A @jeremycorbyn isn't just for Xmas, and given that the Centrists are re-writing history at a furious pace, @VersoBooks 40% off winter sale means it's a good time to get @leninology's "Corbyn" so you can remind yourself of the reality all year round.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2511-corbyn

@GraceBlakeley's take on the economic ramifications of this years Corona Crash is essential reading to:

1. Familiarise yourself with what's happening; and

2. For ideas on how our economy and society can come out the other side in a far better shape.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3723-the-corona-crash

The much maligned @SeumasMilne's "The Enemy Within" is the best piece of political journalism to come out of the Thatcher era.

His account of Thatchers secret war against organized labour and political dissent is peerless. (ebook only)

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1655-the-enemy-within

Gideon Levys ( @gideonle) classic account of the 2009 war "The Punishment of Gaza" is a sobering reminder of why those who stand in solidarity with the Palestinians must never let themselves be intimidated into silence by supporters of Israel.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/485-the-punishment-of-gaza

@AndrewFeinstein's "After The Party" is an explosive account of the ANC's early years in power.

"It speaks to the virtues of transparent, accountable politics of principle that is needed in South Africa and much of the world.” - Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/461-after-the-party

Well recommend @ta_mills "The BBC: Myth Of A Public Service" which shows that despite its claim to be independent and impartial, and despite widespread claims of left-wing bias, the BBC has always sided with the elite.

New edition brings it up to GE2019.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3630-the-bbc

@MayaGoodfellow's "Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats" charts almost 60 years of Immigration discourse, politics and most importantly of all, the effect this toxic phenomena has had on immigrants.

New edition brings it up to 2020.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3673-hostile-environment

@LinseyMcgoey's "No Such Thing As A Free Gift" is a superb work that explains how a deluge of philanthropy created a world where billionaires wield more power over education policy, global agriculture & global health than ever before.

(ebook/hback only)
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2344-no-such-thing-as-a-free-gift

I picked this up last winter and read it while @MichaelRosenYes was flirting with infinity earlier this year. Thankfully infinity, after a lengthy courtship, spurned him.

A brilliant, immersive memoir that I thoroughly recommend.

(Hint: hback cheaper!)
https://www.versobooks.com/books/2735-so-they-call-you-pisher

In this brilliant historical investigation, Domenico Losurdo argues that from the outset liberalism, as a philosophical position and ideology, has been bound up with the most illiberal of policies: slavery, colonialism, genocide, racism and snobbery.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/960-liberalism

In "The Beast", a harrowing, hair raising and unforgettable piece of reporting on the migrant trail from Central America to the United States, Óscar Martínez brings to the reader the lifes and stories that are largely kept off scene.

(ebook only)
https://www.versobooks.com/books/1574-the-beast

If you rely on the MSM for your news then the major crime against journalism in recent history, the treatment of Julian Assange by the American and British states, would be a mystery to you.

This book is a testament to how valuable his work was.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2260-the-wikileaks-files

Hipplers erudite "Governing From The Skys" takes the reader from Italian Lieutenant Giulio Gavottis dropping of a crude bomb on unsuspecting Libyans in 1911 up to the Drone Warfare of today.

Aerial bombing has always been a weapon of Imperialism.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2261-governing-from-the-skies

In "War In The Age Of Trump" veteran journalist Patrick Cockburn carries the story of the Middle Easts wars into the Trump era, including the conflict in Syria and the defeat of ISIS, the Saudis war in Yemen and the Israelis push for a war against Iran.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3237-war-in-the-age-of-trump

If you're suffering under any illusions about just how cynical Israel supporters and Zionists can be cure yourself by reading @NormFinkelstein's classic work "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections On The Exploitation of Jewish Suffering".

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1764-the-holocaust-industry

David Roedigers "Seizing Freedom" tells the story of the role the Slaves played in their own emancipation during and after the American Civil War and how they responded to their newly won freedoms.

A brilliant recreation and exploration of the period.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2021-seizing-freedom

While in a Russian holding camp in Poland in 1945, Primo Levi, now known for "If This Is A Man", was asked to provide a report on living conditions in Auschwitz.

This short book was the product & amongst the first written accounts of the Nazi death camps

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1834-auschwitz-report

"The London Hanged" recreates the changing world of the working class, as capitalism took root in 18th Century London through their relationship with an increasingly punitive (you could hang for stealing goods worth a shilling) system of criminal justice.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/202-the-london-hanged

In a post Brexit and post Covid world we can no longer even pretend to afford the rich.

In "Inequality and the 1%" @DannyDorling explains why through covering areas as diverse as our mental health to our life expectancy. Sharp, fascinating and readable.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3035-inequality-and-the-1

The best book on, though perhaps not the best Introduction to, European Slavery in the New World.

Like it or not, slavery was the bloody route the West took to industrialisation and global domination, and Blackburn describes the process brilliantly.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/473-the-making-of-new-world-slavery

@RichardJMurphy's excellent "Dirty Secrets" uncovers one of the curses of the contemporary world: The Tax Haven.

They provide cover for the super rich to avoid taxes with impunity, undermine democracy and destablise the national economy we all rely on.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2410-dirty-secrets

Hardy perennial Noam Chomsky and economist Robert Pollin have collaborated on a short book that surveys the horror-show ahead of us if humanity continues prevaricating on climate change, and makes the case for a Green New Deal. Sobering but necessary.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3239-climate-crisis-and-the-global-green-new-deal

Throw your Luke Harding, and the rest of the hyperbolic hysteria emanating from the "Liberal" quarter, onto the fire and pick up Tony Woods "Russia Without Putin" for a level headed assessment of the state of Russia and how it got to where it is now.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3040-russia-without-putin

Mike Marqusees fascinating account of Jewish life "If I Am Not For Myself" is partly a memoir & partly a biography of his grandfather.

His grandfathers path was from Antifascism to militant Zionism while Mike became an anti-war & pro-Palestinian Activist

https://www.versobooks.com/books/452-if-i-am-not-for-myself

@MaxBlumenthal's "The 51 Day War" is an exemplary work of on the ground reporting of Israels summer 2014 slaughter in Gaza that left over 2,000 dead including over 500 children, reinforced with a deep knowledge of the history of the conflict.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1951-the-51-day-war

Of all the books on liberal humanitarian interventions and their justifications none has the scope, or the clarity, of @leninology's "The Liberal Defence Of Murder".

With a Bidet being installed in the Whitehouse this work will again be highly relevant.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1203-the-liberal-defence-of-murder

@DanFinn95's "One Mans Terrorist" is a nuanced, succinct, objective and extremely readable account of Irish Republicanism, both its political and military wings, over the past 6 decades. Thoroughly recommended.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3077-one-man-s-terrorist

The demonisation of the disabled during Austerity has been one of the most repugnant developments in British politics in recent decades. @DrFrancesRyan new edition of "Crippled" brilliantly describes this phenomena and it's toxic effect on the disabled.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3625-crippled

Mike Davis's chilling history of the car bomb, colloquially known as the "poor mans air-force", puts the phenomena firmly in its political context.

“How the weak have fought back, ingloriously, against the onslaught of the strong.” - @johnpilger.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2294-buda-s-wagon

@TariqAli_News 2004 account of the war in Iraq, "Bush In Babylon: The Recolonisation Of Iraq", not only has one of the best book covers ever, but is also a caustic, erudite and essential analysis of the Imperialist war and subsequent occupation of Iraq.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/90-bush-in-babylon

" @_RajPatel & Jason Moore ( @oikeios) have transformed ‘cheapness’ into a brilliant and original lens that helps us understand the pressing crises of our time, from hyper-exploitation of labor to climate change."- @NaomiAKlein

A brilliant innovative book.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3139-a-history-of-the-world-in-seven-cheap-things

There's apparently not much to be expected from Labour so, now more than ever, ordinary folks seeking change must be active within Trade Unions.

Unites @LenMcCluskey explains, in this short and to the point book, "Why You Should Be A Trade Unionist".

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3165-why-you-should-be-a-trade-unionist

Brilliant collection of essays from Isaac Deutscher on Jewish cultural and political history including the classic essay presciently warning of the corrupting influence that the 1967 occupation of the remaining Palestinian land will have on Israelis.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2399-the-non-jewish-jew

@_JamesMeek's "Private Island" is an excellent and readable account of the insidious effects that privatisation has had on British life.

Being a novelist Meek is excellent at bringing to light the human factor in this woeful tale.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1944-private-island

There's an insidious element in British political life, including amongst those ostensibly on the left, that seeks to racialise the working class as purely white. Ron Ramdins "The Making Of The Black Working Class In Britain" sets the story straight.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2476-the-making-of-the-black-working-class-in-britain

@ArunKundnani's "The Muslims Are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism & The Domestic War On Terror" is an accomplished account and critique of all those issues as well as the de-radicalisation racket. Well recommended.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1765-the-muslims-are-coming

Alan "I kept my boxers on at Epsteins" Dershowitz gets caught with them around his ankles by @NormFinkelstein in "Beyond Chutzpah"

To be precise he exposes Alan plagiarising a debunked book for one of his excremental pro Israel tracts. That & much more:

https://www.versobooks.com/books/709-beyond-chutzpah

"Liberty Against The Law" is second only to "The World Turned Upside Down" in Christopher Hills oeuvre.

A brilliant study of popular resistance to the momentous changes in C17th England that presaged the change from a moral to a capitalist economy.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3070-liberty-against-the-law

Although explicitly concerned with the rocketing food prices and accompanying food crisis of 2006-8 @WaldenBello's "The Food Wars" provides lessons that won't go out of date as long as globalisation runs riot and food sovereignty is not a reality.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/405-the-food-wars

Superb collection of essays on the Israel/Palestine conflict from the historian Avi Shlaim.

“Wonderful … Not often today do we find historians who are this honest and this bleak and this able to express truth so simply.” - Robert Fisk.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/535-israel-and-palestine

@TariqAli_News "The Extreme Centre" is a warning from (recent) history that's as relevant as ever now the extreme centrists are back in the Labour saddle, hopefully just for a baleful last hurrah before being deposited in the waste incinerator of history.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2641-the-extreme-centre

Arno Mayers "Plowshares Into Swords" traces the development of Zionisms resolve to implant a state for Jews in a Middle East of ever greater strategic importance that incorporates reflections on founding violence, resistance, terror & religious politics.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/317-plowshares-into-swords

@NandiniSundar's "The Burning Forest" is an empathetic, moving account of what drives indigenous peasants to support armed struggle despite severe state repression, including lives lost, and homes and communities destroyed.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2846-the-burning-forest

If the Unions want to do something productive with their funds, rather than servilely funnel them into Starmers Labour, they'd do well to read @danhind's "The Return Of The Public" and implement a scheme along the lines outlined in this brilliant work.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1106-the-return-of-the-public

@JohnWRees "The Leveller Revolution" recreates the world of what's arguably Englands first radical democratic movement and places them at the centre of the English Revolutionary decade.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2522-the-leveller-revolution

“ @JoshRuebner has produced the authoritive autopsy of the US-led [Israel/Palestinian] peace process. His portrait of Americas first African-American president demonstrating passivity in the face of apartheid is absolutely devastating.”- @MaxBlumenthal.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1725-shattered-hopes

Peter Hallwards "Damming The Flood" is the best account that I've read on the overthrowing and suppression of the Lavalas (the "Flood" of the title) Government led by Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti and the subsequent repression. This is how Empire works.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/524-damming-the-flood

Mike Davis and @JonWiener1's monumental account of the progressive movement in 1960's Los Angeles is an enthralling read that puts to sleep more than a few hoary clichés and will expand your conception of that time and place.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3164-set-the-night-on-fire

“[Capital City looks] at what reckless development does to lives and livelihoods...Explicit in Stein’s narrative is the idea that a different, more democratic kind of planning might lead us to more democratic kinds of cities.”- Nikil Saval

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2870-capital-city

Its being a busy pandemic for @graceblakeley who apart from writing "The Corona Crash" has edited this fine collection on the futures for the left with contributions from @schneiderhome, @daliagebrial, @jemgilbert, @seaton_lola & @ta_mills amongst others.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3254-futures-of-socialism

Colin Leys and Leo Panitch's account of the Corbyn era firmly roots it in the Bennite left of the 1970s & '80s and as an attempt to get past the limits of ‘parliamentary socialism’ and democratise the party, as a precondition for democratising the state.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3161-searching-for-socialism

Ilan Pappes "Ten Myths About Israel" is a fine primer for those wishing to know the facts behind many of the threadbare claims still peddled by Israel apologists, as well as a directly and concisely stated refresher for more experienced critics.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2430-ten-myths-about-israel

This was my first Mike Davis book and I've been hooked ever since. "Planet Of Slums" portrays a vast part of humanity, over a billion people, warehoused in shantytowns and exiled from the formal world economy, and contemplates what the future holds.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2293-planet-of-slums

In "Alpha City" Rowland Atkinson ( @qurbanist) has written a solid readable account of the colonisation of London by the global super rich, covering all the ramifications from the laundering of dirty money to the effective privatisation of public spaces.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3179-alpha-city

@PriyamvadaGopal's "Insurgent Empire" is a dense, detailed and academic (in the best sense) work that shows how Britain’s enslaved & colonial subjects were active agents in their own liberation, and how they shaped British ideas of freedom & emancipation.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3155-insurgent-empire

In "The Production Of Money" @AnnPettifor answers all the questions you may have about our system of money, and makes the argument for taking it out the hands of our toxic financial system and into democratic control. Brilliantly clear and well argued.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2706-the-production-of-money

Christopher Hitchens was another of those ostensibly lefty characters who took a turn to the right after the events of 9/11. @leninology, in his short and sharp "Unhitched", dissects the corpus of Hitchens work & life, unveiling an opportunistic con man.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1159-unhitched

Richard Gotts "Britain's Empire" recounts the empires misdeeds from the beginning of the C18th to the Indian Mutiny, spanning the red-patched imperial globe from Ireland to Australia, telling a story of almost continuous colonialist violence.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1179-britain-s-empire

“ @NormFinkelstein is one of the most radical and hard-hitting critics of the official Zionist version of the Arab-Israeli conflict and of the historians who support that version. This is a major contribution which deserves to be widely read.”- Avi Shlaim.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/161-image-and-reality-of-the-israel-palestine-conflict

A brilliant work of scholarship on slavery and how the battle for "emancipation in all its vexed, indeterminate grandeur, propelled by violent clashes, public debate, harrowing exposés [led to] the consolidation of new notions of freedom and equality.”

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1440-the-american-crucible

Brilliant collection of essays on Crime and Society in the C18th including Douglas Hay on a legal system that on one hand maintained the propertied classes and on the other took brutal action against poachers, and E.P.Thompson on anonymous threat letters.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/979-albion-s-fatal-tree

“This rich and poignant and often enthralling book traces the Yiddishland revolutionaries from their East European roots through the years of hope and struggle and hideous crimes to the heroic anti-Nazi resistance and beyond."- Noam Chomsky

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2520-revolutionary-yiddishland