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Radical Thinkers

“A golden treasury of theory.”—Eric Banks, Bookforum

“Verso's beautifully designed Radical Thinkers series, which brings together seminal works by leading left-wing intellectuals, is a sophisticated blend of theory and thought.”—Ziauddin Sardar, New Statesman

Available to purchase as a set:

Radical Thinkers Set 7

ISBN: 9781781680605

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Radical Thinkers Set 6

ISBN: 9781844677801

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Radical Thinkers Set 5

ISBN: 9781844676781

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Radical Thinkers Set 4

ISBN: 9781844673926

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Radical Thinkers Classics

ISBN: 9781844676651

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Books in this series

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Radical Thinkers Set 7

Purchase set

Capitalism, Socialism, Ecology

by André Gorz
Against the background of recent technological developments, Gorz's major new book explores the political agendas facing both right and left in the midst of the transformations of the nature of work and the structure of the workforce.
3 posts
Critique of Instrumental Reason

by Max Horkheimer
The twentieth century triumph of the state-bureaucratic apparatus
2 posts
Ethics

by Alain Badiou
One of the most powerful voices in contemporary French philosophy explodes the facile assumptions behind the recent ethical turn.
4 posts
The Fiery Brook

by Ludwig Feuerbach
Central essays by Feuerbach, advancing his humanist and atheist thought.
4 posts

1 discussion
Freudianism

by Neal Bruss and Valentin Voloshinov
Early critique of Freud from a Marxist and linguistic perspective.
3 posts
Infinitely Demanding

by Simon Critchley
A new political ethics that confronts the injustices of liberal democracy.
4 posts

Marxism and Philosophy

by Karl Korsch
Marxism and Philosophy is Karl Korsch's masterwork
3 posts
Rationality and Irrationality in Economics

by Maurice Godelier
An analysis of social and economic systems and why they appear and disappear throughout history.
3 posts
Sex-pol

by Wilhelm Reich
The role of sexual repression in class domination, and the struggle for sexual liberation.
4 posts
A Singular Modernity

by Fredric Jameson

A major interpretation of the concepts of modernism and modernity

3 posts
The Spirit of Terrorism

by Jean Baudrillard
Until September 11 we had had no symbolic event on a world scale that marked a setback for globalization itself.
3 posts
Welcome to the Desert of the Real

by Slavoj Žižek
Probing beneath the level of TV punditry, Žižek offers a highly original and readable account that serves as a fascinating and insightful comprehension of the events of September 11.
5 posts

Radical Thinkers Set 6

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Anti-Systemic Movements

by Giovanni Arrighi, Terence K. Hopkins, et al.
Peerless examination of the rise of social movements against the global capitalist system, conducted by the leading exponents of the “world systems” perspective.
1 post
Ethics of the Real

by Alenka Zupančič
Fascinating study of the relationship between the philosopher and the psychoanalyst by major Slovenian scholar.
Immanuel Kant

by Lucien Goldmann
The classic introductory text to Kant's legacy and philosophy.
Impossible Exchange

by Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard's now familiar investigations into reality and hyper-reality shift here into a more metaphysical frame.
Introduction to Modernity

by Henri Lefebvre
The sociologist and philosopher analyses the dawning of modernity.
The Mental and the Material

by Maurice Godelier
Groundbreaking examination of the relationship between thought, economy and society.

Metapolitics

by Alain Badiou
Metapolitics argues that one of the main tasks of contemporary thought is to abolish the idea that politics is merely an object for philosophical reflection.
1 post
Philosophy and the Spontaneous Philosophy of the Scientists

by Louis Althusser
Collected here are Althusser's most significant philosophical writings from 1965 to 1978.
Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory

by Ernesto Laclau
Analysis of the role of ideology in political movements.
Politics and the Other Scene

by Étienne Balibar
Essays on politics by the pupil of Althusser.
1 post
Quasi Una Fantasia

by Theodor Adorno
Adorno’s own selection of his essays and journalism from more than three decades of music writing.
3 posts
War Diaries

by Jean-Paul Sartre
The existentialist philosopher chronicles his time in the Resistance in the Second World War.

Radical Thinkers Set 5

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Brecht and Method

by Fredric Jameson
“Elegant dissection of Brecht’s method, from estrangements to allegory and beyond.”—Modern Drama
1 post
Comments on the Society of the Spectacle

by Guy Debord
“Guy Debord is a time bomb, and a difficult one to defuse.”—Michael Löwy.
6 posts
Contingency, Hegemony, Universality

by Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, et al.
The Hegelian legacy, Left strategy, and post-structuralism versus Lacanian psychoanalysis.
3 posts
Critique of Economic Reason

by André Gorz
“Gorz’s greatest work, and a crucial book for our time.”—Le Monde.
3 posts
Design and Crime (And Other Diatribes)

by Hal Foster
“Design and Crime is cool, measured, and steady, like a Gunsmoke shootout.”—Greil Marcus
1 post
Freudian Slip

by Sebastiano Timpanaro
“A firework display of erudition.”—Perry Anderson.
1 post

Machiavelli and Us

by Louis Althusser
“Althusser, poised between modernism and postmodernism, meets Machiavelli, poised between the Middle Ages and modernity.”—Antonio Negri.
1 post
The Panopticon Writings

by Jeremy Bentham
A definitive collection of Bentham’s work on the model prison, key to Foucault’s theory of power.
1 post
Passwords

by Jean Baudrillard
In the spirit of Gilles Deleuze’s Abécédaire, Passwords offers us twelve entry points into Baudrillard’s thought.
1 post
The Politics of Time

by Peter Osborne
Elaborates a dialectics of modernity, eternity and tradition.
2 posts
Postmodern Geographies

by Edward W. Soja
“One of the most challenging and stimulating books ever written.”—David Harvey
2 posts
Race, Nation, Class

by Étienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein
The modernity of racism and its relationship to contemporary capitalism.
4 posts

Radical Thinkers Set 4

Purchase set

The Cultural Turn

by Fredric Jameson
An accessible introduction to the key writings on postmodernism by the influential Marxist critic.
The Democratic Paradox

by Chantal Mouffe
A new understanding of democracy that acknowledges the inescapable and essential antagonism in its workings.
Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity

by Simon Critchley
Powerful and provocative, explores the relation of ethical experience to politics.
2 posts
Hegel Contra Sociology

by Gillian Rose
A radical new assessment of Hegel revealing the problems and limitations of sociological method.
1 post
In Search of Wagner

by Theodor Adorno
Adorno explodes the frontiers of musical and cultural analysis, with a foreword by Slavoj Žižek.
1 post
Lenin

by Georg Lukács
A trenchant account of Leninism from a giant of Marxist philosophy.
3 discussions

The Origin of German Tragic Drama

by Walter Benjamin
Benjamin's most sustained and original work, and one of the main sources of literary modernism.
Panegyric

by Guy Debord
An audacious autobiography by the founding figure of the Situationist International.
3 posts
Reading Capital

by Louis Althusser and Étienne Balibar
A landmark of French thought, reconstructing Western Marxism from its foundations.
The Transparency of Evil

by Jean Baudrillard
Sex, technology, politics and disease in Western culture, after the ‘orgy’ of the 1960s.
Walter Benjamin

by Terry Eagleton
A classic study of the great philosopher and cultural theorist.
War and Cinema

by Paul Virilio
A rich and suggestive analysis of military “ways of seeing”

Radical Thinkers Set 3

Between Existentialism and Marxism

by Jean-Paul Sartre
A classic work by the founding father of existentialism, describing his philosophy and its relationship to Marxism.
The Emergence of Social Space

by Kristin Ross
A thrilling ride through the literature of Rimbaud in a France in the throes of revolution.
1 post
For They Know Not What They Do

by Slavoj Žižek
The eminent philosopher explodes the roles of pleasure and desire in contemporary politics and culture.
Ghostly Demarcations

Edited by Michael Sprinker
Major theorists discuss the renowned philosopher Jacques Derrida's most political and controversial work.
In Theory

by Aijaz Ahmad
Ahmad reworks the terrain of cultural theory in this spirited critique.
On Ideology

by Louis Althusser
The classic analysis of how particular political and cultural ideas come to dominate society.

Open Sky

by Paul Virilio
A passionate critique of information technology and the global media.
The Perfect Crime

by Jean Baudrillard
Baudrillard investigates the murder of reality—“the most important event of modern history.”
A Realist Theory of Science

by Roy Bhaskar
The foundational text for the philosophical movement of critical realism.
Spinoza and Politics

by Étienne Balibar and Warren Montag
A rich analysis of Spinoza's key works, in the context of his political and ideological associations.
A Study on Authority

by Herbert Marcuse
The great theorist of radical liberation analyzes the relationship between authority and freedom.
1 post
What Does the Ruling Class Do When It Rules?

by Göran Therborn
The intricate practices of the elite and how they maintain their dominance.
1 post

Radical Thinkers Set 2

Emancipation(s)

by Ernesto Laclau
Laclau argues that the changes of the late twentieth century have altered Enlightenment notions of emancipation.
Fragments

by Jean Baudrillard
Disturbing and vivid meditations on the meanings of objects and sensations.
The Indivisible Remainder

by Slavoj Žižek
Confronts Schelling with Hegel, and illuminates popular culture and modern subjectivity.
Infancy and History

by Giorgio Agamben
A profound meditation on language and philosophy, nature and culture, and the birth of the subject.
1 post
Late Marxism

by Fredric Jameson
A lively and lucid introduction to the work of Theodor Adorno.
1 post
Logics of Disintegration

by Peter Dews
A major work of Marxist theory—rigorous, clear-minded and well-researched.
1 post

On the Shores of Politics

by Jacques Rancière
Returning politics to its original and necessary meaning: the organization of dissent.
2 posts
Political Descartes

by Antonio Negri
"One of the most significant figures of current political thought."—New Statesman
1 post
Politics and History

by Louis Althusser
Enlightenment advances towards a science of politics, and Marx's relationship to Hegel.
Politics of Modernism

by Raymond Williams
The founding father of cultural theory posits a radical new direction for avant-garde art.
Strategy of Deception

by Paul Virilio
A trenchant critique of new techniques of waging war, and its reduction to images on a screen.

Radical Thinkers Set 1

The Function of Criticism

by Terry Eagleton
A history and critique of the last 200 years of cultural criticism, from Addison and Steele to Barthes and Derrida.
The Information Bomb

by Paul Virilio
Virilio's exploration of the relationship between technology, war and information technology.
Liberalism and Democracy

by Norberto Bobbio
The longue durée of the relationship between liberalism and democracy.
The Metastases of Enjoyment

by Slavoj Žižek
The status of women and the role of violence in contemporary culture and politics.
The Politics of Friendship

by Jacques Derrida
Influential exploration of the idea of friendship and its political consequences.
The Return of the Political

by Chantal Mouffe
A powerful new understanding of citizenship, democracy and pluralism.

Sexuality in the Field of Vision

by Jacqueline Rose
Feminism, psychoanalysis, semiotics and film theory.
1 post
Signs Taken for Wonders

by Franco Moretti
A compelling account of the relations between high and mass culture, across various genres.
1 post
The System of Objects

by Jean Baudrillard
A tour de force of the materialist semiotics of the early Baudrillard.

Radical Thinkers Classics

Purchase set

Aesthetics and Politics

by Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, et al.
The most remarkable aesthetic debates in European cultural history, with an afterword by Fredric Jameson.
1 post
Culture and Materialism

by Raymond Williams
A comprehensive introduction to the work of one of the outstanding intellectuals of the twentieth century.
1 post
For Marx

by Louis Althusser
A milestone in postwar Marxist thought, containing Althusser’s influential arguments on the epistemological break and anti-humanism.
Minima Moralia

by Theodor Adorno
Adorno's literary and philosophical masterpiece, built from aphorisms and reflections.
2 posts