Category Archives: People

Ernst Kantorowicz and the California Loyalty Oath

Posted on February 16, 2025 by stuartelden

In 1950, the medieval historian Ernst Kantorowicz privately published, at his own expense, a short book entitled The Fundamental Issue. It cost him $425 – perhaps about $5000 today. It concerned a loyalty oath at the University of California, first proposed … Continue reading →

Posted in Ernst Kantorowicz, Sunday Histories, William Shakespeare | 13 Comments

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 26: Benveniste’s late publications; Sunday Histories; beginning archival work in the United States

Posted on February 14, 2025 by stuartelden

Since the last update in December, I’ve been making some good progress on this project. The focus has mainly been on Benveniste’s work in the 1960s. But, as ever, I’ve found myself backtracking to earlier parts of his career and seeing some potentially … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Georges Dumézil, Henri Lefebvre, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized, Understanding Henri Lefebvre | Leave a comment

Vladimir Nabokov, Roman Jakobson, Marc Szeftel and The Song of Igor

Posted on February 9, 2025 by stuartelden

Superficially at least, the stories of Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) and Roman Jakobson (1896-1982) would seem to connect. Both were born in Russia – Nabokov in Saint Petersburg; Jakobson in Moscow; both went into exile after the Revolution – Nabokov in … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Georges Dumézil, Jean Gottmann, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized, Vladimir Nabokov | 17 Comments

Special issue: Alexandre Kojève and Russian Philosophy – Studies in East European Thought, eds. Isabel Jacobs and Trevor Wilson, March 2024

Posted on February 5, 2025 by stuartelden

Special issue: Alexandre Kojève and Russian Philosophy – Studies in East European Thought, eds. Isabel Jacobs and Trevor Wilson, March 2024 Alexandre Kojève and Russian philosophy, Isabel Jacobs & Trevor Wilson The paradoxical anchoring of Kojève’s philosophizing in the tradition … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Kojève, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Gillian Rose articles in Thesis Eleven

Posted on February 3, 2025 by stuartelden

Some new articles about Gillian Rose in Thesis Eleven Michael Lazarus, Economy and state: The politics of citizenship and universality in Gillian Rose, Hannah Arendt and Rosa Luxemburg – open access J.M. Bernstein, Reification in the age of climate catastrophe: … Continue reading →

Posted in Gillian Rose, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Sunday histories – short essays on Progressive Geographies

Posted on February 2, 2025 by stuartelden

Updated June 2025: The full list of essays in this series is here. Over the past several years, my Progressive Geographies blog has become too much of a noticeboard, sharing information about books, talks or shorter pieces by other people … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories | 2 Comments

Thomas Sebeok, Umberto Eco and the Semiotics of Nuclear Waste

Posted on February 2, 2025 by stuartelden

The oldest texts preserved are inscriptions which date back about 5,000 years, though the dating is disputed, and how they should be read presents its own controversies. Most of the earliest texts are on tablets or in stone; with surviving … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Julia Kristeva, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Umberto Eco | 19 Comments

Alexander Aerts, “Alexandre Kojève: Bildung in a Revolutionary Cell” – Journal of the History of Ideas blog

Posted on January 31, 2025 by stuartelden

Alexander Aerts, “Alexandre Kojève: Bildung in a Revolutionary Cell” – Journal of the History of Ideas blog In 1918 the Russian-French philosopher Alexandre Kojève (1902-1968) was caught selling soap on the black-market in Moscow by the Tchèka, the political police … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Kojève | Leave a comment

Mathelinda Nabugodi, Shelley with Benjamin: A Critical Mosaic – UCL Press, January 2023 (open access)

Posted on January 30, 2025 by stuartelden

Mathelinda Nabugodi, Shelley with Benjamin: A Critical Mosaic – UCL Press, January 2023 (open access) *Yet what surprises me most of all at this time is that what I have written consists, as it were, almost entirely of quotations. – … Continue reading →

Posted in Walter Benjamin | Leave a comment

Kevin B. Anderson, The Late Marx’s Revolutionary Roads: Colonialism, Gender, and Indigenous Communism – Verso, March 2025

Posted on January 29, 2025 by stuartelden

Kevin B. Anderson, The Late Marx’s Revolutionary Roads: Colonialism, Gender, and Indigenous Communism – Verso, March 2025 The author of the acclaimed Marx at the Margins analyses the late Marx on Indigenous communism, gender, and anti-colonialism. In his late writings, Marx went beyond the … Continue reading →

Posted in Karl Marx | 1 Comment