Books published by Verso Books

Offers a source of literary modernism in the twentieth century.

Offers an analysis of how the West created the global food crisis. This book charts the evolution of the crisis and offers a way forward: the principle of food sovereignty, allowing the developing world to protect and sustain a diverse range of crops.

Ascetic renunciation freed holy women of traditional womanly roles. Saints such as Mary of Egypt provoked the Church Fathers to introduce legislation to bring holy women under control. Salisbury traces these debates and legislation and contrasts them with the real lives of seven women saints.

Shows how the popular music of the Americas is an act of devotion to an African religious worldview that survived the ravages of slavery and found its way into the rituals of everyday listening. This book explores the challenge posed by Afro-Latin music to a world music system dominated by a few wealthy countries.

This is a collection of in-depth and reflective pieces by activists and other key figures in "DIY culture", who tell their own stories and histories. The book argues that popular protest of the 1990s is characterized by a culture of immediacy and direct action.

An illustrated history of Hong Kong cinema, covering all genres of films.

This study descends into the modern cynical consciousness and emerges with a critical assessment of the preoccupations of contemporary society. It charts the development of a culture of cynicism in forms, such as an obsession with finality and integrity.

This is a comprehensive account of the largely unrecorded countercultures living outside mainstream society today. The book examines the roots of the modern youth cultures, from the 1960s' hippies to the 1970s' punks, and answers questions posed by these underground movements.

Portrays in microcosm a history made of great human tides of invasion, colonization, emigration, nomadism and tourism. Enriched by cross-cultural comparisons with the history of the American West, this title carves a route through Ireland's history, literature and landscape.

In the centuries following the Reformation, Antichrist—the biblical Beast, whose coming was to precede the end of the world and the coming of Christ’s kingdom—was an intensely real figure. The debate raged as to who this Antichrist, whose downfall was now at hand, might be. Was he the Pope? Bishops? A state church? The monarchy? Or was it just a term of abuse to be hurled at anybody one disliked?Christopher Hill, one of Britain’s most distinguished historians, here reconstructs the significance of Antichrist during the revolutionary crises of the early seventeenth century. Radical Protestant sects applied the term—a name synonymous with repression and persecution—to those Establishment institutions of which they disapproved; in particular, the Pope. Then, with that revolution in thought which resulted in the separation of religion from politics, the figure of Antichrist lost its significance.

Recent international interest in the painters of the Mexican mural movement, such as Rivera and Orozco, has brought Latin American art to a wider audience than ever before but has often failed to confront its continuing marginalization within art criticism.Drawing the Line is an exploration of the areas occupied by Latin American art and culture between the ongoing traditions of its indigenous inhabitants, its colonial heritage and its contemporary relationship to the cultural politics of North America and Europe. It looks at the way cultural identity has been constructed by artists from the 1940s to the present day and challenges the way art criticism has hitherto dealt with Latin American art.Established stereotypes of Latin American culture are discussed in terms of their relevance to contemporary artists. The book looks at the frequent subversion of dominant images and conventions of European art—such as the political significance of landscape painted as an attempt to define a specifically Latin American reality, or the constant reworking of familiar icons of European art—and explores the importance of Latin America to the European surrealist movement. The authors examine the significance of popular art—such as the Chilean arpilleras which commemorate the ¿disappeared¿ of Pinochet’s regime—and relate it to the traditional ¿high art/low art¿ dichotomy.Including new perspectives on race and gender, Drawing the Line is the most comprehensive account of contemporary Latin American art ever to appear in English.