Powerful new translations of some of the “forgotten” work of the Canaanites and Hellenes. The sensuous and artistic highlights that the Bible left out. AK

Publisher: Autonomedia
Paperback: 158 pages

Imagine a world where, instead of being ruthless thieves of the high seas with no scruples, prone to carrying off others to work in bondage, pirates were rebellious sorts who consciously shunned the traditional European world with its stratified class system. This is the world Wilson depicts, and surprisingly it is ours. Wilson very successfully proves his case that pirates were consciously bucking the system. Pirates had their own Moorish republic of Sale, an Ottoman protectorate, where instead of having to languish like the downtrodden masses, they could rise to a position of wealth and prestige through their ability to survive. “In theory—and for the most part even in practice—a recruit rose up through the ranks at the rate of one every three years. If he survived long enough, he’d serve as commander in chief… All this had nothing to do with “merit” but with time served. The lowliest Albanian slaveboy or peasant lad from the Anatolian outback, and the outcast converted European captive sailor, could equally hope one day to participate in government—simply by staying alive and serving the ‘Corsair Republic’… “ Many pirate captives joined their captors, renounced their Christian faith and embraced Islam. Wilson supports his central thesis well with plenty of documentation, which includes many accounts from primary sources. This is a delightfully well-written gem of a history which pulls apart the pirate myth and reveals something new and wondrous. MM

Publisher: Autonomedia
Paperback: 208 pages
Illustrated

Interviews with Dhoruba Bin Wahad, Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur (mother of Tupac), prime targets in the U.S. government’s continuing war against the Black Panthers and Move, plus mind-boggling documents from the FBI’s Panther files. MG

Publisher: Autonomedia
Paperback: 272 pages

Called a “scientific tramp and swindler” by his detractors and “grand tourist of the unexplained” by his champions, American cosmographer Charles Hoy Fort (1874-1932) compiled four fascinating volumes—Book of the Damned, New Lands, Lo! and Wild Talents—crammed with dada-style data. “Fort called this crazy collection of outcasted data ‘the procession of the damned’—rains of frogs, black snow in Switzerland, sightings of the unidentified, the spontaneous combustion of bodies, or the telekinetic powers of poltergeist girls.” He was a “Dataist” and his “obsessive collection of anomalous and exceptional data rejected by the sciences of his day” allowed him to make whimsical, “likely-unlikely pseudo-conclusions” about the bizarre nature of our universe. “I think we’re fished for… I think we’re property… There are oceans of blood somewhere in the sky… Many little stone crosses have been found. A race of tiny beings. They crucified cockroaches… ,” etc. Collects “the most inspiring and entertaining of Fort’s texts in a wild montage… a cosmic vision which bombards the borders of fact and fantasy, metaphysics and nonsense, truth and hoax, science and the occult, the arcane and the frivolous.” GR

Publisher: Autonomedia
Paperback: 156 pages

A collection of interviews, pleasure texts and “cunceptual” essays on the feminist genealogy of prostitution—from the ancient Greek courtesan to the sex-industry workers of postmodern Babylon. AK

Publisher: Autonomedia
Paperback: 286 pages

Radiotext(e) is a thoroughly enjoyable compilation which examines broadcast sound both in its wildest implications and specifically as a method of cultural insurrection and mass-consciousness alteration. Nearly devoid of the customary academic theory-speak oppressiveness that typifies this type of effort, it is an inspiring call-to-arms for Radio Rebellion at the moment when all media-corporate pundits’ eyes are firmly on the lumbering information superhighway. Texts range from the internal documents of the Muzak corporation to accounts of anarchist pirate radio in Amsterdam. Contributors include: Leon Trotsky, sound-collage agitators Negativland, trance music pioneer La Monte Young, Dadaist Kurt Schwitters, and the infamous brain-implant researcher José Delgado. SS

Publisher: Autonomedia
Paperback: 350 pages