Category Archives: Books

Six degrees of T.S. Eliot – the links through Jean de Menasce to Émile Benveniste

Posted on December 15, 2023 by stuartelden

Given how connected he was, I suppose it was only a matter of time before my Indo-European research project led me in the direction of T.S. Eliot. It came in the lead I was following with Jean de Menasce, who … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 15: A first trip to the Paris archives since the spring and more archive work in the UK

Posted on November 30, 2023 by stuartelden

I’m now back at work full time, though very grateful to be free of teaching and administrative duties, and I am feeling much better and more like myself. I was in Paris for two weeks this month, which was the … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Aurel Stein, Emile Benveniste, Georges Bataille, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Marcel Mauss, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 14: returning to work, tracking Benveniste’s teaching, and working with archives including the Aurel Stein collections in London

Posted on October 31, 2023 by stuartelden

I have now been back at work for a few weeks, initially beginning half-time and gradually increasing what I can do. The support I have had from my department for a long period off work and a phased transition has … Continue reading →

Posted in Aurel Stein, Emile Benveniste, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

On the trail of Aurel Stein – working in archives for the Indo-European thought project

Posted on October 27, 2023 by stuartelden

The research for the Indo-European thought project has been difficult to confine to a solely French focus. I knew I wanted to begin what will probably be the first chapter with the story of the Mission Paul Pelliot, an expedition to Chinese … Continue reading →

Posted in Aurel Stein, Emile Benveniste, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France | 5 Comments

Books received – Renou, Althusser, Safransky, Zumwalt, Woodard

Posted on October 13, 2023 by stuartelden

Mainly bought second-hand for the Indo-European project, along with Sara Safransky, The City after Property: Abandonment and Repair in Postindustrial Detroit, sent by Duke University Press. The Rosemary LévyZumwalt book is the first part Franz Boas: The Emergence of the Anthropologist … Continue reading →

Posted in Friedrich Nietzsche, Louis Althusser, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Uncategorized, urban/urbanisation | Leave a comment

The Birth of Territory is ten years old…

Posted on September 14, 2023 by stuartelden

The book I consider to be my best work – The Birth of Territory – is ten years old this week. It was published by University of Chicago Press in September 2013. It is the most cited, most widely reviewed … Continue reading →

Posted in Territory, The Birth of Territory | Leave a comment

Foucault books – updated page with links to reviews, resources and talks

Posted on August 29, 2023 by stuartelden

I’ve updated the page on this blog about my series of Foucault books, The page has book descriptions, links to reviews, the updates I wrote while researching and writing the books and other related materials. Some translations, scans, textual analysis … Continue reading →

Posted in Canguilhem (book), Foucault's Last Decade, Foucault: The Birth of Power, Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Foucault, The Early Foucault | 1 Comment

Patrick Gamez review of The Early Foucault (Polity, 2021)

Posted on August 4, 2023 by stuartelden

Patrick Gamez has a generous, appreciative and thoughtful review of my 2021 book The Early Foucault in the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. It’s in the same issue as my review of Elisabetta Basso’s Young Foucault (here). … Continue reading →

Posted in The Early Foucault | Leave a comment

Henri Lefebvre’s 1939 book on Nietzsche and the ‘Liste Otto’ – which books of his were banned?

Posted on July 3, 2023 by stuartelden

Update June 2025: a revised and expanded version of this post is here. About twenty years ago, in an essay on Henri Lefebvre, I said that his book on Nietzsche (1939) was on the prohibited ‘Liste Otto’. These were books … Continue reading →

Posted in Friedrich Nietzsche, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Henri Lefebvre, Karl Marx, Understanding Henri Lefebvre | 7 Comments

Saussure’s notes on German legends – cross-references between the different editions of these manuscripts

Posted on June 14, 2023 by stuartelden

I’ve previously discussed reading Ferdinand de Saussure’s work, mainly around the variant texts of his posthumously published Course on General Linguistics, and some of his early work on Indo-European languages. Saussure’s notes on German legends are one of the other major posthumous … Continue reading →

Posted in Ferdinand de Saussure, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Uncategorized | Leave a comment