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The world’s leading forensic scholar exposes international duplicity and complicity in the Gaza genocide.Methodically debunking the claims of its apologists, Norman Finkelstein has for decades laid bare the cynical politics behind Israel’s high-tech killing sprees in Gaza.Since October 7, 2023, he has been a unique voice in not just condemning Israel’s onslaught but also providing original and acute insight into it.Now, in Gaza’s Gravediggers, Finkelstein turns his critical lens to the global enablers of genocide—those who distort truth and manipulate justice as they prostitute themselves to power and privilege.With meticulous research and razor-sharp analysis, he systematically dissects and dismantles the most influential arguments defending Israel’s actions. He exposes how a United Nations special representative lent credence to an Israeli smear campaign, how officials in the world’s highest court perverted international law in Israel’s defence, and how even Israel’s severe critics colluded in misrepresenting genocide as a war.This is more than a book; it is a searing indictment of those who abused their authority to whitewash an unfolding horror. Gaza’s Gravediggers serves as a clarion call for accountability, reminding those in power: the world is watching, and History will not forgive. “It will not be forgotten,” Finkelstein admonishes. “It will no longer be business as usual, if you choose to do the Devil’s work.”

In the past five years Israel has mounted three major assaults on the 1.8 million Palestinians trapped behind its blockade of the Gaza Strip. Taken together, Operation Cast Lead (2008-9), Operation Pillar of Defense (2012), and Operation Protective Edge (2014), have resulted in the deaths of some 3,700 Palestinians. Meanwhile, a total of 90 Israelis were killed in the invasions.On the face of it, this succession of vastly disproportionate attacks has often seemed frenzied and pathological. Senior Israeli politicians have not discouraged such perceptions, indeed they have actively encouraged them. After the 2008-9 assault Israel’s then-foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, boasted, "Israel demonstrated real hooliganism during the course of the recent operation, which I demanded."However, as Norman G. Finkelstein sets out in this concise, paradigm-shifting new book, a closer examination of Israel's motives reveals a state whose repeated recourse to savage war is far from irrational. Rather, Israel's attacks have been designed to sabotage the possibility of a compromise peace with the Palestinians, even on terms that are favorable to it.Looking also at machinations around the 2009 UN sponsored Goldstone report and Turkey's forlorn attempt to seek redress in the UN for the killing of its citizens in the 2010 attack on the Gaza freedom flotilla, Finkelstein documents how Israel has repeatedly eluded accountability for what are now widely recognized as war crimes.Further, he shows that, though neither side can claim clear victory in these conflicts, the ensuing stalemate remains much more tolerable for Israelis than for the beleaguered citizens of Gaza. A strategy of mass non-violent protest might, he contends, hold more promise for a Palestinian victory than military resistance, however brave.

A timely and measured examination of how US–Iran relations reached their current impasse and what it will take to move beyond years of distrust.The United States and Iran have been locked in a decades-long standoff, fueled by missteps, misunderstandings, and clashing ambitions. In these pages a leading Iranian expert clarifies the dynamics driving a conflict that has devastated the Middle East and destabilized the world.Behrooz Ghamari explores the history of US intervention in the region, focusing on the continuing sanctions imposed on Iran and, behind them, US policymakers' persistent perception of the Islamic Republic as a major obstacle to American power. Despite the repressive policies of the Iranian state, he contends, Iranian society has remained vibrant with active intellectual, cultural, and social justice movements. The roots of US-Iranian rivalry lie elsewhere.Challenging the conventional image of Iran as a monolithic totalitarian regime, this timely study calls for a more informed, nuanced approach to Middle East diplomacy.

A Sunday Times BestsellerFrom one of Britain’s most celebrated political journalists, a fearless and forensic indictment of British complicity in the destruction of Gaza.In a gripping narrative informed by original reporting, Peter Oborne tells how Britain’s Conservative and Labour parties converged to back Israel’s criminal assault—in the process occupying disturbing common ground with the far right.Rather than challenge this political cartel, British media colluded in its misrepresentations. The shocking result was that, as British authorities helped Israel set Gaza as well as international law aflame, almost everything the public was told about this momentous conflagration was untrue.When citizens still turned out in their hundreds of thousands to demand a ceasefire, roiling the nation’s politics as they stayed faithful to the ancient British tradition of popular protest in defence of liberty, the political-media machine bared its fangs. The investigative reporting in this book exposes the methods by which peaceful demonstrations were smeared as “hate marches”.Formerly chief political commentator at the Daily Telegraph and Spectator, Oborne knows the British establishment from within. In this book he names names and provides receipts. His demand is accountability—for atrocities, and their accomplices.

A media scholar examines how US establishment outlets echo Israeli narratives on Gaza, miminimizing atrocities like the Flour Massacre as “aid-related deaths” to whitewash genocide and excuse war crimes amid global outrage.This vitally necessary and carefully researched book examines the way US establishment media ran interference for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, aligning its coverage with Israeli military narratives whilst downplaying, and even condoning, the wholesale massacre of Palestinians.Commencing with the October 7, 2023, attack, The Complicit Lens scrutinizes mainstream journalism, contrasting it with social media reports and international news coverage. It reveals how legacy media presented Israeli violence as defensive and justified, casting doubt on IDF bombings, employing passive language to deflect blame for atrocities, and repeating Israeli talking points, often word-for-word. Massacres of those seeking food became “aid-related deaths,” whilst missile attacks on tented refugees were “tragic mistakes.” Meanwhile, well-worn tropes of war propaganda, including claims of the beheading of babies and mass rapes, subsequently revealed to be without foundation, were used to justify Israeli actions and obscure culpability.Andersen documents the targeting of journalists and aid workers in what has become the deadliest conflict for each on record. She spotlights the editorial censorship that prohibited the use of terms such as “genocide” and “massacre” in the reporting of Palestinian deaths. And, as global protests against the Gaza genocide gathered strength, she examines the hostile media portrayal of these uprisings, particularly those led by young people and Jewish organizations.

Cypherpunks are activists who advocate the widespread use of strong cryptography (writing in code) as a route to progressive change. Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of and visionary behind WikiLeaks, has been a leading voice in the cypherpunk movement since its inception in the 1980s.Now, in what is sure to be a wave-making new book, Assange brings together a small group of cutting-edge thinkers and activists from the front line of the battle for cyber-space to discuss whether electronic communications will emancipate or enslave us. Among the topics addressed are: Do Facebook and Google constitute “the greatest surveillance machine that ever existed,” perpetually tracking our location, our contacts and our lives? Far from being victims of that surveillance, are most of us willing collaborators? Are there legitimate forms of surveillance, for instance in relation to the “Four Horsemen of the Infopocalypse” (money laundering, drugs, terrorism and pornography)? And do we have the ability, through conscious action and technological savvy, to resist this tide and secure a world where freedom is something which the Internet helps bring about?The harassment of WikiLeaks and other Internet activists, together with attempts to introduce anti-file sharing legislation such as SOPA and ACTA, indicate that the politics of the Internet have reached a crossroads. In one direction lies a future that guarantees, in the watchwords of the cypherpunks, “privacy for the weak and transparency for the powerful”; in the other lies an Internet that allows government and large corporations to discover ever more about internet users while hiding their own activities. Assange and his co-discussants unpick the complex issues surrounding this crucial choice with clarity and engaging enthusiasm.

An explosive investigation into how America’s longest wars created a threat from within by flooding the US military with extremists now fueling MAGA, domestic terror, and the global far right.In Irregular Army, investigative journalist Matt Kennard delivers a searing exposé of how the US military’s recruitment crisis during the War on Terror opened the ranks to some of the most dangerous elements in American society: white supremacists, neo-Nazis, gang members, and convicted criminals. This updated edition deepens the original’s urgent warning, connecting those recruitment policies directly to the rise of MAGA extremism, Trumpism, and the global resurgence of fascism.Drawing on years of on-the-ground reporting and interviews with extremist veterans and military insiders, Kennard reveals how the Pentagon knowingly empowered violent ideologues in its desperation to staff the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now back on American soil―and in some cases in positions of power―many of these veterans see their mission continuing through race-war fantasies, far-right organizing, and criminal enterprises.

By the editor of The New Republic, a side-splitting, super-smart story of a voyage from the future to the past aimed at forestalling global calamity in a single stroke.In the year 2141, the planet is ruled by billionaires, democracy is a relic, the environment is collapsing, and Illinois is home to thirty-foot alligators. When a ragtag team of scientists discovers the secret to time travel, they set their sights on history’s most infamous villain: baby Adolf Hitler.The mission doesn’t go quite as planned.Because rewriting history is never simple. Instead of preventing the rise of fascism, they trigger a bizarre new timeline in which Hitler grows up in America, editing one of the country’s most hateful newspapers, and history warps in strange and unsettling ways. What begins as a darkly funny scheme to fix the past spirals into a mind-bending journey across centuries, as the time travelers confront unintended consequences, shifting timelines, and a future that may be even worse than the one they left behind.Part sci-fi thriller, part biting satire, Killing Baby Hitler is Michael Tomasky’s first work of fiction—a wildly original novel that skewers power, questions the logic of hindsight, and reminds us that the present may be the hardest time of all to change. Bold, provocative, and disturbingly plausible, it’s a time-travel tale like no other.

Publishing to coincide with a major MoMA Retrospective, this book revisits the artist who upended modern art, and the city that made it possible.Artist, anti-artist, joker, trickster, shape-shifter: Marcel Duchamp broke with tradition and pushed the avant-garde decisively forward. When his work exploded like an art bomb in New York in the 1910s, American art was still mired in the nineteenth century. Duchamp, bored with tradition, reimagined what art could be, what it was for, and how it might be made—hanging a snow shovel from the ceiling, inverting a urinal, “painting” with dust and bits of string between panes of glass, and reducing his entire oeuvre into a briefcase of miniatures. Duchamp Takes New York traces this bold, playful energy, showing how the city inspired and staged his avant-garde experiments.Duchamp's offhand gestures reshaped the course of twentieth-century American art, laying the groundwork for nearly every major movement that followed. And then, at the height of his influence, Duchamp appeared to walk away—declaring himself finished with art and devoting his energies to becoming a chess champion instead. Only after his death did it emerge that he had spent two decades secretly working on one final, unsettling work, leaving the world to try to comprehend it without explanation—his ultimate prank.John Strausbaugh, a longtime chronicler of the city, puts New York at the center of Duchamp’s story. Fleeing the comforts of French bourgeois life—“wives, three children, a country house, three cars!”—Duchamp found New York instantly liberating. It was here that he produced much of his most radical work and eventually settled for good, once declaring, “New York itself is a complete work of art.” Duchamp's art simply can't be pinned down, without first recognizing his relationship to New York.

In this new edition of their bestselling book, Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies bring their account of the war in Ukraine up-to-date, to try and answer burning questions about how and why the conflict still rages on after three years of carnage, and who and what stand in the way of a stable and lasting peace. They examine the claims and counter-claims around the stalemate on the battlefield, the continuing expansion of NATO with the addition of Finland and Sweden, and contradictions in US and NATO policy as the war drags on.They also examine the divisions among U.S. progressives that hindered the emergence of a strong anti-war movement and abandoned the anti-war position in Congress to the extreme right.The authors describe Russia’s February 2022 invasion as a tragic and indefensible crime. However, they insist that Western government and media circles’ presentation of the conflict as a simple dichotomy between an evil empire and an innocent victim is a distortion of a more complicated chain of events.The West's reneging on promises not to expand NATO in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union revived Cold War tensions. The violent overthrow of Ukraine’s elected government in 2014 caused the disintegration of the country, and its failure to implement the Minsk peace agreement led to an escalating conflict that the world has so far failed to resolve, one that could conceivably end in all-out war between the United States and Russia-the world's two leading nuclear-armed powers.Skillfully bringing together the historical record and current analysis, War in Ukraine looks at the events leading up to the conflict, surveys the different parties involved, and weighs the risks of escalation and opportunities for peace. For anyone who wants to get beneath the heavily propagandized media coverage to an understanding of a war with consequences that could prove cataclysmic, this widely acclaimed book will prove invaluable.

What is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)? What role is played by its members and partners? Does the largest military alliance ever to exist serve the cause of peace or the causes of weapons sales and war mongering? Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the alliance, this sharp, concise account examines NATO's origins, structure, and its goals at a time of mounting global tension.NATO has remade itself repeatedly, as its past purposes have disappeared. In the last 35 years it has been part of wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. It has played a major role in Ukraine, and supported warmaking by Israel. NATO is now expanding rapidly, both in geography and in scope, adding partners from Colombia to Mongolia to Australia, and claiming a role in policing, immigration, economics, public budgeting, scientific research, and environmental protection.With pointed investigations of how NATO's decisions are made, the widely misunderstood question of the way it is funded, its relationship to international law, and the available alternatives to it, NATO: What You Need to Know is an indispensable primer on an organization that not only confronts expanding military conflict but, the authors contend, plays an active part in its escalation.

Russia’s brutal February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has attracted widespread condemnation across the West. Government and media circles present the conflict as a simple dichotomy between an evil empire and an innocent victim. In this concise, accessible and highly informative primer, Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies insist the picture is more complicated. Yes, Russia’s aggression was reckless and, ultimately, indefensible. But the West’s reneging on promises to halt eastward expansion of NATO in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union played a major part in prompting Putin to act. So did the U.S. involvement in the 2014 Ukraine coup and Ukraine's failure to implement the Minsk peace agreements. The result is a conflict that is increasingly difficult to resolve, one that could conceivably escalate into all-out war between the United States and Russia—the world’s two leading nuclear powers.Skillfully bringing together the historical record and current analysis, War In Ukraine looks at the events leading up to the conflict, surveys the different parties involved, and weighs the risks of escalation and opportunities for peace. For anyone who wants to get beneath the heavily propagandized media coverage to an understanding of a war with consequences that could prove cataclysmic, reading this timely book will be an urgent necessity.

We all know the book: it’s been hailed as one of the most important documents on how the world economy works, or doesn’t work, and it’s been a colossal bestseller since it first appeared in 2014, with more than 1.5 million copies sold. Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century makes a powerful case that wealth, and accumulated wealth, tends to stay where it lands: and with the passage of time, just gets bigger… and bigger. But how many of us who bought or borrowed the book—or even, perhaps, reviewed it—have read more than a fraction of its 696 pages? How many more shuddered at the thought of committing $40 to such a venture? And how many of Piketty’s groundshaking concepts have gone unappreciated, all for want of intellectual stamina?Deliverance is at hand in the form of Pocket Piketty, written in clear and accessible prose by an experienced economist and teacher–and one whose work was relied on by Piketty for his masterpiece. In this handy and slim volume, Jesper Roine explains all things Piketty.

The World Cup is here, but what function does a worldwide tournament play in an increasingly belligerent police state, with Donald Trump at the helm?Publishing on the eve of the soccer World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, this concise, power-packed philippic provides a critical take on the dark underbelly of the beautiful game at its most storied moment.At the heart of this analysis by acclaimed sportswriter and scholar Jules Boykoff, who himself played soccer professionally, is the concept of sportswashing, where political leaders use sports to stoke nationalism and legitimize themselves on the world stage, deflecting from chronic problems at home. Step forward the recipient of the newly cast FIFA Peace Prize, Donald J. Trump, a titan unrivaled in squeegeeing every drop of personal wealth and prestige from hosting the competition. In this, he is ably assisted by a governing body of global soccer dripping in patronage and corruption.In these pages Boykoff demonstrates that it is possible to simultaneously treasure the skills and athleticism displayed on the pitch while lamenting their exploitation by malevolent powerbrokers for whom love of the game means nothing next to turning a buck or harvesting prestige. And, as Red Card so skillfully shows, this bait and switch is not confined to soccer. Precisely the same legerdemain will be used to distract and enrich when the Olympic Games come to Los Angeles two years from now.

“If I must die, let it bring hope, let it be a tale.”This rich, elegiac compilation of work from the late Palestinian poet and professor, Refaat Alareer, brings together his marvelous poetry and deeply human writing about literature, teaching, politics, and family. The renowned poet and literature professor Refaat Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City alongside his brother, sister, and nephews in December 2023. He was just forty-four years old, but had already established a worldwide reputation that was further enhanced when, in the wake of his death, the poem that gives this book its title became a global sensation. “If I Must Die” is included here, alongside Refaat’s other poetry.Refaat wrote extensively about a range of topics: teaching Shakespeare and the way Shylock could be appreciated by young Palestinian students; the horrors of living under repeated brutal assaults in Gaza, one of which, in 2014, killed another of his brothers; and the generosity of Palestinians to each other, fighting, in the face of it all, to be the one paying at the supermarket checkout.Such pieces, some never before published, have been curated here by one of Refaat’s closest friends and collaborators. This collection forms a fitting testament to a remarkable writer, educator, and activist, one whose voice will not be silenced by death but will continue to assert the power of learning and humanism in the face of barbarity.

Why did Hamas attack? What is Israel trying to achieve? Did this catastrophe have to happen? And is there a way forward? The book’s expert contributors address these and other questions, which have never been more urgent.In September 2023, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan boasted that the Middle East “is quieter today than it has been in two decades.” One week later, unprecedented violence in Gaza and Israel shattered the status quo and shocked the world.Hamas’s Operation Al-Aqsa Deluge punctured delusions of stability as hundreds of militants burst forth from the Gaza prison camp. In the ensuing carnage and firefights, 1,200 Israelis were killed and hundreds more taken hostage.Israel’s retaliation turned the besieged enclave into a howling wasteland. Nearly 30,000 people were killed in four months, including more than 12,000 children, and over 60 percent of homes were damaged or destroyed. Israel targeted the wounded and infirm, newborns and near-dead, as Gaza’s healthcare system—hospitals, clinics, ambulances, medical personnel—came under a systematic attack unprecedented in the annals of modern warfare.The Hamas massacre and the genocidal Israeli campaign which followed together mark a historic turning point in the Israel-Palestine conflict. The reverberations have also shaken politics far beyond, not least in Europe and the United States, where gigantic, round-the-clock protests for Palestinian rights pitted politicians against the public and exposed a growing statist authoritarianism.In this groundbreaking book—the first published about the 2023 Gaza war—leading Palestinian, Israeli, and international authorities put these momentous developments in context and provide an initial taking-stock.Contributors: Musa Abuhashhash, Ahmed Alnaouq, Nathan J. Brown, Yaniv Cogan, Clare Daly MEP, Talal Hangari, Khaled Hroub, R. J., Colter Louwerse, Mitchell Plitnick, Mouin Rabbani, Sara Roy, and Avi Shlaim

Based on Labour Party files, including some never before publicly seen, this explosive investigation lays bare the intrigues, stratagems, and deceits that helped deliver Sir Keir Starmer to Downing Street.Paul Holden shows how Keir Starmer has been the frontman for a ruthless, right-wing political project headed by Morgan McSweeney, now chief of staff in Number 10 and arguably the most powerful man in Britain.McSweeney’s clique often employed dirty tricks to undermine the left-wing Labour leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, fuelling a moral panic over antisemitism and establishing front groups that hobbled prominent independent media outlets in the name of fighting ‘misinformation’.McSweeney then guided Starmer to the Labour leadership on a platform that Starmer, once in office, almost instantly betrayed. Having conquered the party on false pretences, McSweeney and his allies set about purging opponents, marginalising the membership, and dragging party policy to the right.These machinations were made possible by financial donations that McSweeney did not disclose—a violation of the law that arguably subverted Britain’s democratic system. But was McSweeney’s unlawful failure to report donations a mistake—or was it deliberate?This is a sordid tale that includes hacked emails, anonymous smears, dodgy dossiers, cynical stitch-ups, and staggering hypocrisy. It traces the Labour Party’s transformation into a censorial, authoritarian machine, and sounds the alarm about the possible corruption of British politics by dark money.

America’s most canceled intellectual presents a scorching defence of free thought and a devastating indictment of a left that has lost its way.Norman Finkelstein made his name debunking Israel’s apologists and exposing the cynical weaponization of Jewish history. In this work, Finkelstein trains that same forensic eye on identity politics writ large.After methodically parsing the canonical identity-politics texts, Finkelstein concludes that they’re lacking in intellectual substance. Instead, the real purpose of identity politics is to derail a class-based movement bent on radical change.Finkelstein shows how the cult surrounding Barack Obama used identity politics to burnish a status quo president’s radical sheen. When a truly progressive movement cohered around presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, these “woke” liberals mobilised identity politics to discredit him.Along the way, Finkelstein recalls his own life in radical politics and his close encounters with cancel culture, which left him unemployed and unemployable. He situates his personal story within broader debates on academic freedom and poignantly concludes that, although occasionally bitter, he harbors no regrets about the choices he made.“If I can’t laugh, I don’t want your revolution,” Finkelstein declares. Laced with his signature wit, readers of this book will get to laugh along with him.This revised edition of Finkelstein’s instant classic features a new chapter dissecting the Supreme Court's landmark decisions on affirmative action. In a bracingly original analysis, Finkelstein shows the stark limits of affirmative action discourse in the face of an economic system that is fundamentally rigged.

Beyond the headlines of destruction and despair, discover the untold story of Gaza's humanity—its joys, resilience, and vibrant community spirit, as captured by a native son.Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza has plunged more than two million Palestinians into a ceaseless cycle of violence and deprivation. Despite the outrage that Israel’s aggression has fanned, two opposing tropes about those who inhabit the Strip endure. For the minority backing Israel’s actions, the Palestinians of Gaza are often seen as little more than terrorists. For many on the other side, they are perpetual victims, powerless and tragic. Each characterization dehumanizes Gaza’s people.In this book, Mohammed Omer Almoghayer, born and raised in southern Gaza, presents a necessary corrective: What the news reports have rarely shown are the ways in which, prior to Israel’s onslaught, the people of Gaza rose above their hardship to enjoy the simple pleasures of human existence. While in no way diminishing the horrors hurled at the Strip since October 7, or the prior suffering of those forced to live in what was effectively an open prison, Omer Almoghayer here tells that story.On the Pleasures of Living in Gaza takes the reader on a tour of a most misunderstood and hidden territory, allowing us to discover the community spirit, the enduring family ties, the festivals and pastimes, and the creativity and resourcefulness of people, who, in lives now tragically lost, refused to surrender to hopelessness, snatching moments of joy in the most difficult of circumstances.More than ever, it is vital that we recognize the humanity of people referred to by Israel’s defense minister as “animals,” and by news organizations around the world by bald numbers of nameless dead. With the sensitivity and insight available to a native Gazan, Mohammed Omer’s magnificent book parts the smoke and dust to show us the richness of a way of life Israel has now destroyed.

From inside Kshama Sawant's historic tenure in Seattle City Hall comes a blueprint for 21st-century socialists, a counterpoint to the strategies favored by The Squad and other progressive activists.Seattle was the first major city to mandate a $15 minimum wage; the first to implement a payroll tax on Amazon to build affordable housing; the first to secure a bevy of renters’ rights laws, making good on the slogan, “Housing is a human right.”Behind these remarkable breakthroughs in the 2010s stood a small but feisty Marxist movement, Socialist Alternative, and the City Council member they helped to elect, Kshama Sawant. In a municipal government dominated by pro-business Democrats, Sawant and the popular street movements she led against major corporations headquartered in the region—including Amazon, Boeing, Microsoft, and Starbucks—won battles that would transform the city’s trajectory for years to come.We’re Coming for You and Your Rotten System tells this extraordinary story from the inside. Rosenblum, who worked in Sawant’s office and alongside community activists throughout this dynamic decade, weaves together intimate story-telling and political analysis to show how and why the movement succeeded where other progressive outsiders—such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—have failed. For political activists searching desperately to make sense of the world after the reelection of Donald Trump, the Seattle experience offers a vital framework for fighting our way out of the despairing miasma of 21st-century capitalism.

“A project of epic proportions, pulled off with remarkable élan.”—Kirkus ReviewsA gripping exposé of deception, cult power, and the long shadow of Carlos Castaneda, the man behind the biggest literary hoax of the twentieth century.Twenty years in the making, American Trickster: The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda unravels the story of the secretive faux-anthropologist who pulled off one of the greatest literary hoaxes in modern history. Both an investigation of the techniques employed by charismatic narcissists and a study of the cult dynamics that still shape American life, American Trickster defies conventional biography. It emerges as a chilling allegory for the Trump era, a trenchant critique of academia’s complicity in distorting and erasing Indigenous culture, and a deep dive into the mechanics of New Age spiritual abuse.Carlos Castaneda, born in Peru in 1925, fled to the U.S. in 1951, escaping responsibility for a child he fathered with a thirteen-year-old girl. He changed his name repeatedly, worked as a taxi driver, studied creative writing, and eventually enrolled in anthropology at UCLA in 1959. In 1968, the University of California Press published his first book, The Teachings of Don Juan, which described his supposed encounters with a Yaqui shaman who initiated him into a secret world of peyote-fueled visions and ancient knowledge never before shared with a “Westerner.”Castaneda was quickly hailed as a revolutionary figure. Admirers ranged from John Lennon and Joni Mitchell to Federico Fellini, George Lucas, and Octavio Paz. His books became international bestsellers and remain the most popular titles ever published on Native American spirituality—despite having little to no connection to actual Indigenous practices.For a time, his truth went unchallenged. Then, in 1973, Time magazine published a searing exposé revealing that Castaneda wasn’t who he claimed to be. As his academic credibility unraveled, he turned inward, building a secretive spiritual group that blurred the line between fiction and reality. Castaneda’s followers, mostly women, became living extensions of the characters in his books—devoted disciples who often abandoned their former lives entirely.By the 1990s, as book sales declined, the group emerged publicly, offering workshops and seminars to thousands across the globe. When Castaneda was diagnosed with liver cancer, he told his disciples he would not die, but burn from within and ascend to another realm—and invited them to join him. After his death in 1998, five of his closest female followers vanished. They are widely believed to have taken their own lives.

Set in the tumultuous aftermath of the Iranian revolution in 1979, Remembering Akbar weaves together the stories of a group of characters who share a crowded death row cell in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. A teeming world is evoked vividly through the relationships, memories, and inner lives of these political prisoners, many of whom were eventually executed.Told through a series of linked memories by the narrator, Akbar, whose striking candor is infused with a mordant sense of humor, the story takes the reader beyond mere political struggles and revelations, to a vibrant alternative history, written, as it were, by losers.The characters whose stories Akbar recounts are brought to life within the mundane rhythms of a bleak institution, in its simple pleasures as well as its frequent horrors, and in the unexpected connections that emerge between the world inside and a past before imprisonment.Rather than exalting the heroic, or choosing to focus merely on despair or redemption, Remembering Akbar reveals eloquently how life unfolds when death is starkly imminent. It is a deeply moving story of great camaraderie, biting humor, and soulful remembrance.

A deep dive into one of this century's most potent questions: do we direct technology, or do we let ourselves be directed by it?This compact new edition of a paradigmatic text packs a big and actionable punch. Updated with a new section on the unique challenges posed by AI, Program or Be Programmed presents a spirited, accessible poetics of new media. On these pages (and screens), Rushkoff picks up where Marshall McLuhan left off, helping readers recognize programming as the new literacy of the digital age.The debate over whether the internet is good or bad for us fills the airwaves and the blogosphere. But for all the heat of claim and counter-claim, the argument is essentially beside the point: it’s here; it’s everywhere. The real question is, do we direct technology, or do we let ourselves be directed by it and those who have mastered it? “Choose the former,” writes Rushkoff, “and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.” In eleven “commands,” Rushkoff provides cyberenthusiasts and technophobes alike with the guidelines to navigate this new universe.

Is AI a bubble or humanity’s last invention? An existing harm or an existential threat? Obsolete cuts through the hype and false binaries to answer all the AI questions you have, while raising some you probably aren’t prepared for.The richest companies in history are racing to build a machine that replaces human labor—all of it. And, as this provocative new book insists, the only surefire way they won’t succeed is if we stop them.Many today don’t get further than seeing AI as a boondoggle—a new shiny object for techno-capitalists to sink their cash into as we barrel toward climate disaster. Obsolete takes those concerns seriously, but implores us to keep our eye on the ball: the attempt to render you obsolete.The scale of their project has no real precedent. What we think of as big—the Gilded Age monopolies, the Manhattan Project, the Apollo program—doesn’t even come close to capturing its size. Almost none of us wants this vast transformation to succeed. Yet we’re letting it proceed virtually unabated. Why? Because we don’t know it’s happening, we don’t believe it will work, or we don’t think we can stop it. Obsolete takes on all three.AI expert and journalist Garrison Lovely’s debut is a refreshing reset on an AI debate in which basically everyone is getting some big things wrong. With deep access to top researchers, advocates, and industry insiders, Obsolete offers a new way to think about the technology and a plan for deciding its future democratically.

The hotly anticipated debut from an award-winning journalist reveals the hidden story of the US–Russia proxy war in Ukraine.In this bombshell investigation, years in the making, Aaron Maté exposes Washington’s professed support for Ukrainian sovereignty and democracy as a sham.Building on the rigorous, fearless reporting that has established him as a leading independent journalist, Maté irrefutably documents how the US and its NATO allies have meddled in Ukraine with the real aim of weakening and destabilizing Russia.In pursuit of this aggressive geopolitical design, successive US administrations exploited Ukraine’s internal divisions and sabotaged every chance for compromise while relentlessly backing Russia into a corner. Gambling with the global economy and risking nuclear war, US planners then provoked and prolonged an illegal Russian invasion that has had catastrophic consequences—for the Ukrainian people above all.Washington’s cynical foreign policy did not just detonate peace in Europe but also deranged politics at home. Controversies around Russia and Ukraine played a pivotal role in three consecutive US presidential campaigns, driving the national hysteria known as “Russiagate” as well as the first impeachment of Donald Trump.With Trump's re-election pledge to broker peace still elusive, Maté presents a groundbreaking account of how the Russia–Ukraine conflict came to be, and how a brutal proxy war with existential stakes for humanity can finally be resolved.

How do fascists think? An acclaimed novelists looks at the life and writing of a prominent Nazi collaborator to investigate the links between psychology, language, and action on the far right.Léon Degrelle was Belgium’s highest-ranking Nazi collaborator and a fanatical Waffen-SS officer who fought on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. Admired by Hitler and Mussolini and later sheltered by Franco in Spain, Degrelle embodied the figure of the fascist true believer long after the defeat of the Third Reich.In a richly illustrated text, Jonathan Littell here subjects Degrelle’s main autobiographical writings, his memoir The Russian Campaign, to a forensic reading, bringing it into confrontation with the work of a renowned writer on psychology and fascism, Klaus Theweleit, who provides an afterword to the book. Littell dissects Degrelle’s prose to expose what he terms an “anatomy of fascist discourse”: a recurring set of metaphors, obsessions, and psychic structures through which fascist ideology understands the body, violence, purity, and the enemy.The Damp and the Dry moves beyond biography to reveal how fascism thinks and speaks. It is a disturbing and incisive study of authoritarian mentality—one that illuminates not only the history of twentieth-century fascism, but its enduring rhetorical and psychological appeal.

Winner of the 2010 Lambda Award for Best Lesbian FictionFrom its unforgettable beginning—“My English professor’s ass was so beautiful.”—to its transcendent ending—“You can actually learn to have grace. And that's heaven.”—poet, essayist, and performer Eileen Myles's chronicle transmits an energy and vividness that will not soon leave its readers. Their story of a young writer discovering both her sexuality and her own creative drive in the meditative and raucous environment of New York City during its punk and indie heyday is engrossing, poignant, and funny. This is a voice from the underground that redefines the meaning of the word.

Meet Mayor Mamdani maps how a groundbreaking candidate and his dynamic campaign for New York City mayor toppled a Democratic Party dynasty and ran circles around MAGA.34-year-old Zohran’s straightforward, openly democratic socialist platform—a rent freeze, free buses, universal childcare, and city-run grocery stores—resonated across the increasingly unaffordable city.But Mamdani’s job wasn’t assured after winning the primary against “prince of darkness” Andrew Cuomo and his billionaire allies. Trump enthusiasts targeted Zohran’s heritage and support for Palestinian rights, unleashing a torrent of Islamophobic hate. Mamdani’s canny instincts helped him outmaneuver local and national power players alike.Mamdani expanded his June coalition by bringing aboard city unions and stumping with mainstream Democratic Party leaders like Tish James. Steered by NYC-DSA, the campaign’s massive outreach operation saw over 100,000 volunteers interact with over three million New Yorkers. Zohran scored over 1.1 million votes, the highest total of any New York City mayoral candidate since John Lindsay in 1965.As fast-paced and compelling as its subject, Meet Mayor Mamdani reveals how a charismatic candidate and a vibrant grassroots campaign stayed ahead of the competition and set the stage for democratic socialism at City Hall.

Where literary criticism meets memoir, Beckett’s Children explores how absence, lineage, and loss echo across art and life.Beckett’s Children is a lyrical blend of personal memoir, father-son dialogue, and literary investigation that probes the works of Irish writer Samuel Beckett and American poet Susan Howe in search of traces of their long-rumored status as father and daughter. Although Howe has denied the rumor, the possibility that it might be true leads Coffey to a highly original appreciation of her work and a fascinating focus on the dozens of unattended children who wander through Beckett’s oeuvre.The saga of Coffey’s adult son, at various moments on the run in the Indiana woods, is here tragically updated in a visceral and moving Afterword, shining a harsh light on life without parental connection in a cold America. As an adoptee himself, Coffey looks to literature for traces of his own origin story and lineage, as he mourns the loss of his son.Provocative and beautifully expressed, Beckett’s Children suggests a new approach to the textual worlds of two highly respected artists, providing a revelatory perspective on both American poetics and the vibrant world of Beckett studies.