Film star. Icon. Agitator. Martyr.

Paul Robeson was a twentieth-century icon; the most famous African-American of his time. The son of a former slave, he found worldwide fame as a performer, travelling from Hollywood to the West End, and even to communist Russia.

A champion of social justice and equality, he would go on to lose everything for the sake of his principles.

Here, Jeff Sparrow traces Robeson’s remarkable life. Part travelogue, part biography, this is a story of political ardour, heritage, and trauma ― a luminous portrait of a man and an urgent reflection on the politics that define us now.

A timely examination of progressive politics in the era of radical populism.

Since 2016, western democracies have experienced a series of political earthquakes, spectacularly upending conventional political wisdom. Everywhere, outsider politicians rail against ‘the elite’.

Yet, with a few notable exceptions, the populist mood has benefited reactionaries rather than reformers. The status quo might be in crisis, but the emerging voices are those of hate and violence. Where is the progressive alternative?

In Trigger Warnings, Jeff Sparrow sympathetically but critically examines key progressive ideas. How does a billionaire position himself as anti-elitist? Are the culture wars worth fighting? What's at stake in the battles over political correctness? Should progressives defend it ― and, if so, how?

Sparrow traces the evolution of the Left and Right to explain the origins of this strange evolution, untangling some of the thorniest controversies of our time and arguing that the future needn't only belong to nihilists and bigots.

The 2008 financial crisis opened the door for a bold, progressive social movement. But despite widespread revulsion at economic inequity and political opportunism, after the crash very little has changed. Has the Left failed? What agenda should progressives pursue? And what alternatives do they dare to imagine? Left Turn is aimed at the many Australians disillusioned with the political process. It includes passionate and challenging contributions by a diverse range of writers, thinkers and politicians, from Larissa Behrendt and Christos Tsiolkas to Guy Rundle and Lee Rhiannon. These essays offer perspectives largely excluded from the mainstream. They offer possibilities for resistance and for a renewed struggle for change.

Explores the world of Lambics, Flanders red and brown beers and American brews in a similar style. Includes coverage of wood-barrel aging, blending and the use of fruit in wild fermentations.

Ninety years after the First World War, police in a Victorian country town uncovered, inside a velvet-lined display cabinet, the mummified head of a Turkish soldier - a bullet-ridden souvenir brought home from Gallipoli by a returning ANZAC. The macabre discovery launched Jeff Sparrow on a quest to understand the nature of deadly violence. How did ordinary people - whether in today's wars or in 1915 - learn to take a human life? Was it hard to kill another person or was it terrifyingly easy? And what happened afterwards? What did war do to soldiers to make hoarding a human head seem normal, even necessary? The questions lead Sparrow on a journey through history and across the USA, talking to veterans and slaughtermen, executioners and academics about one of the last remaining taboos. Compassionate, engaged and political, ""Killing"" takes us up close to the ways society kills today, in a prolonged meditation on what violence means, not just for perpetrators but for all of us.

Film star. Icon. Agitator. Martyr. Paul Robeson was a prize-winning scholar and the greatest footballer of his era, even before he ascended to global superstardom as a singer, Hollywood actor, and activist. The son of an escaped slave, Robeson stunned audiences with 'Ol' Man River' and Othello, as his passion for social justice led him from Jazz Age Harlem to the mining towns of Wales, from the frontiers of the Spanish Civil War to Stalin's Russia. Charismatic, eloquent, and handsome, he had everything - and then lost it all for the sake of his principles. Jeff Sparrow traces Robeson's troubled life and stellar career, in a story that traverses the arc of the twentieth century and illuminates the fissures of today's fractured world. From Black Lives Matter to Putin's United Russia, Sparrow visits the places Robeson lived and worked, exploring race in America, freedom in Moscow, and the legacies of communism and fascism in Europe. Part travelogue, part biography, this is a tale of political ardour, heritage, and trauma - a luminous portrait of a remarkable man, and an urgent reflection on the crises that define us now.