The Burning Man festival has become an American phenomenon over the past 11 or so years. Like a Nineties remix of the free festivals which used to be a feature of the British underground and traveller scenes, it essentially boils down to hoards of nomadic hippies and techno-weirdos descending on a plain in the Black Rock desert, erecting a "wicker man" of wood and neon tubes, partying all night and then torching it.

This large, lavish and beautifully presented book is mainly a photographic record of Burning Men through the years, with a half-dozen essays by counter- and cyber-culture types such as Bruce Sterling. The photos are wonderful, portraying the festival as a cross-fertilisation between Woodstock and The Cars That Ate Paris.

The essays explore its history and argue fiercely for the festival as a powerful force for social change (rather than, say, a bunch of middle-class stoners mucking about), and a much-needed reaction to the drab mainstream American culture of the Eighties.

One might question exactly how wandering around naked while painted red is going to overturn the stagnant social order, but it's obvious all involved are having a great time, so who are we to stop them?