Franklin Rosemont

A monumental work, expansive in scope, covering the life, times, and culture of that most famous of the Wobblies--songwriter, poet, hobo, thinker, humorist, martyr--Joe Hill. It is a journey into the Wobbly culture that made Hill and the capitalist culture that killed him. Many aspects of the life and lore of Joe Hill receive their first and only discussion in IWW historian Franklin Rosemont's opus. In great detail, the issues that Joe Hill raised and grappled with in his life: capitalism, white supremacy, gender, religion, wilderness, law, prison, and industrial unionism are shown in both the context of Hill's life and for their enduring relevance in the century since his death. Collected too is Joe Hill's art, plus scores of other images featuring Hill-inspired art by IWW illustrators from Ralph Chaplin to Carlos Cortez, as well as contributions from many other labor artists. As Rosemont suggests in this remarkable book, Joe Hill never really died. He lives in the minds of young (and old) rebels as long as his songs are sung, his ideas are circulated, and his political descendants keep fighting for a better day. -- taken from back cover.

the IWW & the making of a revolutionary workingclass counterculture

Joe Hill

Isadora Duncan

"This outstanding collection of the great dancer's heretofore uncollected writings and speeches gives us a vivid new perception of her importance as an original and radical thinker. Starting with reminiscences of her San Francisco childhood, Isadora Speaks features her outspoken views on America, revolutionary Russia, education and the arts, life with Russian poet Serge Esenin, love, woman's emancipation, and dance as a radical force capable of transforming the world and changing life."--Jacket.

Isadora Speaks

Robin D.G. Kelley

This collection documents the extensive participation of people of African descent in the international surrealist movement over the past 75 years.

Surrealist Writings from Africa and the Diaspora

Black, Brown, & Beige

Rediscover the most insightful and incendiary cultural commentaries from a leading figure in the revival of Surrealism. Surrealism, Bugs Bunny, and the Blues is a collection of Franklin Rosemont’s writings on popular culture over a period of more than forty years. Rosemont, a self-taught scholar, poet, and artist, playfully uncovers the sometimes hidden-in-plain-sight writers and artists who managed to be both popular, vernacular, and in their own ways profoundly revolutionary. Rosemont skillfully weaves together what most people regard as unlikely threads. The labor culture of the nineteenth century anarchist movement gains new meaning when connected to the famed Chicago musicians of blues and jazz. Rosemont’s interests from childhood extended from his favorite animators and comic art—Mel Blanc and Tex Avery, Scrooge McDuck, Mighty Mouse, Krazy Kat, Smokey Stover, and Power House Pepper—to nineteenth century drug-taker Benjamin Paul Blood, or the barely remembered best-selling utopian writer Edward Bellamy. Palindromes and other wordplay counted along with radical environmentalism, modern dance alongside the “mad” self-taught Henry Darger. Find all these and much more, exploring the inventory of Franklin Rosemont’s discoveries and his luminous, unpredictable exploration of himself. An introductory essay by Abigail Susik and an afterword by Paul Buhle frame his work and life.

Selected Writings on Popular Culture

Surrealism, Bugs Bunny, and the Blues

Charles Radcliffe

At head of title: Critical theory at its Bugs Bunnyist best! Dialectics in the spirit of the Incredible Hulk!

Anarchists, IWWs, Surrealists, Situationists & Provos in the 1960s as Recorded in the Pages of The Rebel Worker & Heatwave

Dancin' in the Streets!

Surrealism & Its Popular Accomplices

A Companion Volume to What is Surrealism? : Selected Writings of André Breton

André Breton and the First Principles of Surrealism

Archie Green

David Roediger

In 1905, radical labour groups came together to form the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies). The union was a huge presence in the labour movement, and wherever they went, they sang. These songs helped to recruit new memebers to the Wobblies' cause. Originally published in pocket size in The Little Red Songbook, these traditional labour songs are now brought together in their entirety, along with additional songs, rare artwork, personal recollections, discographies and more into this all-embracing Big Red Songbook!

250+ IWW Songs!

The Big Red Songbook

A monumental work, expansive in scope, covering the life, times, and culture of that most famous of the Wobblies—songwriter, poet, hobo, thinker, humorist, martyr—Joe Hill. It is a journey into the Wobbly culture that made Hill and the capitalist culture that killed him. Many aspects of the life and lore of Joe Hill receive their first and only discussion in IWW historian Franklin Rosemont’s opus. In great detail, the issues that Joe Hill raised and grappled with in his life: capitalism, white supremacy, gender, religion, wilderness, law, prison, and industrial unionism are shown in both the context of Hill’s life and for their enduring relevance in the century since his death. Collected too is Joe Hill’s art, plus scores of other images featuring Hill-inspired art by IWW illustrators from Ralph Chaplin to Carlos Cortez, as well as contributions from many other labor artists. As Rosemont suggests in this remarkable book, Joe Hill never really died. He lives in the minds of young (and old) rebels as long as his songs are sung, his ideas are circulated, and his political descendants keep fighting for a better day.

The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture

Salvatore Salerno

In 1905, representatives from dozens of radical labor groups came together in Chicago to form One Big Union—the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), known as the Wobblies. The union was a big presence in the labor movement, leading strikes, walkouts, and rallies across the nation. And everywhere its members went, they sang. Their songs were sung in mining camps and textile mills, hobo jungles and flop houses, and anywhere workers might be recruited to the Wobblies’ cause. The songs were published in a pocketsize tome called the Little Red Songbook, which was so successful that it’s been published continuously since 1909. In The Big Red Songbook, the editors have gathered songs from over three dozen editions, plus additional songs, rare artwork, personal recollections, discographies, and more into one big all-embracing book. IWW poets/composers strove to nurture revolutionary consciousness. Each piece, whether topical, hortatory, elegiac, or comic served to educate, agitate, and emancipate workers. A handful of Wobbly numbers have become classics, still sung by labor groups and folk singers. They include Joe Hill’s sardonic “The Preacher and the Slave” (sometimes known by its famous phrase “Pie in the Sky”) and Ralph Chaplin’s “Solidarity Forever.” Songs lost or found, sacred or irreverent, touted or neglected, serious or zany, singable or not, are here. The Wobblies and their friends have been singing for a century. May this comprehensive gathering simultaneously celebrate past battles and chart future goals. In addition to the 250+ songs, writings are included from Archie Green, Franklin Rosemont, David Roediger, Salvatore Salerno, Judy Branfman, Richard Brazier, James Connell, Carlos Cortez, Bill Friedland, Virginia Martin, Harry McClintock, Fred Thompson, Adam Machado, and many more.

Big Red Songbook

Revolution Against Whiteness

Surrealism

Paul Garon

Penelope Rosemont

In 1966, with the support of Andre Breton, the first indigenous Surrealist Group in the US was organized in Chicago. From there, it spread. This book is a compendium of collective declarations - texts in which surrealists as a group have intervened in particular political or cultural affairs and controversies. The 100-plus tracts, leaflets and other writings collected here document the first tumultuous decade of organized surrealism in this country. In the Introduction, three surrealist militants sketch the origins and development of the Surrealist Movement in the US and outline the specific features of 'Chicago Idea' surrealism: revolt and revolution against Capital and State, poetry as revolutionary praxis, psychoanalysis as a subversive activity, love and sexual insurrection, the struggle against miserabilism, the exaltation of play, the necessity of laziness, the creation of free territories of the imagination, defense of the Marvelous against religion, the abolition of whiteness, undermining patriarchy, the importance of recalcitrant undercurrents in popular culture, the special glory of Black music, the dialectic of dialectic, alchemy by any means necessary, the emancipation of wilderness, and humor, the pivot of surrealism's revolutionary project today. Surrealist solutions, the editors argue, are not only still viable, but are more urgent than ever. "What remains for surrealism to do far exceeds what surrealism has done."

Tracts & Other Collective Declarations of the Surrealist Movement in the United States, 1966-1976

The Forecast is Hot!

A monumental work, expansive in scope, and not only the life, times, and culture of that most famous of the Wobblies (songwriter, poet, hobo, thinker, humorist, martyr), but crucially - and in great detail - the issues that he raised then - capitalism, white supremacy, gender, religion, wilderness, law, prison, industrial unionism - and their enduring relevance, and impact in the century since his death. Collected too is all his art, plus scores of other illustrations featuring Hill-inspired art by IWWs from Ralph Chaplin to Carlos Cortez, as well as other labor artists. "It has been a long time since so much new material on Joe Hill and the Wobblies has been collected in one volume. All students of the IWW, labor cartoons and songs, radical humor, and the history of blue-collar countercultures in the US will find this book indispensable." [Salvatore Salerno] "In Franklin Rosemont, Joe Hill has finally found a chronicler worthy of his revolutionary spirit, sense of humor, and poetic imagination. This is no ordinary biography. It is a journey into the Wobbly culture that made Joe Hill and the capitalist culture that killed him. But as Rosemont suggests in this remarkable book, Joe Hill never really dies. He will live in the minds of young rebels as long as his songs are sung, his ideas are circulated, and his political descendants keep fighting for a better day." [Robin D G Kelley]

Franklin Rosemont

Books

Your next favorite book is out there