FE Bookstore

by

Fifth Estate # 328, Spring, 1988

The FE Bookstore is located at 4632 Second Ave., just south of W. Forest, in Detroit. We share space with the Fifth Estate Newspaper and may be reached at the same phone number: (313)831-6800. Visitors are welcome, but our hours vary so please call before dropping in.

HOW TO ORDER BY MAIL:

1) List the title of the book, quantity wanted, and the price of each;

2) add 10% for mailing costs, (not less than $.69 U.S. or $.96 foreign (minimum charge for 4th class book rate postage);

3) total;

4) write check or money order to: The Fifth Estate;

5) mail to The Fifth Estate, P.O. Box 02548, Detroit MI 48202 USA.

NEW!

HOW DEEP IS DEEP ECOLOGY? A Fifth Estate Special

This impassioned and provocative critique of the deep ecology perspective and Earth First! movement takes ecology to task for failing to examine its own problematic relationship with instrumentalist science and the ideologies of megatechnic capitalism, particularly nationalism and malthusianism. The failure of deep ecology to critique the social context of ecological destruction leads it to the dead end of fragmented ideology.

75 cents, 50 cents for 5 or more

THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH WORKING CLASS by E.P. Thompson

Finally back in print after several years, Thompson shows the forgotten and suppressed history of England’s explosive entry into capitalism and industrialism. The early factories were met with Luddite sabotage and resistance, almost bringing down the emerging system. Exciting reading which gives lie to the idea of “progress.” “I am seeking to rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the ‘obsolete’ hand-loom weaver, the ‘utopian’ artisan…from the enormous condescension of Posterity.”—From preface.

Random House 848 pp. $14

TOWARD A NEW COLD WAR: Essays on the Current Crisis & How We Got There by Noam Chomsky

An account by the noted linguist and libertarian historian of the movement towards a new Cold War which has culminated in the Reagan administration’s policies. He contrasts the old with newly emerging Cold Wars, and explores the changes in American global power and ideology since WW II. The essays are a panorama of America’s futile violence, intellectual dishonesty and political immorality which analyzes the contradictions between establishment ideology and reality.

Random House 498 pp. $10

NEW* * LOMAKATSI No. 3 * * NEW

Issue No. 3 continues in the fine tradition begun in the first two with a special edition on food. It is devoted to the social, political, ethical and historical aspects of food and its relationship to humans, animals, and the natural environment. Articles on fast food, recipes, Zerzan on agriculture, direct action reports, sabotage, and the gas content of farts.

Lorrekatsi unpaginated $2.00

Lomakatsi 2 also available for $2

THE FREE by M. Gilliland

A fictional account of an insurrection, revolution and its suppression under circumstances not dissimilar from contemporary Great Britain. Graphic descriptions of battle, guerrilla warfare, torture and imprisonment make this novel not for the fainthearted, and yet they represent what could be expected in such a real situation. So intense in sections that it left our reviewer “looking for the door.” See FE Fall 1986.

Hooligan Press 142 pp. $4.00

BEYOND GEOGRAPHY: THE WESTERN SPIRIT AGAINST THE WILDERNESS by Frederick Turner

Traces the “spiritual history” that led up to the European domination and decimation of the Western Hemisphere’s native peoples who were as rich in mythic life as the new arrivals were barren. Beginning with the first separation from the Wilderness in the days of the Israelites, and thus from the myths that had nurtured them and connected them with the land, and ending with Buffalo Bill’s hollow triumphs over his “Wild West,” Turner follows the unconscious desire in the Western invaders for the spiritual contentment they sensed in those “primitives” they encountered in their invasions.

Rutgers Press 329 pp. $12.00

THE MAY DAYS: BARCELONA 1937 Contributions by Augustin Souchy, Jose Peirats, Burnett Bolloten & Emma Goldman (see story this issue)

Many consider the murderous Communist Party-led assault on Anarchist positions in Barcelona to be “a minor incident in the Spanish Civil War.” In reality, the armed conflict took over 500 lives—more than during the first week of the military uprising on July 19, 1936. The heroic defense of the anarchists’ revolutionary gains against the physical attack by stalinism recounted from several perspectives. Those who doubt the existence of secret CP prisons in Spain for their political opponents will be interested in Emma Goldman’s account of trying to visit political prisoners.

Freedom Press 128 pp. $5.00

THE FUTURE OF TECHNICS AND CIVILIZATION by Lewis Mumford Introduction by Colin Ward

This is the second half of Mumford’s classic text, Technics and Civilization. In it he “observed the limitations the Western European imposed upon himself in order to create the machine and project it as a body outside his personal will…. We have seen the machine arise out of the denial of the organic and the living…” Mumford calls for the “rebuilding of the individual personality and the collective group” in order to reorient human activity toward life. This republication celebrates Mumford’s 90th birthday and Freedom Press’ centenary. Mumford’s work is seminal to almost all critical thought about the modern world.

Freedom Press 184 pp. $7.00

SOCIETY AGAINST THE STATE by Pierre Clastres

Can there be a society that is not divided into oppressors and oppressed, or that refuses coercive state apparatuses? In this beautifully written book Pierre Clastres offers examples of South American Indian groups that, though without hierarchical leadership, were both affluent and complex. In so doing he refutes the usual negative definition of tribal society and poses its order as a radical critique of our own western state of power. “We conventionally define the state as the regulation of violence; it may be the origin of it. Clastre’s thesis is that economic expropriation and political coercion are inconsistent with the character of tribal society—which is to say, with the greater part of human history.” —Marshall Sahlins.

Zone Books 224 pp. $18.95 cloth

SELECTED FIFTH ESTATE BACK ISSUES ON TECHNOLOGY 75 CENTS EACH

Vol. 15, No. 3—”Readers Debate Technology,” “Saturn and Scientism,” “On the Future of the Earth,” “Against Civilization.”

Vol. 15, No. 5—Special Issue on Technology:

“Against the Megamachine,” “Marxism, Anarchism and the New Totalitarianism,” “Indigenism and Its Enemies.” “Technological Invasion,” “Community, Primitive Society and the State.” (in xerox)

Vol. 15, No. 6—”Uncovering a Corpse: A Reply to the Defenders of Technology,” “Aversion and the Dynamo,” “The Pull-Back from Armageddon,” “Poland at the Crossroad.”

Vol. 18, No. 1—”Fifth Estate Tool of the Year: The Sledgehammer,” “Pentagon War Plans On Automatic,” “Notes on ‘Soft Tech,’ “”Primitive vs. Civilized War: Some Contrasts.”

Vol. 18, No. 4—”Shoot Down All Their Helicopters: U.S. Out of the Americas,” “Language: Origin and Meaning,” “Newspeak and the Impoverishment of Language,” “Primitive Society, Technology & the Crisis: An Exchange.”

Vol. 19, No. 4—”We All Live in Bhopal,” “The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism,” “Birds Combat Civilization.”

Vol. 20, No. 1—”In the Image of Capital: The Rise of Biotechnology (a) Biotech: The Next Wave, (b) Test-Tube People,” “Bhopal and the Prospects for Anarchy,” “Anarchism and the Critique of Technology,” “Looking Back on the Vietnam War: History and Forgetting.”

Vol. 20, No. 2—”The Machine Against the Garden: 2 essays by Fredy Perlman (A) To the New York Review of B, (B) On the Machine in the Garden.”

NEW!

NO PICNIC

A new anarchist, anti-industrial magazine, put out by a “group of friends who share essentially the same political perspectives, though we do have some differences…would like to promote an anarchistic vision of society…eliminating the state and class society and by incorporating egalitarian, non-hierarchical, ecological and feminist principles into our everyday lives… do not want to reform industrial society. Industrialism is anti-life…see the immediate need for communities of resistance to counter this onslaught…see direct action as the most effective strategy…like to emphasize the importance of the struggles of indigenous peoples everywhere.”

No Picnic/Vancouver, BC unpaginated 8-1/2 x 11 50 cents

SPECTACULAR TIMES: The Bad Days Will End compiled and written by Larry Law

“The real state secret is the secret misery of daily life. Almost everything we care about has been turned into a commodity. We have to resist allowing the spectacle to define our hopes. We have to learn to play with our desires.”—from the text

Spectacular Times 28 pp. $1

VISION ON FIRE: Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution edited by David Porter

VISION ON FIRE is a carefully chosen collection of Emma Goldman’s significant, yet largely unpublished writings from the tumultuous final four years of her life. Frankly revealed are her struggles with the deep contradictions of the Spanish Revolution of the late 1930s, her efforts to maintain personal integrity and vision within the heat of passionate involvement.

Commonground Press 346 pp. $7.50

ANARCHISTS IN THE SPANISH REVOLUTION by Jose Peirats

Written by a participant in the events of the 1930’s, this volume traces the history of the anarcho-syndicalist union, the CNT, from its origins through to the Revolution. Not an apology or glorification, but a thoroughgoing anal-Isis of the successes and failures of the anarchist: movement.

Self-Published 400 pp. $3.50

Lessons of the Spanish Revolution by Vernon Richards

Just reprinted by Freedom Press, this edition contains new footnotes by the author and a review of Hugh Thomas’ THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR. Richards’ critical views of the revolution, the role of the CNT and FAI, and libertarian tactics, make it as controversial and valuable as it was when the first edition was published 30 years ago. Highly recommended.

Freedom Press 256 pp. $5.75

LIVING MY LIFE: An Autobiography by Emma Goldman

In this first single-volume, unabridged autobiography, Goldman follows her life from her birth in 1869 in Lithuania through her personal triumphs and failures, her political radicalism and deportation, her love affairs and personal remembrances. Johann Most, Alexander Berkman, “Big Bill” Haywood, Max Eastman, Jack London, John Reed, Lenin, Havelock Ellis and scores of others appear in this stirring account of the world’s most famous anarchist.

Peregrine 933 pp. reduced price: $9

AUTONOMOUS TECHNOLOGY: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought by Langdon Winner

MIT Press 335 pp. $9.95

ANARCHY COMIX 1-4

All four wild, wacky and politically relevant comics done by a talented assembly of international cartoonists. Can’t read thick theory? Here’s the easy way.

Last Gasp all 4 issues—reg. $9; special at $8

MOB ACTION AGAINST THE STATE: Haymarket Remembered…an Anarchist Convention Assorted Authors

It was a long time coming, but the folks at the Haymarket Remembered Project in Olympia, Washington have finally issued an engaging collection of remembrances and documents about the May 1986 Haymarket Commemoration and anarchist gathering in Chicago. All the demos, all the meetings, the hassles and disputes are here, most expressed by personal statements.

Haymarket Remembered Project 140 PP. $4

FOUR ARGUMENTS FOR THE ELIMINATION OF TELEVISION by Jerry Mander

Mender goes beyond his title to look at all of spectacular society. Television doesn’t just have “bad” content, but changes how we perceive the world. Experience is no longer direct, but mediated by television through centralized and unified images. The result is a loss of the sensuous world and a passive, easily manipulated population.

Quill 371 pp. $8.00

BACK IN STOCK

STRIKE! by Jeremy Brecher

An exciting history of mass labor insurgence from 1877 to the present. No dull workerist account, but showing movements of workers unrestrained by union, state and capital as having the potential for authentic revolution.

South End Press 330 pp. $9

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