94: Penguin Political Leaders
January 23, 2012
I’ve never hidden my admiration for the sheer volume of creativity, thoughtful illustration, and sharp design that has gone into the production of Penguin Books, especially from the 1950s through…
Channel
Judging Books by Their Covers
Judging Books by Their Covers is Josh MacPhee's ongoing series of writings and image collections of book covers. Although sometimes they feel marginal today, books have been a primary form of information and cultural exchange for almost 400 years. Book covers are often a person's first contact with the ideas inside, and in the hustle and bustle of contemporary life, cover designs are even more likely to shape the opinions of those that pick them up since many of us are too busy to ever read the entirety of the books. Judging Books by Their Covers largely focuses on—but is not exclusive to—the book covers and design coming out of the Left.
Josh is always looking for more book covers to feature. If you've got some gems he missed, or have ideas, drop him an email at josh (at) justseeds.org 
93: Kronstadt, part IV
January 16, 2012
My friend R. Marut in London has come through again with some more books I had missed, so here are the last three Kronstadt covers. First is this handsome Freedom…
92: Kronstadt, part III
January 9, 2012
This week I’ve got even more Kronstadt covers, with a lot of help from Dave at Recollection Books in Seattle (thanks!). To the right is the dust jacket of the…
91: Kronstadt, part II
January 1, 2012
I wanted to start this week off with a counterpoint to last weeks generally pro-Kronstadt sailor covers. To the left is the cover of Kronstadt by Lenin and Trotsky, published…
90: Kronstadt, part I
December 26, 2011
This week’s post is inspired by the book to the right, which I came across on Alec’s bookshelf during a recent visit to Pittsburgh. Emanuel Pollack’s The Kronstadt Rebellion (New…
89: Cienfuegos Press, part VI
December 19, 2011
Some of you might have noticed I’ve shorted the name of these posts to JBbTC, but I’ve also re-sorted and organized them, as well as titled them by content, so…
88: Updates
December 12, 2011
Every once in awhile I need to catch my breath from doing these covers, and that’s a good moment to go back and fill in any missing pieces and odds…
87: Boni Paper Books, part III
December 5, 2011
OK, I couldn’t help myself. Even though I went through the eight Boni Paper Books I actually have over the past two weeks (HERE and HERE), I started getting so…
86: Boni Paper Books, Part II
November 28, 2011
Here is part two of my series on the early American paperback experiment known as Boni Paper Book. To read the back story, and see the first four books I…
85: Boni Paper Books, part I
November 21, 2011
Two weekends ago I got a chance to take a short trip to Pittsburgh to get a much needed mini-vacation and visit with fellow Justseeds’ members Bec, Icky, Mary, and…
84: The Man Who Was Thursday, part II
November 14, 2011
Here is part two of the covers of G.K. Chesterton’s 1908 anarchist exploitation novel The Man Who Was Thursday. You can see the first 17 covers from last week HERE….
83: The Man Who Was Thursday, part I
November 7, 2011
A couple months ago I was looking around a great local Brooklyn new/used bookshop, Unnameable, and I stumbled on a book cover featuring an cool looking illustration of a riot…
82: Sha’un Falastiniya
October 31, 2011
About a month ago I started getting emails from my friend Charles, who works for the Journal of Palestine Studies. He started digging up old issues of an Arabic language…
81: Fizz
October 24, 2011
This week I’m going to jump back to Germany in the 60s and 70s, and look at Fizz, an antiauthoritarian political paper which split with Agit 883. Editors from Agit…
80: New Anarchist Review
October 17, 2011
About three years back I bought a small collection of cheap, but relatively handsome, UK Anarchist pamphlets under the title New Anarchist Review. They stretched from 1984 into the early…
79: Agit 883, part V
October 10, 2011
Here’s the last batch of Agit883 covers! These all rely on some version of collage and montage, to varying effects…I’m actually up to my neck in a poster project for…
78: Agit 883, part IV
October 3, 2011
This week we’ve got more Agit 883. Like last week, I’m blitzed with other work and life issues, so I’m mostly going to just let these ride, and speak for…
77: Agit 883, part III
September 26, 2011
Here’s week three of covers of the German anti-capitalist paper Agit 883. This week I want to look at the covers that use the conventions of popular comic books to…
76: Agit 883, part II
September 19, 2011
Here’s week two of covers from the German 60s/70s publication Agit 883. Last week (HERE) I looked at the covers of the first 13 (of 88) issues, and broke the…
75: Agit 883, part I
September 12, 2011
Continuing and expanding on last week’s post on the covers of Sabat, an ’80s German ultra-left magazine, this week I’m going to go way to the late 60s, and look…