Mike Marqusee
Encyclopedia
Mike Marqusee is an American-born writer, journalist and political activist in London
. His partner is the barrister
Liz Davies
.
Marqusee, who describes himself as a "deracinated New York
Marxist Jew" has lived in Britain
since 1971. He writes mainly about politics
, popular culture
, the Indian sub-continent and cricket
, and is a regular correspondent for, among others, The Guardian
, Red Pepper
and The Hindu
.
Marqusee has been the editor of Labour Left Briefing, and an executive member of the Stop the War Coalition
and the Socialist Alliance
. He is also a leading figure in Iraq Occupation Focus.
, has been lauded as a "riveting, revelatory and largely run-free account". Before it was published, wrote Rob Steen, "observations of subcontinental cricket emanating from Britain, and just about every other corner of the so-called old world, tended to be clichéd, wrongheaded, derisive, patronising or just plain racist. Small wonder, then, that it took a London-based American with a rucksack, a notebook and a CLR Jamesian yen for Marxism to supply an overdue corrective." Duncan Campbell of The Guardian
wrote that "One of the best books ever written on cricket, Anyone But England, is by an American writer, Mike Marqusee. "
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. His partner is the barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
Liz Davies
Liz Davies
Liz Davies is a British barrister and political activist. She is the daughter of retired Oxford academic and historian of Tudor England, C. S. L. Davies....
.
Marqusee, who describes himself as a "deracinated New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
Marxist Jew" has lived in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
since 1971. He writes mainly about politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, the Indian sub-continent and cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, and is a regular correspondent for, among others, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Red Pepper
Red Pepper (magazine)
Red Pepper is an independent ‘red, green and radical’ magazine based in the UK. For most of its history it appeared monthly, but relaunched as a bi-monthly during 2007.- Origins :...
and The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
.
Marqusee has been the editor of Labour Left Briefing, and an executive member of the Stop the War Coalition
Stop the War Coalition
The Stop the War Coalition is a United Kingdom group set up on 21 September 2001 that campaigns against what it believes are unjust wars....
and the Socialist Alliance
Socialist Alliance (England)
The Socialist Alliance was a left-wing electoral alliance in England between 1992 and 2005.In late 2005, a small group reformed with the name "Socialist Alliance", with a mutual affiliation with the larger Alliance for Green Socialism.-Origins:...
. He is also a leading figure in Iraq Occupation Focus.
Sports writing
An ardent sports fan, Marqusee has won considerable renown for his work on cricket. War Minus the Shooting, his book on the 1996 Cricket World Cup1996 Cricket World Cup
The 1996 Cricket World Cup, also called the Wills World Cup after its official sponsors, was the sixth edition of the tournament organized by the International Cricket Council . It was the second World Cup to be hosted by Pakistan and India, and for the first time by Sri Lanka...
, has been lauded as a "riveting, revelatory and largely run-free account". Before it was published, wrote Rob Steen, "observations of subcontinental cricket emanating from Britain, and just about every other corner of the so-called old world, tended to be clichéd, wrongheaded, derisive, patronising or just plain racist. Small wonder, then, that it took a London-based American with a rucksack, a notebook and a CLR Jamesian yen for Marxism to supply an overdue corrective." Duncan Campbell of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
wrote that "One of the best books ever written on cricket, Anyone But England, is by an American writer, Mike Marqusee. "
Partial bibliography
- Slow Turn (Sphere, 1988) ISBN 978-0-7474-0120-9
- Defeat from the Jaws of Victory: Inside Kinnock’s Labour Party (co-author with Richard Heffernan) (Verso, 1992) ISBN 978-0-86091-561-4
- War Minus the Shooting: a journey through South Asia during cricket’s World Cup (Mandarin, 1997) ISBN 978-0-7493-2333-2
- Chimes of Freedom: the Politics of Bob Dylan’s Art (New Press, 2003) ISBN 978-1-56584-825-2
- Anyone but England: An Outsider Looks at English Cricket (Aurum Press, 2005) ISBN 978-1845130848
- Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties (Verso Books, 2005). ISBN 978-1-84467-527-2
- Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan and the Sixties (Seven Stories Press, 2006) ISBN 978-1-58322-686-5.
- Imperial whitewash - feelgood versions of British history are blinding us to the ways in which we are even now repeating it
- If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew (Verso, 2008). An extract appeared in The Guardian.
- "Why I became British" (The Guardian, 16 February 2010)
- "I don't need a war to fight my cancer" (The Guardian, 28 December 2009)