John Drabinski, "So Unimaginable a Price: Baldwin and the Black Atlantic" (Northwestern UP, 2025)
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What is the central premise of Drabinski’s book on James Baldwin and the Black Atlantic?
Hi everyone, this is Marshall Poe. I'm the founder of the New Books Network, and I'm also a historian. I used to be a history professor, and I love maps, so I'm especially happy to tell you that this episode is sponsored by What's Your Map, which was the winner of the Best Education Podcast at the 2025 British Podcast Awards. What's Your Map is hosted by historian and prize-winning author Professor Jerry Broughton. In each episode, he invites a guest to share a map close to their heart and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it. I can tell you I've listened and it's fascinating. The podcast is in its sixth series and is enjoyed by audiences around the globe. You can explore all the maps in the podcast online.
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Hello and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Sarah Tyson, Associate Professor of Philosophy, the University of Colorado, Denver. I'm co-host of the channel, along with Carrie Fichtor and Blaine Neufeld. Together we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books, drawing from a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical inquiry. Today's interview is with John Drabinski, professor in the Department of African American and Africana Studies, with a joint appointment in the Department of English at the University of Maryland. His book, So Unimaginable a Price, Baldwin and the Black Atlantic, is just out from Northwestern University Press.
What happens if we turn to James Baldwin, not just for the amazing quotations and excellent photos, but as a critical theorist? What if we read his nonfiction philosophically? What can Baldwin help us understand and do now? In so unimaginable a price, Drabinsky takes up this project to give a sustained philosophical reading of Baldwin's nonfiction. Drabinski does so to understand the event of Baldwin's contributions in the context of the Black Atlantic. Baldwin was a thinker who looked to the United States, even when in exile. But he was also in the broader context of the mid-20th century Black Atlantic, of which he was surely aware but wrote little. What if we read for what was absent from Baldwin's texts?
John Drabinski, welcome to New Books and Philosophy.
Thank you. I'm super happy to be here. I had a slew of books come out and this is my first time getting a chance to talk about it. So I appreciate your time, taking time to talk to me about this. I look forward to conversation.
Me too. Well, will you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background as a theorist and how you came to write this book on Baldwin?
So I was thinking about this. I mean, there's a short version. There's a very long version because I can talk for a long time, as any of my students can attest. But I'll try to give a sort of more medium length version. I have had a kind of quirky intellectual journey. I did my Ph.D. in philosophy at University of Memphis, wrote my dissertation on Emanuel Levinas and classical phenomenology with Robert Bernasconi. and trained really in post-World War II Jewish philosophy, post-structuralism. And when I finished my dissertation, I had a postdoctoral fellowship at Florida Atlantic University, and that allowed me to finish my book manuscript, which was my dissertation revised. And like most people finishing their first book, I came across that existential experience that no one warns you about, which is, what am I going to do next?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the central premise of Drabinski’s book on James Baldwin and the Black Atlantic?
0:00–10:03
2
How did Drabinski’s academic journey shape his approach to Baldwin’s nonfiction?
10:03–20:29
3
Why does Drabinski focus on Baldwin’s “absences” and the auction‑block origin story?
20:29–33:59
4
What key Black Atlantic thinkers does Drabinski bring into conversation with Baldwin?
33:59–47:07
5
How does the concept of vernacular culture illuminate Baldwin’s theory of Black English?
47:07–56:24
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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