OR Books is a new type of publishing company. It embraces progressive change in politics, culture and the way we do business. Our list is highly selective: we publish just one or two books a month, combining established authors with new discoveries. Our editorial standards are fastidious; our design clear and elegant. We employ exciting promotion with highly creative use of video and the Internet. To avoid the waste of unsold stock and returns, we produce our books only when they are wanted, as print-on-demand and as platform-agnostic e-books.
This system allows a rapid publishing turnaround so relevant books can intervene quickly in issues of the day. Most importantly, we sell direct to you, the customer, shipping promptly when a book is released and/or your order is received. Our approach jettisons the inefficiencies of conventional publishing to better serve readers, writers and the environment. It points to a new future for book publishing.
Featured Items
The Monster Enters: COVID-19, Avian Flu and the Plagues of Capitalism
In this substantially expanded edition of his earlier book, The Monster at Our Door, the renowned activist and author Mike Davis looks at the COVID-19 pandemic now sweeping the world. He sets the current crisis in the context of previous viral catastrophes, notably the 1918 influenza disaster that killed at least forty million people in three months and the Avian flu of a decade and a half ago that sounded a tocsin, disastrously ignored by those in power, for today’s devastating outbreak.
Pandemic!: COVID-19 Shakes the World
As an unprecedented global pandemic sweeps the planet, who better than the supercharged Slovenian philosopher, Slavoj Žižek to uncover its deeper meanings, marvel at its mind-boggling paradoxes, and speculate on the profundity of its consequences, all in a manner that will have you sweating profusely and gasping for breath?
A Public Service: Whistleblowing, Disclosure and Anonymity
Governments and corporations now have the tools to track and control us as never before. In this whistleblowing how-to, we are provided with tools and techniques to fight back and hold organizations, agencies, and corporations accountable for unethical behavior.
American Monstrosity: Donald Trump: How We Got Him • How We Stop Him
Nathan J Robinson has emerged in recent years as one of the most eloquent and engaging voices in a new cohort of young left-wing journalists who are transforming the American media landscape. Here he sets his unsparing gaze and biting wit on the greatest grotesquery in a competitive field let loose on a hapless public by an American political system lurching out of the control of all but the super-rich: Donald J. Trump.
Everything Must Change!: The World after COVID-19
Contributors: Tariq Ali, David Adler, Gael García Bernal, Larry Charles, Noam Chomsky, Brian Eno, Daniel Ellsberg, Kenneth Goldsmith, David Graeber, Johann Hari, Maja Kantar, Stephanie Kelton, Stefania Maurizi, Evgeny Morozov, Maja Pelević, Vijay Prashad , Angela Richter, Saskia Sassen, Saša Savanović, Jeremy Scahill, Richard Sennett, John Shipton, Astra Taylor, Ece Temelkuran, Yanis Varoufakis, Roger Waters, Slavoj Žižek, and Shoshana Zuboff.
Everything Must Change! brings together prominent commentators from around the world to present a rich and nuanced weighing of progressive possibilities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
People’s Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons
People’s Power provides a persuasive critique of a market-led transition to renewable energy. It surveys the early development of the electric grid in the United States, telling the story of battles for public control over power during the Great Depression.
Tales of Two Planets: Stories of Climate Change and Inequality in a Divided World
Building from his acclaimed anthology Tales of Two Americas, beloved writer and editor John Freeman draws together a group of our greatest writers from around the world to help us see how the environmental crisis is hitting some of the most vulnerable communities where they live.
Contributors: Sulaiman Addonia, Juan Miguel Álvarez, Tahmima Anam, Margaret Atwood, Edwidge Danticat, Tishani Doshi, Yasmine El Rashidi, Mariana Enriquez, Gaël Faye, Aminatta Forna, Lauren Groff, Eduardo Halfon, Mohammed Hanif, Ishion Hutchinson, Daisy Johnson, Lawrence Joseph, Billy Kahora, Eka Kurniawan, Krys Lee, Andri Snær Magnason, Khaled Mattawa, Ligaya Mishan, Lina Mounzer, Sayaka Murata, Chinelo Okparanta, Diego Enrique Osorno, Anuradha Roy, Raja Shehadeh & Penny Johnson, Sjón, Lars Skinnebach, Burhan Sönmez, Pitchaya Sudbanthad, Ian Teh, Tayi Tibble, and Joy Williams.
Rediscovering Earth: Ten Dialogues on the Future of Nature
The gap between what we know and what we do has haunted the field of moral philosophy since antiquity, and is at the center of today’s environmental crisis. Put simply: if we know that we are destroying the planet, our habitat, why do we continue to do it? The ten dialogues collected here investigate this question, and propose how we might salvage the planet and save our own lives.
The Deep End: The Literary Scene in the Great Depression and Today
It’s tough being an author these days, and it’s getting harder. A recent Authors Guild survey showed that the median income for all published authors in 2017, based solely on book-related activities, was just over $3,000, down more than 20% from eight years previously. Roughly 25% of authors earned nothing at all. Price cutting by retailers, notably Amazon, has forced publishers to pay their writers less. A stagnant economy, with only the rich seeing significant income increases, has hit writers along with everyone else.
War in the Age of Trump: The Fall of ISIS, the Betrayal of the Kurds, the Conflict with Iran
In this successor to his bestselling The Rise of Islamic State, which was translated into 16 languages, and the widely-acclaimed The Age of Jihad, prize-winning foreign correspondent Patrick Cockburn provides a clear-sighted and closely-observed account of the Middle East wars conducted by Donald Trump during the first term of his presidency.
I Accuse!: Herewith a Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt that ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda Whitewashed Israel
This finely-honed indictment by a writer widely acknowledged for his forensic skills is directed at Fatou Bensouda, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. It sets out how she defiled her office by refusing to investigate credible allegations of Israeli criminality.”
The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing: An Almost True Account
The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing tells the story of a hyper-observant, politically-minded, but humorously pragmatic weed dealer who has spent a working life compiling rules for how to a) make money and b) avoid prison.
Beautiful Trouble Strategy Card Deck
This box of more than 100 cards from the celebrated activist group Beautiful Trouble provides both invaluable information on the key strategies and tactics that have inspired centuries of people-powered political victories and a series of games you can play with fellow protestors. Use the cards to learn and teach organizing, free up creativity when planning grassroots actions, or just entertain your dinner party guests.
In Defense of Julian Assange
The charges Assange faces are a major threat to press freedom. A wide range of distinguished contributors, many of them in original pieces, here set out the story of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, the importance of their work, and the dangers for us all in the persecution they face. In Defense of Julian Assange is a vivid, vital intervention into one of the most important political issues of our day.
The Fascination of What’s Difficult: A Life of Maud Gonne
Maud Gonne, the legendary woman known as the Irish Joan of Arc, left her mark on everyone she met. She famously won the devotion of one of the greatest poets of the age, William Butler Yeats. Born into tremendous privilege, she allied herself with rebels and the downtrodden and openly defied what was at the time the world’s most powerful empire.
The Animals’ Vegan Manifesto Tote Bag
Sue Coe’s advocacy of animal rights is unmatched in its eloquence, forcefulness, and lasting impact. Now you can show your commitment to the cause of animal rights with this capacious, hard-wearing tote featuring an original illustration from The Animals’ Vegan Manifesto. Printed black on natural, 100% recycled cotton. Reverse side sports the OR logo. Measurements: 13″w x 14″h x 3″d
Eileen Myles Tote Bag
This elegant, hard-wearing tote features a quote from Inferno (a poet’s novel), our bestselling book by Eileen Myles, who John Waters described as having a “gruffly beautiful, sure voice of reason.” Printed black on natural, 100% recycled cotton. Reverse side sports the OR logo. Measurements: 13″w x 14″h x 3″d
Pen Pal: Prison Letters from a Free Spirit on Slow Death Row
Tiyo Attallah Salah-El died in 2018 on “Slow Death Row” while serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania prison. He was a man with a dizzying array of talents and vocations: author, scholar, teacher, musician, and activist: he was the founder of the Coalition for the Abolition of Prisons. He was also, as is apparent from the letters that make up this book, an extraordinarily eloquent correspondent.
The Sinking Middle Class: A Political History
Drawing on rich traditions of radical social thought, Roediger disavows the thinly sourced idea that the United States was, for much of its history, a “middle-class” nation and the still more indefensible position that it is one now. The increasing immiseration of large swathes of middle-income America, only accelerated by the current pandemic, nails a fallacy that is a major obstacle to progressive change.
Person of Interest Tote Bag
This capacious, high-quality tote features cover art from the fiction anthology Watchlist: 32 Short Stories by Persons of Interest, which Jonathan Lethem called “A brave and necessary set of early flares of the literary imagination into the Panopticon we all find ourselves living inside these days.” Printed on 10 oz natural cotton with Royal blue cotton web handles. Reverse side sports the OR logo in white. Measurements: 18″w x 14.5″h x 3″d Handle length: 25