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Historical Materialism
Biography March 28, 2023

Class Warrior

The Selected Works of E. T. Kingsley

Ravi Malhotra and Benjamin Isitt, editors

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
The socialist activist E. T. Kingsley occupies an odd place in the history of labor and the left. Often mentioned due to his prolific life of speaking, writing, traveling …

Historical Materialism

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Interviews with scholars of historical materialism about their new books.

Art March 19, 2023

Autonomy

The Social Ontology of Art under Capitalism

Nicholas Brown

Hosted by Kaveh Rafie
In Autonomy: The Social Ontology of Art under Capitalism (Duke University Press, 2019), Nicholas Brown offers a fresh perspective on aesthetic autonomy and its political value, one of the great debates of the twentieth century …
Critical Theory January 17, 2023

The Coming of the American Behemoth

The Origins of Fascism in the United States, 1920 -1940

Michael Joseph Roberto

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
The election of Donald Trump in 2016 shocked and appalled a number of people, forcing a critical reevaluation of what was possible, and what we ought to be vigilant …
Caribbean Studies January 8, 2023

The Unexceptional Case of Haiti

Race and Class Privilege in Postcolonial Bourgeois Society

Philippe-Richard Marius

Hosted by Aleem Mahabir
In The Unexceptional Case of Haiti: Race and Class Privilege in Postcolonial Bourgeois Society (University Press of Mississippi, 2022), Philippe-Richard Marius recasts the world-historical significance of the Saint-Domingue Revolution to investigate the twinned significance …
Critical Theory January 2, 2023

Revolutionary Rehearsals in the Neoliberal Age

Colin Barker, Gareth Dale and Neil Davidson

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
The last several decades have seen a mass consolidation of wealth among a few, the rest of the world left to various degrees of dispossession. On top of this …
World Affairs December 28, 2022

Capitalism, Jacobinism and International Relations

Revisiting Turkish Modernity

Eren Duzgun

Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon
Western interpretations of the Ottoman age of reform and the Turkish Republic often evaluate these histories against an idealized, essentialized narrative of the European history, in which a triumphant bourgeois …
Critical Theory December 25, 2022

The Emergence of Trotskyism in the United States: Part 3 of 3

An Interview with Bryan D. Palmer

Bryan D. Palmer

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
Part 3 of 3 parts. In the spring of 1942, James P. Cannon, the founder of American Trotskyism, gave a series of lectures in New York on the first decade …
Critical Theory December 24, 2022

The Emergence of Trotskyism in the United States: Part 2 of 3

An Interview with Bryan D. Palmer

Bryan D. Palmer

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
Part 2 of 3 parts. In the spring of 1942, James P. Cannon, the founder of American Trotskyism, gave a series of lectures in New York on the first decade …
Critical Theory December 23, 2022

The Emergence of Trotskyism in the United States: Part 1 of 3

An Interview with Bryan D. Palmer

Bryan D. Palmer

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
Part 1 of 3 parts. In the spring of 1942, James P. Cannon, the founder of American Trotskyism, gave a series of lectures in New York on the first decade …
British Studies December 23, 2022

The London Revolution 1640 – 1643

Class Struggles in 17th-Century England

Michael Sturza

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
The London Revolution 1640-1643: Class Struggles in 17th-Century England examines the political upheavals that occurred during the reign of Charles the First in London and England more broadly. Michael Sturza offers …
Critical Theory December 18, 2022

Marx's Wager

Das Kapital and Classical Sociology

Thomas M. Kemple

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
Marx’s Capital looms large today, a century and a half after first publication, a massive tome that attempts to document and map out the dynamics of a society consumed by …
Critical Theory December 16, 2022

The British Marxist Historians

Harvey J. Kaye

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
The British Marxist Historians, originally published in 1995, remains the first and most complete study of the founders of one of the most influential contemporary academic traditions in history and social …
Politics & Polemics November 14, 2022

Revisiting Marx’s Critique of Liberalism

Rethinking Justice, Legality and Rights

Igor Shoikhedbrod

Hosted by Lavinia Stan
Is Marx relevant today, after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe? Is Marx’s political theory compatible with individual rights? You will be surprised to learn that the answers are …
High Theory October 4, 2022

Standpoint Theory

A Discussion with Soham Sen

Soham Sen

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Soham Sen talks about standpoint theory, a method of understanding the ways in which individual and collective experience influence public discourses. He begins from its origins in the civil rights …
Critical Theory September 23, 2022

Failure of Vision

Michael Harrington and the Limits of Democratic Socialism

Doug Greene

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
The Democratic Socialists of America have exploded in the last few years, going from just a couple thousand members to close to a hundred thousand. This was from a …
Environmental Studies September 20, 2022

Cannibal Capitalism

How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet and What We Can Do About It

Nancy Fraser

Hosted by Brian Hamilton
Capital is currently cannibalizing every sphere of life–guzzling wealth from nature and racialized populations, sucking up our ability to care for each other, and gutting the practice of politics. In Cannibal …
Politics & Polemics September 15, 2022

Remaindered Life

Neferti X. M. Tadiar

Hosted by Shraddha Chatterjee
In Remaindered Life Neferti X. M. Tadiar offers a new conceptual vocabulary and framework for rethinking the dynamics of a global capitalism maintained through permanent imperial war. Tracking how contemporary …
Historical Materialism July 27, 2022

Automation and Autonomy

Labour, Capital and Machines in the Artificial Intelligence Industry

James Steinhoff

Hosted by Reuben Niewenhuis
Automation and Autonomy: Labour, Capital and Machines in the Artificial Intelligence Industry (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) argues that Marxist theory is essential for understanding the contemporary industrialization of the form of artificial …
Geography June 17, 2022

Climate Change as Class War

Building Socialism on a Warming Planet

Matthew T. Huber

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
The climate crisis is not primarily a problem of ‘believing science’ or individual ‘carbon footprints’ – it is a class problem rooted in who owns, controls and profits from material …
Historical Materialism June 8, 2022

James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928

Bryan D. Palmer

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
The history of revolutionary politics is rich enough that it includes the full spectrum of inspiration and tragedy. Those with revolutionary aspirations have a number of rocks in their …