written in clear and accessible prose by an experienced economist and teacher-and one whose work was relied on by Piketty for his masterpiece. In this handy and slim volume, Jesper Roine explains all things Piketty.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. "You walk into Thoughts and Prayers like it's a familiar pop cultural fun house-then you get drawn into one of the mirrors and find you're actually deep in someplace very real: fleshy, frightening, full of anguished intelligence and bitter fun." -Mary GaitskillThoughts and Prayers is a beautiful and startling volume of poetry about our political existence. With both humor and luminosity, it gets at the personal and collective emotional experience of American public life, from the 1970s to the 1990s Democrats, through the collapse of the news industry, to the burlesque Trump era.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. Long treated as a moral icon, Gandhi remains one of the most demanding and misunderstood political thinkers of the modern era.There is much that will surprise in these pages : Mahatma Gandhi was not a pacifist; he believed in the right of those being attacked to strike back and regarded inaction as a result of cowardice to be a greater sin than even the most ill-considered aggression. Gandhi's calls for the sacrifice of lives in order to shame the oppressor into concessions can easily seem chilling and ruthless.Drawing on extensive readings of Gandhi's copious oeuvre, Norman Finkelstein sets out, in clear and concise language, the basic principles of Gandhi's approach and applies this thinking to the Israel-Palestine conflict.The wave of protest movements that gathered force in the early 2010s-from Occupy to the uprisings that inspired it- renewed global attention to Gandhi's work on nonviolent resistance, articulated during the struggle for Indian independence and later echoed in Tahrir Square, Puerta del Sol, and Zuccotti Park. Yet admiration for Gandhi's influence has often obscured the rigor and severity of his thinking.This book confronts that gap directly, examining Gandhi's insistence on courage as an active and demanding virtue, his rejection of passivity and moral evasion, and his belief that resistance must be judged by its consequences in human lives. Central to this argument is Gandhi's conviction that peaceful resistance, however exacting, is ultimately less costly in human terms than armed opposition, and that the role of a protest movement is not to persuade people of something new but to compel them to act on behalf of what they already accept as right.In doing so, it restores the sharp political edge of Gandhi's thought and demonstrates its continuing relevance to contemporary struggles for justice and democracy.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. "You walk into Thoughts and Prayers like it's a familiar pop cultural fun house-then you get drawn into one of the mirrors and find you're actually deep in someplace very real: fleshy, frightening, full of anguished intelligence and bitter fun." -Mary GaitskillThoughts and Prayers is a beautiful and startling volume of poetry about our political existence. With both humor and luminosity, it gets at the personal and collective emotional experience of American public life, from the 1970s to the 1990s Democrats, through the collapse of the news industry, to the burlesque Trump era.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. A collection with a feminist ethos that cuts across race, gender identity, and sexuality.Creative activists have reacted to the 2016 Presidential election in myriad ways. Editors Danielle Barnhart and Iris Mahan have drawn on their profound knowledge of the poetry scene to put together an extraordinary list of poets taking a feminist stance against the new authority. What began as an informal collaboration of like-minded poets-to be released as a handbound chapbook-has grown into something far more substantial and ambitious: a fully fledged anthology of women's resistance, with a portion of proceeds supporting Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights.Representing the complexity and diversity of contemporary womanhood and bolstering the fight against racism, sexism, and violence, this collection unites powerful new writers, performers, and activists with established poets. Contributors include Denice Frohman, Elizabeth Acevedo, Sandra Beasley, Jericho Brown, Mahogany L. Browne, Danielle Chapman, Tyehimba Jess, Kimberly Johnson, Jacqueline Jones LaMon, Maureen N. McLane, Joyce Peseroff, Mary Ruefle, Trish Salah, Patricia Smith, Anne Waldman, and Rachel Zucker.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. Jeremy Corbyn and Len McCluskey collaborated to help achieve the biggest electoral success for socialism in recent British history. The two men share a passionate belief in a fairer, more equal Britain, encapsulated in Labour's election slogan "For the many, not the few."That slogan, inspired by Shelley's famous poem The Masque of Anarchy, points to something else the two have in common: a lifelong enthusiasm for poetry. In this sparkling anthology they discuss the poems that have moved and enlightened them. Their choices travel over centuries and continents, with poets ranging from Shakespeare and Juana de la Cruz, through William Blake and Emily Dickinson, to Bertolt Brecht, Stevie Smith and Linton Kwesi Johnson.Rounding out the collection are appreciations of poems selected by guest contributors Melissa Benn, Rob Delaney, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Ken Loach, Morag Livingstone, Francesca Martinez, Karie Murphy, Maxine Peake, Michael Rosen, Alexei Sayle and Gary Younge.With the burgeoning popularity of poetry, especially among Gen Z, this joyful celebration of the power of verse is bound to delight and inspire across a wide audience.All royalties from sales of this book will be donated to the Peace and Justice Project.…

Paperback. Zustand: New.

Paperback. Zustand: New. Simon Critchley first encountered David Bowie in the early seventies, when the singer appeared on Britain's most-watched music show, Top of the Pops. His performance of "Starman" mesmerized Critchley: it was "so sexual, so knowing, so strange." Two days later Critchley's mum bought a copy of the single; she liked both the song and the performer's bright orange hair (she had previously been a hairdresser). The seed of a lifelong love affair was thus planted in the mind of her son, aged 12.In this concise and engaging excursion through the songs of one of the world's greatest pop stars, Critchley, whose writings on philosophy have garnered widespread praise, melds personal narratives of how Bowie lit up his dull life in southern England's suburbs with philosophical forays into the way concepts of authenticity and identity are turned inside out in Bowie's work. The result is nearly as provocative and mind-expanding as the artist it portrays.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. Cypherpunks are activists who advocate the widespread use of strong cryptography (writing in code) as a route to progressive change. Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of and visionary behind WikiLeaks, has been a leading voice in the cypherpunk movement since its inception in the 1980s.Now, in what is sure to be a wave-making new book, Assange brings together a small group of cutting-edge thinkers and activists from the front line of the battle for cyber-space to discuss whether electronic communications will emancipate or enslave us. Among the topics addressed are: Do Facebook and Google constitute the greatest surveillance machine that ever existed," perpetually tracking our location, our contacts and our lives? Far from being victims of that surveillance, are most of us willing collaborators? Are there legitimate forms of surveillance, for instance in relation to the Four Horsemen of the Infopocalypse" (money laundering, drugs, terrorism and pornography)? And do we have the ability, through conscious action and technological savvy, to resist this tide and secure a world where freedom is something which the Internet helps bring about?The harassment of WikiLeaks and other Internet activists, together with attempts to introduce anti-file sharing legislation such as SOPA and ACTA, indicate that the politics of the Internet have reached a crossroads. In one direction lies a future that guarantees, in the watchwords of the cypherpunks, privacy for the weak and transparency for the powerful"; in the other lies an Internet that allows government and large corporations to discover ever more about internet users while hiding their own activities. Assange and his co-discussants unpick the complex issues surrounding this crucial choice with clarity and engaging enthusiasm.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. The World Cup is here, but what function does a worldwide tournament play in an increasingly belligerent police state, with Donald Trump at the helm?Publishing on the eve of the soccer World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, this concise, power-packed philippic provides a critical take on the dark underbelly of the beautiful game at its most storied moment.At the heart of this analysis by acclaimed sportswriter and scholar Jules Boykoff, who himself played soccer professionally, is the concept of sportswashing, where political leaders use sports to stoke nationalism and legitimize themselves on the world stage, deflecting from chronic problems at home. Step forward the recipient of the newly cast FIFA Peace Prize, Donald J. Trump, a titan unrivaled in squeegeeing every drop of personal wealth and prestige from hosting the competition. In this, he is ably assisted by a governing body of global soccer dripping in patronage and corruption.In these pages Boykoff demonstrates that it is possible to simultaneously treasure the skills and athleticism displayed on the pitch while lamenting their exploitation by malevolent powerbrokers for whom love of the game means nothing next to turning a buck or harvesting prestige. And, as Red Card so skillfully shows, this bait and switch is not confined to soccer. Precisely the same legerdemain will be used to distract and enrich when the Olympic Games come to Los Angeles two years from now.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. "If I must die, let it bring hope, let it be a tale."This rich, elegiac compilation of work from the late Palestinian poet and professor, Refaat Alareer, brings together his marvelous poetry and deeply human writing about literature, teaching, politics, and family. The renowned poet and literature professor Refaat Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City alongside his brother, sister, and nephews in December 2023. He was just forty-four years old, but had already established a worldwide reputation that was further enhanced when, in the wake of his death, the poem that gives this book its title became a global sensation. "If I Must Die" is included here, alongside Refaat's other poetry.Refaat wrote extensively about a range of topics: teaching Shakespeare and the way Shylock could be appreciated by young Palestinian students; the horrors of living under repeated brutal assaults in Gaza, one of which, in 2014, killed another of his brothers; and the generosity of Palestinians to each other, fighting, in the face of it all, to be the one paying at the supermarket checkout.Such pieces, some never before published, have been curated here by one of Refaat's closest friends and collaborators. This collection forms a fitting testament to a remarkable writer, educator, and activist, one whose voice will not be silenced by death but will continue to assert the power of learning and humanism in the face of barbarity.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. As we emerge (though perhaps only temporarily) from the pandemic, other crises move center stage: outrageous inequality, climate disaster, desperate refugees, mounting tensions of a new cold war. The abiding motif of our time is relentless chaos.Acknowledging the possibilities for new beginnings at such moments, Mao Zedong famously proclaimed "There is great disorder under heaven; the situation is excellent." The contemporary relevance of Mao's observation depends on whether today's catastrophes can be a catalyst for progress or have passed over into something terrible and irretrievable. Perhaps the disorder is no longer under, but in heaven itself.Characteristically rich in paradoxes and reversals that entertain as well as illuminate, Slavoj Zizek's new book treats with equal analytical depth the lessons of Rammstein and Corbyn, Morales and Orwell, Lenin and Christ. It excavates universal truths from local political sites across Palestine and Chile, France and Kurdistan, and beyond.Heaven In Disorder looks with fervid dispassion at the fracturing of the Left, the empty promises of liberal democracy, and the tepid compromises offered by the powerful. From the ashes of these failures, Zizek asserts the need for international solidarity, economic transformation, and-above all-an urgent, "wartime" communism.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing tells the story of a hyper-observant, politically-minded, but humorously pragmatic weed dealer who has spent a working life compiling rules for how to a) make money and b) avoid prison.Each rule shapes a chapter of this fast-paced outlaw tale, all delivered in his deliciously trenchant argot. Here are a few of them:No guns but keep shooters.Stay behind the white guy.Don't snitch.Always have a job.Be multi-sourced.Get your money and get out.Part edge-of-the-seat suspense story, part how-to manual in the tradition of The Anarchist Cookbook, The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing is as scintillating as it is subversive. Just reading it feels illegal.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. The WikiLeaks publisher and free speech campaigner Julian Assange has, since April 2019, been remanded at a maximum security prison in London facing extradition to the United States over WikiLeaks' groundbreaking 2010 publications. Now, in this crisp anthology, Assange's voice emerges - erudite, analytic and prophetic.Julian Assange In His Own Words provides a highly accessible survey of Assange's philosophy and politics, conveying his views on how governments, corporations, intelligence agencies and the media function. As well as addressing the significance of the vast trove of leaked documents published by WikiLeaks, Assange draws on a polymathic intelligence to range freely over quantum physics, Greek mythology, macroeconomics, modern literature, and empires old and new.Drawing on his insights as the world's most famous free speech activist Assange invites us to ask further questions about how power operates in a world increasingly dominated by a ubiquitous internet.Assange may be gagged, but in these pages his words run free, providing both an exhortation to fight for a better world and an inspiration when doing so.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. In a characteristically explosive barrage, Ljubljana's most famous philosopher takes a passionate stance on the war in Ukraine, surveys the latest Hollywood blockbusters, and delivers detonations into a range of contemporary issues, from sexual politics in India to the prospects for a new Cold War. Ever attentive to moments where the bizarre and the epic join forces, among the questions Zizek considers here are: Is the giant orgy, planned to take place in Ukraine in the event of a Russian nuclear attack, really all that morbid? And what should society do, whether on the big screen or the battlefield, in preparation for the end of the world?Agree with him or not, Zizek rarely fails to provoke in a productive fashion. By examining matters through a lens that is bold and original, and often joyfully outlandish, Zizek helps us to better grasp a world in which, increasingly, the dominant motif is one of madness.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. Much has been written In English about the experiences and treatment of immigrants from south of the Rio Grande once they have entered the United States. But this account, by the itinerant, effervescent and highly original journalist Belén Fernández, offers a different and wholly original take. Belén Fernández shows us what life is like for would-be migrants, not just from the Mexican side of the border but inside Siglo XXI, the notorious migrant detention center in the south of the country.Journalists are prohibited from entering Siglo XXI; Fernández only gained access because she herself was detained as a result of faulty paperwork when she attempted to return to the US to renew her passport. Once inside the facility, Fernández was able to speak with detained women from Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, Bangladesh, and beyond. Their stories, detailing the hardships that prompted them to leave their homes, and the dangers they have experienced on an often-tortuous journey north, form the core of this unique book. The companionship and support they offer to Fernández, whose antipathy to returning to the United States, the country they are desperate to enter, is a source of bemusement and perplexity, demonstrates a spirited generosity that is deeply moving.In the end, the Siglo XXI center emerges as a strikingly precise metaphor for a 21st century in which poor people, effectively imprisoned by American political and economic policies, nevertheless display astonishing resilience.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. "Racism is like a Cadillac, they bring out a new model every year."- Malcolm X (a former auto worker)Written in a lively, accessible fashion and drawing extensively on interviews with people who were formerly incarcerated, Cars and Jails examines how the costs of car ownership and use are deeply enmeshed with the U.S. prison system.American consumer lore has long held the automobile to be a "freedom machine," consecrating the mobility of a free people. Yet, paradoxically, the car also functions at the cross-roads of two great systems of entrapment and immobility- the American debt economy and the carceral state.Cars and Jails investigates this paradox, showing how auto debt, traffic fines, over-policing, and automated surveillance systems work in tandem to entrap and criminalize poor people. The authors describe how racialization and poverty take their toll on populations with no alternative, in a country poorly served by public transport, to taking out loans for cars and exposing themselves to predatory and often racist policing.Looking skeptically at the frothy promises of the "mobility revolution," Livingston and Ross close with thought-provoking ideas for a radical overhaul of transportation.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. Russia's brutal February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has attracted widespread condemnation across the West. Government and media circles present the conflict as a simple dichotomy between an evil empire and an innocent victim. In this concise, accessible and highly informative primer, Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies insist the picture is more complicated. Yes, Russia's aggression was reckless and, ultimately, indefensible. But the West's reneging on promises to halt eastward expansion of NATO in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union played a major part in prompting Putin to act. So did the U.S. involvement in the 2014 Ukraine coup and Ukraine's failure to implement the Minsk peace agreements. The result is a conflict that is increasingly difficult to resolve, one that could conceivably escalate into all-out war between the United States and Russia-the world's two leading nuclear powers.Skillfully bringing together the historical record and current analysis, War In Ukraine looks at the events leading up to the conflict, surveys the different parties involved, and weighs the risks of escalation and opportunities for peace. For anyone who wants to get beneath the heavily propagandized media coverage to an understanding of a war with consequences that could prove cataclysmic, reading this timely book will be an urgent necessity.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. "When I first committed to three full months in El Salvador, the feeling that I was signing up for the equivalent of marriage and reproduction was assuaged only by the awareness that, come March 2020, I'd be dashing around Mexico before flying to Istanbul and resuming freneticism in that hemisphere. Little did I know that the scribbled itinerary would never come to fruition, and that I'd only get as far as the coastal village of Zipolite in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, where March 13-25 would turn into March 13 until further notice."Since leaving her American homeland in 2003 Belén Fernández had been an inveterate traveler. Ceaselessly wandering the world, the only constant in her itinerary was a conviction never to return to the country of her childhood. Then the COVID-19 lockdown happened and Fernandez found herself stranded in a small village on the Pacific coast of Mexico.This charming, wryly humorous account of nine months stuck in one place nevertheless roams freely: over reflections on previous excursions to the wilder regions of North Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe; over her new-found friendship with Javier, the mezcal-drinking, chain-smoking near-septuagenarian she encounters in his plastic chair on Mexico's only clothing-optional beach; over her protracted struggle to obtain a life-saving supply of yerba mate; and over, literally, the rope of a COVID-19 checkpoint, set up directly outside her front door and manned by armed guards who require her to don a mask every time she returns home.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. Governments and corporations now have the tools to track and control us as never before. In this whistleblowing how-to, we are provided with tools and techniques to fight back and hold organizations, agencies, and corporations accountable for unethical behavior.Can one person successfully defy a globe-spanning corporation or superpower without being discovered? Can a regular citizen, without computer expertise, release information to the media and be sure her identity will be concealed?At a time we're told we are powerless and without agency in the face of institutions such as Google, Facebook, the NSA, or the FBI, digital security educator Tim Schwartz steps forward with an emphatic "yes." And in fewer than 250 pages of easy-to-understand, tautly written prose, he shows us how. A PUBLIC SERVICE can teach any one of us the tricks to securely and anonymously communicate and share information with the media, lawyers, or even the U.S. Congress. This book is an essential weapon in the pervasive battle to confront corruption, sexual harassment, and other ethical and legal violations.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. With a new introduction by the authorSome thousands of years ago, the world was home to an immense variety of large mammals. From wooly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers to giant ground sloths and armadillos the size of automobiles, these spectacular creatures roamed freely. Then human beings arrived. Devouring their way down the food chain as they spread across the planet, they began a process of voracious extinction that has continued to the present.Headlines today are made by the existential threat confronting remaining large animals such as rhinos and pandas. But the devastation summoned by humans extends to humbler realms of creatures including beetles, bats and butterflies. Researchers generally agree that the current extinction rate is nothing short of catastrophic. Currently the earth is losing about a hundred species every day.This relentless extinction, Ashley Dawson contends in a primer that combines vast scope with elegant precision, is the product of a global attack on the commons, the great trove of air, water, plants and creatures, as well as collectively created cultural forms such as language, that have been regarded traditionally as the inheritance of humanity as a whole.This attack has its genesis in the need for capital to expand relentlessly into all spheres of life. Extinction, Dawson argues, cannot be understood in isolation from a critique of our economic system. To achieve this we need to transgress the boundaries between science, environmentalism and radical politics. Extinction: A Radical History performs this task with both brio and brilliance. …

Paperback. Zustand: New. Has fascism arrived dressed in stars and stripes? This book offers a sharp analysis of American authoritarianism, how we got here, how to organize, and how to resist. "Gangster capitalism," that's how Henry Giroux describes the system where a billionaire class controls the institutions that shape our lives-the media, corporations, universities, courts, and government. But does this centralization of power on behalf of the super-rich mean that fascism has taken over the United States? Certainly, the signs are there: Individuals not charged with a crime are picked up on the street by masked police and "disappeared." Right-wing strongmen like Javier Milei of Argentina or Nayib Bukele of El Salvador are embraced warmly on the steps of the White House. The aptly titled Trump v. United States Supreme Court ruling just handed the president broad immunity for "official acts." And Elon Musk, the president's unelected scourge of government inefficiency, gave repeated fascist-style salutes at Trump's inauguration rally. His DOGE have fired tens of thousands of people, and illegally seized private personal data on millions of Americans.So is this fascism, oligarchy, authoritarianism-or all of the above? Is there a special brand of American fascism? And, if so, what direction is it likely to take, and how can it best be resisted? In From the Flag to the Cross: Fascism American Style, seven prominent American socialists explore these questions. They come at the issues from different angles in an enlightening spectrum of opinion. But on one point, they are in unison: Trump is not the disease. He's the symptom. The real threat is a violent, deeply embedded system-fueled by capitalism, white supremacy, Christian nationalism, and authoritarian rule-that long predates the 47th president.Contributors: Chris Hedges, Richard Wolff, Dianne Feeley, Henry Giroux, Bill Mullen, Margaret Kimberley, and Kshama Sawant.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. In a characteristically explosive barrage, Ljubljana's most famous philosopher takes a passionate stance on the war in Ukraine, surveys the latest Hollywood blockbusters, and delivers detonations into a range of contemporary issues, from sexual politics in India to the prospects for a new Cold War. Ever attentive to moments where the bizarre and the epic join forces, among the questions Zizek considers here are: Is the giant orgy, planned to take place in Ukraine in the event of a Russian nuclear attack, really all that morbid? And what should society do, whether on the big screen or the battlefield, in preparation for the end of the world?Agree with him or not, Zizek rarely fails to provoke in a productive fashion. By examining matters through a lens that is bold and original, and often joyfully outlandish, Zizek helps us to better grasp a world in which, increasingly, the dominant motif is one of madness.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. With a new introduction by the authorSome thousands of years ago, the world was home to an immense variety of large mammals. From wooly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers to giant ground sloths and armadillos the size of automobiles, these spectacular creatures roamed freely. Then human beings arrived. Devouring their way down the food chain as they spread across the planet, they began a process of voracious extinction that has continued to the present.Headlines today are made by the existential threat confronting remaining large animals such as rhinos and pandas. But the devastation summoned by humans extends to humbler realms of creatures including beetles, bats and butterflies. Researchers generally agree that the current extinction rate is nothing short of catastrophic. Currently the earth is losing about a hundred species every day.This relentless extinction, Ashley Dawson contends in a primer that combines vast scope with elegant precision, is the product of a global attack on the commons, the great trove of air, water, plants and creatures, as well as collectively created cultural forms such as language, that have been regarded traditionally as the inheritance of humanity as a whole.This attack has its genesis in the need for capital to expand relentlessly into all spheres of life. Extinction, Dawson argues, cannot be understood in isolation from a critique of our economic system. To achieve this we need to transgress the boundaries between science, environmentalism and radical politics. Extinction: A Radical History performs this task with both brio and brilliance. …

Paperback. Zustand: New. What is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)? What role is played by its members and partners? Does the largest military alliance ever to exist serve the cause of peace or the causes of weapons sales and war mongering? Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the alliance, this sharp, concise account examines NATO's origins, structure, and its goals at a time of mounting global tension.NATO has remade itself repeatedly, as its past purposes have disappeared. In the last 35 years it has been part of wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. It has played a major role in Ukraine, and supported warmaking by Israel. NATO is now expanding rapidly, both in geography and in scope, adding partners from Colombia to Mongolia to Australia, and claiming a role in policing, immigration, economics, public budgeting, scientific research, and environmental protection.With pointed investigations of how NATO's decisions are made, the widely misunderstood question of the way it is funded, its relationship to international law, and the available alternatives to it, NATO: What You Need to Know is an indispensable primer on an organization that not only confronts expanding military conflict but, the authors contend, plays an active part in its escalation.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. "When I first committed to three full months in El Salvador, the feeling that I was signing up for the equivalent of marriage and reproduction was assuaged only by the awareness that, come March 2020, I'd be dashing around Mexico before flying to Istanbul and resuming freneticism in that hemisphere. Little did I know that the scribbled itinerary would never come to fruition, and that I'd only get as far as the coastal village of Zipolite in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, where March 13-25 would turn into March 13 until further notice."Since leaving her American homeland in 2003 Belén Fernández had been an inveterate traveler. Ceaselessly wandering the world, the only constant in her itinerary was a conviction never to return to the country of her childhood. Then the COVID-19 lockdown happened and Fernandez found herself stranded in a small village on the Pacific coast of Mexico.This charming, wryly humorous account of nine months stuck in one place nevertheless roams freely: over reflections on previous excursions to the wilder regions of North Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe; over her new-found friendship with Javier, the mezcal-drinking, chain-smoking near-septuagenarian she encounters in his plastic chair on Mexico's only clothing-optional beach; over her protracted struggle to obtain a life-saving supply of yerba mate; and over, literally, the rope of a COVID-19 checkpoint, set up directly outside her front door and manned by armed guards who require her to don a mask every time she returns home.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. What is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)? What role is played by its members and partners? Does the largest military alliance ever to exist serve the cause of peace or the causes of weapons sales and war mongering? Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the alliance, this sharp, concise account examines NATO's origins, structure, and its goals at a time of mounting global tension.NATO has remade itself repeatedly, as its past purposes have disappeared. In the last 35 years it has been part of wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. It has played a major role in Ukraine, and supported warmaking by Israel. NATO is now expanding rapidly, both in geography and in scope, adding partners from Colombia to Mongolia to Australia, and claiming a role in policing, immigration, economics, public budgeting, scientific research, and environmental protection.With pointed investigations of how NATO's decisions are made, the widely misunderstood question of the way it is funded, its relationship to international law, and the available alternatives to it, NATO: What You Need to Know is an indispensable primer on an organization that not only confronts expanding military conflict but, the authors contend, plays an active part in its escalation.…

Paperback. Zustand: New. The WikiLeaks publisher and free speech campaigner Julian Assange has, since April 2019, been remanded at a maximum security prison in London facing extradition to the United States over WikiLeaks' groundbreaking 2010 publications. Now, in this crisp anthology, Assange's voice emerges - erudite, analytic and prophetic.Julian Assange In His Own Words provides a highly accessible survey of Assange's philosophy and politics, conveying his views on how governments, corporations, intelligence agencies and the media function. As well as addressing the significance of the vast trove of leaked documents published by WikiLeaks, Assange draws on a polymathic intelligence to range freely over quantum physics, Greek mythology, macroeconomics, modern literature, and empires old and new.Drawing on his insights as the world's most famous free speech activist Assange invites us to ask further questions about how power operates in a world increasingly dominated by a ubiquitous internet.Assange may be gagged, but in these pages his words run free, providing both an exhortation to fight for a better world and an inspiration when doing so.…