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Coming soon!
(and already here)
One the finer things about winter is the announcement of new books, creating, in some way, a future of things to look forward to all year. We are pleased to give a sneak peak of our forthcoming books (you can find our catalogue here) and our newest release, the graphic novel Ginger Goodwin: A Worker’s Friend.
World's easiest free book contest! Win a copy of Ginger Goodwin! To enter, email info@btlbooks.com by February 3rd with the subject line "January newsletter" and give us the name of the author of the book. We will draw a winner from the correct responses (Canadian mailing addresses only please).
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Hot off the press!
Ginger Goodwin
A Worker's Friend
by Laura Ellyn
“Ginger Goodwin: A Worker’s Friend is brilliant in every way" - Paul Buhle labour historian, editor of Wobblies!, Che, and graphic adaptations of books by Howard Zinn and Studs Terkel
With bright, strong imagery, Ginger Goodwin presents the story of labour activist and martyr Albert “Ginger” Goodwin. This accessible and thoughtful graphic history explores Goodwin’s life, work, and death in the mining communities of Cumberland and Trail, British Columbia. Drawing on local history, and exploring the ways the history of labour organizing affects contemporary movements, Ginger Goodwin is a story that needs to be shared.
Order Ginger Goodwin here!
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Uber Curious?
What's Yours is Mine
Against the Sharing Economy
By Tom Slee
A vigorous takedown of the "sharing economy"! The news is full of their names, supposedly the vanguard of a rethinking of capitalism. Lyft, Airbnb, Taskrabbit, Uber, and many more companies have a mandate of disruption and upending the “old order”—and they’ve succeeded in effecting the “biggest change in the American workforce in over a century,” according to former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.
But this new wave of technology companies is funded and steered by very old-school venture capitalists. And in What’s Yours Is Mine, technologist Tom Slee argues the so-called sharing economy damages development, extends harsh free-market practices into previously protected areas of our lives, and presents the opportunity for a few people to make fortunes by damaging communities and pushing vulnerable individuals to take on unsustainable risk. Drawing on original empirical research, Slee shows that the friendly language of sharing, trust, and community masks a darker reality.
Available in February.
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A radical vision
Revolutionary Mothering
Love on the Front Lines
Edited by Alixis Pauline Gumbs, China Martens, and Mai'A Williams
“Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines is juicy, gutsy, vulnerable, and very brave. . . . A radical vision, many radical visions of how to mother in a time of resistance and of pain.” - Alice Walker
Inspired by the legacy of radical and queer Black feminists of the 1970s and ’80s, Revolutionary Mothering places marginalized mothers of color at the center of a world of necessary transformation. The challenges we face as movements working for racial, economic, reproductive, gender, and food justice, as well as anti-violence, anti-imperialist, and queer liberation are the same challenges that many mothers face every day. Oppressed mothers create a generous space for life in the face of life-threatening limits, activate a powerful vision of the future while navigating tangible concerns in the present, move beyond individual narratives of choice toward collective solutions, live for more than ourselves, and remain accountable to a future that we cannot always see. Revolutionary Mothering is a movement-shifting anthology committed to birthing new worlds, full of faith and hope for what we can raise up together.
Contributors include June Jordan, Malkia A. Cyril, Esteli Juarez Boyd, Cynthia Dewi Oka, Fabiola Sandoval, Sumayyah Talibah, Victoria Law, Tara Villalba, Lola Mondragón, Christy NaMee Eriksen, Norma Angelica Marrun, Vivian Chin, Rachel Broadwater, Autumn Brown, Layne Russell, Noemi Martinez, Katie Kaput, alba onofrio, Gabriela Sandoval, Cheryl Boyce Taylor, Ariel Gore, Claire Barrera, Lisa Factora-Borchers, Fabielle Georges, H. Bindy K. Kang, Terri Nilliasca, Irene Lara, Panquetzani, Mamas of Color Rising, tk karakashian tunchez, Arielle Julia Brown, Lindsey Campbell, Micaela Cadena, and Karen Su.
Available in February.
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Practical and Scientific
The Ultimate Guide to Green Parenting
by Zion Lights
The Ultimate Guide to Green Parenting is the first book of its kind. Journalist, science writer and mother Zion Lights has researched all those questions that beset new or expecting parents – not just about environmental issues but also on approaches to parenting. She focuses on the scientific evidence rather than on the latest fad or personal anecdote and the result is a book that will help you adjust your lifestyle in practical ways that work for you and your child.
From birth to nutrition and from diapers to travel, advice based on research and evidence can guide the way. And the good news is that going green will not only help to save the planet and help to protect your child’s health, it will also result in a happier and more fulfilling family life.
Available in February.
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Graphic labour content!
Drawn to Change
Graphic Histories of Working-Class Struggle
Edited by the Graphic History Collective with Paul Buhle
Canadian labour history and working-class struggles are brought to life in this anthology of nine short comics, each one accompanied by an informative preface. Each comic showcases the inspiring efforts and determination of working people who banded together with others to fight to change the world.
The history of working-class struggle is a fascinating story of conflict and coercion, of resistance and triumph. It has the drama of defeat mixed with the thrill of victory, though not always in equal measure. But, working-class history is not just interesting and exciting; it also contains important lessons for labour and social justice activists today. Illustrate! Educate! Organize!
Contributors include Jo SiMalaya Alcampo, Althea Balmes, Christine Balmes, Sam Bradd, Paul Buhle, Nicole Marie Burton, David Camfield, Sean Carleton, Conely de Leon, Robin Folvik, Ethan Heitner, Greg Kealey, Orion Keresztesi, Mark Leier, David Lester, Andrée Lévesque, Zenee May Maceda, Dale McCartney, Doug Nesbitt, Bryan Palmer, Andrew Parnaby, Joan Sangster, Kara Sievewright, Julia Smith, Ron Verzuh, Tania Willard (Secwepemc Nation).
Available in March.
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No-Nonsense
Rethinking Education
Whose Knowledge is it anyway?
Adam Unwin and John Yandell
Part of the No-Nonsense Series
What is knowledge? Who decides what is important? Who owns it? These key questions are central themes in this accessible book that aims to change perceptions and the understanding of education. Using historical and contemporary examples the authors examine the motivations, conflicts, and contradictions in education. Breaking down the structures, forces, and technologies involved in education they chart an alternative approach.
Available in April.
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Inspiring!
A Future Without
Hate or Need
The Promise of the Jewish Left of Canada
By Ester Reiter
“Full of information and previously unavailable first-hand accounts of the Jewish left’s cultural life, A Future without Hate or Need’s detail on camps, schules, publications, literature (prose & poetry), sporting associations, orchestras and the like is unrivaled, much of this drawn from Yiddish and oral sources both rich and previously untapped. The insights are many, and the act of recovery both significant and inspiring.” – Bryan Palmer, Canadian Studies Department, Trent University
Driven from their homes in Russia, Poland, and Romania by pogroms and poverty, many Jews who came to Canada in the wave of immigration after the 1905 Russian revolution were committed radicals. A Future without Hate or Need brings to life the rich and multi-layered lives of a dissident political community, their shared experiences and community-building cultural projects, as they attempted to weave together their ethnic particularity – their identity as Jews – with their internationalist class politics.
Available in May.
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BTL book reviews
 David Roediger in the Canadian Historical Review said "When in the presence of a lovely and formidable work such as this one, a US social historian of the working class such as myself is tempted toward the weighty comparative history question: 'Why can’t we in the United States produce such books?'" |
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