‘This book will change everything you thought you knew about democracy. Brilliant and necessary — don’t miss it!’ Jason Hickel, author of Less is More‘The most important treatise on colonial and neocolonial history of the past few decades’ Peter James Hudson, author of Bankers and Empire‘A necessary and valuable read for anyone who wants to (re)think the thirst for change in Francophone Africa’ CETRI

'Fascinating and trenchant, this account of contemporary Italian neo-fascism is both original and shocking' - John Foot, historianThe dominant force in Italian politics is Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia — a party with a direct genealogy from Mussolini's regime. Surging to prominence in recent years, it has waged a fierce culture war around national identity, polarised political debate around World War II, and secured the largest vote share in Italy's 2022 gener...

Marranos were Spanish or Portuguese Jews who converted to Christianity at the time of the Spanish Inquisition to avoid being massacred or forced to flee but who continued to practise Judaism in secret. They were persecuted by the first racist blood laws but the water of forced baptism was not enough to make them assimilate.Donatella Di Cesare sees the marranos as the quintessential figures of the modern condition: the marranos were not just those whom modernity cast out as the ‘oth...

A rich and audacious account of the mutually reinforcing transformations of capitalism and technology in the age of AIAI and algorithms are more than technologies. They are rooted in new capitalist forms and processes that transcend economics and technology to reshape social reality, politics, culture, and subjectivities.Set out in twenty theses—stretching across geopolitics, the mining of rare earths, labor, crypto, influencers, climate change, Gen AI, soc...

The promise of the New Economy gone, we have regressed into the age of techno-feudalismThe rise of the IT industry in the nineties promised a new era of freedom and prosperity. It didn’t deliver. Certainly, algorithms are everywhere, but capitalism is no more civilised than ever.In fact, in the hands of private corporations, the digitalisation of the world drives us towards a darker future. The return of monopolies, the dominance of a few platforms, the blu...

This authoritative survey of the new radical left forming across Europe offers "ammo for the struggles ahead, not to be ignored" (Susan Weissman, award-winning journalist and editor of Victor Serge).In Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain, the debt crisis that began with the 2008 global recession helped trigger severe austerity measures. These policies, intended to address government debts, only worsened economic conditions.In response, something h...

Italy’s political disaster under a microscopeThere is little that hasn’t gone wrong for Italy in the last three decades. Economic growth has flatlined, infrastructure has crumbled, and out-of-work youth find their futures stuck on hold. These woes have been reflected in the country’s politics, from Silvio Berlusconi’s scandals to the rise of the far right.Many commentators blame Italy’s malaise on cultural ills—pointing to the corruption of public life or a...

HOW AN IRON FIST DONNED DEMOCRACY’S VELVET GLOVEThe history of universal suffrage is best understood as a conflict between liberal elites and democractic workers’ movements, according to Domenico Losurdo. John Stuart Mill, for example, argued that electoral influence should be more pronounced among the educated – and wealthy – than among those working with their hands. Every vote ought not to be counted the same. Countries with deep liberal roots have historically ...

The major French economist offers a new theory of moneyAs the financial crisis reached its climax in September 2008, the most important figure on the planet was Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. The whole financial system was collapsing, with little to stop it. When a senator asked Bernanke what would happen if the central bank did not carry out its rescue package, he replied, “If we don’t do this, we may not have an economy on Monday.”What saved finan...

Harnessing the power of storytelling for political progressMythocracy examines the narrative mechanisms that script our lives through the stories we tell one another. Digging beneath common anxieties about fake news, Yves Citton looks at the attention economy, which organises our political perceptions around affective attractors. These are much more powerful than the truth value of any given narrative. The time has come for the left to reclaim the power of...

Beyond growth, ecological planning offers a realist, transformative path toward a balanced human ecological footprint by deepening economic democracyAfter decades of ecological policy failures and fantasies about the virtues of the market, planning is rising as an alternative path to face the environmental catastrophe and advance human emancipation.This book looks back at the history of this notion in the 20th century, between war economies, developmental catch-up,...

An unforgettable history of Algerian independence, seen through the eyes of those who experienced its turmoil and triumphAlgeria 1962: A People’s History offers a gripping portrait of one of the twentieth-century’s most dramatic turning points—the birth of independent Algeria. Malika Rahal immerses us in the tumultuous year when, after more than a century of French settler rule and eight years of war, Algerians claimed their freedom. The result is a histor...