254: Pathfinder Pamphlets
January 8, 2018
Back in the late 1980s, early 1990s it was difficult to be a young radical in the U.S. and not come across “The Pathfinder Tendancy,” a international group of Trotskyists…
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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 
253: Willeford’s Miami
December 11, 2017
The TV show Miami Vice ran from 1984–1990, closing out the decade with a slick, fashionable, multi-racial crime fighting duo that got to play it both ways—creating a sexy, alluring…
252: Penguin Specials
December 4, 2017
The Penguin Special ran for about fifty years, from 1937 through 1989 (although the latest date I’ve seen on one is 1986). Specials covers were red, one of army of…
251: Fontana Africa (compiled)
June 26, 2017
While hunting for books in the Heinemann African Writers Series (by far the most expansive collection of writing from Africa in English, with interestingly designed covers to boot!) I began…
250: Dutch Mass Markets
May 1, 2017
A couple months ago I stumbled onto twenty Dutch mass market paperbacks scattered across the $.50 and $1 racks at the Strand here in New York. Although I can’t read…
249: The Wisdom Library
April 17, 2017
While working a shift at Book Thug Nation a couple years back, I stumbled across a couple really nicely designed hardbacks of Sartre’s philosophy. They’re interesting because they simultaneously have…
248: Czech Crime
February 27, 2017
Three or four years ago I was supposed to go to a big book sales with my friends that run Book Thug Nation here in Brooklyn, but I ended up…
247: Simenon, part III
January 2, 2017
This week is the final installment of covers of novels by the extremely prolific Belgian author Georges Simenon. When it comes to Simenon hardbacks, I’m partial to the 60s/70s…
246: Simenon, part II
December 26, 2016
This week, more Simenon! Although rather than focusing in on the author himself, this is a perfect opportunity to dig into one of my favorite moments of paperback cover…
245: Simenon, part I
December 12, 2016
Following last post’s foray into genre fiction, I’ve now hopped from sci-fi to crime. I’m a huge fan of detective novels and crime fiction, and in some might say that…
244: Philip K. Dick
November 28, 2016
I used to work hard at doing one of these Judging Books by Their Covers posts a week, but I’ve fallen of, and recently realized I’ve been doing more like…
243: 50 Fists
October 3, 2016
This week is a bit of a divergence from my usual book cover fare. Instead of focusing on a publisher, author, or designer, I want to look at likely the…
242: Mbari Publishing
September 12, 2016
For years I’ve been hunting down issues of Black Orpheus (which I featured in my last post, #241), and books from it’s spin-off publishing-wing Mbari. I honestly can’t remember how…
241: Black Orpheus
August 29, 2016
Black Orpheus: A Journal of African and Afro-American Literature is likely the most important literary journal to emerge out of Africa, and one of the most important in the world…
240: Collier’s Af/Am Library
July 4, 2016
While collecting books from the African Writers Series published by Heinemann (I’ll be featuring those books in a future post), I stumbled upon what I first thought was a small…
239: Ravan Books
June 27, 2016
This week’s focus is on the South African published house Ravan Press, which was founded in 1972 by Peter Randall, Danie van Zyl, and Beyers Naudé. On second glance, you’ll…
238: “Power, Fists, Guns, Books: Black Power & Book Cover Design”
June 13, 2016
For months I’ve been working on a complete rewrite of the post I originally did here about the design of the book Black Power, and other related Civil Rights-era publications…
237: Updates
June 6, 2016
This week I don’t have a new focus. Instead I’ve gone back into a number of old posts and corrected mistakes, improved the writing, added new covers, and/or added better…
236: Editorial Pueblo y Educación
May 16, 2016
This week we find ourselves a decent distance from Ben Shahn. We’re looking at Cuba, actually, and in particular a really beautiful set of saddle-stitched publications put out by Editorial…
235: Ben Shahn, part IV
May 9, 2016
Welcome, finally, to the last installment on the book covers of Ben Shahn. Although this is the post I’m the least invested in, somehow it’s the one that has taken…