Signs Of Resistance: A Visual History of Protest in America
by Bonnie Siegler
(Artisan, £13.99)

LEAVING aside the fallacy in the title of one country’s appropriation to itself of the name of a whole continent — for this book is very much a visual history of protest in the US — Signs of Resistance is a striking illustration of Thomas Paine's dictum that “it is the responsibility of the patriot to protect his country from its government.”

With good reason, as the intention here is to beef up the not insignificant opposition to the presidency of Donald Trump, who currently has an approval rating of only 41 per cent of US citizens.

Despite the lofty words of the US constitution and the never-ending vainglorious declarations of its politicians, freedom and equality have been the last commodities US elites have afforded its people over the centuries to this very day.

From campaigns for the rights of immigrants to the Suffragettes, civil rights and anti-Vietnam war campaigns to Black Lives Matter, there's been a longstanding and vigorous thread of indignation, revulsion and rebellion.

That's expressed in much of the solemn imagery here. It's often incandescent with rage, like Kiyoshi Kuromiya’s Fuck The Draft or Tomi Ungerer’s EAT, or makes telling points like the Black Panthers’ anonymous You Can’t Jail The Revolution.

Few deploy humour, but the deadliest shafts come from women, as in the improvised placard at a demo, “Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity,” or the Chicago Women’s Graphic Collective’s delightful Women Are Not Chicks (above right) or the indefatigable Guerrilla Girls’ Do Women Have to be Naked to Get into US Museums?

These are images confirming the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words and they're an inspiration in speaking to the radical struggles being waged in the US and beyond.

Michal Boncza