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Obituary of Moshe Lewin in the Guardian
The Guardian has published an obituary of Moshe Lewin, the renowned historian of the Soviet Union, and author of The Soviet Century, who sadly passed away last month.
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Owen Hatherley on "the refusal to admit that shit exists"
Evoking Milan Kundera, Owen Hatherley notes that "the refusal to admit that shit exists" is a particular problem in Great Britain—a country that "has all but abolished public toilets."
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Levy Takes Manhattan
Gideon Levy capped off his seven-city tour across North America this week with a standing-room-only talk hosted by Mahmood Mamdani at Columbia University. Levy jokingly offered to stay all evening to answer questions for the audience, and we were willing to test his resolve. -
V40 bash launches Book of Dissent, or bricks
Partygoers celebrating Verso's 40th birthday this past weekend got a sneak preview of The Verso Book of Dissent, available in stores October. No V-imprinted bricks, lovingly handwrapped by Verso NY, were actually launched (those are reserved for counter-revolutionaries, obviously), but there was much booty-shaking because, as Emma Goldman allegedly said, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution." That quote is not in the book, by the way, although another Goldman quote is—check out the book to find out which one!
And if, once you have read the book, you are seething with rage because your favorite dissenter has been left out, don't throw metaphorical bricks at us—just make your suggestion in the discussion "What's missing from The Verso Book of Dissent?" for inclusion in the next edition of the book!
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Tariq Ali’s Dangerous Idea
Tariq Ali is to appear at the Sydney Opera House on October 3rd for the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, a series of talks that seek to explore the boundaries of the unsayable.
His talk, "What We Can Learn From Terrorists", focuses on the flipside of terrorists' actions, asking
is there anything that terrorists have to teach us—about the single-minded pursuit of purpose; about the necessity of puncturing the consensus of mainstream politics and culture? Or about the need to feed the ever-hungry media beast?
Tariq Ali will deliver the 2010 Edward Said Memorial Lecture, "The Future of Palestine," at the University of Adelaide on Saturday 9 October.
Tariq Ali's new book The Obama Syndrome is out now in the US, and is coming soon to the UK and rest of world.