"Ian Rankin once explained to an interviewer (the head of the Indian Communist Party!) that crime fiction is a way of talking about social inequality. Ron Jacobs applies that same maxim to the Sixties... in his wonderfully noir trilogy of those exhilarating and troubled times. And what Rankin does for Edinburgh, Jacobs amply illuminates for the Movement. Much much more than ripping yarns (though they are that too), from a master who's been there, done that, and lived to tell a tale or two."

--Ramsey Kanaan, Publisher PM Press/noir enthusiast

Thursday, April 27, 2017

One Hundred Years That Shook the World

It’s as if John Reed, author of the classic piece of revolutionary journalism, Ten Days That Shook the World, woke from a decades-long sleep to tell the story of 1917 once again.  Although there is less personal detail, the sweep of MiĆ©ville’s story is equal to Reed’s in its breadth while matching it in passion.  It is Reed’s contention that the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers were at the front of the revolution.  One hundred years later, MiĆ©ville’s telling agrees.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/27/one-hundred-years-that-shook-the-world/

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Syria: Beyond Western Myths and Half-Truths

A book about history that is ignored by so many....not meant as an endorsement of Assad and his army but certain to be taken that way by those unwilling or unable to look at the broader picture...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/11/syria-beyond-western-myths-and-half-truths/