The toast of Tory and Labour leaders alike, the British Monarchy offers eloquent testimony to the persistence of the country’s Old Regime. These excerpts from Tom Nairn’s The Enchanted Glass, first published during the cultural reaction of the Thatcher years, offer a republican antidote to Jubilee kitsch and state-sponsored sycophancy.
Britain's prison system has, since the Europe’s first privately run prison was opened in East Yorkshire in April 1992, become increasingly privatised and run for profit. Here, Hatty Nestor explains how we got here, and how the burgeoning Prison Abolitionist movement can help us chart a way out.
Who is the proper subject of care? An excerpt from Philosophy of Care by Boris Groys.
How does contemporary art best respond to social crisis? An excerpt from Crisis as Form by Peter Osborne
On both sides the usual scripts were upended, as a pair of outsiders occupied the hegemonic gap and proceeded to fill it with new political memes.
"Safeguarding the planet requires building a counter hegemony"— an excerpt from Nancy Fraser's Cannibal Capitalism.
Pharma companies have made a killing on the pandemic, in part by refusing to share vaccine technology with manufacturers in the Global South. Though companies like Pfizer hide behind the argument that only profit incentives can drive innovation, Tim Bierley shows that knowledge sharing and publicly-funded pharmaceutical development leads to more equitable production and distribution of vaccines and medications.
Here are our books coming out in September!
John Berger's unique and uncompromising voice as an art critic owed in large part to his political commitments. A unapologetic Marxist, Berger judged art not simply by its aesthetic value but by its capacity to help its observers recognize their collective power.
Our Cultural and Literary Theory reading for the academic year ahead: all up to 40% off until the end of September.
Our art and aesthetics reading for the academic year ahead, up to 40% off as part of our student reading sale.
Our Anthropology reading for the academic year ahead.