Category Archives: Uncategorized

Peter E. Gordon, Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver – Yale University Press, April 2026

Peter E. Gordon, Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver – Yale University Press, April 2026 update April 2026 – New Books discussion with Abe Silberstein. Thanks to dmf for the link. update 2: interview with Lilia Endter at the Journal of … Continue reading →

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Gavin Healy, A Guide to Mao’s China: Showing the Nation to Foreign Guests – Cornell University Press, June 2026

Gavin Healy, A Guide to Mao’s China: Showing the Nation to Foreign Guests – Cornell University Press, June 2026 A Guide to Mao’s China explores how personnel within China’s state tourism bureaucracy during the Mao era struggled to balance inbound foreign … Continue reading →

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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

Posted in Baruch Spinoza, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

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 update October 2026: New Books network discussion with Miranda Melcher Most international organisations today-from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to the … 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 →

Posted in Clémence Ramnoux, Georges Canguilhem, Michel Foucault, Michel Serres, Pierre Bourdieu, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 5 Comments