Books published by Verso Books

An icon of the Left, and champion of democracy and social justice, Tony Benn entered the Commons in 1950 and with Ted Heath held the record for post-war service as an MP. Parliament, People and Power features a selection of his interviews with the New Left Review, as Benn sets out his radical agenda for society, and reflects on a life in politics.

One of the fruits of the revival of socialist economic theory over the past decade has been a wide-ranging debate about the validity of Marx’s labour theory of value. At the heart of the discussion stands the theoretical work of Piero Sraffa and the conclusions drawn from it by such economists as Ian Steedman. Initially confined to a relatively narrow circle of specialists, the controversy about value theory has since spread to wider circles of the left. But although general awareness that the stakes of the dispute are of concern to all socialists is now extensive, understanding of the issues involved has remained more restricted than need be. This volume presents, for the first time, a comprehensive yet accessible overview of the discussion. The essays discuss not only the value debate itself, but also its relevance to such issues as capitalist crisis, the theory of exploitation, and historical materialism. Comprehensible to the non-specialist, but without sacrificing rigour or oversimplifying the issues, the articles assembled here offer a definitive summary of the current state of one of the crucial aspects of Marxist thought.

An iconoclastic challenge to one of the chief tenets of contemporary socialist politics.

Combining analysis and advocacy, this book argues that the cause of Labour's electoral failures and present predicament is political not sociological. It argues that democratization of the English constitution and the emergent European order is a precondition to a resumed struggle for socialism.

This study examines with the work of Richard Rorty - a proponent of human, radical liberalism - to explore the paradoxes of a philosophy which rejects any determinate view of human nature. It deals with questions of importance to ethical philosophy.

In this book, a group of specialists describe the type of society in which unconditional income would be legitimate. In doing so, they question and clarify some of the central principles of modern political philosophy.

Presents a chronicle of contemporary life in Mexico, ranging from popular music, Latino hip hop, the murals of Siquerios, film stars, the painter Frida Kahlo, the writer Juan Ruldo, life on the border with the USA and the organization of Mexico City's urban poor in the wake of an earthquake.

Before Stalinism is a historical study of democratic life and institutions and their decline in the early years of the Russian Revolution.

In this path-breaking work, Alan Carling develops a general theory of social division centring on the three core areas of social class, gender and ethnicity. The inspiration for Carling’s approach is the Analytical Marxist treatment of class division and class struggle. Carling synthesizes the rational-choice theory of capitalist transition with G.A. Cohen’s functional version of the Marxist theory of history and, in an analysis which spans the work of Roemer and Elster, provides an accessible treatment of Analytical Marxism across the range of its major concerns. He then applies rational-choice theory to the domestic sphere and to processes of assimilation and discrimination in relation to ethnic groups. The book concludes that rational-choice is necessary to, but insufficient for, an adequate general theory of social division.Carling’s topic and his method are at the forefront of current concerns in sociology, economics and political philosophy.

A powerful challenge to the way we understand the politics of race and the history of anti-racist struggle

A first-hand account of a Greek refugee camp - and the stories of the refugees staying there