Book reviews

Adam David Morton, Hegemony and Passive Revolution in the Global Economy (Pluto, 2007), £18.99 Antonio Gramsci used the concept of “passive revolution” to explain the process leading to the unification of Italy in 1861. The relative backwardness of the country… Continue Reading →

Joseph A Massad, Desiring Arabs (University of Chicago, 2007), £18 Sexual freedom has become an issue in international politics, with allegations of Muslim homophobia used to justify the superiority of the West and the “war on terror”. Joseph A Massad… Continue Reading →

Matthew Paterson, Automobile Politics: Ecology and Cultural Political Economy (Cambridge University, 2007), £15.99 Matthew Paterson’s important new book provides a Marxist analysis of the car’s dominance, including sections on its economic, cultural and ecological aspects. In 2006 nine of the… Continue Reading →

Joan Wallach Scott, The Politics of the Veil (Princeton University, 2007), £14.95 In 2004 the French government banned “conspicuous signs” of religious affiliation in schools. Although the ban seemed to apply to all religions equally, it was clearly targeted at… Continue Reading →

Ken Jones et al, Schooling in Western Europe: The New Order and Its Adversaries (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), £45 “There is something dodgy”, remarked Charles Clarke, while secretary of state for education in 2003, “about the idea of learning for its… Continue Reading →

Marcel van der Linden, Western Marxism and the Soviet Union (Brill, 2007), £56 One central issue confronted all revolutionary socialists in the six decades from the late 1920s to the early 1990s. A state covering a third of the Earth’s… Continue Reading →

Keith Flett (ed), 1956 and all that (Cambridge Scholars, 2007), £34.99 The year 1956 shook the post-war consensus. Riots in Poland were followed by a workers’ uprising in Hungary, which was crushed by Russian tanks. The Suez War led to… Continue Reading →

Joel Kovel, The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World? (Zed, 2007), £14.99 The extent to which capitalism can save the planet from ecological disaster is a hot topic. Discussions rarely examine the limits… Continue Reading →

Lindsey German, Material Girls: Women, Men and Work (Bookmarks, 2007), £12.99 This is a very timely book. Abortion rights are once again under attack. The conviction rate for rape is at a historic low. The use of women’s bodies to… Continue Reading →