[Free eBooks] 5 nonfiction from Verso Books [Award-Winning World History, Politics, Economics, Mental Health, Ecology, Activism]

To celebrate the launch of their redesigned website, quasi-academic publisher Verso Books are offering 5 non-fiction ebooks (6 outside US/Canada) in a mix of subject areas, free for a limited time.

To accompany the 80% off ebook sale through Wednesday, April 26th, 4 freebies are available worldwide, and due to rights issues, 1 additional book is free outside US/Canada. Simply add them to the cart from either the dedicated blogpost or the individual product catalogue pages linked from there, and the price will automatically be reset to $0.00.

• Heroes: Mass Murder and Suicide by Italian philosopher and activist Franco Berardi, examining the relationship between capitalism and mental health worldwide.
• Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation by American prison scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore, a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Geographers, a decades spanning collection of her essays.
• Dissidents among Dissidents: Ideology, Politics and the Left in Post-Soviet Russia by Russian author Ilya Budraitskis, a teacher at the Moscow School of Social and Economics Sciences, a collection of his essays about the post-Soviet evolution of Russia, and winner of the Andrei Bely prize in its original language.
• Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change and Pandemics by Troy Vettese, an environmental historian at Harvard University, & Drew Pendergrass, advocating a hybrid approach balancing the needs of modern society against those of the environment.
• only available outside US/Canada: The Cost of Living Crisis: (and how to get out of it) by Costa Lapavitsas, James Meadway, and Doug Nicholls, an exposé cum advocacy pamphlet on the roots of certain economic troubles and steps to mitigate it

The 5th (or 6th) freebie is a separate offer (ebook will also automatically drop to $0.00 upon adding to cart while valid), good through Thursday, April 27th, and is:

• How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire by Swedish author Andreas Malm, an associate professor of human ecology at Lund University, his manifesto examining the underlying history of and global responses to climate change activism and advocating in a provocative manner for a switch to less passive tactics. This was adapted into an eponymous film, and you can read more about the adaptation and some book recommendations from the filmmakers via this blog post.

NB: if you’ve previously picked up freebies or sale books from Verso before, you’ll have to re-activate your account on their website to migrate it to the new system, following the instructions on their website. Your library and order history should be fully ported, though it’ll show in random order instead of by date.

Offered DRM-free worldwide through Wednesday, April 26th (probably until around midnight Eastern Time) or Thursday, April 27th, available directly from the publisher’s webstore (requires account signup with valid email and billing address, but no payment info).

[Free eBook] Ground Truth: A Guide to Tracking Climate Change at Home by Mark L. Hineline [DIY Ecology Conservation & Science History]

Ground Truth: A Guide to Tracking Climate Change at Home by Mark L. Hineline, an instructor in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science at Michigan State University, is a science history and advocacy book, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher the University of Chicago Press.

This is their featured Free eBook of the Month selection for August, and is an accessibly written natural history and DIY guide, with tips on how to keep track on the various flora and fauna in your local neighbourhood by recording everyday observations, as well as a philosophical meditation on the connections between the seasons and climate change and a primer on the history of phenology, which studies natural events and their timing. There’s also a brief Q&A with the author about this book on the UCP blog.

Offered worldwide through the month of August, available directly from the publisher’s website.

[Free eBook] Extinction by Ray Hammond [Science Fiction Technothriller]

Extinction by British author Ray Hammond, a science journalist and futurist, is his standalone science fiction technothriller novel, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press’ Venture imprint.

This was originally published in 2005 by Macmillan.

The story is set in a post-global warming 2055 where unscrupulous corporations have invented a climate control technology which provides a “cure”, for a high price as well as undisclosed further environmental costs, turning those who can’t afford it into environmental refugees, whom a plucky lawyer attempts to fight for by bringing the largest responsible corporation to court, also teaming up with scientists to uncover the truth behind something ominous happening within the Earth’s core before it’s too late.

Offered worldwide, available at Amazon.

[Free eBook] Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau’s Woods by Richard B. Primack [Nature Observations & Earth Science]

Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau’s Woods by Richard B. Primack, a Professor of Biology at Boston University, is his accessibly-written natural history book cum scientific memoir, free for a limited time courtesy of the University of Chicago Press

This explores climate change via seasonal nature observations, alongside scientific explanations, in a tribute to the classic nature experience memoir [Walden; or, Life in the Woods][subject-wiki-2] The author uses the device of tracking the effects of changing climate upon the modern flora and fauna of the famous site near the town of Concord, Massachussetts (hometown of philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau by comparing them with Thoreau’s own journal notes from over a century ago. There are also a few illustrations in it, and a good deal of information and analysis about Thoreau and his methods, as well as the methods used by the recording team.

Offered worldwide through April, available from the university’s website as their featured Free Book of the Month selection.