A foremost contemporary theory of social change explained that shows us how the future must be built day by day.Rehearsing the Future explores the work and legacy of James and Grace Lee Boggs, two of the most influential American radical thinkers of the twentieth century. Grace Lee Boggs earned a PhD in philosophy in the 1940s, though facing obstacles to an academic career as a young Chinese American woman, she left and became a political organizer in Detr...

Meditations on activism following the turbulent 1960s—back in printAfter the Detroit Rebellion of 1967, James and Grace Lee Boggs decided they should rethink what activism looks like. Pairing with trusted veteran activists Freddy and Lyman Paine, they ruminated on central questions emerging from their politics and activism, and they discussed the purpose and responsibilities human beings share for the future. The recorded dialogue among these four friends invites r...

Václav Havel’s remarkable and rousing essay on the tyranny of apathy, with a new introduction by Timothy SnyderCowed by life under Communist Party rule, a greengrocer hangs a placard in their shop window: Workers of the world, unite! Is it a sign of the grocer’s unerring ideology? Or a symbol of the lies we perform to protect ourselves?Written in 1978, Václav Havel’s meditation on political dissent – the rituals of its suppression, and the sparks t...

How propaganda undermines democracy and why we need to pay attentionOur democracy today is fraught with political campaigns, lobbyists, liberal media, and Fox News commentators, all using language to influence the way we think and reason about public issues. Even so, many of us believe that propaganda and manipulation aren't problems for us—not in the way they were for the totalitarian societies of the mid-twentieth century. In How Propaganda Works, Jason ...

If you’re woke, you’re left. If you’re left, you’re woke. We blur the terms, assuming that if you’re one you must be the other. That, Susan Neiman argues, is a dangerous mistake.The confusion arises because woke is fuelled by traditionally leftwing emotions: the wish to stand with the oppressed and marginalized, to address historic crimes. But those emotions are undermined by widespread philosophical assumptions with reactionary sources. As a result, wokeism conflicts with ideas th...

THE TIMES BEST IDEAS BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2024'A splendid book: economical, invigorating and surprising' The Times'He has that gift, both as a podcaster and as a writer, to illuminate abstruse and abstract ideas with human charm' ObserverIn this bold new follow-up to Confronting Leviathan, David Runciman unmasks modern politics and reveals the great men and women of ideas behind...

In this classic talk delivered at the Poetry Center, New York, on February 16, 1970, Noam Chomsky articulates a clear, uncompromising vision of social change. Chomsky contrasts the classical liberal, libertarian socialist, state socialist, and state capitalist world views and then defends a libertarian socialist vision as "the proper and natural extension . . . of classical liberalism into the era of advanced industrial society."In his stirring conclusion Chomsky argues, "We have to...

You may not realise it, but you are probably already practicing anarchism in your daily life. From relationships to school, work, art, even the way you organise your time, anarchism can help you find fulfilment, empathy and liberation in the everyday.From the small questions such as 'Why should I steal?' to the big ones like 'how do I love?', Scott Branson shows that anarchism isn’t only something we do when we react to the news, protest or even riot. With practical examples enrich...

Rediscover what politics actually is and what miracles it can achieve—once it's separated from partisanship, polarization, and pointless yelling.In this age of nearly unprecedented partisan rancor, you'd be forgiven for thinking we could all do with a smaller daily dose of politics. In his provocative and sharp book, however, Ned O'Gorman argues just the opposite: Politics for Everybody contends that what we really need to do is engage more deeply with poli...

“An accessibly written distillation of two centuries worth of reproductive class struggle; a revived vision of revolutionary ‘beloved community’ for an age of climate catastrophe. Spread this book around, and start communizing care!”--Sophie Lewis, author of Abolish the Family“Stunningly urgent and timely...Through an exhilaratingly accessible narrative, O’Brien moves effortlessly between history, current specificities, and future possibilities to ...

In this ground-breaking book, a renowned bioethicist argues that the political left must radically revise its outdated view of human nature. He shows how the insights of modern evolutionary theory, particularly on the evolution of cooperation, can help the left attain its social and political goals.Singer explains why the left originally rejected Darwinian thought and why these reasons are no longer viable. He discusses how twentieth-century thinking has transformed our understandi...

Coming to terms with a new period of uncertainty when it is still replete with possibilitiesThis quick and engaging study clearly lays out the United States’ current democratic crisis. Examining the early stages of the Nazi movement in Germany, William E. Connolly detects synergies with Donald Trump’s rhetorical style. Tapping into a sense of contemporary fragility, Aspirational Fascism pays particular attention to how conflicts between neoliberalism and t...