Böcker utgivna av Verso Books

Who speaks for science in a technologically dominated society? In his latest work of cultural criticism Andrew Ross contends that this question yields no simple or easy answer. In our present technoculture a wide variety of people, both inside and outside the scientific community, have become increasingly vocal in exercising their right to speak about, on behalf of, and often against, science and technology.Arguing that science can only ever be understood as a social artifact, Strange Weather is a manifesto which calls on cultural critics to abandon their technophobia and contribute to the debates which shape our future. Each chapter focuses on an idea, a practice or community that has established an influential presence in our culture: New Age, computer hacking, cyberpunk, futurology, and global warming.In a book brimming over with intelligence—both human and electronic—Ross examines the state of scientific countercultures in an age when the development of advanced information technologies coexists uneasily with ecological warnings about the perils of unchecked growth. Intended as a contribution to a ¿green¿ cultural criticism, Strange Weather is a provocative investigation of the ways in which science is shaping the popular imagination of today, and delimiting the possibilities of tomorrow.

Galvano Della Volpe was the dominant philosopher of Italian Marxism for twenty years after the Liberation. His most important book was a work of aesthetic theory—Critique of Taste. Della Volpe, proponent of a robust materialism in all his writings, was concerned to rehabilitate the inherently rational and intellectual nature of art. Opposing both the sociological reductionism of Plekhanov or Lukács, and the formalist irrationalism of Croce or New Criticism, Della Volpe’s aim was to demonstrate that conceptual meaning is always inseparable from aesthetic effect.Whether he is discussing Pindar or Góngora, Cleanth Brooks or Roland Barthes, Goethe or Mallarmé, Della Volpe is always challenging, always illuminating. Critique of Taste represents one of the major crossroads of twentieth-century aesthetics.

President Bush has made the war against drugs the number one issue on the contemporary American political agenda. In this revised edition of his classic book, available for the first time in paperback, Edward Jay Epstein argues that the president has adopted the strategy of his forebear, Richard Nixon, in using the drugs war to blame foreigners for the crisis in America’s cities, and to provide a smokescreen for unrelated political activity designed to bolster executive power.The drugs crackdown has seen an almost hundredfold increase in the federal budget for narco-politics in the fifteen years since Agency of Fear was first published, while statistics on drug-running have been massaged. Epstein points out that, despite the massive budgets and public relations brouhaha, drug importation, as measured against wholesale price, has in fact grown.

"An intellectual of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) and a US-based journalist produce a sympathetic portrait of the Party. Without being critical offers history and context of PT's phenomenal growth in 1980s. Title is an awkward translation of Lula's1989 campaign slogan"--Handbook of Latin Ameri

Offers interpretations of Marx's most famous work, "Capital".

Provides a kaleidoscopic review of the avant-garde and radical subcultures of the twentieth century, and explains how artistic statements of the era redrew the line between high and low art.

Part of "Radical Thinkers" series, this work presents key texts by philosophers and thinkers. It offers a postmodernist philosopher's tour-de-force contemplation on sex, technology, politics and disease in Western culture after the 'orgy' of the 1960s.

Examining how the conflict has drawn in national, regional, and global forces, this book deconstructs the powerful Western lobby's persistent calls for a military response dressed up as a 'humanitarian intervention'. It presents an account of Darfur crisis within a broad context of Sudan's history.

On October 7th 2001, US-led forces invaded Afghanistan. Bringing together some of the contemporary writers, this anthology, from reportage and "faction" to fiction, explores the impact of this "long war" throughout the world, from Palestine to Iraq, Abu Ghraib, the curtailment of civil liberties and manipulation of public opinion.

Many people who look at art decry it for the lack of craft skill in its production, whether it be painting, photography or sculpture. This work sheds light on this obsolescence of traditional craft skills in contemporary art, exploring the technological and social developments that gave rise to those postmodern theories.

Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969), the founder of the Vietminh and President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, was the archetypical Communist and anti-colonial revolutionary of the twentieth century. Part of the "Revolutions" series, this volume shows why Ho Chi Minh should be read by anti-colonialists the world over.

Discusses Derrida's political work and Derrida responds.

An analysis of Spinoza's treatises within the context of his contemporary political, religious, and ideological life.

A sequel to the best-selling "The Holocaust Industry", this work looks into the human rights record of Israel and attacks Alan Dershowitz for poor scholarship. It aims to lift the veil of contrived controversy shrouding the Israel-Palestine conflict, enabling readers in search of a just and lasting peace to act on the basis of truth.

A ride through the literature of Rimbaud in a France in the throes of revolution.

Offers a critical survey of the ideas of rival intellectual groupings from the far right, the liberal center and the Marxist left, rarely considered in the same optic. This book presents a comparative examination of four remarkable minds of the radical right: Michael Oakeshott, Friedrich Hayek, Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt.

Nicos Poulantzas was one of the Marxist theorists of the twentieth century, developing seminal analyses of the state and social classes during the crisis of monopoly capitalism. This volume aims to bring together a selection of Poulantzas' key writings in legal philosophy and political sociology.

Presents the author's study of the founder of modern philosophy. This title is available in English.

Combines Schelling with popular film for a study of modern life.

The founding father of cultural theory posits a radical new direction for avant-garde art.

Provides an introduction to one of the great Marxist thinkers of the 20th century.

A work, which presents an attack on the thoughts of Derrida, Foucault and Lacan.

Provides appraisals of major writers.

Presents radical meditation on language and philosophy.

Argues that the global public needs to think past the twin insanities of terrorism and counter-terrorism in order to dismantle regressive intellectual barriers. Surveying the literature on the relationship of Islam to modernity, this work reveals that there is surprising overlap where scholars commonly see antithesis.

Explores the crisis of modernity and the decisive assertion of technological modernism.

Identifies categories within everyday life, such as the theories of the semantic field and of moments.

Who do we choose when we fall in love? How do we make the love object into what we want? This work combines social theory, history, pop culture, autobiographical reflection and psychoanalysis to address these questions. It focuses on a number of relationships, particularly of Freud and his wife.