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Revolution by the Book The AK Press Blog

What’s new at AK Press!

Posted on March 8th, 2011 in AK Distribution, Recommended Reading

Wall of Pamphlets!Greetings, friends…

We hope this message finds you enjoying the last weeks of winter, and invigorated by the struggles that are taking place all over the world and in our

own backyards!


For our own part, we’ve just finished our annual physical inventory of the AK Press warehouse (a spring cleaning of sorts, we even re-alphabetized the pamphlets!)
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Now we’re anxiously awaiting several exciting new releases; see below to preorder them at a discount, or become a Friend of AK Press and get them ALL!

Spring also promises to be a busy time for bookfairs, conferences, and author tours. Check out our upcoming events schedule to see what’s happening near you, and come out if you can!

Coming Soon from AK Press: 25% Off

Property Is Theft

Property Is Theft
A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Reader

Edited by Iain McKay · AK Press · Preorder for $18.70
(25% off regular list price of $24.95)

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1869) was one of the most important and influential political theorists of the nineteenth century, and the first man to call himself an “anarchist.” His social and economic ideas have been a source of inspiration and debate since 1840. Property Is Theft! collects his most important works in one volume, making many available in English for the first time. An indispensable resource for anyone interested in the history and development of anarchist principles and practice.

Marshall LawMarshall Law
The Life and Times of a Baltimore Black Panther

Marshall “Eddie” Conway · AK Press · Preorder for $11.96

(25% off regular list price of $15.95)

In 1969, Marshall “Eddie” Conway uncovered evidence of the FBI’s infiltration of the Black Panthers as a part of the COINTELPRO initiative. Just one year later he found himself locked away, convicted of a murder he did not commit. Now, still incarcerated forty years later, Eddie Conway continues to resist. Marshall Law is a poignant story of strength and struggle and a reminder that we all share the responsibility of resistance, no matter where we are.

Oppose and ProposeOppose and Propose

Lessons from Movement for a New Society

Andrew Cornell · AK Press · Preorder for $9.00

(25% off regular list price of $12.00)

Where do the tactics, strategies, and lifestyles of today’s activists come from? Many ways of doing radical politics pioneered by Movement for a New Society in the 1970s and 1980s have become central to anti-authoritarian social movements: consensus decision making, spokescouncils, communal living, unlearning oppressive behavior, and co-operatively owned businesses. Andrew Cornell’s important contribution to US political history uses this story to raise crucial questions for activists today.

This is the second book in the Anarchist Interventions series, co-published with the Institute for Anarchist Studies. Also check out the first book in the series, Cindy Milstein’s Anarchism and its Aspirations.


New Titles at AK Press Distro

City Farmer

City Farmer
Adventures in Urban Food Growing

Lorraine Johnson · Greystone Books · $15.95

City Farmer celebrates the new ways that urban dwellers are getting closer to their food. Backyard vegetable plots popping up in places long reserved for lawns; people in apartments are filling their balconies with potted plants and “greening” their rooftops; still others are colonizing public spaces, staking out territory in parks for community gardens and orchards, or convincing school boards to turn asphalt school grounds into “growing” grounds. Here are their stories.

What About Human NatureWhat About Human Nature?

Edited by Iain McKay · Zabalaza Books · $3.75

Is human nature incompatible with an anarchist society? Would an anarchist society require people to be “perfect” in order to function? Is the human race simply too stupid to be able to live without hierarchy? This short excerpt from An Anarchist FAQ delivers easy to read answers backed up with quotations from various famous revolutionaries, philosophers, and historians. A great little exceprt for anyone looking for answers.

Also check out the book version of An Anarchist FAQ, why don’t you?

Appetite for ReductionAppetite for Reduction

Isa Chandra Moskowitz · Da Capo · $19.95

Typically, we don’t pick up diet cookbooks (we think you look great just as you are!) but there was quite a demand for this one, and we were convinced. This is not your mother’s low-fat cookbook. Isa Chandra Moskowitz (author of Vegan with a Vengeance, Veganomicon, and other bestsellers) has created 125 delectable, nutritionally-balanced recipes for the foods you crave (lasagna, tacos, barbecue, curries, stews, and much more!). It’s all low-calorie, low-fat, and easy to prepare. So ditch those diet shakes and fight for your right to eat something satisfying!
Also check out all the other awesome cookbooks from this author.

Black MaskBlack Mask & Up Against the Wall Motherfucker

The Incomplete Works of Ron Hahne, Ben Morea, and the Black Mask Group

Ben Morea & Black Mask · PM Press · $15.95

Chronicling the history of two New York City provocateur groups-Black Mask and Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker-this account compiles newspapers, leaflets, and articles from Black Mask; the Up Against the Wall Motherfucker Magazine; and Free Press and Rolling Stone reports on the groups. This volume outlines how Black Mask heavily influenced the art, politics, and culture of the 1960s, then reorganized as Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker, which combined the confrontational theater and tactics of Black Mask with a much more aggressive approach in dealing with the police and authorities. A fascinating documentary history!

For another account of this chapter of history, check out Osha Neumann’s memoir Up Against the Wall, Motherf**ker.

Rad Dad 19Rad Dad #19

Edited by Tomas Moniz · Microcosm · $4.00

As editor Tomas Moniz says, “Parenting has taught me a lot about dealing with things I’d rather not deal with.” This is the “heavy topics” issue, taking on talking to your kids about topics you might shy away from: important issues like racism, sexism, death, domestic violence, police brutality, and environmental crisis. Rad Dad is, as always, about communication, about not shutting off when your kids need help making sense of the things happening around them. With contributions from China Martens, David Gilbert, Art Noose, Cyrus Armajani, and more.

How to Rock & RollHow to Rock and Roll

A City Rider’s Repair Manual

Sam Tracy · Black Kettle Graphics · $12.00

Here’s one from the vault! Recently discovered while one of the Black Kettle folks was cleaning her apartment. We have two cases-get yours while they last! A classic from the author of Bicycle! and Roadside Bicycle Repair.

“Sam Tracy is the world’s Most Dangerous Bike Mechanic! He wants you to ENJOY fixing your bike! He not only wants you to adjust your own bike, he wants you to adjust your attitude! … Fix your bike? Sure! Fix the world, too? Why not?!?” -Chris Carlsson, author of Critical Mass and Nowtopia

New Lines of AllianceNew Lines of Alliance, New Spaces of Liberty
Felix Guattari & Antonio Negri
· Minor Compositions · $15.95

This extraordinary collaboration was written at dawn of the 1980s, in the wake of the crushing of the autonomous movements of the previous decade. Guattari and Negri diagnose with incisive prescience transformations of the global economy, and theorize new forms of alliance and organization: mutant machines of subjectivation and social movement. Against the workings of an increasingly integrated world capitalism, they raise the banners of singularity, autonomy, and freedom to search out new routes for subversion. This new edition includes previously untranslated materials and an introduction by Matteo Mandarini.

Dining in Refugee Camps

Dining in Refugee Camps

The Art of Sahrawi Cooking
Robin Kahn · Autonomedia · $15.00

Robin Kahn stayed with Sahrawi families living in refugee camps in Algeria and in the desert of The Free Territories of the Western Sahara. There she created the collages for this publication by combining the sparse materials available locally with photos, recipes, histories and drawings. The result is a 50-page full-color journal that examines the art of Sahrawi food production: how kitchens are improvised, food is procured and prepared, and traditional recipes are innovated from UN rations and international aid. The book is a testament to the daily struggles of Sahrawi women whose role is to provide sustenance, fortitude and comfort inside a compromised society.

Also new from Autonomedia: ID: Ideology of Design.

Grammar Matters

Grammar Matters

The Social Significance of How We Use Language
Jila Ghomeshi
· Arbeiter Ring · $12.95

It is hard to find someone who doesn’t have a pet peeve about language. Self-appointed language police worry that new forms of popular media are contributing to sloppiness, imprecision, and a general disregard for the rules of grammar and speech. Within linguistics the term “prescriptivism” is used to refer to the judgments that people make about language based on the idea that some forms and uses of language are correct and others incorrect. This book argues that prescriptivism is unfounded at its very core, and addresses the politics of language: what language use reveals about power, authority, and various social prejudices.

Also new from Arbeiter Ring: Todd Gordon’s Imperialist Canada and John Loxley’s Aboriginal, Northern, and Community Economic Development.

Contrainsurgencia y miseria

Contrainsurgencia y Miseria

Las Politcas de Combate a la Pobreza en America Latina
Raul Zibechi
· Bajo Tierra Ediciones · $16.00

Another Spanish language title now available from the author of Dispersing Power!

No importa tanto que sistema sea el que pueda surgir de la multiplicidad de practicas no capitalistas existentes hoy en el mundo. Las clases dominates perciben/saben que alli anidan peligros que deen atajar, por una elemental cuestion de sobrevivencia. Ese peligro consiste en las formas de vida heterogeneas que practican los movimientos en sus territorios autogestionados. Pero los de arriba han aprendido mucho mas. Saben que las practicas alternativas surgen en los argenes y en la pobreza. Por eso focalizan alli toda una bateria de medidas para controlarlas y extirparlas, como los conquistadores hace cinco siglos extirpaban las “idolatrias” de los indios.

Check out all the new titles available from Bajo Tierra Ediciones.

2011 Calendars Still on Sale!

Still need a wall calendar or organizer? Well, you’re in luck! Our remaining stock of calendars is now on sale! Up to 50% off regular prices!

Work: 2011

WORK
2011 Calendar

Justseeds Artists’ Collective & AK Press · Now $8.00!

From the Justseeds Artists’ Collective and AK Press comes a fun intervention into the discursive world around work. Our 2011 calendar explores the theme of what work is, and should be, through the lens of thirteen different artists, all with very different visual styles and approaches. From the pleasure of work itself, to the hard times, the fight for our rights, and the global financial system and its creep into our world of work, each page in this oversized calendar features the work of a member of the Justseeds Artists’ Collective, printed by the collectively-run Eberhardt Press in Portland.

Certain DaysCertain Days
The 2011 Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar

Certain Days · Now $9.00!

The 10th annual calendar from the Certain Days collective. This year the calendar goes back to basics with the theme “Political Prisoners: Still in the Struggle.” The calendar features writings by, and information about, political prisoners-plus art by Leonard Peltier, Malaquias Montoya, Melanie Cervantes, Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, Favianna Rodriguez, Josh MacPhee, and more!

Colors from PalestineColors from Palestine

2011 Calendar

Resistance Art · Now $15.00!

“Our movement, from its inception to the present, has always been revolutionary first adn foremost. Yet from the start we have failed again and again to fulfil our revolutionary task. Now we find our ideals more relevant than ever, faced as we are with the social and environmental crises of unprecedented proportions. Nothing is more important for us today than to organise and prepare for the social revolution, inserting ourselves into the class struggle and steering it in a libertarian and revolutionary direction.”

Slingshot OrganizerSlingshot Organizers

Available in Two Sizes · Now $5.00 & $10.00!

A handy organizer with space to write your engagements, addresses, and notes. Each week is sprinkled with historical dates, reasons to riot, and inspirational events. Plus space for notes and contacts, a contact list of radical groups around the globe, and much more. Available in two sizes: pocket organizer or spiral-bound desk planner!

Be Our Friend… With Benefits.
Friends of AK PressFriends of AK Press


With so many great books on the horizon, there’s no time like the present to become a Friend of AK Press! It’s a great way to support AK Press’s publishing work, and in return you get every new book we publish, delivered right to you.
Sign up now, and get a stylish tote bag featuring the Friends of AK logo designed by Josh MacPhee! If you’re already a Friend, just refer someone else, and if they mention you when they sign up, you’ll both get a tote bag. And that’s not all-if you keep referring more people after your first, you’ll get a $20 AK Press gift certificate for each additional new Friend you sign up!