Social and political philosophy Books

Book SynopsisSergei Prozorov contends that the post-truth ideology leads to the degradation of the public sphere that is essential to democratic governance. He argues instead for a positive role of truth-telling in the democratisation of biopolitical governance.Trade Review"In this highly original book, Sergei Prozorov breaks new ground by offering a penetrating critique of a notorious contemporary phenomenon, post-truth politics, through the lenses of affirmative biopolitics. Biopolitics after truth is no longer about bringing a politically neutral or incontestable notion of truth back into politics but about pursuing politics as a performative act of truth-telling. A much needed contribution to a theory of democratic biopolitics, this is engaged political philosophy at its best." -Vassilios Paipais, University of St Andrews

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Book SynopsisThis collection of essays by James Bradley (1947-2012) showcases his unique vision: a speculative cosmology of the Trinity, drawing on the vast history of Western philosophy.Trade Review"In the standard analytic historiography, philosophy was transformed in the 17th century from the handmaiden of theology into the handmaiden of the natural sciences. Bradley challenges this pervasive narrative by exploring the persisting theological dimension, especially the ontological trinitarian structures, of much modern metaphysics, and boldly defends the contemporary relevance of philosophical Idealism. These are learned, brilliant and provocative essays that illuminate the thought of an unjustly neglected British Canadian philosopher." -Douglas Hedley, University of Cambridge

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Book SynopsisRequiring no prior knowledge of the series, Colby Dickinson explains why Agamben's Homer Sacer series is one of the most significant philosophical texts of the past century. He unpacks key concepts including sovereignty, potentiality, form-of-life, the state of exception, inoperativity, glory and the messianic as they appear and reappear.

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Book Synopsis25 years after the publication of Derrida's Politics of Friendship (Politiques de l'amiti , 1994), this edited collection gathers 23 critical chapters that revisit this underappreciated text. Engaging closely with Derrida's text, the contributors analyse, extend and critique the work.Trade Review"The Politics of Friendship has never been more relevant at a time when being a friend seems undermined by fragmentation and a fantasy of individualism. The editors have brought together some of the most important Derrida scholars in this volume to develop critical discussions of this rich text and to remind us why we must return to it again and again." -Drucilla Cornell, Emeritus Professor, Rutgers University

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Book SynopsisIn a series of evocatively titled theses, including 'Wrinkles', 'Inheriting a Feeling', 'Weight of the World' and 'Making Treasures Speak', Gerhard Richter engages the quintessentially human dilemma of how to receive an intellectual, cultural or political inheritance.

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Book SynopsisWith strict guidelines on methodology and time frame -- films produced after September 2001, and a socio-semiotic theoretical framework -- Betty Kaklamanidou unpacks the problematic terms and ideas that go along with defining a new genre. Kaklamanidou considers a different sub-genre per chapter, placing each group of films in their socio-historical context to reach conclusions about the production of political films in millennial Hollywood. In shifting the terms of the debate, The Disguised Political Film in Contemporary Hollywood offers a fresh, new approach to the subject of the political film.The political film is not a clearly delineated object but rather an elusive one and resistant to clear boundaries. So, what is a political film? Can The Hunger Games (2012) belong to the same category as Lincoln (2012)? Is Jarhead (2005) a political movie simply because it is set during the Gulf War but with no reference to the motives of the conflict and/or AmericTrade ReviewIn this comprehensive study, Kaklamanidou argues that there is a subset of Hollywood movies which fit into 'political genre,' a term not yet used by scholars, film critics, or industry (IMDB). She identifies 78 movies that were released between 2002 and 2012 and clearly explains why some ‘political thrillers’ do not belong to the genre of the political film, while other dramas, comedies, or science fiction movies do. This is a very important contribution to the study of genre and the political and will be an invaluable resource to scholars, students, and movie fans. * Tony Spanakos, Associate Professor of Politics and Law, Montclair State University, USA *Hollywood cinema and politics have always had a difficult relationship, with the American film industry traditionally reluctant to acknowledge the political messages of its films and the political intent of its filmmakers. As a result a vast part of Hollywood film production has been marketed as comedies, action thrillers, history dramas and epics, heritage films and biopics when they could also be perceived as political films. Looking behind these conventional generic disguises, film genre studies expert Betty Kaklamanidou deftly identifies the generic registers of political films in Hollywood cinema post-9/11 and demonstrates compellingly how their structure dovetails the formal and narrative requirements of contemporary filmmaking in the US. Rich in textual analysis and informed by strong theoretical and historical insights, The ‘Disguised’ Political Film in Contemporary Hollywood will help readers understand how to read popular films politically. * Yannis Tzioumakis, Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media, the University of Liverpool, UK *Kaklamanidou’s insights are powerful and her writing is accessible and entertaining… Kaklamanidou’s impressive ability to demonstrate the political in a whole range of films is illuminating and makes this engaging study a must read. * Peggy Tally, Professor of Policy Studies, SUNY Empire State College, USA *Table of ContentsChapter 1: The "Disguised" Political Film: Introduction Chapter 2: Political Comedies Chapter 3: Political Thrillers and U.S. Foreign Policy Chapter 4: Political History Dramas and U.S. Domestic Policy Chapter 5: Political Films From Antiquity to the 20th Century Chapter 6: Behind the Scenes of the Disguised Political Film Genre Chapter 7: Epilogue Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisObject Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Speed. Bump. Speed. Traffic considers the history and philosophy of roundabouts, speed bumps, the pedestrian mall, and other efforts to manage traffic. Exploring ways to reign in the power of the internal combustion engine, ramp back century-long efforts to increase the flows of traffic, and establish greater balance between humans and machines, Paul Josephson considers the history of traffic, and the political and other controversies that frame the belated technological efforts to calm it. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.Trade ReviewTraffic is both insightful and entertaining. Based on a range of sources, it provides us with a fuller understanding of the methods by which we might be able to control the negative effects of the automobile on our cities. * Joel A. Tarr, Richard S. Caliguiri University Professor of History and Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, USA *Paul Josephson, with deft humor and brilliance, shines a spotlight on one of the simplest and most unassuming cures for our traffic ills—the speed bump. That invention is not the new, new thing, like Uber, autonomous vehicles, and paying for transit with your smart phone. The speed bump is tried and true, and represents much more than a lump of pavement. Its very idea is the way we must design the cities of the future for people and not just automobiles. * Lois DeMeester, CEO and Founder of Mobility Lab *These Object Lessons books are interesting little in-depth examinations and philosophical treatises on objects as disparate as cigarette lighters, hotels, questionnaires, eggs, drones, golf balls, shipping containers, and waste. Like many of the other authors in the series, Paul Josephson, through humor and intelligence, offers great insight. He makes reading about traffic much more pleasant than being stuck in it. * Lit Hub *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Mushrooms in Minsk 2. Speed Bumps in Twentieth Century Philosophy 3. Utopian Visions of Machines and People: A World Without Speed Bumps 4. Mumford and Moses 5. The Historical Concatenation of Congestion 6. Speed Bumpology 7. Crashworthy Automobiles as Speed Bumps 8. Race, Equality and Traffic 9. Pedestrian Malls as Large Scale Speed Bumps 10. The Woonerf: The Neighborhood Speed Bump 11. Taming Roads Themselves 12. Curb Cuts for People, Roundabouts for Automobiles 13. The Bicycle as a Neo-Luddite Traffic Solution 14. Gendered Speed Bumps 15. If Stopped in Traffic, Hope for a Crashworthy Automobile 16. Safety Delays in the Name of Freedom 17. Speed Bump Downsides 18. Waxing and Waning of Brazilian Speed Bumps 19. Potholes and Paper Money 20. Speed Bumps for Other Hopeful Technologies Notes Index

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Book SynopsisErich Fromm (19001980) is widely regarded as one of the most important psychoanalytical thinkers of the 20th century. Besides his influence on modern psychology, he was also a key member of the Frankfurt School, and became one of the founders of the socialist humanist movement. He is the author of To Have Or To Be? and Marx's Concept of Man, both published in the Bloomsbury Revelations series.Table of ContentsForeword by Rainer Funk I. Some Personal Antecedents II. The Common Ground III. The Concept of Man and His Nature IV. Human Evolution V. Human Motivation VI. The Sick Individual and the Sick Society VII. The Concept of Mental Health VIII. Individual and Social Character IX. The Social Unconscious X. The Fate of Both Theories XL. Some Related Ideas XII. Credo

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Book SynopsisThis second volume of a new three-part series of Antonio Negri's work is focussed on the consequences of the rapid process of deindustrialisation that has occurred across the West in recent years.In this volume Negri investigates exactly what happens when the class subjects of industrial capitalism are demobilised and the factories close. Evidently capital continues to make profit, but how and where? According to Negri, the creation of value extends beyond the factory walls to embrace the whole of society; the 'mass worker' of industrialism gives way to the 'socialised worker' (operaio sociale) and the terrain of exploitation now becomes the whole of human life. In postmodernity, the metropolis becomes the privileged arena of value extraction. We must therefore understand the global city, with its stratifications, its enclosures and its resistances. Old categories of the private and the public are inadequate to describe the new matrix of production, which is characterised rather by the 'common', the productive space of cognitive and immaterial labour. Today's metropolis can be defined as a space of antagonisms between forms of life produced, on the one hand, by finance capital (the capital that operates around rents), and on the other by the 'cognitive proletariat'. The central question is then how 'the common' of the latter can be mobilised for the destruction of capitalism.In an analysis that runs from the Italian workerism (operaismo) of the 1970s to the present day, From the Factory to the Metropolis offers readers valuable insight into the far-reaching impact of deindustrialisation, presenting both the challenges and opportunities. It will appeal to the many interested in the continuing development of Negri's project and to anyone interested in radical politics today.Table of ContentsPreface Part I. Exodus from the factory 1. The reappropriation of public space 2. Midway terrains 3. The multitude and the metropolis: Notes in the form of hypotheses for an inquiry into the precariat in the global cities 4. Exiting from industrial capitalism 5. From the factory to the metropolis 6. Metropolis and multitude: Inquiry notes on precarity in global cities Part II. Inventing common 7. Banlieue and city: A philosophical overview Co-written with the late Jean-Marie Vincent 8. Democracy versus rent 9. Presentation of Rem Koolhaas’s Junkspace 10. The capital-labour relation in cognitive capitalism Co-written with Carlo Vercellone 11. Inventing the commons of humanity Co-written with Judith Revel 12. The Commune of social cooperation: Interview with Federico Tomasello on questions regarding the metropolis 13. The common lung of the metropolis: Interview with Federico Tomasello 14. The habitat of general intellect: A dialogue between Antonio Negri and Federico Tomasello on living in the contemporary metropolis Part III. First fruits of the new metropolis 15. Reflections on the Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics 16. Notes on the abstract strike 17. From the factory to the metropolis ... and back again Origin of the Texts

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Book Synopsis''[a] memoir of modern American industrial life, written by the insider who got away - or got away enough to reflect intelligently on where they came from. Think JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy and even Tara Westover's Educated . . . We could all learn from her example.' New York Times Book ReviewEliese wasn't supposed to be a steelworker. Raised by staunchly Republican and Catholic parents, Eliese dreamed of escaping Cleveland and achieving greatness in the convent as a nun. Full of promise and burgeoning ideals, she leaves her hometown, but one night her life's course is violently altered. A night that sets her mind reeling and her dreams waning. A cycle of mania and depression sinks in where once there were miracles and prayers, and upon returning home she is diagnosed with mixed-state bipolar disorder.Set on a path she doesn't recognize as her own, Eliese finds herself under the orange flame of Cleveland's notorious steel mill, applying for a job that could be her ticket to regaining stability and salvation. In Rust, Eliese invites the reader inside the belly of the mill. Steel is the only thing that shines amid the molten iron, towering cranes, and churning mills. Dust settles on everything - on forklifts and hard hats, on men with forgotten hopes and lives cut short by harsh working conditions, on a dismissed blue-collar living and on what's left of the American dream.But Eliese discovers solace in the tumultuous world of steel, unearthing a love and a need for her hometown she didn't know existed. This is the story of the humanity Eliese finds in the most unlikely of places and the wisdom that comes from the very things we try to run away from most. A reclamation of roots, Rust is a shining debut memoir of grit and tenacity and the hope that therefore begins to grow.Trade ReviewEliese Colette Goldbach uses formal experiment, broken narrative, and a voice that admits doubt and questions the terms of its telling to fight silencing. Masterful form is often a question of well-managed ruptur * Leslie Jamison *There have been a lot of books written about life in industrial cities in the Midwest, but relatively few written by people who actually live in them, and few so heartfelt and unsparing. Rust is at once a unique memoir and a broad indictment of America's broken promise that anyone who came of age in the 21st century will find painfully familiar * Sarah Kendzior *Beautiful * Charlie LeDuff *Rust is a soulful telling of America's stubborn and forgotten core. Deeply honest and defying easy sentimentality, this book heralds the arrival of a true talent * Adam Chandler *In our whacked-out national moment, Eliese Colette Goldbach arrives in the nick of time, a fresh voice to revive an old, substantial truth: that one person's hard work, achieved despite troubles of heart and finance, of faith and family, is the most enduring American value of all. Rust is a memoir of steel and grit, yes, but soul above all, a young Cleveland millworker's eloquent tale of hard times that plants its boots squarely on the bookshelf of American working-class literature * David Giffels *A haunting meditation from the far shores of addiction, mental illness, and obsession * Ladette Randolph *Rust is a brave, heartfelt memoir whose pages overflow with hard-earned wisdom. Goldbach's story of embodying our national extremes--conservative vs progressive, religious vs secular, white collar vs blue--has endowed her with a singular ability to see through our partisan delusions and identify what, truly, unites us still as Americans. If your heart, like mine, feels poisoned by this era of political division, Rust may just be the antidote for which you've been searching * John Larison *The steel mill burns on in the heart of Cleveland, and in the pages of Eliese Collette Goldbach's transformative debut. This is indeed a memoir of steel and grit, the extraordinary work of every ordinary day. But like all great stories, Rust is also a love story?about a craft, a city, and the communities we forge there. Goldbach reminds us that what we make in turn makes us who and what we are * Dave Lucas *Elements of Tara Westover's Educated... The mill comes to represent something holy to [Eliese] because it is made not of steel but of people. * New York Times Book Review *"A female steelworker's soulful portrait of industrial life. Goldbach's evocative prose paints a Dantean vision of the mill...but she discovers in the plant's quirky, querulous employees an ethic of empathy and solidarity that bridges ideological divides. The result is an insightful and ultimately reassuring take on America's working class * Publisher's Weekly *Eliese Colette Goldbach uses formal experiment, broken narrative, and a voice that admits doubt and questions the terms of its telling to fight silencing. Masterful form is often a question of well-managed ruptur * Leslie Jamison *There have been a lot of books written about life in industrial cities in the Midwest, but relatively few written by people who actually live in them, and few so heartfelt and unsparing. Rust is at once a unique memoir and a broad indictment of America's broken promise that anyone who came of age in the 21st century will find painfully familiar * Sarah Kendzior *Beautiful * Charlie LeDuff *Rust is a soulful telling of America's stubborn and forgotten core. Deeply honest and defying easy sentimentality, this book heralds the arrival of a true talent * Adam Chandler *Goldbach turns in a gritty memoir of working in a steel mill while wrestling with the world beyond.... An affecting, unblinking portrait of working-class life * Kirkus Reviews *In our whacked-out national moment, Eliese Colette Goldbach arrives in the nick of time, a fresh voice to revive an old, substantial truth: that one person's hard work, achieved despite troubles of heart and finance, of faith and family, is the most enduring American value of all. Rust is a memoir of steel and grit, yes, but soul above all, a young Cleveland millworker's eloquent tale of hard times that plants its boots squarely on the bookshelf of American working-class literature * David Giffels *A haunting meditation from the far shores of addiction, mental illness, and obsession * Ladette Randolph *Rust is a brave, heartfelt memoir whose pages overflow with hard-earned wisdom. Goldbach's story of embodying our national extremes--conservative vs progressive, religious vs secular, white collar vs blue--has endowed her with a singular ability to see through our partisan delusions and identify what, truly, unites us still as Americans. If your heart, like mine, feels poisoned by this era of political division, Rust may just be the antidote for which you've been searching * John Larison *The steel mill burns on in the heart of Cleveland, and in the pages of Eliese Collette Goldbach's transformative debut. This is indeed a memoir of steel and grit, the extraordinary work of every ordinary day. But like all great stories, Rust is also a love story?about a craft, a city, and the communities we forge there. Goldbach reminds us that what we make in turn makes us who and what we are * Dave Lucas *Eliese Collete Goldbach might be the only essayist who does footnotes better than David Foster Wallace * The Pitt News *At times, Rust reads more like a great novel than an autobiography. Iit's full of evocative descriptions of a hot, deafening workplace where the risk of deadly injury is constant and sexist put-downs are a daily, if not hourly, occurrence. Initially drawn to the blue-collar life for its promise of the financial stability she so desperately needs, Goldbach comes to realize that her job at the mill could just as easily lead to a complete emotional breakdown. Ultimately, Goldbach's fearless, eye-opening book reminds us that the bonds between people can transcend their ideological differences, creating hope even in the darkest times and the most unexpected places. * Apple Books Review *Elements of Tara Westover's Educated... The mill comes to represent something holy to [Eliese] because it is made not of steel but of people. * New York Times Book Review *Movingly and candidly told . . . At this most divisive moment in American politics, we could all learn from her example * Financial Times Weekend *

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Book Synopsis''[a] memoir of modern American industrial life, written by the insider who got away - or got away enough to reflect intelligently on where they came from. Think JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy and even Tara Westover's Educated . . . We could all learn from her example.' New York Times Book ReviewEliese wasn't supposed to be a steelworker. Raised by staunchly Republican and Catholic parents, Eliese dreamed of escaping Cleveland and achieving greatness in the convent as a nun. Full of promise and burgeoning ideals, she leaves her hometown, but one night her life's course is violently altered. A night that sets her mind reeling and her dreams waning. A cycle of mania and depression sinks in where once there were miracles and prayers, and upon returning home she is diagnosed with mixed-state bipolar disorder.Set on a path she doesn't recognize as her own, Eliese finds herself under the orange flame of Cleveland's notorious steel mill, applying for a job that could be her ticket to regaining stability and salvation. In Rust, Eliese invites the reader inside the belly of the mill. Steel is the only thing that shines amid the molten iron, towering cranes, and churning mills. Dust settles on everything - on forklifts and hard hats, on men with forgotten hopes and lives cut short by harsh working conditions, on a dismissed blue-collar living and on what's left of the American dream.But Eliese discovers solace in the tumultuous world of steel, unearthing a love and a need for her hometown she didn't know existed. This is the story of the humanity Eliese finds in the most unlikely of places and the wisdom that comes from the very things we try to run away from most. A reclamation of roots, Rust is a shining debut memoir of grit and tenacity and the hope that therefore begins to grow.Trade ReviewEliese Colette Goldbach uses formal experiment, broken narrative, and a voice that admits doubt and questions the terms of its telling to fight silencing. Masterful form is often a question of well-managed ruptur * Leslie Jamison *There have been a lot of books written about life in industrial cities in the Midwest, but relatively few written by people who actually live in them, and few so heartfelt and unsparing. Rust is at once a unique memoir and a broad indictment of America's broken promise that anyone who came of age in the 21st century will find painfully familiar * Sarah Kendzior *Beautiful * Charlie LeDuff *Rust is a soulful telling of America's stubborn and forgotten core. Deeply honest and defying easy sentimentality, this book heralds the arrival of a true talent * Adam Chandler *In our whacked-out national moment, Eliese Colette Goldbach arrives in the nick of time, a fresh voice to revive an old, substantial truth: that one person's hard work, achieved despite troubles of heart and finance, of faith and family, is the most enduring American value of all. Rust is a memoir of steel and grit, yes, but soul above all, a young Cleveland millworker's eloquent tale of hard times that plants its boots squarely on the bookshelf of American working-class literature * David Giffels *A haunting meditation from the far shores of addiction, mental illness, and obsession * Ladette Randolph *Rust is a brave, heartfelt memoir whose pages overflow with hard-earned wisdom. Goldbach's story of embodying our national extremes--conservative vs progressive, religious vs secular, white collar vs blue--has endowed her with a singular ability to see through our partisan delusions and identify what, truly, unites us still as Americans. If your heart, like mine, feels poisoned by this era of political division, Rust may just be the antidote for which you've been searching * John Larison *The steel mill burns on in the heart of Cleveland, and in the pages of Eliese Collette Goldbach's transformative debut. This is indeed a memoir of steel and grit, the extraordinary work of every ordinary day. But like all great stories, Rust is also a love story?about a craft, a city, and the communities we forge there. Goldbach reminds us that what we make in turn makes us who and what we are * Dave Lucas *Elements of Tara Westover's Educated... The mill comes to represent something holy to [Eliese] because it is made not of steel but of people. * New York Times Book Review *"A female steelworker's soulful portrait of industrial life. Goldbach's evocative prose paints a Dantean vision of the mill...but she discovers in the plant's quirky, querulous employees an ethic of empathy and solidarity that bridges ideological divides. The result is an insightful and ultimately reassuring take on America's working class * Publisher's Weekly *Eliese Colette Goldbach uses formal experiment, broken narrative, and a voice that admits doubt and questions the terms of its telling to fight silencing. Masterful form is often a question of well-managed ruptur * Leslie Jamison *There have been a lot of books written about life in industrial cities in the Midwest, but relatively few written by people who actually live in them, and few so heartfelt and unsparing. Rust is at once a unique memoir and a broad indictment of America's broken promise that anyone who came of age in the 21st century will find painfully familiar * Sarah Kendzior *Beautiful * Charlie LeDuff *Rust is a soulful telling of America's stubborn and forgotten core. Deeply honest and defying easy sentimentality, this book heralds the arrival of a true talent * Adam Chandler *Goldbach turns in a gritty memoir of working in a steel mill while wrestling with the world beyond.... An affecting, unblinking portrait of working-class life * Kirkus Reviews *In our whacked-out national moment, Eliese Colette Goldbach arrives in the nick of time, a fresh voice to revive an old, substantial truth: that one person's hard work, achieved despite troubles of heart and finance, of faith and family, is the most enduring American value of all. Rust is a memoir of steel and grit, yes, but soul above all, a young Cleveland millworker's eloquent tale of hard times that plants its boots squarely on the bookshelf of American working-class literature * David Giffels *A haunting meditation from the far shores of addiction, mental illness, and obsession * Ladette Randolph *Rust is a brave, heartfelt memoir whose pages overflow with hard-earned wisdom. Goldbach's story of embodying our national extremes--conservative vs progressive, religious vs secular, white collar vs blue--has endowed her with a singular ability to see through our partisan delusions and identify what, truly, unites us still as Americans. If your heart, like mine, feels poisoned by this era of political division, Rust may just be the antidote for which you've been searching * John Larison *The steel mill burns on in the heart of Cleveland, and in the pages of Eliese Collette Goldbach's transformative debut. This is indeed a memoir of steel and grit, the extraordinary work of every ordinary day. But like all great stories, Rust is also a love story?about a craft, a city, and the communities we forge there. Goldbach reminds us that what we make in turn makes us who and what we are * Dave Lucas *Eliese Collete Goldbach might be the only essayist who does footnotes better than David Foster Wallace * The Pitt News *At times, Rust reads more like a great novel than an autobiography. Iit's full of evocative descriptions of a hot, deafening workplace where the risk of deadly injury is constant and sexist put-downs are a daily, if not hourly, occurrence. Initially drawn to the blue-collar life for its promise of the financial stability she so desperately needs, Goldbach comes to realize that her job at the mill could just as easily lead to a complete emotional breakdown. Ultimately, Goldbach's fearless, eye-opening book reminds us that the bonds between people can transcend their ideological differences, creating hope even in the darkest times and the most unexpected places. * Apple Books Review *Elements of Tara Westover's Educated... The mill comes to represent something holy to [Eliese] because it is made not of steel but of people. * New York Times Book Review *Movingly and candidly told . . . At this most divisive moment in American politics, we could all learn from her example * Financial Times Weekend *

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Book SynopsisProperty and the Pursuit of Happiness presents an account of the crucial role the right to property understood in the comprehensive sense as the right that included every other right played in the American founding. This right was understood by the founders as the “pursuit of happiness,” which Edward J. Erler argues was considered to be both a natural right and a moral obligation. This book examines the works of John Locke, the English philosopher who had a profound influence on the American founding.Trade ReviewFor the past forty years, Professor Edward Erler, has produced some of the finest legal commentary on constitutional law. He remains, perhaps, the most original, insightful, and provocative scholar of the American Constitution. His new book, Property and the Pursuit of Happiness; Locke, The Declaration of Independence, Madison and the Challenge of the Administrative State, shows why this is so. His insight into the Constitution is informed not merely by an understanding of the law, the judiciary, or the Constitution, but by an understanding of the theoretical and political conditions required in the defense of freedom and self-government. In elaborating the importance of property, as essential to the protection of rights, he reveals the absolute necessity of limited government constitutionalism as indispensable for the preservation of both. -- John Marini, University of Nevada, RenoEdward Erler has written the most remarkable book by any student of Harry Jaffa, which also means most likely by any student of Leo Strauss. Property and the Pursuit of Happiness explores the political and the philosophic meaning of both its key terms in America. He transcends dichotomies such as “ancients and moderns” to present the abiding heart of America’s logos in its ousia. Erler’s treatise smashes lame scholarship and noxious doctrines about Aristotle, Locke, Madison, Jefferson, Lincoln, the Supreme Court, Reconstruction, and the administrative state, and against them restores the principles of the West in the theological-political problem. Every serious citizen and scholar must come to terms with this profound and spirited examination of American politics. -- Ken Masugi, Center for Advanced Governmental Studies, Johns Hopkins University“What was unique about the American Revolution,” Ed Erler contends, “was that for the first time in history, a nation was founded dedicated to a universal principle—the principle that `all men are created equal.’” What is unique about Ed Erlers’s penetrating book is that it takes the Declaration’s truths seriously and elucidates how they provide the grounds for the Founders’ constitutionalism. Exploring some of political philosophy’s deepest themes—including natural rights, natural law, and the relationship between reason and revelation—Erler explains how the Founders held the protection of property rights to be the central idea animating their design for limited government and why its abandonment by influential 20th century progressives poses an existential threat to liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans today. -- Vincent Munoz, Associate Professor of Political Science at University of Notre Dame

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Book SynopsisThis timely anthology gathers forty historical and contemporary treatments of democracy. Short introductions precede each reading and a general introduction increase student comprehension across the spectrum of readings. The volume is ideal for both the undergraduate and graduate students in political theory and philosophy courses.

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Book SynopsisEurope is often discussed in the context of crisis, usually economic or political. Less prominent these days is Europe’s spiritual crisis; an important topic throughout the previous century. Various catastrophes put in doubt the rationalist principles on which Europe had based itself. The current relativist intellectual and political climate can still be seen as an expression of this. Rather than following attempts to counter this via the restoration of a supposedly European essence (often in terms of Christianity or rationalism), this book attempts to think the crisis through to its end and to articulate the truth which manifests itself in it.The themes of this book – Europe, phenomenology and politics – share a concern with the crisis as the dissolution of the world, that is, the dissolution of a shared horizon of human existence. Among phenomenologists, Husserl and Patočka foremost have linked this problematic to reflections on the idea of Europe itself. They represent two distinct perspectives, corresponding to different historical situations. Nonetheless, what is presented here is not primarily the continuity between their thought and their historical circumstances, but rather the underexamined continuity between their phenomenology and their thought on Europe and politics.Applying phenomenology to politics, Husserl’s and Patočka’s thought are used to assess the justification for and limits of liberal and agonistic political philosophy respectively. By analysing the concrete ways in which our world is structured experientially, the limits of the ideal of rational reconciliation are shown. An alternative conception of politics is developed on the basis of the breakdown of Europe’s rationalist ideal, that is, on the basis of the truth which manifests itself in Europe’s crisis, without lapsing into a relativism where anything goes. This leads to an agonistic conception of liberal democracy based on Patočka’s phenomenological concept of problematicity.

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Book SynopsisAn enriching exploration of the questions which arose about humanity during the first three years of the Covid era. Written by a Goethean scholar based on a mountain in South Africa.

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Book SynopsisAn advocate of Confucian morality, Mencius exhorted ruling through virtue during the Warring States, when sundry ideas of effectual governance prospered. Like Confucius had done two centuries before him, Mencius wandered from state to state, lobbying sovereigns. Mencian virtue politics has been pivotal to political thinking in China, though most appealing, it may be argued, to scholars. From Mencius, Mingyuan Hu selects and translates four dialogues exemplary of this thinking. This book is part of the Erstwhile Series.

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Book SynopsisThis book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Winner of the 2015 David Easton Prize, awarded by the American Political Science Association (APSA) Global forces are eroding the ability of states to exert sovereign control over their populations, territories, and borders. Yet when dominated subjects across the world dream of freedom, they continue to conceive of it in sovereign terms. Sovereign freedom haunts the imagination of oppressed ethnic minorities, popular masses ruled by foreign powers or homegrown tyrants, indigenous peoples, and individuals chafing under customary or governmental restrictions. On Sovereignty and Other Political Delusions draws on political theory and on two case studies – the encounter between Anglo-American settlers and Native American tribes, and the search for Jewish sovereignty in Palestine – to probe the allure of the idea of sovereign freedom and its self-defeating logic. It concludes by shifting its sights from political to economic sovereign power and by pursuing intimations of non-sovereign freedom in the contemporary age.Trade Review[D]eeply engaging. * Economic Political Science *Joan Cocks is the best writer working today in political theory. This book, striking evidence of a heartful mind, charts the abundant human costs of casting sovereignty as freedom and calls instead for a turn to ‘natural freedom’ – the freedom to ‘indulge in all the sensory delights to be had in the physical world around us, including the delights of meeting natural life forms that are entrancing because they are neither like us nor for us.’ This is a brilliant, inspiring work that I read with pleasure in one sitting. * Bonnie Honig is Nancy Duke Lewis Professor, Modern Culture and Media (MCM) and Political Science, Brown University, USA, and author of Antigone, Interrupted and Emergency Politics. *Reflecting on the twentieth century, you may have suspected that freedom through sovereignty was a snare and delusion. If so, this is the book that will ‘nail’ it for you. Joan Cocks gives us a lucid, original, and carefully argued demonstration of how the quest for sovereign freedom in the United States and Israel entailed, necessarily, the dispossession and erasure of other life worlds and cultural identities. This is political history and philosophy at its most convincing. * James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Anthropology, Yale University, USA *In the best tradition of political thinking and engagement, this book is a deep meditation on the concept of sovereignty. It helps us understand why this concept and the actions that follow from it need to be jettisoned. With sustained moral seriousness, it shows how the idea of mastering peoples and places is now a fantasy with dire implications for human beings and for the earth. * Uday S. Mehta, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, City University of New York, USA, and author of Liberalism and Empire *

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Book SynopsisJohn Locke's foundational place in the history of British empiricism and liberal political thought is well established. So, in what sense can Locke be considered a modern European philosopher? Identity and Difference argues for reassessing this canonical figure. Closely examining the "treatise on identity" added to the second edition of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Etienne Balibar demonstrates Locke's role in the formation of two concepts central to the metaphysics of the subject-consciousness and the self-and the complex philosophical, legal, moral and political nature of his terms. With an accompanying essay by Stella Sandford, situating Balibar's reading of Locke in the history of the reception of the Essay and within Balibar's other writings on "the subject," Identity and Difference rethinks a crucial moment in the history of Western philosophy.Trade ReviewPraise for The Philosophy of Marx"A very intelligent and creative work—succinct and informative. It would certainly have a privileged place on the shelf of contemporary studies of Marx."—Fredric Jameson"A trenchant and exciting analysis of the philosophy of Marx. No dogma here and no banalities. A refreshing book."—Immanuel Wallerstein

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Book SynopsisNonviolence is emerging as a topic of great interest in activist, academic and community settings. In particular, nonviolence is being recognized as a necessary component of constructive and sustainable social change. This book considers nonviolence in relationship to specific social, political, ecological and spiritual issues. Through case studies and examinations of social resistance, gender, the arts, and education, it provides specialists and non-specialists with a solid introduction to the importance and relevance of nonviolence in various contexts.Advancing Nonviolence and Social Transformation is organized into five sections. The first section is a set of essays on various historical and contemporary perspectives on nonviolence. The second section consists of essays on philosophical and theoretical explorations of the topic. The third and fourth sections expand the scope of nonviolence into the areas of thought and action, including Indigenous resistance, student protests, human trafficking, intimate partner violence and ecological issues. The final section takes nonviolence into the study of wonder, music, education and hope.The book will be useful to anyone working in the theories and practices of social change.Trade ReviewProvides an invaluable contribution in making the case for a better world and a nonviolent future. By drawing together thinkers and doers across a wide range of disciplines, Heather Eaton and Lauren Michelle Levesque have created a solid analysis for social change.Elizabeth May, Leader, Green Party CanadaTable of ContentsForeword Elizabeth May, Leader, Green Party Canada1. Current Trends and New Perspectives on Nonviolent TheoriesHeather EatonPart I Historical Perspectives2. Religion and NonviolenceChristopher Key Chapple, Loyola Marymount University3. The Gandhian Vision of DemocracyRamin Jahanbegloo, York University, Canada4. Power Perfected in Weakness: he Paradox of Fighting for PeaceAlain Tschudin, Durbin University of Technology5. Conviction, Courage and Social Change: A Brief History of the Power of Nonviolence in CanadaTamara Lorincz, Dalhousie University6. Gandhi in Action: Nonviolent Movements, Gandhi and Contemporary ChallengesRajagopal P.V., Nonviolence Leader, IndiaPart II Philosophical and Theoretical Considerations7. Violence and Politics: A Reading of Hannah Arendt's Distinction between Violence and PowerSophie Cloutier, Saint Paul University, Canada8. Victory: A Vacuous Concept?Richard Feist, Saint Paul University, Canada9. Reflecting on Gandhian Nonviolence: Is it a Counsel of Perfection for Religious Virtuosi?Noel A. Salmond, Carleton University10. No to War and Yes to So Much More: Pope Francis, Principled Nonviolence and Positive PeaceChristopher Hrynkow, University of SaskatchewanPart III Nonviolence and Social Resistance11. Indigenous VoicesCome My Way by Tara Williamson, #Idle No More in Historical Context by Glen Coulthard, The Idle No More Manifesto by Jessica Gordon and The Founders of Idle No More, Revolutionary Acts of Nonviolence Disempowers Opposition by Waneek Horn-Miller12. Sex, Gender and Nonviolent Resistance to Human Trafficking: An NGO's ResponseEileen Kerwin Jones, John Abbott College, Montreal13. Women Seeking Safety: Nonviolent Responses to Intimate Partner ViolenceCatherine Holtmann, University of New Brunswick14. Instrumentalizing the Ambiguity of Violence in the Carre Rouge: The Quebec Student Crisis of 2012Marie Boglari and Martin Samson, both at Saint Paul University, CanadaPart IV Nonviolence and Egocological Concerns15. Being in 'Rights' Relationship with Animals: Discussing the Foundational Importance of Political Visibility for Advancing Nonviolence towards AnimalsNathan Townend, Independent scholar16. Deep Green Violence: Our Animal Bodies as Sites of ResistanceTodd LeVasseur, College of Charleston, South Carolina17. Nurturing Peace by Subverting Violence in the Larger CommunityPaul Waldau, Canisius College, New YorkPart V Nonviolence and Future Direction18. Wondering about Wonder as an Antidote to our Violence against EarthSimon Appolloni, University of Toronto19. Music and Nonviolence: Reflections on Possibility and HopeLauren Michelle Levesque20. The Case for Child HonouringRaffi Cavoukian, Independent scholar21. Violence, Nonviolence, Anti-violence and Contra-violence in Environmental Education PracticeRichard Kool, Royal Roads University, Canada

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Book SynopsisNonviolence is emerging as a topic of great interest in activist, academic and community settings. In particular, nonviolence is being recognized as a necessary component of constructive and sustainable social change. This book considers nonviolence in relationship to specific social, political, ecological and spiritual issues. Through case studies and examinations of social resistance, gender, the arts, and education, it provides specialists and non-specialists with a solid introduction to the importance and relevance of nonviolence in various contexts.Advancing Nonviolence and Social Transformation is organized into five sections. The first section is a set of essays on various historical and contemporary perspectives on nonviolence. The second section consists of essays on philosophical and theoretical explorations of the topic. The third and fourth sections expand the scope of nonviolence into the areas of thought and action, including Indigenous resistance, student protests, human trafficking, intimate partner violence and ecological issues. The final section takes nonviolence into the study of wonder, music, education and hope.The book will be useful to anyone working in the theories and practices of social change.Trade ReviewProvides an invaluable contribution in making the case for a better world and a nonviolent future. By drawing together thinkers and doers across a wide range of disciplines, Heather Eaton and Lauren Michelle Levesque have created a solid analysis for social change.Elizabeth May, Leader, Green Party CanadaTable of ContentsForeword Elizabeth May, Leader, Green Party Canada1. Current Trends and New Perspectives on Nonviolent TheoriesHeather EatonPart I Historical Perspectives2. Religion and NonviolenceChristopher Key Chapple, Loyola Marymount University3. The Gandhian Vision of DemocracyRamin Jahanbegloo, York University, Canada4. Power Perfected in Weakness: he Paradox of Fighting for PeaceAlain Tschudin, Durbin University of Technology5. Conviction, Courage and Social Change: A Brief History of the Power of Nonviolence in CanadaTamara Lorincz, Dalhousie University6. Gandhi in Action: Nonviolent Movements, Gandhi and Contemporary ChallengesRajagopal P.V., Nonviolence Leader, IndiaPart II Philosophical and Theoretical Considerations7. Violence and Politics: A Reading of Hannah Arendt's Distinction between Violence and PowerSophie Cloutier, Saint Paul University, Canada8. Victory: A Vacuous Concept?Richard Feist, Saint Paul University, Canada9. Reflecting on Gandhian Nonviolence: Is it a Counsel of Perfection for Religious Virtuosi?Noel A. Salmond, Carleton University10. No to War and Yes to So Much More: Pope Francis, Principled Nonviolence and Positive PeaceChristopher Hrynkow, University of SaskatchewanPart III Nonviolence and Social Resistance11. Indigenous VoicesCome My Way by Tara Williamson, #Idle No More in Historical Context by Glen Coulthard, The Idle No More Manifesto by Jessica Gordon and The Founders of Idle No More, Revolutionary Acts of Nonviolence Disempowers Opposition by Waneek Horn-Miller12. Sex, Gender and Nonviolent Resistance to Human Trafficking: An NGO's ResponseEileen Kerwin Jones, John Abbott College, Montreal13. Women Seeking Safety: Nonviolent Responses to Intimate Partner ViolenceCatherine Holtmann, University of New Brunswick14. Instrumentalizing the Ambiguity of Violence in the Carre Rouge: The Quebec Student Crisis of 2012Marie Boglari and Martin Samson, both at Saint Paul University, CanadaPart IV Nonviolence and Egocological Concerns15. Being in 'Rights' Relationship with Animals: Discussing the Foundational Importance of Political Visibility for Advancing Nonviolence towards AnimalsNathan Townend, Independent scholar16. Deep Green Violence: Our Animal Bodies as Sites of ResistanceTodd LeVasseur, College of Charleston, South Carolina17. Nurturing Peace by Subverting Violence in the Larger CommunityPaul Waldau, Canisius College, New YorkPart V Nonviolence and Future Direction18. Wondering about Wonder as an Antidote to our Violence against EarthSimon Appolloni, University of Toronto19. Music and Nonviolence: Reflections on Possibility and HopeLauren Michelle Levesque20. The Case for Child HonouringRaffi Cavoukian, Independent scholar21. Violence, Nonviolence, Anti-violence and Contra-violence in Environmental Education PracticeRichard Kool, Royal Roads University, Canada

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Book SynopsisCapitalism Is Back: Learn To Live With ItPrivate companies and multinationals make the free-market, capitalist economy work. We have just come through a remarkable period in history, when huge efforts were made by the communists and others to eliminate private enterprise, but it is now back all around the world. Humanity cannot live without companies, but how do we learn to live with them?Instead of eliminating companies we should now accept their contribution to society, but change the law to ensure that with running a business goes the responsibility to help society face the economic, social and especially environmental challenges of the future.Globally human societies are organically developing social structures based on the work of governments, for-profit and non-profit sectors. Now is the time for private enterprises of the for-profit sector to step forward with the other two formal sectors to help humanity face the challenges of the future. We must actively find ways to bring the power and creativity of private enterprise into positively shaping humanity's future.

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Book SynopsisFredric Jameson's pathbreaking essay "An American Utopia" radically questions standard leftist notions of what constitutes an emancipated society. Advocated here are-among other things-universal conscription, the full acknowledgment of envy and resentment as a fundamental challenge to any communist society, and the acceptance that the division between work and leisure cannot be overcome. To create a new world, we must first change the way we envision the world. Jameson's text is ideally placed to trigger a debate on the alternatives to global capitalism. In addition to Jameson's essay, the volume includes responses from philosophers and political and cultural analysts, as well as an epilogue from Jameson himself.Many will be appalled at what they will encounter in these pages-there will be blood! But perhaps one has to spill such (ideological) blood to give the Left a chance.Trade ReviewIn An American Utopia, Jameson affirms the critical function of utopian thinking and the efficacies of the form itself. He insists that the fundamental function of utopias is to revive a sense of the future, which requires taking aim at the forces that prevent us from venturing out from the comfortingly familiar confines of the present. -- Kathi WeeksJameson...gives us good reasons to call back utopia from obscurity. * Rain Taxi *

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Book SynopsisSixty years ago, the political theorist Hannah Arendt, an exiled Jew deprived of her German citizenship, observed that before people can enjoy any of the "inalienable" Rights of Man-before there can be any specific rights to education, work, voting, and so on-there must first be such a thing as "the right to have rights". The concept received little attention at the time, but in our age of mass deportations, Muslim bans, refugee crises, and extra-state war, the phrase has become the centre of a crucial and lively debate. Here five leading thinkers from varied disciplines-including history, law, politics, and literary studies-discuss the critical basis of rights and the meaning of radical democratic politics today.Trade ReviewVerso has published an elegant little book of essays by four academics who endeavored not only to unpack the phrase but also to find interpretations that can inform and inspire resistance to the current worldwide assault on human rights. -- Masha Gessen * The New Yorker *

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Book SynopsisBlack rebellion has returned, with dramatic protests in scores of cities and campuses, bringing with it a renewed engagement with the history of Black radical movements and thought. Here, key scholarly voices from a wide array of disciplines recalls the powerful tradition of Black radicalism as it developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries while defining new directions for Black radical thought.In a time when activists in Ferguson, Palestine, Baltimore, and Hong Kong immediately make connections between their movements, this book makes clear that new Black radical politics are thoroughly internationalist and redraws the links between Black resistance and anti-capitalism. Featuring the key voices in the new intellectual wave of Black radical thinking, this collection outlines one of the most vibrant areas of thought today.With contributions from Cedric Robinson, Elizabeth Robinson, Steven Osuna, Nikhil Pal Singh, Damien Sojoyner, Françoise Vergès, Fred Moten, Stefano Harney, Jordan T. Camp, Christina Heatherton, George Lipsitz, Greg Burris, Paul Ortiz, Darryl C. Thomas, Avery Gordon, Shana L. Redmond, Kwame M. Phillips, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Angela Davis, and Robin D. G. Kelley.Trade ReviewCedric Robinson was a towering intellectual and courageous activist in the grand tradition of W.E.B Du Bois. In these bleak times, it is imperative to keep his legacy alive and build on his work and witness. This book meets this imperative in a powerful way! -- Cornel West, author of The Radical KingIn America, issues of race, poverty, and injustice haunt our nation. Futures of Black Radicalism, edited by Gaye Theresa Johnson and Alex Lubin, examines causes and resolutions of these troubling challenges. The need for radical thinking has never been more evident. To this end, this book is not just a gift; it is a necessity. -- Harry BelafonteAn astonishing gathering of essays and interviews featuring leading emerging radical intellectuals. -- David Roediger, author of Class, Race, and MarxismWhat stands out about this book is the richness of intellectual discourse within its pages. A variety of historians, sociologists, and other scholars all tackle a central question: what, precisely, does the Black Radical Tradition say about life in the twenty-first century? -- Robert Greene III * Society for US Intellectual History Blog *

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Book SynopsisThe state has been a dominant political form, and the preferred model for a political unity, for at least the last two hundred years. However, many today speak of its crisis. This crisis stems from two main factors: the state’s changing role in the globalizing international system and the state’s complex relation to democracy, a key normative concept of contemporary politics. Authoritarian leaders using the state to successfully reaffirm sovereignty, despite international integration; democratic movements abound but often only work to reinforce anarchic democracy regimes they contest. Is there an alternative? Do we need to reconceive the phenomenon of state, with a view to the future? These are the questions that an international group of scholars explore and answer in this book, drawing on history of political thought, continental philosophy, and the contemporary political examples.They engage the dialectical tradition broadly understood, including phenomenological transcendentalism, the political philosophy of French public law, and the German 20th century political philosophy beyond Weber. The result brings the state into a critical political philosophy, providing a realistic sketch of what a good democratic state could and should be like.Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTSINTRODUCTION I. The Idea of State.CHAPTER 1. Michael Marder. The Categories of the StateCHAPTER 2. Alexander Filippov, The State in the International Legal OrderCHAPTER 3. Olga Bashkina. Popular Sovereignty, Constituent Power and Representation in the Early 20th-Century French Constitutional TheoryII. Critique of the State and the State of the CritiqueCHAPTER 4. Panagiotis Sotiris. State Power and Social TransformationCHAPTER 5. Maria Kochkina, Lindsey’s “Concealed State” and the Left StrategyCHAPTER 6. Ajay Singh Chaudhary. Franz Neumann and the Critical Theory of State for the 21st CenturyIII. Socialist and Communist StateCHAPTER 7. Lorenzo Chiesa. Lenin and the Transitional-Revolutionary StateCHAPTER 8. Agon Hamza. Marching of God, or the Žižekian Theory of the State. Contemporary “Young Hegelianism”CHAPTER 9. Christian Sorace. Democratic Corpses and Communist Specters: Between the Liberal Democratic and Post-Socialist StateIV Ex Pluribus UnumCHAPTER 10. Artemy Magun, Civitas Paradoxa,or: The Dialectical Theory of State

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Book SynopsisThis influential collection explores the pivotal texts and topics in the Marxist tradition. Ranging over questions of social theory, political theory, moral philosophy and literary criticism, it looks at the thought of Marx and Trotsky, Luxemburg, Lenin and Althusser. They include Geras's influential and widely-cited treatment of fetishism in Capital, his comprehensive review of recent debates on Marxism and justice, discussions on political organisation, revolutionary mass action and party pluralism, and a novel analysis of the literary power of Trotsky's writing. In close dialogue with common themes and arguments in the literature of revolutionary Marxism, Geras brings some of his persistent preoccupations to the fore; with the normative foundations and some of the epistemological assumptions of this tradition, with issues of socialist democracy, working class self-education and emancipation.Trade Review[For Marx and Human Nature] This remarkable short book deserves to be widely read and not only by those interested in Marxology. For it achieves something rare in its field: rationally compelling proof. Not only does it conclusively refute a widely current legend about Marx's thought . it does so with striking elegance, economy, and argumentative power. * Times Literary Supplement *[For The Legacy of Rosa Luxembourg] This is a useful and thoughtful book, in which the power and originality of Rosa Luxemburg's thinking emerges." -- E H Carr * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisFew terms are so widely used in the literature of international relations and political science, with so little agreement about their exact meaning, as hegemony.In the first full historical study of its fortunes as a concept, Perry Anderson traces its emergence in Ancient Greece and its rediscovery during the upheavals of 1848-1849 in Germany. He then follows its checkered career in revolutionary Russia, fascist Italy, Cold War America, Gaullist France, Thatcher's Britain, post-colonial India, feudal Japan, Maoist China, eventually arriving at twenty-first-century US geopolitics and Germany's place within an expanded European Union. The result is a surprising and fascinating expedition into global intellectual history.Trade ReviewAnderson's work displays stunning erudition. Part of a larger attempt to explain the forms and transformations of liberal power, The H-Word helps us understand how one hegemony dies and another begins. -- Gavin Jacobson * New Statesman *Fascinating history -- Adam Tooze * FT *If you want to see how hegemony has been transformed from a critical term in the lexicon of leftist scholars and activists to a less critical but increasingly pervasive term in the lexicon of those interrogating late US imperialism, then The H-Word is a book well worth reading. -- Jim Glassman * Antipode *Anderson deploys his formidable erudition to craft short chapters on the conflicting understandings of hegemony among Ancient Greek and Roman historians, Russian revolutionaries, Prussian military theorists, Italian communists (where Gramsci shows up), Anglo-American international relations scholars, Chinese statesmen from Confucius to Mao, post-structuralist Marxists (where Gramsci reappears), and the architects of the European Union. This is accomplished with admirably clear and jargon-free prose, and the book is a pleasure to read. -- Eduardo Frajman, Marx & Philosophy SocietyEngaging -- John Ikenberry * Foreign Affairs *Perry Anderson offers a global intellectual history of the many meanings, applications, and turning points in the use of hegemony as a theoretical tool. The most impressive aspect is the breadth he must operate with in terms of history, disciplines, and geographic contexts beyond Marxist theory and beyond the continent of Europe. -- Chris Hardnack * Socialism and Democracy *

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Book Synopsis"Only martyrs know neither pity nor fear. Believe me, the day when the martyrs are victorious will be the day of universal conflagration". Jacques Lacan made this gloomy prophesy back in 1959: but doesn't it also apply to our own time? Faced with a rise in attacks around the world, can we really just blame the 'radicalization of' Islam'? What hope is there for the alienated youth, as the wars that have ravaged the Middle East spill out across the globe?For Alain Bertho, the mounting chaos we see today is above all driven by the weakening of states' legitimacy under the pressure of globalization. Add to this the hypocrisy of the elites who beat the drum of 'security measures', even as they sow the seeds of violence around the world. This disorder is the swamp of despair which can only produce fresh atrocities.Today's youth are the lost children of neoliberal globalization, the inheritors of the political and human chaos it produces. When they find it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism, their revolt tends to take the paths of martyrdom and despair. The closing of the revolutionary hypothesis allows only fury. The answer, Bertho argues, is a new radicalism, able to inspire a collective hope in the future.Trade ReviewAn important and iconoclastic intervention into the ongoing debate on the planetary mutation in the forms of collective action. Bertho surveys, with an anthropologist's eye, the myriad phenomena of political violence criss-crossing our world on fire-from mass riots to transnational jihadism-to diagnose an irreversible divorce between peoples and powers. Age of Violence challenges us to imagine what future shapes radicalism will take outside the classical nexus of state and revolution. -- Alberto Toscano, author of Fanaticism: On the Uses of an IdeaInspired by the tragic events of 2015 in Paris, this insightful philosophical and anthropological enquiry locates them within the French and global continuums to which they belong, assessing the combined effect of neoliberal globalisation and the crisis of left-wing politics on the 'children of chaos'. -- Gilbert AchcarAlain Bertho doesn't only ask disturbing questions; he also seeks to answer them. In The Age of Violence, he turns a steely gaze to the rise of collective civil violence across the world. His insights into matrices of un/belonging, crises of truth, and radicalism are essential reading for those of us attempting to make sense of the contemporary world. -- Joanna BourkeThis is a book that has long been necessary. Where most accounts of jihadist violence emphasise its supposed theological or ideological bases, Alain Bertho's Age of Violence is a powerful, profound, beautiful investigation of, and meditation on, the repressed connections between forms of increasingly nihilistic global violence, from ISIS to urban riots to communal murder, and a wider collapse of life chances, political legitimacy and personal meaning visited by the death-hurtle late capitalism. Bertho's book confronts what most accounts will not - the destructive appeal of chances for meaningfully murderous action for the "lost children" of globalisation. This is absolutely essential reading for anyone alarmed by these terrifying symptoms. -- Richard Seymour

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Book SynopsisAfter two centuries during which it had nearly disappeared in Western countries, sortition is used again as a method of selecting people who could speak for, and in certain cases decide for, all the citizenry. What is the meaning of this comeback? To answer this question, this book offers a historical analysis. It brings together a number of the best specialists on political sortition from antiquity to contemporary experiments, in Europe but also in the Ancient Middle East and in imperial China. With a transdisciplinary perspective, this volume demonstrates that sortition has been a crucial device in political history; that the instruments and places where sortition was practised matter for the understanding of the social and political logics at stake; and that these logics have been quite different, random selection being sometimes an instrument of radical democracy and in other contexts a tool for solving conflicts among elites. Will sortition in politics helps to democratize democracy in the twenty-first century?

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Book SynopsisIn After #MeToo, Gerard Casey provides a critical assessment of the #MeToo movement, situating it in the context of the radical feminism of which it is just the latest manifestation. Apart from its legitimating an indiscriminate attack on men and masculinity, Casey argues that the #MeToo movement has exposed a conceptual fault-line in radical feminist anthropology. Are women fully-developed moral agents, able to exercise moral choice and to take responsibility for what they do; or are women elements of a collective made up of the victims of sexual crimes, whose suffering is not just that of any one individual woman but of the group as a whole?Casey''s analysis of the #MeToo movement is prefaced by a brief typology of forms of feminism and by an account of the supposedly universal oppression of women by a malign patriarchy. He argues that if there is such a thing as the patriarchy, it is singularly and spectacularly ineffectual in its operation inasmuch as women, on the whole, are not only not oppressed in comparison to men but are rather the beneficiaries of legal and social privileges.After #MeToo concludes with a consideration of the changing legal definitions of rape. Once understood to be essentially a crime of violence, rape has now come to be regarded as a violation of personal autonomy. In common law systems, a certain conception of consent is now central to the definition of rape, a conception that, Casey argues, is unworkable, at once infantilising women and, at the same time, potentially criminalising every sexual encounter in which a man is involved.

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Book SynopsisThe storming of the US Capitol building in January 2021 focused attention on the multiple threats facing contemporary liberal democracies. Beyond the immediate problem of Covid-19, the past two decades saw political polarization, a dramatic rise in inequality, global warming and other environmental threats, as well as the growth of dangerous cultural and political divisions. Western liberal democracies find themselves in the midst of what political theorists call a legitimation crisis: major portions of the population lack confidence in the ability of governments to address our most pressing problems. This distrust in government and traditional political parties opened the door to populist leaders and a rising tide of authoritarianism.Liberal democracies face major structural and normative challenges in the near future that require us to look beyond the traditional set of solutions available. Democracy in Crisis points back to the world''s first democratic government, Ancient Athens, to see what made that political arrangement durable and resistant to both internal and external threats. The argument focuses on several distinctive Athenian institutions and practices, and considers how we might reimagine them in the modern world. The book addresses questions of civic ideology and institutions, with extended treatment of two distinctive Athenian institutions, ostracism and sortition.

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1974, Kojin Karatani's Marx: Towards the Centre of Possibility has been among his most enduring and pioneering works in critical theory. Written at a time when the political sequences of the New Left had collapsed into crisis and violence, with widespread political exhaustion for the competing sectarian visions of Marxism from 1968, Karatani's Marx laid the groundwork for a new reading, unfamiliar to the existing Marxist discourse in Japan at the time.Karatani's Marx takes on insights from semiotics, deconstruction, and the reading of Marx as a literary thinker, treating Capital as an intervention in philosophy that could be read as itself a theory of signs. Marx is unique in this sense, not only because of its importance in post-'68 Japanese thought, but also because the heterodox reading of Marx that Karatani debuts in this text, centred on his theory of the value-form, will go on to form the basis of his globally influential work.Edited, translated, and with an introduction by Gavin Walker.

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Book SynopsisAdorno, Foucault, and the Critique of the West argues that critical theory continues to offer valuable resources for critique and contestation during this turbulent period in our history. To assess these resources, it examines the work of two of the twentieth century's more prominent social theorists: Theodor W. Adorno and Michel Foucault. Although Adorno was situated squarely in the Marxist tradition that Foucault would occasionally challenge, Cook demonstrates that their critiques of our current predicament are complementary in important respects. Among other things, they converge in their focus on the historical conditions-economic in Adorno and political in Foucault-that gave rise to the racist and authoritarian tendencies that continue to blight the West. But this book will also show that as Adorno and Foucault plumb the economic and political forces that have shaped our identities, they offer remarkably similar answers to the perennial question: What is to be done?Trade ReviewDefying conventional wisdom, Deborah Cook makes a compelling case for the complementarity of Adorno and Foucault's critical projects. In so doing, she makes clear that the theoretical legacy of the past century still has much to offer in the struggle to meet the daunting challenges of our own. -- Martin Jay, University of California, BerkeleyFoucault's relation to the Frankfurt School and the work of one of its key theorists was long overdue a critical reappraisal. Neither reducing one thinker to the other nor drawing artificial lines between traditions, this is a bold and thoughtful contribution to this valuable work. It should be required reading and the basis of wide critical engagement. -- Stuart Elden, University of Warwick and author of Foucault: The Birth of Power (2017) and Foucault’s Last Decade (2016)Michel Foucault once observed that had he known earlier in life about Frankfurt School critical theorists such as Adorno, he might have written little more than commentaries on their work, and he might have avoided some mistakes as well. Although Adorno and Foucault were surely dissimilar in many respects, Deborah Cook succeeds admirably in marking out the coordinates for their comparison. Alerting us to shared philosophical themes and emancipatory purposes, she has performed a truly important service by building a bridge between these two titans of modern social thought. -- Peter E. GordonAdorno was never confronted with structuralism and Foucault barely mentioned the Frankfurt School. Nevertheless, their critique of capitalism and Western civilization astonishingly converged. Cannot contemporary radical thought draw inspiration from both Adorno's unmasking of instrumental reason and Foucault's lucid investigation of biopolitical power? Deborah Cook establishes an extremely fruitful posthumous dialogue between these great thinkers. Highly readable and admiringly clear, her compelling essay provides many valuable ammunitions for critical theory in the twenty-first century. -- Enzo Traverso, author of Fire and Blood and The New Faces of FascismPraise for Adorno on Nature:Adorno is one of the most sophisticated and thorough materialists of the last century, and Cook introduces with much precision (and sympathy for those not already familiar with Adorno's work) the diversity and strength of Adorno's approach. Adorno on Nature functions in part, then, as a corrective to recent neglect of Adorno's commitment to Marxist materialism. * Mind *Praise for Adorno on Nature:A useful and persuasive account of Adorno's concept of nature and its relationship with the thought of, above all, Marx, but also Hegel, Kant and, to a lesser extent, Freud. * Marx and Philosophy Review of Books *Praise for Adorno on Nature:A comprehensive and careful analysis of the crucial and often underestimated role of nature in Adorno, tracing Adorno's conception of 'natural history' from the 1930s to the 1960s and articulating its implications for environmental philosophy and activism. * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Praise for Adorno on Nature:Deborah Cook provides an illuminating study of the concept of nature in Adorno and how it emerges and remains a central component of his work, undergirding the key themes of his philosophy. Clearly and lucidly presenting Adorno's complex ideas, Cook provides a work that should be of interest to both students and scholars of Adorno's important work. -- Douglas Kellner, UCLAPraise for The Culture Industry Revisited:Deborah Cook's study of Adorno and mass culture critically engages one of the most important thinkers of our century. An excellent job in presenting Adorno's complex thought applied to a wide range of issues in contemporary social theory and media criticism. -- Douglas Kellner, UCLA; author of Media Culture and Media Spectacle and the Crisis of DemocracyPraise for The Culture Industry Revisited:In sum, the book is a refreshing departure from the frequent tendency to bash and dismiss Adorno without further ado, or the tendency of his followers to simply celebrate him as the greatest theorist of the contemporary moment. Cook's book should thus be of significant use to those interested in Adorno and critical theory, cultural studies and mass communication, and contemporary social theory. Adorno's work itself is transdisciplinary and Cook presents him in a fashion in which he could be of use to a broad transdisciplinary audience. * Journal of Communication *Praise for The Culture Industry Revisited:Adorno's speculative thinking in the service of norms such as freedom, autonomy, and spontaneity serves as a prototype of social and political practice that might overcome the reification and narcissism endemic to contemporary mass culture. * Sociological Abstracts *Praise for Theodor Adorno: Key Concepts:This collection accomplishes its goal to lead us 'through the intricate labyrinth of Adorno's work." It is a reliable guide and will leave readers of Adorno less perplexed. * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *

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Book SynopsisCrisis dominates the present historical moment. The economy is in crisis, politics in both its past and present forms is in crisis and our own individual lives are in crisis, made vulnerable by the fluctuations of the labor market and by the undoing of social and political ties we inherited from modernity. Yet, traditional views of crises as just temporary setbacks do not seem to hold any longer; this crisis seems permanent, with no way out and no alternatives on the horizon. Reconstructing a political genealogy of the term from the Greek world to today's neoliberalism, this book demonstrates that crisis, understood as a "choice" between revolution and conservation, is a peculiarity of the modern era that does not apply to the present day. However, since its origin, the trope of crisis has proven to be one of the most effective instruments of social discipline and administration. The analytical trajectory followed by this book - which spans from Plato to Hayek, from the juridical and medical science of antiquity to the current technocracy, passing through the "weapons of criticism" of Marx and Gramsci - finally identifies, following Benjamin and Foucault, precariousness as the "form of life" that characterizes crisis understood as an art of government. But we still need to answer the question: "How can we recreate the possibility of political alternatives?"Trade ReviewDario Gentili's book on crisis is one of the first genealogies of a concept that nowadays is crucial. In this way, through the rigorous analysis of the term, he captures an uncharted aspect of our contemporary condition -- Roberto EspositoThere is a crisis, there is no alternative. This is the rhetorical strategy through which governments across the world justify and legitimize unpopular political and economic decisions in this age, the age of precarity. Dario Gentili's illuminating genealogical reconstruction of the dispositive of crisis is an indispensable tool to understand and contrast the very specific art of government implicit in today's globally predominant neoliberal policies."}" data-sheets-userformat="{"2":513,"3":{"1":0},"12":0}" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">There is a crisis, there is no alternative. This is the rhetorical strategy through which governments across the world justify and legitimize unpopular political and economic decisions in this age, the age of precarity. Dario Gentili's illuminating genealogical reconstruction of the dispositive of crisis is an indispensable tool to understand and contrast the very specific art of government implicit in today's globally predominant neoliberal policies. -- Elettra StimilliDario Gentili's superb The Age of Precarity takes a concept ubiquitous in contemporary left political and social theory, precarity, and endows it with new life and explanatory power. Deftly drawing on thinkers from Plato to Benjamin, Gramsci to Foucault, Schmitt to Hayek, Gentili diagnoses a present where crisis generates an 'art of government' of precarious life, and calls against a politics as a fight-to-the-death between forms of life, for a new politics of shared forms of life through which power is expressed in common. -- Matteo Mandarini, Queen Mary University of LondonDario Gentili's book on crisis is one of the first genealogies of a concept that nowadays is crucial. Through the rigorous analysis of the term, he captures an uncharted aspect of our contemporary condition. -- Roberto Esposito, author of Communitas"There is a crisis, there is no alternative." This is the rhetorical strategy through which governments across the world justify and legitimize unpopular political and economic decisions in this age, the age of precarity. Dario Gentili's illuminating genealogical reconstruction of the dispositive of crisis is an indispensable tool helping us to understand and contrast the very specific art of government implicit in today's globally predominant neoliberal policies -- Elettra Stimilli, author of Debt and GuiltDario Gentili's radical and rigorous work offers a magisterial analysis of the figure of crisis, which so much seems to define our current socio-political situation. By tracing an intellectual counter-history of this concept and proposing a novel theorization of it as an art of government, The Age of Precarity stands out as a benchmark text across contemporary debates in critical thought and one that we need to understand present-day practices of administration under neoliberal governance. -- Andrea Mura, Goldsmiths, University of LondonDario Gentili has, through an analysis of the language of crisis, shown how its inscription into the discourse of contemporary politics has diminished its force. The language of crisis has been legitimized. In its place he proposes a rethinking of conflict. The political is then recast in terms of life. Freed of the debilitating effect of the equation of life with the biological Gentile proposes a genuine biopolitics. The point of departure is the recovery of that which has been rendered precarious in the name of a new form of commonality. -- Andrew Benjamin, University of Technology, Sydney

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Book SynopsisAn attack on the idea that nature and society are impossible to distinguish from each otherIn a world careening towards climate chaos, nature is dead. It can no longer be separated from society. Everything is a blur of hybrids, where humans possess no exceptional agency to set them apart from dead matter. But is it really so? In this blistering polemic and theoretical manifesto, Andreas Malm develops a counterargument: in a warming world, nature comes roaring back, and it is more important than ever to distinguish between the natural and the social. Only with a unique agency attributed to humans can resistance become conceivable.Trade ReviewAndreas Malm's new masterpiece The Progress of This Storm fills an urgent need, as did his seminal Fossil Capital in 2016. In his earlier book, he demonstrated that the fossil capitalism was not preordained by God or Nature or Technology, and that the answer is system change not climate change. In his new study, he teaches us how we can transcend those fashionable, ecological philosophies, clouding our understanding, that stand in the way of the unity of environmental theory and practice. No more definitive work of its kind exists today. -- John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review, author of Marx’s EcologyAs the global crisis grows, it is more important than ever to understand the complex relationship between society and nature, but much of what passes for environmental theory generates more confusion than insight. Andreas Malm has written another essential contribution to ecological Marxism, a brilliant and clearly written polemic that demolishes constructionism, hybridism, postmodernism and related academic fads, and defends historical materialism as the only credible alternative -- Ian Angus, author of Facing the Anthropocene[The Progress of This Storm] is a major contribution to ecological Marxism, and, more broadly, to the development of a climate map that shows both the direction of the storm and the paths we must take to escape it. -- Ian Angus * Climate & Capitalism *The Progress of This Storm is a furious defense of dialectical thought, and of historical materialism as the theoretical lens appropriate for viewing global warming in all its social and natural complexity. -- Michael Robbins * Bookforum *The Progress of This Storm issues a welcome call to get serious about political agency. -- Alyssa Battistoni * Nation *Andreas Malm has a deep understanding of climate change, writes clearly, and presents a useful overview of environmental thought. He also introduces some compelling concepts of his own, with provocative implications for political struggle ... [The Progress of This Storm] is genuinely stirring in his militant calls to action. -- Dayton Martindale * Boston Review *Malm argues with impressive rigour and skill. * New Socialist *A powerful sketch of a political theory for a time of climate change. -- David Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth

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Book SynopsisFifty years after the appearance of The Dialectical Imagination, his pioneering history of the Frankfurt School, Martin Jay reflects on what may be living and dead in its legacy. Rather than treating it with filial piety as a fortress to be defended, he takes seriously its anti-systematic impulse and sensitivity to changing historical circumstances. Honouring the Frankfurt School's practice of immanent critique, he puts critical pressure on a number of its own ideas by probing their contradictory impulses. Among them are the pathologization of political deviance through stigmatizing "authoritarian personalities," the undefended theological premises of Walter Benjamin's work, and the ambivalence of its members' analyses of anti-Semitism and Zionism. Additional questions are asked about other time-honored Marxist themes: the meaning of alienation, the alleged damages of abstraction, and the advocacy of a politics based on a singular notion of the truth. Rather, however, than allowing these questions to snowball into an unwarranted repudiation of the Frankfurt School legacy as a whole, the essays also acknowledge a number of its still potent arguments. They explore its neglected, but now timely analysis of "racket society," Adorno's dialectical reading of aesthetic sublimation, and the unexpected implications of Benjamin's focus on the corpse for political theory. Jay shows that it is a still evolving theoretical tradition which offers resources for the understanding of - and perhaps even practical betterment - of our increasingly troubled world.Trade ReviewA century after its founding, the Institute for Social Research, now better known as the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, continues to generate provocative ideas and critical perspectives on the world that we inhabit. Just as from the vantage point of Adorno, Benjamin, Horkheimer, and others, however, there can be no genuinely critical thought that is not mediated in decisive ways by the history of its own genesis, thereby rendering the task of inheriting the refractory legacy of the Frankfurt School a difficult and ongoing undertaking. Martin Jay's powerful new study provides us with a beautifully articulated path through the thicket of that inheritance, thoughtfully lingering along the way to illuminate central tropes and concerns that emerge from this constellation of writers. By focusing on the characteristic critical gesture that unites many Frankfurt School thinkers-that of immanent critique-Jay succeeds in opening up a productive and unfailingly fascinating perspective on a critical legacy that, even a century on, remains open and still to come. In Jay's masterful hands, the texts that constitute this legacy have lost none of their urgency and abiding interest. -- Gerhard Richter, L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature, Brown UniversityThroughout these thought-provoking studies Martin Jay's characteristic lucidity and unrivalled command of the relevant source material is on display. Jay is sensitive both to the socio-political contexts of Frankfurt School thinking and to the continuing relevance of the School's legacy. Even those steeped in the tradition of Critical Theory will learn something new from his wide-ranging and sometimes provocative reflections. -- Peter Dews, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of EssexThat Martin Jay is not only the leading historian of the Frankfurt School, but one of its most creative and interesting practitioners in the third generation, becomes irrevocably apparent in this superb collection of articles. Circling around the notion of "immanent critique", these articles explore the viability of some of this tradition's core ideas in a time of political turbulences and postcolonial challenges. In so doing, Martin Jay teaches us how to actualize Critical Theory without credulously sticking to the original texts. -- Axel HonnethTable of Contents1 1968 in an Expanded Field: The Frankfurt School and the Uneven Course of History2 Adorno and the Role of Sublimation in Artistic Creativity and Cultural Redemption3 Blaming the Victim? Arendt, Adorno and Erikson on the Jewish Responsibility for Anti-Semitism4 The Authoritarian Personality and the Problematic Pathologization of Politics5 The Age of Rackets? Trump, Scorsese and the Frankfurt School6 Go Figure: Fredric Jameson on Walter Benjamin7 Leib, Körper and the Body Politic8 Marx and Mendacity: Can There Be a Politics without Hypocrisy?

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Book SynopsisLife is complicated, comparisons are easy. We consume enormous quantities of information every day from sources that are reliable, and those less trustworthy, including journalists, politicians, friends and social media. One of the most commons tools we use to communicate is comparison. Are we suffering a 'hurricane' of migrants? Do dogs look like their owners? Is Oxford better than Harvard? Metaphors, models and metrics are used to compare anything from schools, to wars, to iconic people. But how helpful are they? What truths do they hide and what bullsh*t do comparisons propagate?Looking across a fascinating range of situations both familiar and unfamiliar, serious and light-hearted, Bullsh*t Comparisons is a ground-breaking guide to the role of could-be-true but misleading comparisons. It is illuminated by examples spanning the globe from university league tables, to childhood rivalries, politicians' tawdry analogies, the FIFA Worl

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