New Books Network
Critical Theory
Historical Materialism October 25, 2021

Lukács

Praxis and the Absolute

Daniel Andrés López

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
The Hungarian Marxist philosopher George Lukács has long occupied a complicated place in the Marxist canon of thinkers, both his lived and theoretical practice subject to much critical commentary …

Critical Theory

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Interviews with scholars of critical theory about their new books.

Performing Arts October 21, 2021

(Re:) Claiming Ballet

Adesola Akinleye

Hosted by Renee Garris
(Re:) Claiming Ballet (Intellect Books, 2021) by Dr. Adesola Akinleye explores the history of movement through ballet, representation, and the future of dance. Though ballet is often seen as a white …
Critical Theory October 21, 2021

The Care Crisis

What Caused It and How Can We End It?

Emma Dowling

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
What is the future of care? In The Care Crisis: What Caused It and How Can We End It? (Verso, 2021),  Emma Dowling, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, University …
Anthropology October 20, 2021

Screen Shots

State Violence on Camera in Israel and Palestine

Rebecca L. Stein

Hosted by Mathew Gagné
In the last two decades, amid the global spread of smartphones, state killings of civilians have increasingly been captured on the cameras of both bystanders and police. Screen Shots: State …
Art October 19, 2021

Investigative Aesthetics

Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth

Matthew Fuller

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Today, journalists, legal professionals, activists, and artists challenge the state's monopoly on investigation and the production of narratives of truth. They probe corruption, human rights violations, environmental crimes, and technological …
Critical Theory October 18, 2021

Digital Black Feminism

Catherine Knight Steele

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
How have Black women lead a digital revolution? In Digital Black Feminism (NYU Press, 2021), Catherine Knight Steele, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Maryland, places digital Black …
Politics & Polemics October 18, 2021

Skirmishes

With Friends, Enemies, and Neutrals

Graham Harman

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
One of the fifty most influential living philosophers, a “self-promoting charlatan” (Brian Leiter), and the orchestrator of an “online orgy of stupidity” (Ray Brassier). In Skirmishes: With Friends, Enemies, and …
African American Studies October 14, 2021

The Other Side of Terror

Black Women and the Culture of US Empire

Erica R. Edwards

Hosted by Brittney Edmonds
Dr. Erica R. Edwards's The Other Side of Terror: Black Women and the Culture of US Empire (New York University, 2021) reveals the troubling intimacy between Black women and the making of US …
General History October 14, 2021

Imperial Nostalgia

How the British Conquered Themselves

Peter Mitchell

Hosted by Michael Vann
With Imperial Nostalgia: How the British Conquered Themselves (Manchester UP, 2020) Peter Mitchell offers a “history of the present”. That is to say, it is not a narrative of how we got …
European Studies October 13, 2021

New Lefts

The Making of a Radical Tradition

Terence Renaud

Hosted by Mathias Fuelling
In the 1960s, the radical youth of Western Europe’s New Left rebelled against the democratic welfare state and their parents’ antiquated politics of reform. It was not the first time …
General History October 13, 2021

Urgent Archives

Enacting Liberatory Memory Work

Michelle Caswell

Hosted by Ann Choi
Today I talked to Michelle Caswell about her new book Urgent Archives: Enacting Liberatory Memory Work (Routledge, 2021).What is the place of archives in our society? In archival studies, an answer to …
Art October 13, 2021

Between Discipline and a Hard Place

The Value of Contemporary Art

Alana Jelinek

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Some fields have an easier time describing themselves than others. "History is the study of past events." "Biology is the study of living organisms." But art? Is art a discipline …
Intellectual History October 12, 2021

Marxism and America

New Appraisals

Christopher Phelps and Robin Vandome

Hosted by Catriona Gold
If the United States has been so hostile to Marxism, what accounts for Marxism's recurrent attractiveness to certain Americans? Marxism and America: New Appraisals (Manchester University Press, 2021) sheds new light …
Psychoanalysis October 8, 2021

Lacan and Race

Racism, Identity, and Psychoanalytic Theory

Sheldon George and Derek Hook

Hosted by Jordan Osserman
Derek Hook and Sheldon George's Lacan and Race: Racism, Identity and Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2021) is a path-breaking edited volume that draws upon Lacanian psychoanalytic theory to examine the conscious and unconscious forces …
General History October 8, 2021

Working Class History

Everyday Acts of Resistance & Rebellion

Working Class History Collective

Hosted by Michael Vann
Personally, I hate the This-Day-in-History genre. Far too often it is some Great-Man-History trope, representing a rather archaic way of thinking about history. However, I love the social media accounts …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery October 8, 2021

Mexican Drug Violence

Hybrid Warfare, Predatory Capitalism and the Logic of Cruelty

Teun Voeten

Hosted by Geert Slabbekoorn
With an estimated 250,000 people killed in 15 years, the Mexican drug war is the most violent conflict in the Western world. It shows no sign of abating. In Mexican …
Historical Materialism October 7, 2021

Becoming Marxist

Studies in Philosophy, Struggle, and Endurance

Ted Stolze

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
Marxism is having a moment; higher workloads, stagnating wages, rising costs of living, a new economic crisis every few years, a warming climate and now almost two years of …
Geography October 6, 2021

The Nature of Space

Milton Santos

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
The Nature of Space (Duke UP, 2021) is a translation (by Brenda Baletti) of pioneering geographer Milton Santos' A Natureza do Espaço, originally published in Brazil in 1996. The book offers a theory …
Language October 6, 2021

Orientalism, Philology, and the Illegibility of the Modern World

Henning Trüper

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
At the turn of the nineteenth century, European philologists were engaged in the study of Semitic languages and Indology, breaking with the past in many ways. To understand this period …
Critical Theory October 5, 2021

Cataloguing Culture

Legacies of Colonialism in Museum Documentation

Hannah Turner

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
How does colonialism still shape museums today? In Cataloguing Culture: Legacies of Colonialism in Museum Documentation (UBC Press, 2020), Hannah Turner, an assistant professor in the School of Information at the …