Nick Lezard picks The Verso Book of Dissent as his book of the week for the Guardian, pointing out that this "delightful anthology to dip into if you are or have ever been disgruntled with the status quo ... has been published to mark Verso's 40th anniversary—happy birthday to Verso—and this is a very good way of celebrating it."

He comments:

It is good to be reminded of the words of Basil of Caesarea, from the fourth century AD: "If each one would take that which is sufficient for his needs, leaving what is superfluous to those in distress, no one would be rich, no one poor ... The rich man is a thief." Has anyone ever put the case for the redistribution of wealth more concisely and unarguably than that? ...

You get one entry per dissenter (there are two indexes: one by alphabetical order, and one breaking this down into geographical regions, which is helpful and reminds us of the book's worldwide reach) ... there's a discipline to the selection process which makes one want to go off and learn more about the subjects touched upon. All the usual suspects are here, but there are also plenty of unusual ones, too ... this is [a] book for radicals everywhere, both armchair and otherwise.

Visit the Guardian to read the review in full.

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