The annual Printers Row Book Festival took place September 7-8, 2024 in downtown Chicago in the historic Printers Row district. It is the largest book fair in the Midwest US, with an estimated attendance of more than 10,000 this year. The fair was free to enter and drew a general audience including students, locals and tourists with family events, poetry readings, and live music.
Mehring had a strong political and visually distinctive presence at the fair that attracted political discussion. In addition to prominently displaying the second edition of Logic of Zionism, we unveiled the September 2024 Mehring publication, Sounding the Alarm: Socialism Against War.
We created an open environment for discussion, and the wide space around the tent allowed for groups to cluster for browsing and discussion.
Fair attendees approached the tent, often dispensing with small talk, and directly posed their questions and concerns about the political situation, ranging from how to stop fascism, how to stop the genocide in Gaza, questions about different political organizations, as well as their historical questions, including what happened to Leon Trotsky and to the USSR.
The top selling title at Printers Row was The Logic of Zionism: From nationalist myth to the Gaza genocide, and the second most popular title wasThe Frankfurt School, Postmodernism and the Politics of the Pseudoleft.
