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In his penetrating analysis of the structure of power and the human condition, Jeff Vail unravels the functioning of our world and proposes a core concept of patterns of power-relationships. This historical critique of hierarchy sweeps from anthropology and psychology to economics and politics, ultimately presenting a model for a sustainable, human-compatible future. A Theory of Power is THE most innovative approach to anarchist theory in a generation, breaking free from the chains of past dogma and integrating the most current knowledge of the functioning of our world.

Thought Police. Big Brother. Orwellian. These words have entered our vocabulary because of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel, 1984. The story of one man's nightmare odyssey as he pursues a forbidden love affair through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but also individual thought and memory, 1984 is a prophetic, haunting tale.

The Sane Society is a continuation and extension of the brilliant psychiatric concepts Erich Fromm first formulated in Escape from Freedom; it is also, in many ways, an answer to Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents. Fromm examines man’s escape into overconformity and the danger of robotism in contemporary industrial society: modern humanity has, he maintains, been alienated from the world of their own creation.

Noam Chomsky is universally accepted as one of the pre-eminent public intellectuals of the modern era. Over the past thirty years, broadly diverse audiences have gathered to attend his sell-out lectures. Now, in "Understanding Power", Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel have assembled the best of Chomsky's talks on the past, present and future of the politics of power. In a series of enlightening and wide-ranging discussions - published here for the first time - Chomsky radically reinterprets the events of the past three decades, covering topics from foreign policy during the Vietnam War to the decline of welfare under the Clinton administration.

Originally published in 1964, One-Dimensional Man quickly became one of the most important texts in the ensuing decade of radical political change. One-Dimensional Man offers the reader a wide-ranging critique of both contemporary capitalism and the Soviet model of communism, documenting the parallel rise of new forms of social repression in both these societies as well as the decline of revolutionary potential in the West.

He argued that "advanced industrial society" created false needs, which integrated individuals into the existing system of production and consumption via mass media, advertising, industrial management, and contemporary modes of thought. This results in a "one-dimensional" universe of thought and behaviour in which aptitude and ability for critical thought and oppositional behaviour wither away.

A classic examination of how our thoughts and feelings are manipulated by business, media and politicians, The Hidden Persuaders was the first book to expose the hidden world of “motivation research,” the psychological technique that advertisers use to probe our minds in order to control our actions as consumers. Through analysis of products, political campaigns and television programs of the 1950s, Packard shows how the insidious manipulation practices that have come to dominate today’s corporate-driven world began.

The central argument of Power, Interest and Psychology: Elements of a Social Materialist Understanding of Distress is that human conduct, and in particular psychological and emotional distress, cannot be understood by an analysis of individual will, intention or cognition.

The alternative set out here, explains how our experience of ourselves as well as much of our conduct is accounted for in terms of the social operation of power and interest. A framework is established for making sense of our emotional distress as the outcome of environmental pressures.

To have or to be? is one of the seminal books of the second half of the 20th century. Nothing less than a manifesto for a new social and psychological revolution to save our threatened planet, this book is a summary of the penetrating thought of Erich Fromm. His thesis is that two modes of existence struggle for the spirit of humankind: the having mode, which concentrates on material possessions, power, and aggression, and is the basis of the universal evils of greed, envy, and violence; and the being mode, which is based on love, the pleasure of sharing, and in productive activity.

Finally, back in print again, the essential handbook for all of us still alienated by modern capitalism. Together with Debord, Vaneigem was the main theorist of situationist ideas. He has the added benefit of being eminently more readable! An incredible work, more potent now than ever. "We have a world of pleasures to win, and nothing to lose but boredom.......You want to fuck around with us? Not for long."

A new edition of Zerzan's first collection of essays, exploring alienation, and the resistance it has engendered. Elements of Refusal is regarded by many as the bible of anarcho-primativism, a spiritual call to dismantle domination and return to wilderness. In these technocratic, totalitarian times, Zerzan's profound critique of industrialism, capitalism, work and the machine itself is utterly life-changing and urgent.

Escape from Freedom examined the plight of man in the post existentialist world; it saw man as cut off from the homely security of the medieval paradise, driven by loneliness and fear to seek solutions to his predicament in the shelter of political tyrannies. Fromm's was a subtle exploration of the negative aspect of freedom, a situation in which he saw modern man as alleviating his unbearable powerlessness and isolation only by morbid activity.

Our money system is not what we have been led to believe. The creation of money has been "privatized," or taken over by a private money cartel. Except for coins, all of our money is now created as loans advanced by private banking institutions - including the private Federal Reserve. Banks create the principal but not the interest to service their loans. To find the interest, new loans must continually be taken out, expanding the money supply, inflating prices - and robbing you of the value of your money. Web of Debt unravels the deception and presents a crystal clear picture of the financial abyss towards which we are heading.

A new anthology edited by the anarchist philosopher John Zerzan, Against Civilization: Readings and Reflectionn, is composed of excerpts from the works of a wide range of authors who've offered radical critiques of industrial society. Against Civilization is not all poetic rage; the various contributions include reasoned analyses of the inherent contradictions of industrial capitalism, celebrations of vernacular culture, and inspiring visions of worlds beyond systematic domination and exploitation.

Challenging the prevailing wisdom that the goal of economies should be unlimited growth, McKibben (The End of Nature) argues that the world doesn't have enough natural resources to sustain endless economic expansion. Drawing the phrase "deep economy" from the expression "deep ecology,", he suggests we need to explore new economic ideas. Rather then promoting accelerated cycles of economic expansion—a mindset that has brought the world to the brink of environmental disaster—we should concentrate on creating localized economies.

A classic of early modernism, Capital combines vivid historical detail with economic analysis to produce a bitter denunciation of mid-Victorian capitalist society. It has proved to be the most influential work in twentieth-century social science; Marx did for social science what Darwin had done for biology. This is the only abridged edition to take into account the whole of Capital. It offers virtually all of Volume 1, which Marx himself published in 1867; excerpts from a new translation of "The Result of the Immediate Process Production"; and a selection of key chapters from Volume 3, which Engels published in 1895.

In The War on Truth - the long-awaited sequel to The War on Freedom - Nafeez Ahmed provides the most comprehensive and controversial critique of the government's official version of what happened on 9/11. In this extensive new analysis, Ahmed doubles the data and investigates the worldwide web of terrorist networks across space and time. Against this background, Ahmed accomplishes the most detailed and wide-ranging study to date of the powerful vested interests and intrigues responsible for the collapse of US national security in the years and months leading to 9/11.

In reality, 9/11 and the resulting 'War on Terror' are parts of a massive authoritarian response to an emerging economic crisis of unprecedented scale. Peak Oil - the beginning of the end for our industrial civilisation - is driving the elites of American power to implement unthinkably draconian measures of repression, warfare and population control.

Crossing the Rubicon is unique not only for its case-breaking examination of 9/11, but for the breadth and depth of its world picture -- an interdisciplinary analysis of petroleum, geopolitics, narco-traffic, intelligence and militarism -- without which 9/11 cannot be understood.

The Power Elite stands as a contemporary classic of social science and social criticism. C. Wright Mills examines and critiques the organization of power in the United States, calling attention to three firmly interlocked prongs of power: the military, corporate, and political elite. The Power Elite can be read as a good account of what was taking place in America at the time it was written, but its underlying question of whether America is as democratic in practice as it is in theory continues to matter very much today.

An illuminating national history, The Movement and The Sixties offers a compelling and fascinating account of a defining era that remains a significant part of our lives today.

Published in 1969 in the midst of the ferment of popular uprisings and movements across the globe, An Essay on Liberation written by the late Herbert Marcuse, a member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory and a mentor of contemporary political activists and critical theorists such as Angela Davis and Douglas Kellner, explores a number of crucial terrains -- material, cultural, political -- and poses a number of engaging questions that require the attention of those currently attempting to rebuild Left movements and critical analysis.