Counterblasts
Counterblasts is a new Verso series that aims to revive the tradition of polemical writing inaugurated by Puritan and leveller pamphleteers in the seventeenth century, when in the words of one of them, Gerard Winstanley, the old world was “running up like parchment in the fire.” From 1640 to 1663, a leading bookseller and publisher, George Thomason, recorded that his collection alone contained over twenty thousand pamphlets. Such polemics reappeared both before and during the French, Russian, Chinese and Cuban revolutions of the last century. In a period of conformity where politicians, media barons and their ideological hirelings rarely challenge the basis of existing society, it’s time to revive the tradition. Verso’s Counterblasts will challenge the apologists of Empire and Capital.
Books in this series
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The Imperial Messenger
Factual errors, ham-fisted analysis, and contradictory assertions distinguish the work of the Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times columnist and author.
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The Impostor
by Jade Lindgaard, and Xavier de la Porte
A careful investigation comparing Bernard-Henri Lévy’s words with his deeds.
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Michael Ignatieff
A forensic critique of the influential liberal explores his opposition to fundamental human rights, the extension of democracy and the pursuit of economic equality.