New Books in Political Science

Jennifer Denbow, "Reproductive Labor and Innovation: Against the Tech Fix in an Era of Hype" (Duke UP, 2024)

24 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Reproductive Labor and Innovation: Against the Tech Fix in an Era of Hype (Duke UP, 2024), Jennifer Denbow examines how the push toward technosci...

Middle East on the Brink: Escalation, Diplomacy, and the Search for Stability

24 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Recent developments in the Middle East have raised concern about the potential for a wider regional war. What do escalating tensions in Gaza, Lebanon,...

Talking Thai Politics: Why Thai Politics isn’t All About China

22 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How far does geopolitics relate to domestic political leanings? Are politically progressive Thais more likely to be pro-US, and more politically conse...

Robert B. Talisse, "Civic Solitude: Why Democracy Needs Distance" (Oxford UP, 2024)

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An internet search of the phrase "this is what democracy looks like" returns thousands of images of people assembled in public for the purpose of coll...

Erica Benner, "Adventures in Democracy: The Turbulent World of People Power" (Penguin, 2024)

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Democracy is a living, breathing thing and Dr. Erica Benner has spent a lifetime thinking about the role ordinary citizens play in keeping it alive: f...

Samuel Fury Childs Daly, "Soldier's Paradise: Militarism in Africa After Empire" (Duke UP, 2024)

16 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Soldier's Paradise: Militarism in Africa After Empire (Duke UP, 2024), Samuel Fury Childs Daly tells the story of how Africa’s military dictato...

Tom Theuns, "Protecting Democracy in Europe: Pluralism, Autocracy and the Future of the EU" (Hurst, 2024)

16 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The European Union has a big problem—a potentially fatal one. How should it deal with a member state or states that reject democracy and the rule of...

Lizhi Liu, "From Click to Boom: The Political Economy of E-Commerce in China" (Princeton UP, 2024)

16 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How do states build vital institutions for market development? Too often, governments confront technical or political barriers to providing the rule o...

How Can Going Inside the Political Mind Help Us to Better Understand Development?

15 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why do efforts to build effective states and deliver services to citizens so often go wrong? And how can understanding the inside of the political min...

Postscript: Reflections on the 2024 American Presidential Election

14 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Many pundits are rushing to judgement – claiming to identify the “one” reason that Donald Trump won or Kamala Harris lost the 2024 Presidential ...

Scott J. Weiner, "Kinship, State Formation and Governance in the Arab Gulf States" (Edinburgh UP, 2024)

13 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tribe-state relations are a foundational element of authoritarian bargains in the Middle East, and in particular in the Gulf States. However, the stru...

Anthony Grasso, "Dual Justice: America's Divergent Approaches to Street and Corporate Crime" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The United States incarcerates its citizens for property crime, drug use, and violent crime at a rate that exceeds any other developed nation – and ...

Todd Stern, "Landing the Paris Climate Agreement: How It Happened, Why It Matters, and What Comes Next" (MIT Press, 2024)

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From the U.S. lead negotiator on climate change, an inside account of the seven-year negotiation that culminated in the Paris Climate Agreement in 201...

Talking Thai Politics: Tak Bai and Beyond, Thailand’s Southern Insurgency

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of the twentieth anniversary of the dreadful Tak Bai massacre, what are the prospects for a resolution of the long-standing insurgency in ...

Andrew Stravers et al., "Beyond the Wire: US Military Deployments and Host Country Public Opinion" (Oxford UP, 2022)

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The United States stands at a crossroads in international security. The backbone of its international position for the last 70 years has been the mass...

Why Can’t the US Compete with China in Infrastructure?

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Dr. Shahar Hameiri and Dr. Lee Jones discuss the political economy and financing behind global infrastructure development, with a foc...

The Impeachment Power: A Conversation with Keith Whittington

06 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this week’s episode we step into conversation with Keith Whittington about his new book, The Impeachment Power: The Law, Politics, and Purpose ...

Melissa Teixeira, "A Third Path: Corporatism in Brazil and Portugal" (Princeton UP, 2024)

05 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Following the Great Depression, as the world searched for new economic models, Brazil and Portugal experimented with corporatism as a “third path”...

Unpacking Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia with Dan Slater

05 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s episode focuses on a major issue of enduring importance in Southeast Asia and in Southeast Asian Studies: authoritarianism. Even today, vari...

The Failed Concepts That Brought Israel to October 7

05 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The essay "The Failed Concepts That Brought Israel to October 7" (Mosaic Magazine) by Shany Mor, dated October 7, 2024, examines the intellectual an...

Matthew Ferrence, "I Hate It Here, Please Vote for Me: Essays on Rural Political Decay" (West Virginia UP, 2024)

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Matthew Ferrence about his book I Hate It Here, Please Vote for Me: Essays on Rural Political Decay (West Virginia UP, 2024). Wh...

Graham Brady, "Kingmaker: Secrets, Lies, and the Truth about Five Prime Ministers" (Ithaka, 2024)

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kingmaker: Secrets, Lies, and the Truth about Five Prime Ministers (Ithaka, 2024) by Sir Graham Brady provides an insider’s look at the power st...

Robert A. Schneider, "The Return of Resentment: The Rise and Decline and Rise Again of a Political Emotion" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

02 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The term “resentment,” often casually paired with words like “hatred,” “rage,” and “fear,” has dominated US news analysis since Novemb...

From Rubinomics to Bidenomics: On the Democratic Party’s Shifting Trade & Industrial Policy

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is episode two Cited Podcast’s new season, the Use & Abuse of Economic Expertise. This season tells stories of the political and scholarly ...

Is Democracy Failing to Deliver?

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A common argument to explain the ongoing global democratic crisis is that democracy has failed to deliver safe and prosperous lives for its citizens a...

Kirsten Widner and Anna Gunderson, "The Haves and Have-Nots in Supreme Court Representation and Participation, 2016 to 2021" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There has been a lot of commentary from scholars and journalists as to the meaning of Donald Trump’s three appointments to the United States Supreme...

Anuradha Sajjanhar, "The New Experts: Populist Elites and Technocratic Promises in Modi's India" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How are technocratic experts supporting populist politics? In The New Experts Populist Elites and Technocratic Promises in Modi’s India (Cambridge...

Michael Hardt, "The Subversive Seventies" (Oxford UP, 2023)

29 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A thought-provoking reconsideration of how the revolutionary movements of the 1970s set the mold for today's activism. The 1970s was a decade of "subv...

Melissa Deckman, "The Politics of Gen Z: How the Youngest Voters Will Shape Our Democracy" (Columbia UP, 2024)

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the 2024 American presidential election approaches, it is common to hear scholars and journalists discuss the role of particular groups such as Lat...

Talking Thai Politics: Prajak Kongkirati, Thailand: Contestation, Polarization and Democratic Regression (Cambridge 2024)

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why has Thailand’s politics been so contested and so intensely polarized in recent decades? How can we account for the persistent democratic regress...

India Rising: Navigating the Second Cold War in South Asia from Nepal to the Maldives

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is the role of India in the Second Cold War (SCW) in South Asia? How do local histories, internal politics, and subnational dynamics shape relati...

Arash Azizi, "What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom" (Oneworld, 2024)

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On Tuesday 13 September 2022, all Mahsa Amini has planned is a day shopping in Tehran. Her birthday is next week. But she is arrested as she comes out...

Sarah Ball, "Behavioural Public Policy in Australia: How an Idea Became Practice" (Routledge, 2022)

22 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Weber once remarked that bureaucracy’s power comes from its massing of expert and factual knowledges. It amasses this power, in part, by keeping...

Steven Levitsky, "Tyranny of the Minority: How to Reverse an Authoritarian Turn, and Forge a Democracy for All" (Crown, 2024)

22 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. ...

E. L. Gaston, "Illusions of Control: Dilemmas in Managing U.S. Proxy Forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria" (Columbia UP, 2024)

19 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last two decades, the United States has supported a range of militias, rebels, and other armed groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. Critic...

Jennifer Chudy, "Some White Folks: The Interracial Politics of Sympathy, Suffering, and Solidarity" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There is racial inequality in America, and some people are distressed over it while others are not. Some White Folks: The Interracial Politics of Sym...

Sarah M. Stitzlein, "Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era: Emphasizing Truth in the Education of Citizens" (Oxford UP, 2024)

17 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Democracy is struggling in an age of populism and post-truth. In a world swirling with competing political groups stating conflicting facts, citizens ...

Tevi Troy, "The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry" (Regnery History, 2024)

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When U.S. presidents clash with corporate titans, what tips the balance of power? In The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in ...

The Social Contract in the Ruins: A Conversation with Dr. Paul DeHart

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode of Madison’s Notes, we sit down with Dr. Paul DeHart, professor of Political Science at Texas State University and author of ...

Jamie Furlong and Will Jennings, "The Changing Electoral Map of England and Wales" (Oxford UP, 2024)

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is the connection between where people live and how they vote? In The Changing Electoral Map of England and Wales (Oxford UP, 2024), Jamie Fur...

Marietje Schaake, "The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley" (Princeton UP, 2024)

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past decades, under the cover of "innovation," technology companies have successfully resisted regulation and have even begun to seize power ...

Jacques Bertrand, "Winning by Process: The State and Neutralization of Ethnic Minorities in Myanmar" (Cornell UP, 2022)

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Winning by Process: The State and Neutralization of Ethnic Minorities in Myanmar (Southeast Asia Program Publications/Cornell UP, 2022) asks why the ...

Chris Cutrone, "Marxism and Politics: Essays on Critical Theory 2006-2024" (Sublation Media, 2024)

12 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Capitalism is a revolutionary situation of the last stage of pre-history, and the potential and possibility for freedom, or else it is just what Hegel...

Civil Society in China: How Society Speaks to the State

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What skills and strategies enable civil society to be effective under authoritarian rule? Dr. Runya Qiaoan, assistant professor and senior researcher ...

How have Bureaucratic Politics Undermined Pakistan’s Prospects for Democracy?

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For many years, explanations of Pakistan’s politics and its failed democratic transition have focused on the role of the military and politicians. B...

Victor C. Shih, "Coalitions of the Weak: Elite Politics in China from Mao's Stratagem to the Rise of Xi" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Coalitions of the Weak (Cambridge University Press, 2022), Victor C. Shih investigates how leaders of one-party autocracies seek to dominate the ...

S4E9 The Fragility of China: A Conversation with Dennis Unkovic

09 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of Madison's Notes, we sit down with Dennis Unkovic to discuss his latest book, The Fragility of China (Encounter Books, 2024). Unk...

The Ideology of Democratic Athens

08 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We are Clavis Aurea: a dynamic team constantly looking for ways to make the academic publishing industry grow and to promote groundbreaking academic ...

The UN and its Discreet Diplomacy in Peacemaking

08 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week on International Horizons, RBI Director John Torpey interviews Bertrand Ramcharan, former top UN diplomat and author of the recent book, Th...

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, "Corporatocracy: How to Protect Democracy from Dark Money and Corrupt Politicians" (NYU Press, 2024)

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What threatens American democracy and the rule of law? In her new book, Corporatocracy: How to Protect Democracy from Dark Money and Corrupt Politici...

Jonathan Turley, "The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage" (Simon and Schuster, 2024)

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“It’s a free country.” Many of us recall saying that as children as we learned that we were American citizens who were endowed with certain righ...

Marco Bastos, "Brexit, Tweeted: Polarization and Social Media Manipulation" (Bristol UP, 2024)

06 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dissecting 45 million tweets from the period that followed the Brexit referendum, Brexit, Tweeted: Polarization and Social Media Manipulation (Brist...

Megan Bradley et al., "IOM Unbound?: Obligations and Accountability of the International Organization for Migration in an Era of Expansion" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

05 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It is an era of expansion for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an increasingly influential actor in the global governance of migrat...

Jeffrey Ding, "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers: How Diffusion Shapes Economic Competition" (Princeton UP, 2024)

05 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When scholars and policymakers consider how technological advances affect the rise and fall of great powers, they draw on theories that center the mom...

Alexandre Lefebvre, "Liberalism as a Way of Life" (Princeton UP, 2024)

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why liberalism is all you need to lead a good, fun, worthy, and rewarding life—and how you can become a better and happier person by taking your lib...

Faisal Devji, "Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea" (Harvard UP, 2013)

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Pakistan, founded less than a decade after a homeland for India's Muslims was proposed, is both the embodiment of national ambitions fulfilled and, in...

Sean McMeekin, "To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism" (Basic Books, 2024)

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the world was certain that Communism was dead. Today, three decades later, it is clear that it was not. While Russia ...

Jon Michaels and David Noll, "Vigilante Nation: How State-Sponsored Terror Threatens Our Democracy" (Atria/One Signal, 2024)

03 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Law professors Jon Michaels and David Noll use their expertise to expose how state-supported forms of vigilantism are being deployed by MAGA Republica...

Prabowo Subianto and the Decline of Indonesian Democracy

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s episode focuses on Indonesia, the presidential election held in February 2024, and the impending inauguration of the winner of that election...

Samuel Ely Bagg, "The Dispersion of Power: A Critical Realist Theory of Democracy" (Oxford UP, 2023)

01 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We commonly think of democracy as a social order governed by the people’s collective will. Given the size of the modern states, this picture is typi...

Jerome E. Copulsky, "American Heretics: Religious Adversaries of Liberal Order" (Yale UP, 2024)

01 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A question has long hung over the the United States regarding the proper role of religion in public life. Those who long for a Christian America c...

Emily M. Farris and Mirya R. Holman, "The Power of the Badge: Sheriffs and Inequality in the United States" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The image of the sheriff is deeply embedded in American culture – from pacifist Jimmy Stewart in Destry Rides Again and gun averse Roy Scheider in...

Amos C. Fox, "Conflict Realism: Understanding the Causal Logic of Modern War and Warfare" (Howgate, 2024)

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you seek a compelling exploration of contemporary armed conflict, then Conflict Realism: Understanding the Causal Logic of Modern War and Warfare ...

Inés Valdez, "Democracy and Empire: Labor, Nature, and the Reproduction of Capitalism" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

29 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In scholarly and popular discourse, popular sovereignty and self-determination are typically conceived of as the antitheses of imperialism, while hist...

Jack A. Goldstone, "Revolutions: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2023)

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In their pursuit of social justice, revolutionaries have taken on the assembled might of monarchies, empires, and dictatorships. They have often, thou...

Ian Williams, "Vampire State: The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Economy (Birlinn, 2024)

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

State capitalism. Socialism with Chinese characteristics. A socialist market economy. There have been numerous descriptions of the Chinese economy. Ho...

David L. Swartz, "The Academic Trumpists: Radicals Against Liberal Diversity" (Routledge, 2024)

26 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Remember the bleach drinking episode? Remember ‘alternative facts’? Remember ‘I have the best words’? These elements of the Trump presidency s...

Andrew W. Kahrl, "The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

25 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America (U Chicago Press, 2024), Andrew W. Kahrl uncovers the history of in...

David M. Driesen, "The Specter of Dictatorship: Judicial Enabling of Presidential Power" (Stanford UP, 2021)

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

At the end of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin was asked whether we have a republic or a monarchy. He replied “A Rep...

The Far-Right Threat in German Politics: A Discussion with Marcus Böick

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The recent elections in eastern Germany, where the Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the first far-right party to win a parliamentary election at t...

Ilias Alami and Adam D. Dixon, "The Spectre of State Capitalism" (Oxford UP, 2024)

22 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After close to three decades of the hegemony of free market ideas, the state has made a big comeback as an economic actor since the 2008 financial cri...

Andreas E. Feldmann, "Repertoires of Terrorism: Organizational Identity and Violence in Colombia's Civil War" (Columbia UP, 2024)

22 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why do armed groups employ terrorism in markedly different ways during civil wars? Drawing on more than a decade of fieldwork, Dr. Andreas E. Feldmann...

Joanna Allan, "Silenced Resistance: Women, Dictatorships, and Genderwashing in Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea" (U Wisconsin Press, 2019)

20 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Spain's former African colonies-Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara-share similar histories. Both are under the thumbs of heavy-handed, postcolonial ...

Why Almost Everything You Think about Protests in Africa is Wrong

19 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For decades, media and academic analysis of African politics has emphasised instability, political violence, and male dominance. Yet a brilliant new a...

William H. F. Altman, "The German Stranger: Leo Strauss and National Socialism" (Lexington Books, 2010)

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Leo Strauss was a German-Jewish emigrant to the United States, an author, professor and political philosopher. Born in 1899 in Kirchhain in the Kingdo...

Celebrating Constitution Day, Part. 2: A Conversation with Julia Mahoney

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this conversation, we dive into key issues shaping the legal landscape today: the complexities of constitutional interpretation, the evolving role ...

Kevin J. McMahon, "A Supreme Court Unlike Any Other: The Deepening Divide Between the Justices and the People" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Many scholars and members of the press have argued that John Roberts’ Supreme Court is exceptional. While some emphasize the approach to interpretin...

Meg Rithmire, "Precarious Ties: Business and the State in Authoritarian Asia" (Oxford UP, 2023)

14 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Developing Asia has been the site of some of the last century's fastest growing economies as well as some of the world's most durable authoritarian re...

Jennifer Redmond and Mary McAuliffe, "The Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland: A Reader" (Four Courts Press, 2024)

14 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mary McAuliffe is a historian and lecturer in Gender Studies at UCD. Her latest publications include (is The Diaries of Kathleen Lynn co-authored wi...

Jennifer L. Lambe, "The Subject of Revolution: Between Political and Popular Culture in Cuba" (UNC Press, 2024)

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From television to travel bans, geopolitics to popular dance, The Subject of Revolution: Between Political and Popular Culture in Cuba (UNC Press, 2...

Postscript: Harris, Trump, and the Politics of Presidential Debates

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In June, a presidential debated ended the candidacy of incumbent President Joe Biden. On September 10th, Vice President Kamala Harris and Former Presi...

Lynn M. Tesser, "Rethinking the End of Empire: Nationalism, State Formation, and Great Power Politics" (Stanford UP, 2024)

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why did a nation-state order emerge when nationalist activism was usually an elitist pursuit in the age of empire? Ordinary inhabitants and even most ...

The Political Evolution of Taylor Swift

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the UConn Popcast, and today we offer a political science / popular culture studies view of Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris in th...

Celebrating Constitution Day Pt. 1: A Conversation with Cass R. Sunstein

11 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Join us for an in-depth exploration of Professor Cass Sunstein's latest work, Campus Free Speech (Harvard University Press, September 2024).  Toget...

Are We Experiencing a Crisis of Culture?

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI director John Torpey spoke with Olivier Roy, professor of social and political sciences at the European...

Josh Cowen, "The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers" (Harvard Education Press, 2024)

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

School vouchers are often framed as a way to help students and families by providing choice, but evidence shows that vouchers have a negative impact o...

Kaitlin Sidorsky, "All Roads Lead to Power: The Appointed and Elected Paths to Public Office for US Women" (UP Kansas, 2019)

09 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kaitlin Sidorsky’s new book, All Roads Lead to Power: The Appointed and Elected Paths to Public Office for US Women (University Press of Kansas, 201...

Anthony Michael Kreis, "Rot and Revival: The History of Constitutional Law in American Political Development" (U California Press, 2024)

09 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One of the great divides in American judicial scholarship is between legal scholars who take the justices at their word and assume that those words de...

Aditi Malik, "Playing with Fire: Parties and Political Violence in Kenya and India" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Drawing on a rare cross-regional comparison, Playing with Fire: Parties and Political Violence in Kenya and India (Cambridge UP, 2024) develops a no...

Oren Kroll-Zeldin, "Unsettled: American Jews and the Movement for Justice in Palestine" (NYU Press, 2024)

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Unsettled: American Jews and the Movement for Justice in Palestine (NYU Press, 2024) digs into the experiences of young Jewish Americans who engage ...

Matt Grossmann and David A. Hopkins, "Polarized by Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

05 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past several decades, American society has experienced fundamental changes - from shifting relations between social groups and evolving langu...

E. J. Fagan, "The Thinkers: The Rise of Partisan Think Tanks and the Polarization of American Politics" (Oxford UP, 2024)

04 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Political Scientist E.J. Fagan, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, once worked at a think tank, and...

Daniel Laqua, "Activism Across Borders Since 1870: Causes, Campaigns and Conflicts in and Beyond Europe" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

04 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From the Occupy protests to climate change school strikes and the Black Lives Matter movement, the 21st century has been rife with activism. Although ...

Jonathan Gienapp, "Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique" (Yale UP, 2024)

03 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The legal theory of constitutional originalism has attracted increasing attention in recent years as the US Supreme Court has tilted with the weigh...

David Lay Williams, "The Greatest of All Plagues: How Economic Inequality Shaped Political Thought from Plato to Marx" (Princeton UP, 2024)

03 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Political Theorist David Lay Williams has a new book that traces the problem of economic inequality through the thought of many of the canonical think...

Sanjay Lal, "Gandhi's Thought and Liberal Democracy" (Lexington Books, 2019)

02 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is religion indispensable to public life? What can Gandhi’s thought contribute to the modern state? With an intense focus on both the depth and pra...

Manuela Moschella, "Unexpected Revolutionaries: How Central Banks Made and Unmade Economic Orthodoxy" (Cornell UP, 2024)

01 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Unexpected Revolutionaries: How Central Banks Made and Unmade Economic Orthodoxy (Cornell University Press, 2024), Dr. Manuela Moschella investig...

Wendy Salkin, "Speaking for Others: The Ethics of Informal Political Representation" (Harvard UP, 2024)

01 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We are familiar with the idea of a formal representative, and perhaps the idea of a formal political representative readily comes to mind. Roughly...

What is Going on with Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe?

30 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After being the posterchild of democratization, today Central and Eastern Europe is often seen as the region of democratic backsliding. In this episod...

Bhaskar Sunkara, "The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality" (Basic Books, 2020)

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality (Basic Books, 2020), Bhaskar Sunkara explores socialism's ...