Monthly Archives: August 2025

Roman Jakobson’s two series of 1972 lectures at the Collège de France – dating, topics and archival traces, and his friendships with Claude Lévi-Strauss and Jacques Lacan

Posted on August 31, 2025 by stuartelden

In Stephen Rudy’s chronology of Roman Jakobson’s career, the entry for 1972 reads, in part:  Visiting Professor, Collège de France, Dec. […] Professeur d’état, Collège de France. Four lectures, Feb. 3-8. How many lectures did he give across the visits, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Antoine Meillet, Étienne Wolff, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Adam A. Blackler, An Imperial Homeland: Forging German Identity in Southwest Africa – Penn State University Press, 2022 and New Books discussion with Steven Seegel 

Posted on August 30, 2025 by stuartelden

Adam A. Blackler, An Imperial Homeland: Forging German Identity in Southwest Africa – Penn State University Press, 2022 At the turn of the twentieth century, depictions of the colonized world were prevalent throughout the German metropole. Tobacco advertisements catered to the … Continue reading →

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Michael Behrent, Becoming Foucault – reviews by Stuart Elden, Ryan L. Allen and Philip Rosemann

Posted on August 29, 2025 by stuartelden

I review Michael Behrent’s Becoming Foucault: The Poitiers Years (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024) in The Journal of Modern History. This review was written and accepted well over a year ago, and it seems crazy to me how long journals … Continue reading →

Posted in Michel Foucault, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Matthew Benjamin Cole, Fear the Future: Dystopia and Political Imagination in the Twentieth Century – University of Michigan Press, August 2025, print and open access

Posted on August 29, 2025 by stuartelden

Matthew Benjamin Cole, Fear the Future: Dystopia and Political Imagination in the Twentieth Century – University of Michigan Press, August 2025, print and open access After centuries of contemplating utopias, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century writers began to warn of dystopian futures. … Continue reading →

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Joe Greenwood-Hau, Capital, Privilege and Political Participation – British Academy/Liverpool University Press August 2025, print and open access

Posted on August 28, 2025 by stuartelden

Joe Greenwood-Hau, Capital, Privilege and Political Participation – British Academy/Liverpool University Press August 2025 (print and open access) Capital, Privilege, and Political Participation examines how privilege and people’s perceptions of it relate to their involvement in politics. It treats people’s stocks … Continue reading →

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Linda M. Lobao and Gregory Hooks eds., Rethinking Spatial Inequality – Edward Elgar, July 2025

Posted on August 27, 2025 by stuartelden

Linda M. Lobao and Gregory Hooks eds., Rethinking Spatial Inequality – Edward Elgar, July 2025 This illuminating book offers a new perspective on social science inquiry into the spatial dimensions of societal well-being; addressing the key question of who gets … Continue reading →

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Berfrois articles – an archive of my pieces for this much-missed site

Posted on August 26, 2025 by stuartelden

Between 2011 and 2022 I wrote eleven pieces for the much-missed Berfrois site. Most were reviews of recent books. Although the site closed to new submissions in 2022, I thought the archive would be preserved. I was therefore disappointed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Ernst Kantorowicz, Foucault's Last Decade, Foucault: The Birth of Power, Georges Dumézil, Immanuel Kant, Michel Foucault, Shakespearean Territories, The Archaeology of Foucault, The Early Foucault, Uncategorized, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Giancarlo Cotella and Umberto Janin Rivolin eds. Handbook of Territorial Government, Edward Elgar, August 2025

Posted on August 26, 2025 by stuartelden

Giancarlo Cotella and Umberto Janin Rivolin eds. Handbook of Territorial Government, Edward Elgar, August 2025 Another really expensive hardback, unfortunately. Integrating political, social, and technical dimensions of territorial governance, this timely Handbook provides insights into the topic from scholars across … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Territory, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Sara Kippur, New York Nouveau: How Postwar French Literature Became American – Stanford University Press, August 2025

Posted on August 25, 2025 by stuartelden

Sara Kippur, New York Nouveau: How Postwar French Literature Became American – Stanford University Press, August 2025 Postwar French writers were at the vanguard of global literary innovation—from the experimental minimalism of the Nouveau Roman to the literary games of the OuLiPo—but … Continue reading →

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Michel Foucault’s early English translations – indications from the archives of the Georges Borchardt literary agency, the memoirs of André Schiffrin and the Susan Sontag connection

Posted on August 24, 2025 by stuartelden

Now it is almost automatic: a new book by Foucault in French is translated within a couple of years. The Collège de France courses, the Vrin series of critical editions of lecture courses and now other material, the fourth volume … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Dumézil, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, The Archaeology of Foucault, Uncategorized | 5 Comments