Category Archives: Uncategorized

Diego Donna, Spinoza and the Rise of Systems: Reception and Critique in the French Enlightenment – trans. Brent Waterhouse, Edinburgh University Press, February 2026

Diego Donna, Spinoza and the Rise of Systems: Reception and Critique in the French Enlightenment – trans. Brent Waterhouse, Edinburgh University Press, February 2026

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Louis Blin, Napoléon et l’Islam, Erick Bonnier, 2025 and Napoléon et l’Arabie, forthcoming

Louis Blin, Napoléon et l’Islam, Erick Bonnier, 2025 « La religion de Mahomet est la plus belle » ; « J’aime l’islam, vénère le Prophète, respecte le Coran » ; « J’aime mieux la religion de Mahomet. Elle est moins … Continue reading

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Wendy Wolford, The Plantation Ideal: Landscapes of Extraction in Mozambique – University of California Press, November 2025 and New Books discussion

Wendy Wolford, The Plantation Ideal: Landscapes of Extraction in Mozambique – University of California Press, November 2025 New Books discussion with Miranda Melcher – thanks to dmf for the link Plantations have been the privileged tool of colonial rule and … Continue reading

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Afshin Matin-Asgari, Axis of Empire: A History of Iran–US Relations – Verso, January 2026

Afshin Matin-Asgari, Axis of Empire: A History of Iran–US Relations – Verso, January 2026 A chronicle of intrigue and influence in the Iran-US entanglement Ironic plot twists and colorful characters abound in Afshin Matin-Asgari’s accessible history of relations between the … Continue reading

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Amar Thorton and Katherine Harloe, Women Working the Past: Archaeology, History and Heritage in Britain, 1870–1950 – University of London Press, December 2026

Amar Thorton and Katherine Harloe, Women Working the Past: Archaeology, History and Heritage in Britain, 1870–1950 – University of London Press, December 2026 This book offers a new history of women’s integral contribution to archaeology, history, and heritage in nineteenth- … Continue reading

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‘A Line Is Followed, a Strategy Is Constructed – An Interview with Henri Lefebvre (1979)’, trans. Roberto Mozzachiodi, Historical Materialism (open access)

‘A Line Is Followed, a Strategy Is Constructed – An Interview with Henri Lefebvre (1979)’, trans. Roberto Mozzachiodi, Historical Materialism (open access) This interview with Henri Lefebvre was conducted for the French Communist Party (PCF) journal La Nouvelle Critique in … Continue reading

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Jan Eijking, The Technocratic International: Experts and the Making of a World from Nowhere – Oxford University Press, July 2026

Jan Eijking, The Technocratic International: Experts and the Making of a World from Nowhere – Oxford University Press, July 2026 Most international organisations today-from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to the World Health Organisation-present themselves as technical institutions separate from political … Continue reading

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A 1970 French interdisciplinary seminar on structuralism, organised by Gilbert Gadoffre, André Lichnerowicz and François Perroux, and attended by Suzanne Bachelard, Pierre Bourdieu, Georges Canguilhem, Michel Foucault, André Martinet, Jacques Monod, Clémence Ramnoux, Michel Serres, Gilbert Simondon and René Thom

An interdisciplinary seminar on structuralism was held in France in September 1970. Attended by a wide range of speakers, it was an interesting moment in the French reception of this trend in ‘French theory’. Back in October 2022 I posted a … Continue reading

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Onur Erdur, School of the South: The Colonial Roots of French Theory – trans. Andrew Brown, Polity, July 2026

Onur Erdur, School of the South: The Colonial Roots of French Theory – trans. Andrew Brown, Polity, July 2026 Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Hélène Cixous, Jean-François Lyotard, Étienne Balibar, Jacques Rancière: these were among the luminaries of … Continue reading

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Elizabeth Campbell, Museum Worthy: Nazi Art Plunder in Postwar Western Europe – Oxford University Press, August 2024

Elizabeth Campbell, Museum Worthy: Nazi Art Plunder in Postwar Western Europe – Oxford University Press, August 2024 I’m late in noticing this, but I’ve just read her previous book, Defending National Treasures: French Art and Heritage Under Vichy (Stanford University … Continue reading

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