The extreme is an essential aspect of contemporary experience. Thrill-seekers spend the weekend in the search of the adrenaline rush of extreme sports. In the political arena, the world has begun to rediscover the split between the extreme left and the extreme right. Through 24-hour rolling news, images of violence, torture and war are televised unremittingly into the living room; while the Internet places hardcore pornography, snuff film and cannibalism within easy reach of anyone with a personal computer or a smartphone. The extreme has even become a quality companies seek to associate with...

The 2008 global financial crisis has led to the re-emergence in public discourse of the idea that capitalism could end. For many, it was proof of the notion that capitalist civilisation has an endemic tendency towards crisis that will ultimately bring about its demise. Must we assume, however, that such an eventuality would inevitably result in the liberation of humanity, as many orthodox Marxists claim? Through a collection of specially revised essays, first published in France between 2007 and 2010, Anselm Jappe draws on the radical new perspective of "the critique of value" as a critical...

Up-to-date collection on the Situationist International, rethinking their relevance for today