Verso Books strana 3 z 5

The rise of the new far right has left the world grappling with a profound misunderstanding. While the spotlight often shines on the actions of charismatic leaders such as Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, the true peril lies elsewhere. Defeating these people will not stem the tide driving them forward. They are merely the embodiment of profound forces that are rarely understood. Propelled through the vast networks of social media and fueled by far-right influencers, enthralled by images of disaster and fantasies of doom, they have emerged from a reservoir of societal despair, fear, and isolation. Within this seething cauldron, we witness not only the surge of far-right political movements but also the sparks of individual and collective violence against perceived enemies, from ‘lone wolf’ killers to terrifying pogroms. Should a new fascism emerge, it will coalesce from these very elements. This is disaster nationalism.<br><br>Richard Seymour delves deep into this alarming development in world politics, dissecting its roots, its influencers, and the threats it poses. With meticulous analysis and compelling storytelling, Seymour offers a stark warning. The battle against disaster nationalism is not just political; it is a struggle for our collective soul and the future of civilization itself. Unless we understand the deeper forces propelling the far-right resurgence, we have little chance of stopping it.

Three Palestinian men embark on a brutal and treacherous odyssey across the Iraqi desert to Kuwait, not for liberation but material betterment. Under the indifferent brutality of border bureaucracy and the blank aggression of the sun, things grow increasingly oppressive. Breezily conversational and disarmingly lyrical, this short novel delivers a shuddering dose of horror.

<i>How to be Real </i>tackles one of the most urgent questions: how can we thrive in a world that is so troubling and confusing? We are constantly being told that we must be ‘authentic’ and ‘real’ whilst our sense of reality is being undermined, fragmenting our experiences and dividing people from each other. In the face of such dilemmas Frosh argues that gaining a sense of reality requires us to face the complexity of modern life. We must learn to think more clearly and bravely about it, and to allow ourselves to develop a depth of feeling that may often be uncomfortable or even distressing to live with. <br><br>By working alongside thinkers such as Freud, Winnicott and Klein, Frosh argues that we must look to what connects us and appreciate how authenticity depends on the quality of relationships we form with each other. Consequently, ‘how to be real’ has political as well as psychological and ethical implications. It is out of such disruptive complexity that human depth and relational integrity arise. Frosh pursues this through an exploration of childhood and the development of the self, of why and how we put up defences against reality, and of what hate means. The book describes how we might turn the ghosts that trouble us into ancestors that enrich our lives. It asks us to be brave enough to seek solidarity with others and, finally, to find the humanity in death.

The story of how you created internet culture and why it matters. Since the nineties, platforms have invited users to create in return for connection. From blogs to vlogs, tweets to memes: for the first time in history, making art became the fundamental form of communication. What started as fun soon became currency, something vital to finding friends, work, and love. Then, as ‘meatspace’ job security eroded, online creativity became work itself. Now an internet presence is no longer optional, platforms increasingly charge users. Whatever it is we’re creating online, it isn’t amateur anymore. But is it art? In this scintillating philosophical history of the internet, Joanna Walsh, author of Girl Online, examines how and why creativity became the price of digital existence.

This book explains why the far right is on the rise in France and how Emmanuel Macron's rule is leading to a possible Le Pen victory. Recently, polls have indicated for the first time that a far right candidate could win the next French presidential election in 2027. Reactionary and racist ideologues are increasingly present in the French media. Fascist violent groups are gaining ground and confidence in the streets, and assaulting more people. How did we get here? <br>Ugo Palheta shows that the fascist threat is rooted in the triple radicalization - neoliberal, authoritarian and racist - of the French ruling class, and its incapacity to win the consent of a large majority of the people. As a result, and as a factor of an interminable political crisis, this radicalisation has fostered the rise of a new type of fascist threat. The author therefore argues for a renaissance of anti-fascism, capable of leading the fight against the far right, and against the triple offensive that is encouraging its rise.

<i>The Starmer Project</i> is a forensic and revealing account of Keir Starmer’s rise to the top of British politics. Oliver Eagleton paints a fascinating picture of a human-rights barrister turned chief prosecutor and his handling of a number of cases involving the police and security services. He traces Starmer’s political alliances and his leading role in Labour’s Brexit agony. When Starmer stood for party leader, he pledged to revitalise Corbynism with a dose of lawyerly competence. <i>The Starmer Project</i> details how he instead purged Jeremy Corbyn and pulled Labour to the right. <br><br>Helped into power by the Conservatives’ collapse in 2024, Starmer was soon as unpopular as his Tory predecessors. Embroiled in austerity and allegations of sleaze, he has further alienated the public and disappointed business interests as well. He stands accused by critics on the left and right alike of lacking principles. But although devoid of charisma, Starmer is anything but an empty political vessel. Indeed, the implications of his authoritarian politics for a country in need of renewal, not retrenchment, appear dire. <br><br>This is the definitive, updated and revealing biography of the Labour Prime Minister.

The poor in India are, too often, reduced to statistics. In the dry language of development reports and economic projections, the true misery of the hundreds of millions who live below the poverty line gets overlooked. In this thoroughly researched study of the poorest of the poor, we get to see how they manage, what sustains them, and the efforts, often ludicrous, to do something for them. The people who figure in this book typify the lives and aspirations of a large section of Indian society, and their stories present us with the true face of development. <br><br>Acclaimed across the world, assigned in over 100 universities and colleges, and included in part in <i>The Century's Greatest Reportage</i>, alongside the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Studs Terkel, <i>Everybody Loves a Good Drought</i> is the established classic on rural poverty in India. Two decades after publication, it remains unsurpassed in the scope and depth of reportage, providing an intimate view of the daily struggles of the poor and the efforts, often ludicrous, made to uplift them.

According to conventional wisdom, France’s empire in sub- Saharan Africa ended peacefully. But this book tells a different story. The shocking violence of a secret war roiled Cameroon in the 1950s and ’60s. A mass movement for self-determination had emerged under the leadership of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC), and France responded with brutal repression. As in Algeria, French forces waged a bloody counterinsurgency campaign. They eventually eradicated the opposition and installed a client dictatorship in the capital, Yaoundé.<br><br>With the world focused on the Algerian bloodbath, the conflict in Cameroon received little attention at the time. Its devastating aftermath — and tens of thousands of victims — were intentionally obscured by French authorities and their local collaborators.<i> The Cameroon War</i> uncovers this hidden history. It illuminates a forgotten struggle for decolonisation at the origin of neocolonial rule in Francophone Africa, a story that is still unfolding today.

What was the cold war? Conventional wisdom makes it coextensive with an epoch stretching from the end of the Second World War to the collapse of the Soviet Union, a geopolitical period dominated by the confrontation between the United States and the USSR. In a fundamental challenge to prevailing orthodoxy, Anders Stephanson explodes this misconception, which has misled historians and obscured the US-centered nature of the entire process. He argues that "the cold war" is better understood as the frame that made the global role of the US after 1947 not only possible but imperative, and that in its classic form it ended in 1963, after the Cuban Missile Crisis.<br><br><i>American Imperatives </i>does not assume that the causes of the great superpower rivalry rest solely with the United States. But the frame was unmistakably and ineradicably American. Without it, there would not have been, properly speaking, a cold war.

Running the gamut from the infamous ‘pig butchering’ romance con to sophisticated online extortion and investment fraud, Southeast Asia has emerged as the global hub for cybercrime. Based on years of field research, <i>Scam </i>takes an in-depth look at the history and inner dynamics of the region’s online scam industry. Revealed are the appalling working conditions — akin to modern slavery — in the hundreds of prisonlike compounds that have mushroomed throughout multiple countries. The result is a shocking exposé of victims forced to be perpetrators, a tragic modern tale.

This essential read provides clarity on the intertwined relationships of global capitalism, energy politics, and racial oppression, and challenges readers to rethink their understanding of Palestine. <br><br>Dismantling the simplistic narratives that dominate mainstream discourse, Hanieh, Knox and Ziadah argue that the Palestinian situation cannot be fully understood without considering the broader historical and regional dynamics of Western imperialism and capitalist accumulation. By integrating the roles of imperialism, fossil capitalism, and racialization, this book offers a thorough critique of the socio-economic and political forces that sustain the Israeli settler-colonial project and the unwavering support it receives from Western powers.

WHAT THE FUTURE LOOKS LIKE TO MOST PEOPLE. AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.Every month, surveys around the world ask people to tell them what they are really thinking. The results are at times reassuring, some-times chilling and often unexpected. In The Next Crisis, leading UK geographer Danny Dorling unpacks polling data and shows that our global crises are often very different from what?s in the headlines ? and that we need to take these issues very seriously.Dorling explores our main concerns about the world in order of urgency. What the cost of living shows us about inequality. How the connection between employment and immigration is used to stir up insecurity. Why we are frightened by distant wars. How corruption corrodes care. What we should really be worried about when it comes to climate change ? including what the scientists get wrong about people?s fears. And finally, how the great ?unknown unknowns? dictate the way we think about the future and what we should be less afraid of: pandemics, asteroids, tsunamis, even each other.The Next Crisis uses the most up-to-date re-search to redraw our assumptions about where our greatest threats come from. Dorling offers a series of solutions for tackling, or at the very least coming to terms with, our uncertain future.

Can shame become a source of political strength? Faced with injustice, growing inequality and systemic violence, we cry out in shame. We feel ashamed of obscene wealth amid wider deprivation. We feel ashamed of humanity for its ruthless and relentless exploitation of the earth. We feel ashamed of the racism and sexism that permeate society and our everyday lives.<br><br>This difficult emotion is not just sadness or a withdrawal into oneself, nor is it a paralysing sense of inadequacy. As Frédéric Gros argues in <i>A Philosophy of Shame</i>, it arises when our perception of reality rejects passivity and resignation and instead embraces imagination. Shame thus becomes the expression of an anger that is a powerful, transformative force —one that assumes a radical character.<br><br>In dialogue with authors such as Primo Levi, Annie Ernaux, Virginie Despentes and James Baldwin, Gros explores a concept that is still little understood in its anthropological, moral, psychological and political depths. Shame is a revolu­tionary sentiment because it lies at the foundation of any path of subjective recognition, transformation and struggle.

<i>The Fiery Spirits</i> tells the story of the MPs in parliament and the protestors in the streets who played a pivotal role in the English Civil Wars. Through their stories, John Rees reveals the hidden history of the republicans who brought a desperate nation to the brink of revolution.<br><br>At the start of the English Civil Wars, very few could have imagined that the country would soon become a republic. Practically alone in his republicanism was Henry Marten, MP and future regicide. But he soon gathered around him a group of radical Parliamentarians that included William Strode, the parliamentary firebrand, Alexander Rigby, the formidable soldier, and Sir Peter Wentworth, descendant of a long line of opponents of monarchy. They formed the nucleus of a group that allied itself to a popular movement outside parliament to defeat the king politically and militarily.<br><br>In <i>The Fiery Spirits</i>, Rees tells how Marten and his radical allies overcame both moderate Parliamentarians and Royalists to change the face of England forever, establishing a kingdom without a crown.

Wilfred Burchett went to Lisbon in 1974 to cover the military overthrow of the fascist dictatorship that had ruled the country for nearly five decades. Burchett’s on-the-ground reporting details the immediate aftermath of the coup and the civilian uprising that followed, which took its name, the Carnation Revolution, from the flowers demonstrators handed out to soldiers and placed in their rifle muzzles. The people’s victory began a transition to democracy. It prompted the withdrawal of troops from Portugal’s colonies, bringing independence to Guinea Bissau and soon to Angola, Mozambique and other colonial territories.<br><br>On the fiftieth anniversary of the revolution’s end, <i>The Captains’ Coup</i> offers an insightful, poignant narrative never before available in English from a journalist of international repute. The text is based on the author’s original typescripts, discovered recently in the National Library of Australia.<br><br>Included are a foreword and introductory essay that explore the political and journalistic significance of Burchett’s work. Illustrated by contemporary photographs and political posters, the volume is complemented by the editors’ annotations, providing essential historical context.<br><br>Also included is an afterword by historian and filmmaker Tariq Ali.

TONY BENN: FIREBRAND? NATIONAL TREASURE? A SOCIALIST FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURYThis centenary anthology of Tony Benn?s speeches, writings and interviews is a timely reminder of his political potency and the urgency of his agenda across a wide set of issues: the consequences of empire, the need to embrace industrial change, reform of the state machine and the management of politics.Called the ?most dangerous man in Britain? by the Daily Mail, Tony Benn, Labour MP for over fifty years, was the most distinguished socialist politician of his era. Holding several significant cabinet posts in the 1960s and ?70s, he competed for the Labour Party deputy leadership in 1981 and party leadership in 1988. Throughout his career he put forward a series of arguments on constitutional reform, the economy and foreign affairs ? popular and influential policy positions which became known as ?Bennism? and set the template for the democratic socialism of the 2010s. A charismatic orator, a life-long campaigner for peace, and a charming disruptor of the mainstream consensus, Benn reached national treasure status in his retirement, his firebrand politics too often overlooked.The introduction to this collection, written by his daughter, the writer Melissa Benn, offers a more personal portrait of the man, showing how his politics informed all parts of his life. The book also includes a previously unpublished interview with Tony Benn conducted towards the end of his life.