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The Housing Monster, Second Edition - by Prole Info Prole Info Prole Info (Paperback)
About this item
Highlights
- A house is more than four walls and a roof.
- Author(s): Prole Info Prole Info Prole Info
- 176 Pages
- Political Science, Political Ideologies
Description
Book Synopsis
A house is more than four walls and a roof. From its design and production to the way it is sold, used, resold, and eventually demolished, it is crisscrossed by conflict.
The Housing Monster is a scathing graphic guide that takes one seemingly simple, everyday thing--a house--and looks at the social relations that surround it. Moving from intensely personal thoughts and interactions to large-scale political and economic forces, it reads alternately like a worker's diary, a short story, a psychology of everyday life, a historical account, an introduction to Marxist critique of political economy, and an angry flyer someone would pass you on the street.
Starting with the construction site and the physical building of houses, the book slowly builds and links more and more issues together: from gentrification and city politics to gender roles and identity politics, from subcontracting and speculation to union contracts and negotiation, from individual belief, suffering, and resistance to structural division, necessity, and instability. What starts as a look at housing broadens into a critique of capitalism as a whole. The text is accompanied by clean black-and-white illustrations that are mocking, beautiful, and bleak.
This new edition includes analysis situating and exploring the text's impact around the world by Lazo Ediciones in Argentina, Ben Kritikos in Scotland, and Sean KB of the Antifada podcast in the US.
Review Quotes
"A thorough and easy-to-read analysis of the fight at the construction site and what the conditions are for the struggle in the city and for the land."
--Kämpa Tillsammans!
"Part illustrated guide to Marx, part analysis of the everyday consequences of producing and consuming housing as a commodity, and part revolutionary call to arms!"
--Aufheben
"Looking for a place to dwell? Or even for an entirely new world to live in? But maybe you're afraid radical theory is boring? Then The Housing Monster is the book for you. The author of the now classic Abolish Restaurants has come to grips with another vital issue: the housing question. Class analysis + a critique of daily life + uncensored innovative graphics + more... Enjoy!"
--Gilles Dauvé