HAYMARKET BOOKS

Spring 2017 

 

About Haymarket Books

Haymarket Books is a nonprofit, progressive book distributor and publisher.  We believe that activists need to take ideas, history, and politics into the many struggles for social justice today. Learning the lessons of past victories, as well as defeats, can arm a new generation of fighters for a better world. As Karl Marx said, “e philosophers have merely interpreted the world; the point, however, is to change it.”“Haymarket has always led with the notion that ideas sell books, not gimmicks, empty platitudes, or mainstream marketing hooks. Bringing grassroots organiz-ing to ground-up publishing, its inimitable staff carries the passion and creativ-ity required to set its authors’ words in motion. In an era of right-wing racism and neoliberal conformity, Haymarket is a critical platform promoting ideas for mass mobilization and community action.”

—Remi Kanazi, poet and Haymarket author

“Haymarket’s books are vital: they provoke the mindset shifts necessary to fuel challenges to dominant systems. I’m so grateful that Haymarket exists, because I think that without it, a lot of really crucial books just wouldn’t be published. In general, publishers don’t like to take risks. Haymarket, on the other hand, realiz-es that taking risks is at the core of doing transformative work. Congratulations on your fifteenth anniversary! e world is a better place with you all in it.”

—Maya Schenwar,

Truthout 

 editor in chief and Haymarket author

Get Every Single Haymarket Book! 

By joining the Haymarket Book Club, you’ll help ensure that the best of radical, independent publishing reaches a new generation of readers—while building a library of some of the best political books in print. Forget Amazon and the corporate bookstore chains. Every penny of your pledge goes back into the book production, outreach, and activist education vital to the battle for social justice.For a minimum pledge of $30 a month in the United States, or $50 a month overseas, you’ll receive every new title Haymarket Books publishes, plus a 20 percent discount on every item at Haymarket Books.org. In addition, you’ll get a regular book-club newsletter and the opportunity to join reading groups and online book-discussion forums. (Of course, you’re welcome to set a monthly contribution above the minimum $30. Please indicate any additional amount  you can contribute.)

Order online at www.haymarketbooks.org

 

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9781608468126, $14.95, Trade Cloth, 112 pages, June 2017

Night Thoughts

Wallace Shawn

In this challenging manifesto, Wallace Shawn broods about questions of justice, inequality, blame, re-venge, and morality—and the possibility that a better world could be created. “I do believe it’s possible—barely possible obviously,” he writes, “that the mis-

take of civilization might ultimately be xed using

civilization’s own discoveries and fruits . . . and that a human society could be created in which no one was subjugated and everyone was treated with respect because we all actually respected each other. Each of us probably has his own picture of what such a society would look like. In my picture we all would work part of each month in the sewers and for part of each month we’d lounge on pillows writing poetry on perfumed paper of many different colors.”

Praise for

Essays 

:

“Lovely, hilarious, and seriously thought-provoking.”

—Toni Morrison

“Full of what you might call conversation starters: tricky propositions about morality, politics, and art as a force for change (or not). . . . It’s a treat to hear [Shawn] speak his curious mind.”

—

O Magazine

“As an actor and playwright, Shawn’s eccentric style is like no one else’s. And in his collection of essays . . . that inimitable inquiring voice can be heard loud and clear.”

—Los Angeles Times

“Fearless!”

—

GQ

, Best Books of 2009

 WALLACESHAWN

 is an Obie Award–winning playwright and a noted stage and screen actor (

Star Trek, Gossip Girl, e Princess Bride, Toy Story 

). He cowrote the film

 My Dinner with Andre

and is the author of multiple plays. His book

 Essays

 was published by Haymarket Books (2009).