Books published by Lawrence & Wishart Ltd

This book discusses the possibilities that would be opened up to the Left if it could combine the values of solidarity and belonging with curiosity and openness towards difference.

In recent years, the Freudian construction of a passive female sexuality has been severely criticised by feminists. This is the first book to tackle the question of female fetishism and to document women's engagement with this form of sexuality. Most psychoanalytic theory excludes the very possibility of the existence of female fetishism. In the face of the wealth of material about fetishistic practices gathered in this book, the authors suggest that Freudian phallocentrism has prevented analysts from seeing the evidence before their eyes.

This work focuses on capitalist production, and analyses capitalism's workings through detailed research and observation of what was the most advanced industrial country of the 19th century.

Rajani Palme Dutt (1896-1974) was a leading figure in the Communist Party of Great Britain from the 1920s to the 1960s. His strong links with the Comintern made him, throughout this period, a devoted - and stern - supporter of orthodoxy within the CPGB.

Arguing that humans are, in a fundamental sense, social beings, this book articulates that this can be grasped from understanding the complex social processes of evolution. It shows that through looking at the complex emergence of human society and culture, we can get a better understanding of how 'the whole creature' operates.

A postwar moment is one of promise - but too often of missed opportunities. Will peace bring a democratic, inclusive and equal society? This depends on many factors, but the contributors to this book argue that one of them - crucial but often overlooked - is the importance accorded to transforming gender power relations. Through a focus on two countries, Bosnia and the Netherlands, linked through a "peace-keeping operation", the contributors illuminate the many ways in which processes of demilitarisation and peace-keeping are structured by notions of masculinity and femininity. The Dayton Peace Agreement failed to acknowledge the gendered nature of the war it ended. Gender was also neglected by the many powerful international institutions and agencies which arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995 to pacify and administer the war-torn country. Several chapters in the book consider these shortcomings in the Bosnian postwar moment, and the way they have impeded local women's efforts to reshape their world. The Dutch contingent of the UN peace-keeping forces was widely held responsible for failing to prevent the massacre by Bosnian Serb forces of thousands of Bosnian Muslim men in Srebrenica. The self-questioning provoked in the Netherlands by this event here becomes a rich source of insight into relationships between soldiering and masculinities, war-fighting and peace-keeping. Show More Show Less

This collection shows how extraordinarily substantial were the theoretical footholds which Walter Benjamin supplied. The contributors engage with Benjamin on a number of levels, with essays on historical understanding versus historicism, a look at gender and dialectical images, the space of the city, the sources of Judaism and the aesthetics of conflict. Also analysed are Benjamin's artwork, the novel, the anthropology and philosophy of history, 'fate and character', the baroque and Benjamin the intellectual.

This is Volume 4 of Lawrence & Wishart's comprehensive history of the British Communist Party in the twentieth century. The History of the Communist Party of Great Britain 1941-51 begins with the renewal of popular front politics which followed Russia's entry into the Second World War; it documents the popular front from 1941 to 1946. Branson examines the Labour governments of 1945 to 1951 and their relationship with the Communist Party. She analyses the breakdown of relations between the Communist Party and the Labour Party; and concludes at a time of disappointment, with the entrenchment of the cold war, and the electoral defeat of the Labour Party. Other volumes of History CPGB: 1. Formation and Early years 1919-1924 2. The General Strike 1925-1926 3. History CPGB 1927-1941 5. Cold War, Crisis and Conflict: The CPGB 1951-68 6. End Games and New Times: The Final Years of British Communism 1964-1991

This work examines the way in which much "third world" aid, far from contributing to the prosperity of recipient countries, helps to shore up global relations of domination and subordination. In particular, Goudge focuses on the role played by "race" in discourses and practices of development, and on the impact of unacknowledged - and often unconscious - assumptions of white, Western superiority. For example, the unequal distribution of resources that results from global power imbalances is often attributed to the inferior capabilities of the black poor. Goudge worked for some years as a volunteer in a "third world" country - in her case, Nicaragua - and this book is the result of her subsequent reflections and research. The core of her evidence comes from in-depth interviews with development and aid workers, as well as her own experiences and diaries. She also explores other related texts to illustrate that development and aid practitioners and agencies do not operate in a vacuum, but are a part of a pervasive discourse of superiority and inferiority. She submits her material to stringent analysis and finds much evidence of unconscious attitudes of superiority - with uncomfortable echoes of the assumptions of the colonial epoch. Goudge questions her own beliefs and actions as much as those of others. Indeed it is her contention that in scrutinising the motivations of those of us whose intentions are good, we can discover a great deal about the global operations of the power of whiteness.

This edition makes easily accessible the most important parts of Marx's and Engels's major early philosophical work, "The German Ideology", a text of key importance for students.