Author: Mike Marqusee File Type: pdf Eloquently written, passionate, sad, joyous, and above all politically engaged, the book is an epiphany. It shows us how health and disease are socially made, and how disease priorities are set in societies by larger economic and political forces. And that we as people will collectively have to claim our futures... It is compulsory reading for all health workers, public health researchers and, indeed, the general public. My sister was recently diagnosed to have multiple myeloma. She will learn a lot from this book, including courage and daring. Mohan Rao, professor of public medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi Reading about cancer is very difficult because.... its cancer. I dont know of anyone whose family hasnt been touched by it. This new book by Mike Marqusee - who is political and funny and righteous - is an absolute must-read. Dave Zirin, author of Game Over How Politics Has Turned the Sports World Upside Down Both in the eloquence of his writing and the deep humanism of his vision, Mike Marqusee stands shoulder to shoulder with the spirits of Isaac Deutscher and Edward Said. Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz Writer and political activist Mike Marqusee was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, in the summer of 2007. At first, disinclined to share his misery with others, he was reluctant to write about his illness. But he then came to realize that doing so provided a precious continuity with his life as a writer before contracting the disease, and a way of reaching out to a wider world that the illness made physically less accessible. Writing allowed him to address what he saw as a variety of insidious platitudes that surround cancer, often connected to the individualistic idea that the sufferer must be brave in battling the disease, with the inevitable corollary that those who succumb have, in some measure, brought it on themselves. And so Marqusee begins to write about his illness. Not just his own symptoms and feelings, but the responses of friends to the news that he is ill and the way these reflect broader social attitudes towards the sick. He describes the political struggles occurring in St Bartholomews, the London hospital that cares for him, and the crisis in Britains National Health Service (NHS) more generally, at a time of harrowing cutbacks. Big Pharma, whose drugs keep Marqusee alive but are sold to the NHS at prices reflecting the power and greed of a ruthless extortionist, is the subject for particularly astringent scrutiny. The observations about cancer in these pages are never trite or sentimental. They are acute, moving, impassioned and political. And they convey important, shared truths, both personal and social, about an illness that will affect one in three people in the course of their lives.** The observations about cancer in these pages are never trite or sentimental. They are acute, moving, impassioned and political. And they convey important, shared truths, both personal and social, about an illness that will affect one in three people in the course of their lives. Writer and political activist Mike Marqusee was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, in the summer of 2007. At first, disinclined to share his misery with others, he was reluctant to write about his illness. But he then came to realize that doing so provided a precious continuity with his life as a writer before contracting the disease, and a way of reaching out to a wider world that the illness made physically less accessible. Writing allowed him to address what he saw as a variety of insidious platitudes that surround cancer, often connected to the individualistic idea that the sufferer must be brave in battling the disease, with the inevitable corollary that those who succumb have, in some measure, brought it on themselves.

Author: Michele Barrett File Type: epub Womens Oppression Today is a classic text in the debate about Marxism and feminism, exploring how gender, sexuality and the family-household systemoperate in relation to contemporary capitalism. In this updated edition, Michele Barrett surveys the social and intellectual changes that have taken place since the books original publication, and looks back at the political climate in which the book was written. In a major new essay, she defends the central arguments of the book, at the same time addressing the way such an engagement would play out differently today, over thirty years later. A foreword by Kathi Weeks examines the importance of approaching all feminist theories as events whose repercussions stretch beyond the circumstances of their creation. **htmlReview Michele Barretts excellent and lucid discussion of the issues and debates within contemporary feminist theory makes a major contribution to our understanding of the nature of that oppression. Mary Evans, London School of Economics This book is a school of thought. Frigga Haug, author of Female Sexualization A Collective Work of Memory Historically significant and deeply relevant to todays discussions, Barretts interrogation of Marxism, feminism, patriarchy and the state is serious yet accessible this is a key text in the history (and present) of both Marxism and feminism. Nina Power, author of One-Dimensional Woman Barretts eloquent elucidation of the ties and ruptures between feminism and Marxism at the close of the 1970s is especially timely today ... as austerity measures hit women in particular hardest. Lynne Segal, Birkbeck College, University of London About the Author Michele Barrett is Professor of Modern Literary and Cultural Theory in the School of English and Drama, Queen Mary, University of London. She is the author, among other works, of Womens Oppression Today, The Anti-Social Family, and Politics of Diversity (co-authored with Roberta Hamilton). html