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"The small, excellent Pluto Press." Guardian
Pluto
Press has a proud history of publishing the very best in progressive,
critical thinking across politics and the social sciences. We are an
independent company based in London, with a sales and marketing office
in the United
States and distribution rights throughout the world.
Pluto Press has always had a radical political agenda. Founded in 1969
as a publishing arm of International Socialism, the forerunner of the
Socialist Workers Party in the UK, in 1979 we broke with this political
affiliation and became truly independent. Today, we represent authors
from a wide range of progressive political viewpoints. With over 550
titles in print, Pluto Press is one of the world's leading radical book
publishers.
Although the publishing industry as a whole has suffered due to the
recent economic downturn, Pluto Press goes from strength to strength. In
the last two years our turnover has doubled to almost two million pounds
and we are publishing more than 70 new titles each year.
We commission the best in critical, progressive writing that bridges
trade and academic markets, and our authors include many of the world's
leading thinkers, past and present. We publish political classics by
writers including Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Leon Trotsky, Frantz
Fanon, Andre Gorz, Manning Marable, Jack London and Antonio Gramsci.
Contemporary political writers and voices of conscience include Noam
Chomsky, Edward Said, Howard Zinn, bell hooks, Ariel Dorfman, Susan
George, John Pilger, Ziauddin Sardar, Israel Shahak, Greg Palast, ,
Milan Rai, William Rivers Pitt, Boris Kagarlitsky, Robin Hahnel, Saul
Landau, Sheila Rowbotham, Peter Fryer, Joseph Rotblat, Frank Füredi,
Eduardo Galeano and Vandana Shiva. We also have a fine list of European
literature in translation that includes Jean Baudrillard, Guy Debord,
Raoul Vaneigem and Pierre Bourdieu.
Our strengths are in the fields of politics, current affairs,
international studies, Middle East studies, political theory, media
studies, anthropology and development.
The political climate that resulted from the events of 11th September
2001 has had an immense impact on our publishing programme. Now, more
than ever, we find that there is an appetite for dissenting opinion that
challenges the mainstream. We are increasingly publishing in the area of
Islamic studies -- some of it in translation -- to enable writers from
outside the West to be read more widely in the English-language world.
Pluto Press also works closely with several small independent American
publishers. We have a long-standing and very fruitful partnership with
South End Press, sharing
rights on many titles, and we distribute the South End Press list in the
UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Following the success of
this relationship, in 2003 we were delighted to become the distributor
for three more successful, independent publishing houses:
Autonomedia,
Ocean Press
and Paradigm
Publishers.
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Endorsements
“I have always appreciated the opportunity to publish with
Pluto, not only
because
of the careful and sympathetic attention to every detail of
publishing,
but also because of the real commitment to the books they
publish and what they seek to achieve.”
Noam Chomsky
“Pluto is one of the world's finest publishers. There's no
doubt about that.
The Pluto
people keep on turning out a range of exciting and, above all,
important
books that are not available in the so-called mainstream and which
are critical to our understanding of these troubling times.
I salute them.”
John Pilger
“Pluto Press
is our Weapon of Mass Instruction. A courageous list.”
Greg Palast
“Pluto
Press never ceases to amaze me. No sooner do I think I must get on top
of an issue which is bursting into the headlines but only getting
superficial coverage in the mainstream, when I find out that Pluto
already has a book at the ready. If you want to understand the world in
order to change it, Pluto’s books are essential reading” Hilary
Wainwright, Editor of Red Pepper
"Pluto has been a consistently important source of critical,
independent and progressive scholarship on the big issues of our times.
A resource to cherish." Fiona Dove, Transnational
Institute
"Pluto Press
is one of the best publishing houses cooperating with and trying to explain
the contemporary social movements which are changing the world.”
Mariano Aguirre The Peace Research Center (CIP), Madrid
“Pluto offers the hottest list on the planet - bar none.”
Ziauddin
Sardar
(author, journalist and commentator)
“Pluto
publishes important books light years ahead of the mainstream. Committed
to dissident voices Pluto's intelligent and radical books have
changed the way I understand the world.”
Rob Newman
(author, broadcaster and activist)
“For
Pluto Press being progressive is not just a slogan but also a practised
reality.” Bayan al-Hout (author of Sabra and Shatila)
“It is no exaggeration to say that Pluto Press is one of
the world's
most
important publishers. For more than two decades, Pluto has
brought
radical ideas to a global audience of readers. It has
published
books that corporate publishers wouldn't dare touch, and
educated
generations of activists in the politics of internationalism
and liberation.
Pluto provides a brilliant example of what Arundhati
Roy has
called "the globalization of dissent." Ideas today are
crossing
borders, and contributing to the building of a new spirit of
critical inquiry
and resistance around the globe. “
Anthony Arnove
(author and activist)
“Upward of 400
books in print, and 60 new titles a year makes this the UK’s leading independent
publisher of radical critical writing and non-fiction. Current political
thinkers and writers of the left dominate the list ... Readers who want
to explore current issues and affairs will be interested. Everyone who likes
the new narrative non-fiction will give these books a look.”
The Branching Out Guide to Independent Presses
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