Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein trav­els across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, the United States, Britain, Greece, and Australia to witness the reality of disaster capitalism. He discovers how companies such as G4S, Serco, and Halliburton cash in on or­ganized misery in a hidden world of privatized detention centers, militarized private security, aid profiteering, and destructive mining.

Disaster has become big business. Talking to immigrants stuck in limbo in Britain or visiting immigration centers in America, Loewenstein maps the secret networks formed to help cor­porations bleed what profits they can from economic crisis. He debates with Western contractors in Afghanistan, meets the locals in post-earthquake Haiti, and in Greece finds a country at the mercy of vulture profiteers. In Papua New Guinea, he sees a local commu­nity forced to rebel against predatory resource companies and NGOs.

What emerges through Loewenstein’s re­porting is a dark history of multinational corpo­rations that, with the aid of media and political elites, have grown more powerful than national governments. In the twenty-first century, the vulnerable have become the world’s most valu­able commodity. Disaster Capitalism is published by Verso in 2015.

Profits_of_doom_cover_350Vulture capitalism has seen the corporation become more powerful than the state, and yet its work is often done by stealth, supported by political and media elites. The result is privatised wars and outsourced detention centres, mining companies pillaging precious land in developing countries and struggling nations invaded by NGOs and the corporate dollar. Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein travels to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea and across Australia to witness the reality of this largely hidden world of privatised detention centres, outsourced aid, destructive resource wars and militarized private security. Who is involved and why? Can it be stopped? What are the alternatives in a globalised world? Profits of Doom, published in 2013 and released in an updated edition in 2014, challenges the fundamentals of our unsustainable way of life and the money-making imperatives driving it. It is released in an updated edition in 2014.
forgodssakecover Four Australian thinkers come together to ask and answer the big questions, such as: What is the nature of the universe? Doesn't religion cause most of the conflict in the world? And Where do we find hope?   We are introduced to different belief systems – Judaism, Christianity, Islam – and to the argument that atheism, like organised religion, has its own compelling logic. And we gain insight into the life events that led each author to their current position.   Jane Caro flirted briefly with spiritual belief, inspired by 19th century literary heroines such as Elizabeth Gaskell and the Bronte sisters. Antony Loewenstein is proudly culturally, yet unconventionally, Jewish. Simon Smart is firmly and resolutely a Christian, but one who has had some of his most profound spiritual moments while surfing. Rachel Woodlock grew up in the alternative embrace of Baha'i belief but became entranced by its older parent religion, Islam.   Provocative, informative and passionately argued, For God's Sakepublished in 2013, encourages us to accept religious differences, but to also challenge more vigorously the beliefs that create discord.  
After Zionism, published in 2012 and 2013 with co-editor Ahmed Moor, brings together some of the world s leading thinkers on the Middle East question to dissect the century-long conflict between Zionism and the Palestinians, and to explore possible forms of a one-state solution. Time has run out for the two-state solution because of the unending and permanent Jewish colonization of Palestinian land. Although deep mistrust exists on both sides of the conflict, growing numbers of Palestinians and Israelis, Jews and Arabs are working together to forge a different, unified future. Progressive and realist ideas are at last gaining a foothold in the discourse, while those influenced by the colonial era have been discredited or abandoned. Whatever the political solution may be, Palestinian and Israeli lives are intertwined, enmeshed, irrevocably. This daring and timely collection includes essays by Omar Barghouti, Jonathan Cook, Joseph Dana, Jeremiah Haber, Jeff Halper, Ghada Karmi, Antony Loewenstein, Saree Makdisi, John Mearsheimer, Ahmed Moor, Ilan Pappe, Sara Roy and Phil Weiss.
The 2008 financial crisis opened the door for a bold, progressive social movement. But despite widespread revulsion at economic inequity and political opportunism, after the crash very little has changed. Has the Left failed? What agenda should progressives pursue? And what alternatives do they dare to imagine? Left Turn, published by Melbourne University Press in 2012 and co-edited with Jeff Sparrow, is aimed at the many Australians disillusioned with the political process. It includes passionate and challenging contributions by a diverse range of writers, thinkers and politicians, from Larissa Berendht and Christos Tsiolkas to Guy Rundle and Lee Rhiannon. These essays offer perspectives largely excluded from the mainstream. They offer possibilities for resistance and for a renewed struggle for change.
The Blogging Revolution, released by Melbourne University Press in 2008, is a colourful and revelatory account of bloggers around the globe why live and write under repressive regimes - many of them risking their lives in doing so. Antony Loewenstein's travels take him to private parties in Iran and Egypt, internet cafes in Saudi Arabia and Damascus, to the homes of Cuban dissidents and into newspaper offices in Beijing, where he discovers the ways in which the internet is threatening the ruld of governments. Through first-hand investigations, he reveals the complicity of Western multinationals in assisting the restriction of information in these countries and how bloggers are leading the charge for change. The blogging revolution is a superb examination about the nature of repression in the twenty-first century and the power of brave individuals to overcome it. It was released in an updated edition in 2011, post the Arab revolutions, and an updated Indian print version in 2011.
The best-selling book on the Israel/Palestine conflict, My Israel Question - on Jewish identity, the Zionist lobby, reporting from Palestine and future Middle East directions - was released by Melbourne University Press in 2006. A new, updated edition was released in 2007 (and reprinted again in 2008). The book was short-listed for the 2007 NSW Premier's Literary Award. Another fully updated, third edition was published in 2009. It was released in all e-book formats in 2011. An updated and translated edition was published in Arabic in 2012.

NSW Premier’s Literary Award short-list

My Israel Question has been short-listed for the 2007 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. It is an honour to be recognised in such a prestigious category (though I clearly have no idea if I will win, announced late May.)

I’ll comment more fully in the coming weeks and month, but I look forward to the accusations of anti-Semitism by the usual suspects towards the judging panel.

To the awards themselves, I thank them for the acknowledgement.

19 comments ↪
  • Andre

    Congratulations Ant.

    I imagine Danby and the usual suspects are busily making phone calls right now to make sure your book doesn't get the blue ribbon.

  • BenZ

    How many copies did you sell?

  • suze

    Congratulations. I expect another barrage of bullshit in the papers will follow this but well done nonetheless.

  • viva peace

    This is a very embarrassing comment on literacy levels in NSW. What did one reviewer say, "whole pages are complete mysteries of incoherence."

  • Congrats mate.
    Next comes the small minded attack machine with nothing better to do.

  • Andre

    What did one reviewer say, “whole pages are complete mysteries of incoherence.”

    You sure they weren't talking about a book by Dershowitz or Horowitz?

  • Pingback: Difference matters at Antony Loewenstein()

  • BenZ

    Still waiting for an answer. Perhaps my question was unclear?
    How many copies has Antony sold?

  • viva peace

    Andre

    Ah the old bait and switch. Again. And yet Ant remains an appalling writer.

  • Andre

    Viva,

    By who's standards does Ant remains an appalling writer? Care to link to books you may have written, or what you regard as literary excellence?

  • Andre

    BenZ,

    Another example of ingoing the elephant in the room by staring at the wallpaper.

    At least we know where you stand. Picking at typos is your idea of literary excellence.

  • BenZ

    By who’s [sic] standards does Ant remains an appalling writer?

    Evidently not yours Andre.

    Admittedly even Antony would struggle to beat your latest effort wherein you wrote:

    The efforts of Azmi Bishara have drawn the fircest fo retaliations from the Israeli government.

    Fircest fo? Deary me Andre, you must have been in a hurry to bash out your latest damning evidence of Israeli failure…

  • BenZ

    "Ingoing" the elephant in the room Andre?

    Everybody seems to be ignoring my earlier question, repeated subsequently: How many copies were sold.

    it's a fairly easy question, but by all means, continue "ignoing" it and extolling the virtues of Antony's literary prowess.

    By the way, there is a big difference between typos, which can be overlooked as opposed to simply bad English.

  • Andre

    Everybody seems to be ignoring my earlier question, repeated subsequently: How many copies were sold.

    Suffering delusions of grandeur BenZ? Who's everyone?

    I have no idea how many were sold. You will have to wait for Ant to answer that question for you.

    In any case, those with much more astute appreciation of literary excellence than you or Viva, have decided that Ant's book is worthy of consideration.

    Yours and Viva's ungracious response is just sour grapes.

  • Well done Antony, and good luck in the awards!

  • BenZ

    You will have to wait for Ant to answer that question for you.

    Thanks Andre. Feel free to draw it to his attention. While you are at it, you may care to ask why several of my comments remain permanently "in moderation".

    I eagerly look forward to his answer…

  • BenZ

    …And as predictably as sunrise, I am still waiting. Knowing full well, that Antony has read these comments and is ignoring the question. Why?

    It is an honour to be recognised in such a prestigious category

    The "Gleebooks prize" is a prestigious category?

  • Andre

    BenZ,

    You are an impatient little putz aren't you?

    You have already had egg on your face, assuming last time that Ant was not celebrating Seder, when in fact he was doing so in NY.

    Ant is currently in Cuba, where Internet access for him is painfully slow and unreliable. He has managed a few posts, but doesn't have the luxury at the moment of surfing and replying to precocious posters who demand to be taken seriously.

    The “Gleebooks prize” is a prestigious category?

    And when can we expect to see your book is being published?

  • BenZ

    You have already had egg on your face, assuming last time that Ant was not celebrating Seder, when in fact he was doing so in NY.

    What? He was in Australia, appearing on a live show on the ABC. What are you talking about?

    Ant is currently in Cuba, where Internet access for him is painfully slow and unreliable

    Sure sure… That's the excuse is it? So what you are saying then, is that the comments in question will be approved in due course? You do realise Antony has a well documented history of censoring opposing comments on his blog, don't you?

    If one were to believe your excuse however, one might be prompted to ask how he manages to write any number of lengthy blog posts, you know, given the terrible internet access, yet doesn't manage to click a single button and release maybe 2 or three comments from moderation.

    Do you actually believe your own bullshit Andre?