A powerful, personal critique of capitalist patriarchy as seen through the eyes of a queer radical.

Capitalism has infiltrated every aspect of our personal, social, economic, and sexual lives. By examining the politics of gender, environment, and sexuality, we can see the ways straight, cis, white, and especially male upper-class people control and subvert the other - queer, non-binary, BIPOC, and female bodies - in order to keep the working lower classes divided. Patriarchy and classism are forms of systemic violence which ensure that the main commodity of capitalism - a large, disposable, cheap, and ideally subjugated work force - is readily available. There is a lot wrong with the ways we live, work, and treat each other.

In essays that are both accessible and inspiring, Lori Fox examines their confrontations with the capitalist patriarchy through their experiences as a queer, non-binary, working-class farm hand, labourer, bartender, bush-worker, and road dog, exploring the ugly places where issues of gender, sexuality, class, and the environment intersect.

In applying the micro to the macro, demonstrating how the personal is political and vice versa, Fox exposes the flaws in believing that this is the only way our society can or should work. Brash, topical, and passionate, This Has Always Been a War is not only a collection of essays, but a series of dispatches from the combative front lines of our present-day culture.

L.E. Fox is a queer, non-binary, working-class writer and journalist. Their work, which focuses on issues of class, gender, sexuality, the environment, and the messy places where these things intersect, has appeared with The Guardian, Vice, and The Globe and Mail, among many other outlets. This Has Always Been a War is their first book.

L.E. Fox's profile page

This bold, uncompromising and inspiring debut collection of essays explores the themes of our time: gender, capitalism, power, violence, class, environment and more. -Ms. Magazine

What makes this a truly important book are the stories Fox tells of how so much of our economy functions - driven by greed, and status-seeking, and unthinking cruelty on the part of those with wealth and power towards those who work at some of the toughest jobs for the lowest pay. Fox brings it all viscerally to life, making us feel something of what it's like to be constantly worrying if you can make the rent, or living out of your vehicle as you move from one crappy job to another. -The Globe and Mail