2025: The Year in Ten Books
From riots and fires to ICE crackdowns and political assassinations, we've selected ten books to speak on the year we're finally leaving behind.
It would be impossible to recap the year in a few sentences. It was an almost unrelenting barrage of regression, violence, and fear with only a few glittery moments of optimism peppered throughout.
The ten books listed below are an effort to confront and contextualize the events of 2025 and during the Verso End of Year Sale, they can be yours at half the list price.
The Verso End of Year Sale
20% off when you buy 2 books
30% off when you buy 3 books
40% off when you buy 4 books
50% off when you buy 5 books
Sale ends at 11:59pm EST on January 2nd 2026.
We bundle the ebook editions of our books with all print purchases, so you can gift the print copy and start reading the ebook yourself straight away!
If you'd like to receive your order in time for the holidays, please take note of the ordering cutoff dates.
They Were Supposed to Cease Fire
Israel's ethnic cleansing in Gaza continues uninterrupted despite the supposed peacekeeping efforts of Western leadership. Gaza: The Story of a Genocide is an urgent and powerful collection of personal testimony, poetry, art, and frontline reportage that bears witness to the vast and ongoing destruction inflicted on the Palestinian people.
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Riot Prime
People took to the streets to protect their neighbors from ICE raids throughout the year, the most explosive display of solidarity taking place in the summer in Los Angeles. Joshua Clover's Riot, Strike, Riot examines histories of unrest and works toward a theory of agitation in the present and future.
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Your Phone's Ringing
Have you noticed an uptick in the number of scam calls and texts you've received? Behind these intrusions is a sinister industry that has placed some of the world's most vulnerable citizens into appalling work conditions – akin to modern slavery.
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The People Want Socialism
The election of Zohran Mamdani in New York City signals, if nothing else, that terms like "Socialism" will no longer scare voters into casting ballots against their own interests. In fact, each new generation of voter is more and more openly supportive of Socialist ideas. Could we be headed toward municipal socialism?
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It's Time for a New Politics
Dissatisfaction with Starmerism and the rightward direction that it's dragged the Labour Party has brought about the formation of a new, mass-membership political party for the left in the UK. Your Party: The Return of the Left sees leading figures make the case for the new party and debate the big issues it faces.
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Life in the Age of Impotence
Some of the uglier episodes in 2025 can be attributed to the still-felt reverberations of events from the past few decades, which ushered in an era that 'Bifo' Berardi labeled the Age of Impotence. "Violence is replacing political mediation because political reason is determined to be devoid of potency."
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What Is To Be Done About Big Tech?
With more land and resources being dedicated to server farms, it's more clear than ever that Big Tech's agenda will drive the world into ecological collapse. But there is a way out of the multiple crises that Big Tech has helped precipitate.
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On Reaching 1.5° C Above Pre-Industrial Levels
The world is on the cusp of one and a half degrees of warming – just the rise it has committed itself to avoiding. So what forces are driving us into a climate that people – particularly poor people in the global South – won’t be able to cope with?
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Fires Out West
The year began with fires in Los Angeles, prompting many to revisit this collection of Mike Davis's writing on ecological and social collapse.
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Nativism in the Open
It is often said that with the election of Donald Trump nativism was raised from the dead, but although his actions may often seem unprecedented, they are not as unusual as many people believe.
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