mlx-community/zer0-books huggingface dataset:
How Capitalism Ends
by Steve Paxton

Capital's drive for profit has pushed technological development to previously unimagined heights, and now capitalist production is pushing progress in all the wrong directions.

While the past 300 years have witnessed immense growth in productive capacity, the ‘logic’ of capitalist production is now pushing progress in all the wrong directions. We’ve passed the point where our biggest enemy is material scarcity. Our problems no longer revolve around insufficient production, but iniquitous distribution - and the fact that we’re fast running out of planet - and these are problems that capitalism cannot solve.

Taking in a diverse range of contemporary and historical evidence - from the Putney Debates of 1647 to Modern Monetary Theory, from John Locke to Thomas Piketty, from the Rights of Man to the rise of identity politics How Capitalism Ends navigates a path through current affairs, history, economics and philosophy and sets the scene for the conversation we, as a civilization, urgently need to begin…

Reviews:
Lucid, practical, and impeccably argued, Steve Paxton's 'How Capitalism Ends' provides a road map with which to navigate an imminent social change more profound than we've seen in centuries. This is a necessary book. ~ Alan Moore, author of Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Jerusalem
How to Dismantle the English State Education System in 10 Easy Steps
by Terry Edwards, Carl Parsons

The story of the takeover of England’s schools by the super-efficient, modernising, academising machine.

Terry Edwards and Carl Parsons tell the story of the takeover of England’s schools by the super-efficient, modernising, academising machine, which, in collaboration with a dynamic, forward-looking government is recasting the educational landscape.

England’s school system is turbo-charged into a new era and will be the envy of the world, led by Chief Executives of Multi Academy Trusts on bankers’ salaries, imposing a slim curriculum, the soundest of discipline regimes and ensuring that highest standards will be achieved even if at the expense of teacher morale, poor service to special needs, off-rolling of students and despite an absolute lack of evidence that this privatised system works.

Reviews:
A sharp and incisive account of how state education has been dismantled into a system of competing Multi-Academy Trusts. We were told ‘choice’ would deliver higher standards. It didn’t. It made the system more chaotic, wasteful and segregated. This book explains how it was done. ~ Alasdair Smith, National Secretary, Anti Academies Alliance
This book describes with irony the extraordinary changes that have taken place over the last ten years to achieve a partly privatised, unaccountable and unfair system that benefits bureaucrats and not children. Compelling and shocking. ~ Melian Mansfield, Chair, Campaign for State Education
An energetic and passionate book, and full of useful and indignation-inducing information for those of us appalled at the direction public education is taking, and a reality check for academy ideologues. ~ David E. Ewens, author of the Frank Stirling series
The academy experiment has served to harness greed and profit, ignoring the importance of the needs of students. The satire of this book makes the case emphatically. ~ John Fahy, Councillor in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, former Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Children's Services
The deeply flawed system we are being forced to accept with its mantra of 'Make schools great again' makes me and many others who have spent their working lives in state comprehensive schools very angry. This book expertly articulates that anger with a damning evidence-based approach. ~ Des Malone, retired head teacher of The John Roan School, Greenwich
A frightening and gripping must read for all parents. Exploring and exposing the perverse system of academies and the consequences... that most aren’t aware of until the battle hits their child’s school. ~ Shaunagh Roberts, mother of sons and accidental activist, Waltham Holy Cross Primary School
This is an extraordinary and wonderful book, full of fun and insight. I heartily recommend it. ~ Ivor Goodson, Professor of Learning Theory, University of Brighton
How To Guide to Cosmopolitan Socialism, A
by Matthew McManus

A tribute to the late Michael Brooks, and a defense of his vision of cosmopolitan socialism.

Socialism has always had internationalist ambitions, but what those ambitions should be and how to rethink them in the 21st century remain open questions. Before his tragic passing in 2020, Michael Brooks talked about a new kind of cosmopolitan socialism that would be appropriate for our time. A How To Guide To Cosmopolitan Socialism builds upon Brooks' vision to argue that we need a left which knows no boundaries and recognizes the fundamental moral equality of all individuals on the planet while securing the material conditions for their flourishing. Only such a sweeping vision can successfully combat the forces of reaction and violence confronting us today.

Reviews:
Matthew McManus is swiftly becoming of the globally leading figures on liberal socialism. This book shows why. Combining his encylopaedic knowledge of the topic with easy-to-access pros, McManus convincingly argues that cosmopolitan socialism is central to a just future. You’ll walk away angry, but well-equipped to argue. ~ Dr Timothy Stacey | Utrecht University
"In the best tradition of Enlightenment critique, Matthew McManus identifies the rational kernels in liberal philosophy's arguments about the international and puts them in motion with classical Marxism. The result is a passionate and logical moral argument for cosmopolitan socialism grounded in the principles of historical materialism. Indeed, amidst the long dark night of neoliberal and neoconservative influence on the shape of the international order, Cosmopolitan Socialism is a luminous political treatise for the workers of the world to unite under the banner of freedom as reciprocal self-determination and the equal moral worth of all people." ~ Dr. Dave Zeglen | Lecturer at the University of Michigan
How To Like Everything
by Paul Shepheard

There is no absolute truth but there is absolutely everything

How To Like Everything is a utopia. 'Utopia' is a word invented five hundred years ago at the start of the modern age as a description of the ideal society. It's composed of Latin parts that taken together mean 'no place' or 'nowhere'. We now use the word utopia to mean an impossible dream of perfection. How To Like Everything recasts the actual world, the forever-changing world we live in, as utopia: to make the impossible possible. This is not a dry academic debate. Paul Shepheard takes on his subject by threading questions, evidence and logic through hilarious, moving and thought-provoking stories. The action is set in the complicated city of Amsterdam, where he gets stuck in the briars of love affairs, existential decisions and conflicts with complete strangers. And the philosophy? He is a materialist. His utopia hinges on the question of whether there can be anything other than the present moment.

Reviews:
Paul Shepheard is one of the finest thinkers and writers alive today. ~ Jem Finer, sound artist
Het is niet eenvoudig om na lezing van Paul Shepheard's boeken de wereld met eigen ogen te zien. (It's not easy to see the world with your own eyes after reading Paul Shepheard.) ~ Andre Dekker, Observatorium
How to Read a History Book
by Marshall T. Poe

How to Read a History Book explains who writes history books, how the writers are trained, and why they write them.

A deconstruction of the modern history book as artifact, How to Read a History Book explains who writes history books, how the writers are trained, and why they write them. It also discusses genre, bias (political and otherwise) and how to read history books between the lines.

Written for undergraduates, intro graduate students and anyone with an informed interest in the subject, How to Read a History Book demonstrates that, rather than being objects that fall from the sky, history books are actually socially-constructed artifacts reflecting all the contradictions of modern meritocratic capitalism.

Reviews:
This book introduces the reader in an easy and understandable way into the genre of history books. Through fictional stories and examples, it becomes clear what difficulties historians encounter when writing such books. It also details the function of key components of history books. The book is valuable in giving readers tools to look at history books in a more critical and reflective way. This book is helpful for everyone who likes to read history books as well as students who want to have a deeper, reflective insight into this genre.

~ Brigitt Amthor, NetGalley
How To Read A History Book is a clever look at how academic works, and a comment on the way we perceive documentation and history. What stood out most to me about this book is the way I was able to reflect on my own academic work through the story shared here.

And story was not what I expected at all. The narrative structure of the book proved to be a positive surprise. I would recommend this book to scholars, students, and anyone interested in reading about how "what we know" comes to be.

~ JD DeHart, NetGalley
iCommunism
by Colin Cremin

Capitalism promised us shiny things but only communism can deliver them in a different, more liberating, universal and sustainable form.

Our relationship to consumption is not an easy one. Apart from being self-centred, superficial and narcissistic, the consumer is held responsible for global warming, poverty and now, by binging on easy credit, economic crisis. A straw man has many uses, including being part of the solution by reducing carbon footprints, consuming more ethically and tightening the proverbial belt. iCommunism defends the consumer against the prevailing politics of austerity. It splits the fetish from the commodity fetish by taking the shine away from the commodity now signified in the ubiquitous i of i branded products and transfers it over to communism. With ideology once again alive on the streets of Europe, iCommunism reimagines Herbert Marcuse s 1960s artistic critique of capitalism s repressive performance principle for today s consumer society. Capitalism promised us shiny things but only communism can deliver them in a different, more liberating, universal and sustainable form.

Reviews:
The icon-shattering publishing house, Zero books, added Colin Cremin’s iCommunism to its increasingly impressive list of titles. This is a book that updates Frankfurt School style radicalism for the web 2.0 generation. Breathlessly modernist and radical at the same time, the perfect combination. Jodi Dean’s The Communist Horizon is part of the publisher Verso’s interesting project to reinvent the entire idea of Communism. The academic references are considerable and may put off some readers, yet the purpose is faultless, a wonderful polemic full of both anger and imagination. ~ Mark Perryman, www.socialistunity.com/xmas-books-roundup/
Has neo-liberalism’s bizarre “cultural revolution” finally succeeded?

Are we all now but sad facsimiles of the marketplace, the covetous

corporation and the latest stupid iWhatever? Cremin’s wonderful book

says “NO”, the game isn’t up just yet. If capitalism has become a

nasty metaphor for human life itself, then iCommunism paves the way

for a joyous rescripting of our worries and obsessions that will make

David Cameron and IKEA wish you had never read this book.

~ Peter Fleming, author of Contesting the Corporation and Dead Man Working (with Zero Books).
Ideology and the Virtual City
by Jon Bailes

An exploration of modern society and the critical value of popular culture.

Ideology and the Virtual City is an exploration of modern society and the critical value of popular culture. It combines a prescient social theory that describes how ‘neoliberal’ ideology in today’s societies dominates our economic, political and cultural ideals, with an entertaining exploration of narratives, characters and play structures in some of today’s most interesting videogames. The book takes readers into a range of simulated urban environments that symbolise the hidden antagonisms of social life and create outlandish resolutions through their power fantasies. Interactive entertainment can help us understand the ways in which people relate to a modern ‘common sense’ neoliberal background, in terms of absorbing assumptions, and questioning them.

Reviews:
Videogames are gradually recognized as a new cultural form which reaches far beyond mere entertainment: they enact new forms of subjectivity and temporality. However, this fascination with the new form should not render us blind for the fact that, in their content, even at its most magic, videogames are firmly rooted in our neoliberal capitalism and faithfully mirror its antinomies. This is where Bailes’s book enters. Through a detailed analysis of selected games, from Grand Theft Auto to Persona, he demonstrates how they reproduce the key dimensions of a modern megalopolis: the City as Playground, as Battleground, as Wasteland, as Prison… Ideology and the Virtual City is not only insanely readable; in its combination of vivid descriptions with theoretical stringency, it provides an unsurpassable introduction into the deadlocks of our real life. In short, an instant classic for everyone who wants to understand not just games but our reality itself. ~ Slavoj Zizek
Videogames are the battle ground on which the culture wars are fought, and the space of gaming is shaping the political present and future, whether we like it or not. In this insighful and politically vital intervention, Jon Bailes reads the contemporary city through its representation in videogames and considers how city space itself is tranformed by games. Bailes shows how the city and the virtual world can hardly be separated, making a case for a critical-theoretical engagement with games which makes their politics, importance and limitations visible. A timely and important book on a topic so easily and so often misunderstood, setting the terms for future discussions of gaming. ~ Alfie Bown, author of The Playstation Dreamworld
Ignoble Displacement
by Stephanie Polsky

A radical reinterpretation of Dickens's novels made consequential to an understanding of capitalism in the neoliberal age.

We live in a time of great social, political and economic crisis that many date to the collapse of the global banking system in 2008. Many are finding it difficult to contextualise the hardships that have taken place in the years following on from those events. It is difficult to find the answers in our present media landscape, or in a political and intellectual climate that continues to laud capitalism as the winning economic system coming out of both World War II and the end of the Cold War, which has become over the last century synonymous with democracy itself. The irony is that in our times the majority of the world’s people feel disenfranchised by both capitalism and democracy. How did we come to this historical juncture? What can we learn not just from history, but from our cultural artefacts that might tell us how we first came to conduct ourselves within a system of global finance capitalism?

This volume proposes that we reinterpret the writings of Charles Dickens to find the antecedents of our present situation with regards to capital, empire and subjectivity.

Reviews:
Synopsis: We live in a time of great social, political and economic crisis that many date to the collapse of the global banking system in 2008. Many are finding it difficult to contextualise the hardships that have taken place in the years following on from those events. It is difficult to find the answers in our present media landscape, or in a political and intellectual climate that continues to laud capitalism as the winning economic system coming out of both World War II and the end of the Cold War, which has become over the last century synonymous with democracy itself. The irony is that in our times the majority of the world's people feel disenfranchised by both capitalism and democracy. How did we come to this historical juncture? What can we learn not just from history, but from our cultural artifacts that might tell us how we first came to conduct ourselves within a system of global finance capitalism? In "Ignoble Displacement: Dispossessed Capital in Neo-Dickensian London", author, and interdisciplinary writer/academic Stephanie Polsky proposes that we reinterpret the writings of Charles Dickens to find the antecedents of our present situation with regards to capital, empire and subjectivity.

Critique: "Ignoble Displacement: Dispossessed Capital in Neo-Dickensian London" is comprised of four major thematic essays and an Epilogue. The result is an unique study that is as informed and informative as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking. An inherently absorbing read from beginning to end, "Ignoble Displacement" is especially recommended for both community and economic library Economics Studies collections. For students and the non-specialist general reader with an interest in a Dickensian perspective on contemporary economic issues, it should be noted that "Ignoble Displacement" is available in a Kindle edition ($19.99).

~ Mary Cowper, Midwest Book Review
Imaginoscope for Organizers, An
by Monika Kostera

Human beings are storytelling creatures. The imaginoscope is an (imaginary) device that people can use to create better organizations.

An Imaginoscope for Organizers offers practical exercises to use both individual and collective imagination to activate and mobilize creative organizing impulses. It proposes intellectual, symbolic and poetic food for thought and practice. Each chapter is a step on the quest for creative ideas and practices and introduces a language that can be used to invent and communicate your own.

Reviews:
There is, in my view, an urgent need for teaching that encourages imagination rather than compliance, and when this is done well students inevitably enjoy the experience. I have found this to be particularly so for post-experience (MBA) students, but the need to engage imagination actually pervades teaching at all levels. An Imaginoscope for Organizers is an interesting read, with lots of practical advice about how to develop and use the imaginoscope with students. ~ Barbara Simpson PhD FRSA, Professor of Leadership and Organisational Dynamics , Strathclyde Business School
Every once and a while someone from organizational studies writes something that extends far beyond the boundaries and limits of the field, whereby they achieve negentropy. That is, ideas and writing that give us energy and hope. This is what Monika Kostera has achieved here; it is a book of pedagogical ideas, a response to teaching during the Covid pandemic, an exploration of ethnographic phenomenology and a political statement. Not only is the text poetically powerful; it is rich in ‘imaginiscope’ suggestions, possibilities and interactions, creating a liminal space that we the readers will be eager to enter into and engage with. ~ Professor Hugo Letiche, Professor Hugo Letiche - LITEM, Institut Mines-TBS Evry/Paris; recent book is The Magic of Organization (ed with J-L Moriceau
While imagination is one of the most important topics in organization theory and design, it is, unfortunately, one of the least studied. This book by Monika Kostera fills this gap by allowing readers to rediscover their imaginative faculties through a series of experiments, starting with language. By changing the perspective of observers and actors of organizational life, she invites them to participate in the imaginoscopic transmutation of the world of work. ~ Ghislain Deslandes, Professor, ESCP Business School
An Imaginoscope for Organizers invites readers to imagine and go beyond the limitations of our imagination to think differently and mobilize collectively against forces that threaten our ability to create alternative futures. A timely, creative, and enchanting interdisciplinary text that will linger with us until we imagine anew.

~ Professor Alison Pullen Professor of Management and Organization Studies Joint Editor-in-Chief Gender, Work and Organization
In Confidence: Talking Frankly about Fame
by Laurie Taylor

Celebrity artists, scientists, actors, film-makers and novelists on being famous.

A study of celebrity based on the seventy odd interviews featured in the Sky Arts television series, In Confidence. Informants include David Schwimmer, Stephen Fry, Harry Belafonte, Alan Ayckbourn, Kathie Burke, Michael Frayn, Christopher Hitchens, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Sheila Hancock, Richard Dawkins, Miriam Margolys, Tracey Emin, and Nigel Kennedy. Here you will find everyone from politicians to artists, film-makers to novelists, talking frankly about fame and reputation.

Reviews:
Subtitled ‘talking frankly about fame’ this is a compilation of a series of interviews on Sky Arts that constitutes a reflection on the nature of celebrity. The introduction reminds the reader of other interview series such as Face to Face with John Freeman, In the Psychiatrist’s Chair with Anthony Clare and the series with Sir Michael Parkinson. The book is structured thematically with interviews about making music, art and stories, with about four interviews per chapter. There are then reflections on family and friends and the nature of identity relation to celebrity. Stephen Fry discusses various ways in which he copes with his own fame, sometimes with books in brief 72 Network Review Winter 2015 www.scimednet.org self-deprecation. He reflects that most communications are looking to take something from you, which is ultimately exhausting. It is very instructive to learn that Nigel Kennedy’s trademark casual clothing on stage actually began with him leaving his smart outfit in New York when he was playing in London! He explains that much of his persona is designed to break down barriers, which one senses in his performance of Bach in an Irish parish church with comfortable informality. Sir Alan Ayckbourn recounts an amusing incident with a local who is astonished that he still lives in Scarborough when he could live in Bridlington, having made a great deal of money. One intriguing line of demarcation becoming a celebrity is when journalists become interested in details of private lives, as so many famous people have found to their cost. The book gives an important insight into the varieties of contemporary fame. ~ David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer
In an age of soapy soundbites, Taylor's hour-long interview strand is a serious attempt to delve deeper into its subjects.

~ The Telegraph
In this era of presentation bells and whistles, it's hard to over-emphasise how satisfying it is to see a television show that simply involves two engaging and articulate people talking to each other… Great stuff. ~ Time Out