A review of Lucky Valley: Edward Long and the History of Racial Capitalism by Catherine Hall (Cambridge University Press, 2024), £26.99 Catherine Hall’s Lucky Valley: Edward Long and the History of Racial Capitalism, excavates the economic, social and political context… Continue Reading
We live in dangerous, disorientating times.1 The world was already a terrifying enough place before Donald Trump returned to the White House in early 2025: with Israel’s genocide in Gaza, a human meat grinder in Ukraine and sabre rattling between… Continue Reading
The richest and most powerful nation on the globe set the clock back on women’s reproductive rights by half a century on 24 June 2022. This was the day the United States Supreme Court reversed its ruling on the landmark… Continue Reading
In August 2014 unarmed 18 year old black teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by white police officer Darren Wilson in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson. Brown was shot six times including twice to the head, despite having… Continue Reading
“The people who delivered [Obama] a second term…are those who were least likely to have benefited from his first”.1 Journalist Gary Younge’s comment on the re-election of Barack Obama in the United States sums up the contradiction at the heart… Continue Reading
“Change we can believe in”.1 We all remember the hope-laden slogans of the brilliantly executed Obama 2008 presidential campaign. This was much less a promise of change than a return to “normality” after the deviant years of the Bush-Cheney regime.… Continue Reading
In November 2008, after Barack Obama had won in the presidential election in the US, Slavoj Žižek wrote one of his very best pieces: “The reason Obama’s victory generated such enthusiasm is not only that, against all odds, it really… Continue Reading
The Occupy movement that began in New York in September 2011 and has spread with remarkable speed across the country represents a massive shift in the politics of the United States.1 A year ago the seemingly inexorable rise of the… Continue Reading
Two years after his election Barack Obama presides over an increasingly divided nation, in both economic and political terms. His failure to deliver on the promise of real change has seen him punished in the midterm elections for Congress and… Continue Reading
When they tie the can To a union man Sit down! Sit down! When they smile and say “No raise in pay” Sit down! Sit down! When the boss won’t talk Don’t take a walk Sit down! Sit down!1 The… Continue Reading
