New Books in Critical Theory

Charisse Burden-Stelly, "Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the early twentieth century, two panics emerged in the United States. The Black Scare was rooted in white Americans’ fear of Black Nationalism an...

Plantationocene

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of High Theory, Neil Safier talks with us about the Plantationocene, a geological epoch that traces the effects of climate change to t...

Martin Jay, "Immanent Critiques: The Frankfurt School under Pressure" (Verso, 2023)

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Frankfurt School’s own legacy is best preserved by exercising an immanent critique of its premises and the conclusions to which they often led. ...

Beatriz Nascimento, "The Dialectic Is in the Sea: The Black Radical Thought of Beatriz Nascimento" (Princeton UP, 2023)

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Beatriz Nascimento (1942-1995) was a poet, historian, artist, and political leader in Brazil's Black movement, an innovative and creative thinker whos...

Musab Younis, "On the Scale of the World: The Formation of Black Anticolonial Thought" (U California Press, 2022)

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On the Scale of the World: The Formation of Black Anticolonial Thought (U California Press, 2022) examines the reverberations of anticolonial ideas t...

David Myer Temin, "Remapping Sovereignty: Decolonization and Self-Determination in North American Indigenous Political Thought" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Accounts of decolonization routinely neglect Indigenous societies in North America and Australasia, yet Native communities have made unique contributi...

Elizabeth Anderson, "Hijacked: How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic against Workers and How Workers Can Take It Back" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is the work ethic? Does it justify policies that promote the wealth and power of the One Percent at workers' expense? Or does it advance policies...

Cecilia Márquez, "Making the Latino South: A History of Racial Formation" (UNC Press, 2023)

12 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The presence of Latinx people in the American South has long confounded the region's persistent racial binaries. In Making the Latino South: A Histor...

Caroline Levine, "The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis" (Princeton UP, 2023)

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

W. H. Auden once said, “Poetry makes nothing happen.” Auden’s quote has been used for so many purposes, it might be worth remembering what he m...

Kathleen Mcphillips and Naomi Goldenberg, "The End of Religion: Feminist Reappraisals of the State" (Routledge, 2020)

08 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Feminist theory has enhanced and expanded the agency, influence, status and contributions of women throughout the globe. However, feminist critical an...

Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale, "Why Men?: A Human History of Violence and Inequality" (Hurst, 2023)

03 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How did humans, a species that evolved to be cooperative and egalitarian, develop societies of enforced inequality? Why did our ancestors create patri...

Daniele Lorenzini, "The Force of Truth: Critique, Genealogy, and Truth-Telling in Michel Foucault" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

01 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A groundbreaking examination of Michel Foucault’s history of truth. Many blame Michel Foucault for our post-truth and conspiracy-laden society. In t...

Frederick V. Engram, "Black Liberation Through Action and Resistance: MOVE" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Black Liberation through Action and Resistance: MOVE (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023) serves as a call to action for Black millennials and co-conspirator...

Claire Jean Kim, "Asian Americans in an Anti-Black World" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Where do Asian Americans fit into the U.S. racial order? How do we understand anti-Asian racism in relation to structural anti-Blackness? Are Asian Am...

Henrik Fürst and Erik Nylander, "The Value of Art Education: Cultural Engagements at the Swedish Folk High Schools" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023)

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is art education worthwhile? In The Value of Art Education: Cultural Engagements at the Swedish Folk High Schools (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023), Henri...

Sarah Mayorga, "Urban Specters: The Everyday Harms of Racial Capitalism" (UNC Press, 2023)

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Racial capitalism, invisible but threaded throughout the world, shapes our lives. Focusing on the experiences of white, Black, and Latinx residents ...

Simone Varriale, "Coloniality and Meritocracy in Unequal EU Migrations: Intersecting Inequalities in Post-2008 Italian Migration" (Bristol UP, 2023)

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do migrants make sense of migration? In Coloniality and Meritocracy in unequal EU migrations: Intersecting Inequalities in Post-2008 Italian Migr...

Arjun Shankar, "Brown Saviors and Their Others: Race, Caste, Labor, and the Global Politics of Help in India" (Duke UP, 2023)

28 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Brown Saviors and Their Others: Race, Caste, Labor, and the Global Politics of Help in India (Duke UP, 2023), Arjun Shankar draws from his ethnog...

Norman Solomon, "War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine" (New Press, 2023)

28 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

More than twenty years ago, 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan set into motion a hugely consequential shift in America’s foreign policy: a perpetual st...

James V. Fenelon, "Indian, Black and Irish: Indigenous Nations, African Peoples, European Invasions, 1492-1790" (Routledge, 2023)

28 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this interview James Fenelon discusses his new book entitled Indian, Black and Irish: Indigenous Nations, African Peoples, European Invasions, 149...

Pat Thomson and Christine Hall, "Schools and Cultural Citizenship: Arts Education for Life" (Routledge, 2023)

28 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why study the arts in school? In Schools and Cultural Citizenship: Arts Education for Life (Routledge, 2023), Pat Thomson, Professor of Education ...

Nicole Nguyen, "Terrorism on Trial: Political Violence and Abolitionist Futures" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)

27 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rather than functioning as a final arbiter of justice, U.S. domestic courts are increasingly seen as counterterrorism tools that can incapacitate terr...

Nick Riemer, "Boycott Theory and the Struggle for Palestine: Universities, Intellectualism and Liberation" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022)

27 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The academic boycott of Israel, a branch of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, is one of the richest—and most div...

Denise D. Meringolo, "Radical Roots: Public History and a Tradition of Social Justice Activism" (Amherst College Press, 2021)

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Uncovering a radical tradition at the heart of public history within the United States, Radical Roots: Public History and a Tradition of Social Justi...

Decolonizing Praxis

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of High Theory, Erin Pineda talks about decolonizing praxis. Black American activists in the 1950s and 1960s used strategies of civil ...

Sonja K. Pieck, "Mnemonic Ecologies: Memory and Nature Conservation along the Former Iron Curtain" (MIT Press, 2023)

22 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The first book-length scholarly treatment of Germany's largest conservation project, the Green Belt, Mnemonic Ecologies: Memory and Nature Conservati...

Noa Shaindlinger, "Displacement and Erasure in Palestine: The Politics of Hope" (Edinburgh UP, 2023)

22 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Noa Shaindlinger's Displacement and Erasure in Palestine: The Politics of Hop (Edinburgh UP, 2023) explores the ways in which Palestinians negotiat...

Kevin Passmore, "Fascism: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2014)

22 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is fascism? Is it revolutionary? Or is it reactionary? Can it be both? Fascism is notoriously hard to define. How do we make sense of an ideology...

The Radical Imagination in Reactionary Times

21 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Professors Alex Khasnabish and Max Haiven are authors of a book called The Radical Imagination: Social Movement Research in the Age of Austerity (Bl...

Grant H. Kester, "The Sovereign Self: Aesthetic Autonomy from the Enlightenment to the Avant-Garde" (Duke UP, 2023)

21 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In The Sovereign Self: Aesthetic Autonomy from the Enlightenment to the Avant-Garde (Duke UP, 2023), Grant Kester examines the evolving discourse of...

Alexandre Baril, "Undoing Suicidism: A Trans, Queer, Crip Approach to Rethinking (Assisted) Suicide" (Temple UP, 2023)

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Note: This episode contains a discussion of suicide. A list of resources is available below.  In Undoing Suicidism: A Trans, Queer, Crip Approach to...

The Future of Incarceration: A Discussion with Colleen P. Eren

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The United States has long been associated with a very harsh criminal justice system with, in some cases, people serving long sentence for minor crime...

Orisanmi Burton, "Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt" (U California Press, 2023)

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt (University of California Press, 2023) boldly and compellingly arg...

Mukti Lakhi Mangharam, "Freedom Inc.: Gendered Capitalism in New Indian Literature and Culture" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

While globalization is often credited with the eradication of 'traditional' constraints tied to gender and caste, in reality the opening up of the Ind...

Margaret Hillenbrand, "On the Edge: Feeling Precarious in China" (Columbia UP, 2023)

14 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Margaret Hillenbrand’s On the Edge: Feeling Precarious in China (Columbia UP, 2023) examines the negative cultural forms that have emerged in resp...

Txt

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of High Theory, Matthew Kirschenbaum talks about txt, or text. Not texting, or textbooks, but text as a form of data that is feeding l...

Mutual Aid and the Anarchist Radical Imagination

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode of Darts and Letters examines the theory and practice of anti-statist organizing. There’s a story you can tell about the post-Occupy le...

Paraska Tolan-Szkilnik, "Maghreb Noir: The Militant-Artists of North Africa and the Struggle for a Pan-African, Postcolonial Future" (Stanford UP, 2023)

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Upon their independence, Moroccan, Algerian, and Tunisian governments turned to the Global South and offered military and financial aid to Black liber...

Tariq D. Khan, "The Republic Shall be Kept Clean: How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression" (U Illinois Press, 2023)

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Republic Will Be Kept Clean: How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression (University of Illinois Press, 2023) by Dr. Tariq D. Khan e...

Aurelian Craiutu, "Why Not Moderation?: Letters to Young Radicals" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Moderation is often presented as a simple virtue for lukewarm and indecisive minds, searching for a fuzzy center between the extremes. Not surprisingl...

John Arena, "Expelling Public Schools: How Antiracist Politics Enable School Privatization in Newark" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Exploring the role of identitarian politics in the privatization of Newark’s public school system In Expelling Public Schools, John Arena explores t...

Rachel O'Dwyer, "Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform" (Verso, 2023)

08 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Platform capitalism is coming for the money in your pocket. Wherever you look, money is being re-placed by tokens. Digital platforms are issuing new ...

Stephanie R. Larson, "What It Feels Like: Visceral Rhetoric and the Politics of Rape Culture" (Pennsylvania State UP, 2021)

08 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What it feels like: Visceral Rhetoric and the Politics of Rape Culture (Penn State Press, 2021) by Dr. Stephanie Larson interrogates an underexamined...

Sharon Patricia Holland, "an other: a black feminist consideration of animal life" (Duke UP, 2023)

07 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In an other: a black feminist examination of animal life (Duke UP, 2023), Sharon Patricia Holland offers a new theorization of the human animal/divi...

Joshua May, "Neuroethics: Agency in the Age of Brain Science" (Oxford UP, 2023)

07 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is free will an illusion? Is addiction a brain disease? Should we enhance our brains beyond normal? Neuroethics: Agency in the Age of Brain Science ...

S. D. Chrostowska, "Utopia in the Age of Survival: Between Myth and Politics" (Stanford UP, 2021)

06 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A pathbreaking exploration of the fate of utopia in our troubled times, this book shows how the historically intertwined endeavors of utopia and criti...

Visibility

06 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of High Theory, Margaret Galvan talks about the queer politics of Visibility. In her work the activist practices of representation tak...

John Guillory Professes Criticism (JP, Nick Dames)

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

John Guillory (NYU English author of the pathbreaking Cultural Capital) is here to discuss his amazing new Professing Criticism: Essays on the Orga...

Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson, "Slavery, Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution" (Polity, 2023)

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In their remarkable new book Slavery, Capitalism, and the Industrial Revolution (Polity, 2023), Professor Maxine Berg and Professor Pat Hudson “fo...

Philippe Huneman, "Why?: The Philosophy Behind the Question" (Stanford UP, 2023)

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why did triceratops have horns? Why did World War I occur? Why does Romeo love Juliet? And, most importantly, why ask why? In Why?: The Philosophy Be...

Naisargi N. Davé, "Indifference: On the Praxis of Interspecies Being" (Duke UP, 2023)

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Indifference: On the Praxis of Interspecies Being (Duke UP, 2023), Naisargi N. Davé examines the complex worlds of animalists and animalism in ...

Kevin F. Adler and Donald W. Burnes, "When We Walk By: Forgotten Humanity, Broken Systems, and the Role We Can Each Play in Ending Homelessness in America" (North Atlantic Books, 2023)

01 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Think about the last time that you saw or interacted with an unhoused person. What did you do? What did you say? Did you offer money or a smile, or di...

Melanie Williams, "A Taste of Honey" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

01 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What makes a film a classic? In A Taste of Honey (Bloomsbury, 2023), published as part of the BFI Film Classics series, Melanie Williams, a Profes...

Joo Ok Kim, "Warring Genealogies: Race, Kinship, and the Korean War" (Temple UP, 2022)

30 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“[W]hat is our relationship to the Korean War and to the affinities” of different institutions that produce knowledge about the Korean War? (130) ...

Michael D. Smith, "The Abundant University: Remaking Higher Education for a Digital World" (MIT Press, 2023)

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For too long, our system of higher education has been defined by scarcity: scarcity in enrollment, scarcity in instruction, and scarcity in credential...

Michael D. Gordin, "Pseudoscience: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2023)

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone has heard of the term "pseudoscience," typically used to describe something that looks like science, but is somehow false, misleading, or unp...

Alda Balthrop-Lewis, "Thoreau's Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Balthrop-Lewis's Thoreau's Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism (Cambridge UP, 2021) presents a ground-breaking in...

Kathrin Eitel, "Recycling Infrastructures in Cambodia: Circularity, Waste, and Urban Life in Phnom Penh" (Routledge, 2022)

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kathrin Eitel's book Recycling Infrastructures in Cambodia: Circularity, Waste, and Urban Life in Phnom Penh (Routledge, 2022) examines the recyclin...

C. J. Pascoe, "Nice Is Not Enough: Inequality and the Limits of Kindness at American High" (U California Press, 2023)

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nice is not enough: Inequality and the Limits of Kindness at American High (University of California Press, 2023) by Dr. C. J. Pascoe is a provocativ...

Tanya Maria Golash-Boza, "Before Gentrification: The Creation of DC's Racial Wealth Gap" (U California Press, 2023)

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This book shows how a century of redlining, disinvestment, and the War on Drugs wreaked devastation on Black people and paved the way for gentrificati...

Takeo Rivera, "Model Minority Masochism: Performing the Cultural Politics of Asian American Masculinity" (Oxford UP, 2022)

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are few grand narratives that loom over Asian Americans more than the “model minority.” While many Asian Americanist scholars and activists ...

Global Inequality: Are We Really Measuring What We Should Be Measuring?

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI director John Torpey interviewed Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at the University of Massachuset...

Lenora Hanson, "The Romantic Rhetoric of Accumulation" (Stanford UP, 2022)

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lenora Hanson's The Romantic Rhetoric of Accumulation (Stanford UP, 2022) provides an account of the long arc of dispossession from the British Rom...

The Future of Anarchism: A Discussion with Ruth Kinna

16 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

50 years ago, anarchism was written off by some as a set of outdated idealistic ideas that had no contemporary relevance. Then came protests at events...

Margaret Galvan, "In Visible Archives: Queer and Feminist Visual Culture in the 1980s" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)

16 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In In Visible Archives: Queer and Feminist Visual Culture in the 1980s (U Minnesota Press, 2023), Margaret Galvan explores a number of feminist and ...

Charlotte Lydia Riley, "Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain " (Penguin, 2023)

15 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Can Britain escape from being a nation trapped in its past? In Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain (Penguin, 2023), Charlotte Ly...

Christopher Paul Harris, "To Build a Black Future: The Radical Politics of Joy, Pain, and Care" (Princeton UP, 2023)

15 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When #BlackLivesMatter emerged in 2013, it animated the most consequential Black-led mobilization since the civil rights and Black power era. Today, t...

Jonathan Leal, "Dreams in Double Time: On Race, Freedom, and Bebop" (Duke UP, 2023)

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Dreams in Double Time: On Race, Freedom, and Bebop (Duke UP, 2023), Jonathan Leal examines how the musical revolution of bebop opened up new fut...

Matthew McManus, "The Political Right and Equality: Turning Back the Tide of Egalitarian Modernity" (Routledge, 2023)

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

McManus presents an intellectual history of the conservative and reactionary tradition, stretching from Aristotle and Filmer to Alexander Dugin and Pa...

Michèle Lamont, "Seeing Others: How Recognition Works-And How It Can Heal a Divided World" (Atria, 2023)

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How can we challenge and change inequalities? In Seeing Others: How Recognition Works— and How It Can Heal a Divided World (Atria, 2023), Michele...

A Better Way to Buy Books

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bookshop.org is an online book retailer that donates more than 80% of its profits to independent bookstores. Launched in 2020, Bookshop.org has alre...

William Darity et al., "The Black Reparations Project: A Handbook for Racial Justice" (U California Press, 2023)

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A surge in interest in black reparations is taking place in America on a scale not seen since the Reconstruction Era. The Black Reparations Project: ...

Vincent W. Lloyd, "Black Dignity: The Struggle Against Domination" (Yale UP, 2022)

09 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This radical work by one of the leading young scholars of Black thought delineates a new concept of Black dignity, yet one with a long history in Blac...

Shai M. Dromi and Samuel D. Stabler, "Moral Minefields: How Sociologists Debate Good Science" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Where does morality fit into contemporary social science? In Moral Minefields: How Sociologists Debate Good Science (U Chicago Press, 2023), Sha...

Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek, "After Work: A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time" (Verso, 2023)

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Does it ever feel like you have no free time? You come home after work and instead of finding a space of rest and relaxation, you're confronted by a p...

Kenneth J. Saltman, "The Alienation of Fact: Digital Educational Privatization, AI, and the False Promise of Bodies and Numbers" (MIT Press, 2022)

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today, conspiracy theories run rampant, attacks on facts have become commonplace, and systemic inequities are on the rise as individual and collective...

Al Davidoff, "Unionizing the Ivory Tower: Cornell Workers' Fifteen-Year Fight for Justice and a Living Wage" (ILR Press, 2023)

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Unionizing the Ivory Tower: Cornell Workers' Fifteen-Year Fight for Justice and a Living Wage (ILR Press, 2023) chronicles how a thousand low-paid cu...

Marisa Holmes, "Organizing Occupy Wall Street: This is Just Practice" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

26 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Organizing Occupy Wall Street: This is Just Practice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) is the first study of the processes and structures of the Occupy Wal...

Juliana Hu Pegues, "Space-Time Colonialism: Alaska's Indigenous and Asian Entanglements" (UNC Press, 2021)

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As the enduring "last frontier," Alaska proves an indispensable context for examining the form and function of American colonialism, particularly in t...

Christina Heatherton, "Arise!: Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution" (U California Press, 2022)

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Mexican Revolution was a global event that catalyzed international radicals in unexpected sites and struggles. Tracing the paths of figures like B...

Travis Holloway, "How to Live at the End of the World: Theory, Art, and Politics for the Anthropocene" (Stanford UP, 2022)

23 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

the near universal disappearance of shared social enterprise: the ruling class builds walls and lunar shuttles, while the rest of us contend with the ...

Mary Edwards, "Sartre’s Existential Psychoanalysis: Knowing Others" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

19 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Thinking of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, it is hard to think of him without imagining him in very particular contexts. One will likely ima...

Renyi Hong, "Passionate Work: Endurance after the Good Life" (Duke UP, 2022)

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Passionate Work: Endurance after the Good Life (Duke UP, 2022), Renyi Hong theorizes the notion of being "passionate about your work" as an affe...

Hans Kundnani, "Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project" (Hurst, 2023)

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Today’s 'pro-Europeans' would be horrified at the suggestion that their idea of Europe had anything to do with whiteness. In fact, many would find ...

Ramzi Fawaz, "The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics" (NYU Press, 2016)

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s guest is Ramzi Fawaz, the Romnes Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Published by NYU Press in 2016, The New Mutan...

Scott Skinner-Thompson, "Privacy at the Margins" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

16 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Limited legal protections for privacy leave minority communities vulnerable to concrete injuries and violence when their information is exposed. In P...

Keith A. Mayes, "The Unteachables: Disability Rights and the Invention of Black Special Education" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)

13 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Unteachables: Disability Rights and the Invention of Black Special Education (U Minnesota Press, 2023) examines the overrepresentation of Black s...

Michael J. Diamond, "Ruptures in the American Psyche: Containing Destructive Populism in Perilous Times" (Phoenix Publishing, 2022)

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Michael J. Diamond's book Ruptures in the American Psyche: Containing Destructive Populism in Perilous Times (Phoenix Publishing, 2022) describes Tr...

Zahi Zalloua, "Solidarity and the Palestinian Cause: Indigeneity, Blackness, and the Promise of Universality" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Zahi Zalloua provides the first examination of Palestinian identity from the perspective of Indigeneity and Critical Black Studies. Examining the Pale...

Elizabeth Humphrys, "How Labour Built Neoliberalism: Australia's Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project" (Haymarket, 2019)

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why do we always assume it was the New Right that was at the centre of constructing neoliberalism? How might corporatism have advanced neoliberalism? ...

Cory Doctorow, "The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation" (Verso, 2023)

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Big Tech locked us into their systems by making their platforms hard to leave by design. The impossibility of staying connected to people on their pla...

Wendy A. Woloson, "Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America" (U Chicago Press, 2020)

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why are our lives filled with so much stuff? In Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America (U Chicago Press, 2023), Wendy Woloson, Professor and C...

Frank Jacob, "Wallerstein 2.0: Thinking and Applying World-Systems Theory in the 21st Century" (Transcript Publishing, 2022)

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Immanuel Wallerstein's world-systems theory can help to better understand and describe developments of the 21st century. The contributors of Wallerst...

Philip Roscoe, "How to Build a Stock Exchange: The Past, Present and Future of Finance" (Bristol UP, 2023)

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why does the financial sector matter? In How to Build a Stock Exchange: The Past, Present and Future of Finance (Bristol UP, 2023), Philip Roscoe, ...

Falguni A. Sheth, "Unruly Women: Race, Neocolonialism, and the Hijab" (Oxford UP, 2022)

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Unruly Women: Race, Neocolonialism, and the Hijab (Oxford UP, 2022), Falguni Sheth explores the multiple ways that liberalism is understood and e...

James Crossley and Robert J. Myles, "Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict" (Zero Books, 2023)

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alongside their collective acumen in traditional historical-critical and social-scientific approaches to the New Testament, James Crossley and Robert ...

Ben Highmore, "Lifestyle Revolution: How Taste Changed Class in Late 20th-Century Britain" (Manchester UP, 2023)

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How did the rise of consumerism impact Britain? In Lifestyle Revolution: How Taste Changed Class in Late 20th-Century Britain (Manchester UP, 2023),...

Blair Kelley, "Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class" (LIveright, 2023)

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the United States, the stoicism and importance of the “working class” is part of the national myth. The term is often used to conjure the contr...

Manfred B. Steger and Ravi K. Roy, "Neoliberalism: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2021)

30 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anchored in the principles of free-market economics, neoliberalism emerged in the 1990s as the world's most dominant economic paradigm. It has been as...

Jade E. Davis, "The Other Side of Empathy" (Duke UP, 2023)

30 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In The Other Side of Empathy (Duke UP, 2023), Jade E. Davis contests the value of empathy as an affective or critical tool. Whether focusing on tech...