Books

Castro: Beautiful brushwork, imperfect picture December 2011
Leigh Philips reviews Castro by Reinhard Kleist

Not just a knee-jerk November 2011
Richard Seymour reviews The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin by Corey Robin

Sex-positive feminism November 2011
Jennie O’Hara reviews Meat Market: Female Flesh under Capitalism, by Laurie Penny

All the news that fits, they print October 2011
Emma Hughes looks at Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S Herman and Noam Chomsky (1988)

It’s possible, it’s necessary October 2011
Antonio David Cattani reviews Ours to Master and to Own by Immanuel Ness and Dario Azzellini (eds)

The pursuit of the good September 2011
Peter McMylor considers Alasdair MacIntyre's classic After Virtue: a study in moral theory, first published in 1981

In the revolutionary warm-stream September 2011
Michael Calderbank reviews Magical Marxism: subversive politics and the Imagination, by Andy Merrifield

Flower power September 2011
Jan Goodey reviews Seedbombs: going wild with flowers, by Josie Jeffery

Crude politics August 2011
Sami Ramadani reviews Fuel on the Fire: oil and politics in occupied Iraq, by Greg Muttitt

Unruly protest August 2011
Ashok Kumar reviews Fight Back! A reader on the winter of protest, ed. Dan Hancox

Pure class August 2011
Kevin Blowe reviews Chavs: the demonisation of the working class, by Owen Jones

Soundtrack of dissent July 2011
Alex Nunns reviews 33 Revolutions Per Minute: a history of protest songs by Dorian Lynskey

Reconstructing Marx July 2011
Michael Calderbank reviews Why Marx was Right by Terry Eagleton

The greatest injustice July 2011
Leigh Phillips reviews Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shaxson

School without walls July 2011
Isabel Parrott revisits Colin Ward's classic The Child in the City

Soaked in blood June 2011
Lorna Stephenson reviews The Devil’s Milk: a social history of rubber by John Tully

Maria and her mangoes June 2011
Christine Haigh reviews The Fair Trade Revolution by John Bowes (ed)

Poster people May 2011
James O'Nions reviews Celebrate People’s History: the poster book of resistance and revolution

Web freedom May 2011
Tim Hunt reviews An Open Web

Branding the revolution May 2011
Ross Eventon reviews A Poetics of Resistance: the revolutionary public relations of the Zapatista insurgency

Mass movements and Morales May 2011
David Broder reviews From Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia

Salvaging the socialist cause May 2011
Richard Seymour reviews Eric Hobsbawm's latest book, and a new biography of this influential historian

Capital ideas May 2011
Ingo Scmidt discusses the relevance of Rosa Luxemburg's Accumulation of Capital

Reading Rosa April 2011
Peter Hudis, editor of the newly published Letters of Rosa Luxemburg, speaks to Red Pepper

Moving to the Latin beat March 2011
Dancing with Dynamite: Social movements and states in Latin America, by Benjamin Dangl (AK Press), reviewed by Mike Geddes

Joining the dots March 2011
Whose Crisis, Whose Future? Towards A Greener, Fairer, Richer World, by Susan George (Polity Press), reviewed by Sylvie Wynn

Birthday verse March 2011
The Verso Book of Dissent: From Spartacus to the Shoe Thrower of Baghdad, edited by Andrew Hsiao and Audrea Lim, reviewed by Jennie Bailey

A timely jolt March 2011
Jilted Generation, by Ed Howker and Shiv Malik (Icon Books), reviewed by Adam Ramsay

Unabashed history March 2011
Beating the Fascists: The untold story of Anti-Fascist Action, by Sean Birchall (Freedom Press), reviewed by Ben Aylott

Countering capitalism March 2011
The Great Transformation, by Karl Polanyi, reviewed by Tom Malleson

The ninth art meets the fourth estate January 2011
Leigh Phillips traces the emergence of comic-book journalism

Have your steak and eat it November 2010
Meat: a benign extravagance, by Simon Fairlie (Permanent Publications), reviewed by Christine Haigh

The case of the state November 2010
Isabel Parrot assesses the continuing relevance of In and Against the State

Turbulent tome November 2010
What Would it Mean to Win? by Turbulence Collective (PM Press), reviewed by James O’Nions

A need to go further November 2010
The Rise of the Green Left, by Derek Wall (Pluto Press), reviewed by Peter McColl

Braver together November 2010
The Language of Silence, by Merilyn Moos (Cressida Press/Writersworld), reviewed by Amanda Sebestyen

Absent voices November 2010
Pornland: How porn has hijacked our sexuality, by Gail Dines (Beacon Press), reviewed by Jennie O’Hara

Trotsky faction September 2010
Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna (Faber and Faber), reviewed by James O'Nions

Dark urban fantasies September 2010
Stephen Graham's Cities Under Siege: the new military urbanism (Verso), reviewed by Matthew Carr

Time to be communists again September 2010
Alain Badiou's The Communist Hypothesis (Verso), reviewed by Bertie Russell

No easy answers September 2010
Kolya Abramsky's Sparking a Worldwide Energy Revolution (AK Press), reviewed by Kevin Blowe

Optimism of the will September 2010
Noam Chomsky's Hopes and Prospects (Hamish Hamilton), reviewed by Nick Dearden

Demanding the impossible September 2010
Alastair Hemmens celebrates a book that had a major influence on 'les événements' of 1968

Determined to do it July 2010
Dreamers of a New Day: Women Who Invented the 20th Century by Sheila Rowbotham (Verso), reviewed by Andrea D'Cruz

A living gallery of resistance July 2010
Against the Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine by William Parry (Pluto), reviewed by Mike Marqusee

Making noise for Africa July 2010
Speaking Truth to Power by Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (Fahamu Books & Pambazuka Press), reviewed by Fatima Mujtaba

Italia ’76 July 2010
More Work! Less Pay! Rebellion and Repression in Italy 1972-77 by Phil Edwards (Manchester University Press), reviewed by Paul Anderson

Illusory ethics July 2010
Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam by Mark Curtis (Serpent's Tail), reviewed by Jonathan Steele

Second coming July 2010
Simone de Beauvoir's seminal work The Second Sex laid the foundations for the second wave of feminism and is essential reading for the feminist resurgence today, writes Rosie Germain

On the side of the slaves June 2010
The Black Jacobins by CLR James (Penguin, new edition 2001), reviewed by Selma James

Fill in the adjectives June 2010
Gaza: Beneath the Bombs by Sharyn Lock with Sarah Irving (Pluto Press), reviewed by Andrea D'Cruz

Confused protest June 2010
The Protestor's Handbook by Bibi van der Zee (Guardian Books), reviewed by Tom Walker

Opening a crack in history June 2010
Zapatistas: rebellion from the grassroots to the global by Alex Khasnabish (Zed Books), reviewed by Duncan Smith

Fearless satire June 2010
Disgusting Bliss: the brass eye of Chris Morris by Lucian Randall (Simon and Schuster), reviewed by Kevin Blowe

Going against the flow June 2010
The Enigma of Capital and the crises of Capitalism by David Harvey (Profile Books), reviewed by Alexander Gallas

A brick of a book May 2010
Commonwealth by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri Scathingly described by the Wall Street Journal as ‘a witches’ brew of contemporary radicalism’, Hardt and Negri’s most recent book Commonwealth is a timely contribution to our understanding of contemporary capitalist relations and the potential revolutionary conditions they create. Michael Hardt is a professor of literature at Duke [...]

Zizek waits April 2010
Violence by Slavoj Zizek (London, Profile Books 2009), reviewed by Clare Woodford

An alien gaze February 2010
Lyn Marven considers Nobel Prize-winner Herta Müller's compelling fictional exploration of state oppression

Objective fiction February 2010
Nathaniel Mehr reviews Newspeak in the 21st Century by David Edwards and David Cromwell (Pluto Press, 2009)

Book reviews February 2010
Public cost and private benefit Global Auction of Public Assets Dexter Whitfield Spokesman, £18 Dexter Whitfield has been one of the most well-informed and effective critics of the whole programme of privatisation of Britain’s public services, begun by Margaret Thatcher and continued by New Labour. He is the director of the European Services Strategy Unit, [...]

A friend in court December 2009
Liz Davies reviews Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer by Michael Mansfield QC (Bloomsbury, 2009)

The critical struggle of our time December 2009
Maddy Power reviews (People First Economics) by David Ransom and Vanessa Baird (eds) New Internationalist, 2009

Everyone does everything December 2009
James O'Nions meets two members of the Italian novel-writing collective Wu Ming as they publish Manituana, their 'story from the wrong side of history'

An ecological manifesto November 2009
The Ecological Revolution by John Bellamy Foster (Monthly Review Press, 2009), reviewed by Derek Wall

Feeding the world November 2009
Instead of GM crops and a new 'green revolution for Africa', the answer to the food crisis and climate change lies in smaller-scale, local 'agroecology'. Reviews by James O'Nions

The other India October 2009
Mike Marqusee reviews Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy by Arundhati Roy

Enlightened fundamentalism October 2009
Liberal and conservative Europe alike are guilty of a new 'xeno-racism' against Muslims, according to veteran anti-racism campaigner Liz Fekete. Review by Matt Carr

Inspirational history, practical handbook August 2009
Ireland's Hidden Diaspora by Ann Rossiter (Irish Abortion Solidarity Campaign), reviewed by Laurie Penny

Grievable and ungrievable lives June 2009
Nathaniel Mehr reviews Judith Butler's Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?

Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution June 2009
Helen Yaffe explores impact of Che Guevara as an economist and politician

Comrade or brother? April 2009
Comrade or Brother? A History of the British Labour Movement by Mary Davis (Pluto Press, second edition 2009, reviewed by Nathaniel Mehr

Feminism and war: confronting US imperialism March 2009
Nathaniel Mehr reviews (Feminism and War) and writes that it is essential reading for anyone who is remotely convinced by the feminist pretensions of the US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq

No redemption March 2009
Mike Marqusee talks to 'Red Riding' quartet author David Peace about 'GB84', his dark novel on the 1984 miners' strike

The patron saint of sandal-wearers December 2008
Matthew Beaumont welcomes Sheila Rowbotham's biography of Edward Carpenter

The generation gap November 2008
Extracts of What's Going On by Mark Steel (Simon and Schuster)

Grist to the radical Mill September 2008
John Stuart Mill: Victorian firebrand by Richard Reeves (Atlantic Books), reviewed by Anthony Arblaster

Commie Girl in the OC July 2008
Laurie Penny interviews Rebecca Schoenkopf about politics, life, feminism and getting 'finger-fucked' by Hillary Clinton

Selfish capitalism is making us ill June 2008
Mat Little interviews psychologist and writer Oliver James about his book, The Selfish Capitalist

This is what you do June 2008
Hollow Land by Eyal Weizman, reviewed by Michael Kustow

Racism today May 2008
Hostility towards migrants is on the increase. David Renton reviews a new book by Arun Kundani which puts contemporary racism in perspective

Waiting for the barbarians April 2008
The so-called War on Terror has created a global bonanza for the world of commercial military suppliers, writes Solomon Hughes in this exclusive extract from his new book War on Terror, Inc

Anti-semitism and the Israel lobby April 2008
In this extract from his book, If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew, Mike Marqusee says that no one should be deterred from criticising the Israel lobby by charges of anti-semitism

Planetary mythology February 2008
Soundbite science and self-help manuals would have you believe that men and women can't communicate. Deborah Cameron's new book shows that the real issues are to do with power, writes Romy Clark

American interest December 2007
The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy by John Mearsheimer and Stephen M Walt (Allen Lane 2007), reviewed by Richard Kuper

You’re booked December 2007
Sports books fill the bestseller lists every Christmas. Anne Coddington and Mark Perryman examine the rise and rise of the new sports writing

Booktopia December 2007
Comedian Mark Thomas on his top books