Political Theory

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Political Bodies

The first edited volume solely dedicated to the philosophy of Adriana Cavaero.

Imagining the American Polity, Second Edition

Traces the history of the concept of democracy in the United States.

The Politics of Orientation

Interlinks Gilles Deleuze's critical philosophy with Niklas Luhmann's systems theory to unpack contemporary democratic politics as a contest for complexity-reducing orientation in sense.

Beyond the Secular

Investigates, through a critical exploration of Derrida's political thought, the foundations of modern secular discourse in relation to issues of race and colonialism.

Critical Theory from the Margins

Putting at work a negative pedagogy centered around learning from unlearning, problematizes and boldly challenges today's culturalist discourses, camouflaged racisms, and masked fascisms.

Order, Crisis, and Redemption

A critical reflection on the limitations of Carl Schmitt's political theology, reconsidered in light of the current crisis of the liberal democratic order.

Global Libidinal Economy

Claims unconscious desire plays a constitutive role in global political economy.

Tradition and the Deliberative Turn

Reframes the discussion of deliberative democracy in a unique fashion, approaching the debate as a historical conversation.

Returning to Judgment

Explores the importance of political judgment in the work of Bernard Stiegler, and argues his approach to judgment marks an important break with continental political thought.

China and Its Small Neighbors

Analyzes the nature, processes, and political consequences of the asymmetrical relationships between China and its six small neighbors in Asia.

Truth and Politics

Endorses the pursuit of paradigm shifts in our understandings of faith, truth, and nature to remedy the "underside" of modernity and thus to inaugurate a post-modern (but not anti-modern) and post-secular (but not anti-secular) view of the world.

Confucian Liberalism

Offers a renovated form of Confucian liberalism that forges a reconciliation between the two extremes of anti-Confucian liberalism and anti-liberal Confucianism.

The Political Theory of Salvage

Explores the political and theoretical significance of the use of salvaging discarded materials by social movements during their protest activities.

Hobbes and the Democratic Imaginary

A critical interrogation of elements of Hobbes's political and natural philosophy and its capacity to enrich our understanding of the nature of democratic life.

Myth and Authority

Argues that Giambattista Vico's early modern account of Roman mythology was a sophisticated attempt to present an epistemological and political critique of the aristocratic way of conceiving the world.

Liberating Revolution

Provides a novel conceptual and practical theory of revolution, engaging previous theories of revolution, contemporary continental philosophy, and systems theory.

The Shadow of Totalitarianism

Examines the relationship of evil, action, and judgment in the work of Immanuel Kant, Hannah Arendt, and Jean-François Lyotard.

The Tyranny of Common Sense

Elucidates how neoliberalism rules all areas of life and operates as a form of common sense, taking Mexico as a case study.

Leo Strauss on Democracy, Technology, and Liberal Education

The first book-length study of Leo Strauss' understanding of the relation between modern democracy, technology, and liberal education.

Capitalism for All

Demonstrates that a true liberal capitalism has the capacity to enable personal well-being while dealing with new challenges such as pandemics, climate change, and automation.

The Future of Lenin

Essays that argue in favor of Lenin's continuing relevance for twenty-first century politics and thought.

The Dialectics of Global Justice

Draws on Marx and the first-generation Frankfurt School to make the case that cosmopolitanism must become a postcapitalist political theory.

A Dangerous Passion

Shows the importance of honor for leaders, both as a source of noble ambition to pursue the public good and as dangerous temptation to seek glory through domination.

Antigone in the Americas

Argues for a decolonial reinterpretation of Sophocles’ classical tragedy, Antigone, that can help us to rethink the anti-colonial politics of militant mourning in the Americas.

Leo Strauss and Contemporary Thought

Broadens the horizons of Strauss’s thought by initiating dialogues between him and figures with whom little or no dialogue has yet occurred.

Battling the Prince

This political memoir exposes the weaknesses of democratic culture in the United States and suggests ways to strengthen it in the face of rising authoritarianism.

Material Insurgency

Examines emerging new materialist and posthuman conceptions of subjectivity and agency, and explores their increasing significance for contemporary climate change environmentalism.

Contribution to the Correction of the Public's Judgments on the French Revolution

First translation into English of Fichte’s major work on the French Revolution.

Endangered Excellence

A fresh look at Aristotle’s political theory with attention to the resonance of his thought for contemporary concerns.

The Specter of Babel

Presents a new way of thinking about fundamental political concepts such as freedom, justice, and the common good.

Contesting the Global Order

Examines how events in the Cold War and post–Cold War periods shaped the intellectual projects of Perry Anderson and Immanuel Wallerstein.

Abolishing Boundaries

Offers new perspectives on modern Chinese political thought.

Taxation in Utopia

An interdisciplinary exploration of utopian political philosophy from the neglected perspective of taxation.

Recovering the Liberal Spirit

Develops a theory of spiritual freedom and explores its relationship to problems of liberal political regimes.

Bastard Politics

Argues that we need to reinvent sovereignty as a motive for democratic political action while remaining alert to its dangers, specifically its relationship to violence.

The Historical Mind

Timely and provocative asessment of various cultural, moral, and political problems in "post-constitutional" America.

Carl Schmitt between Technological Rationality and Theology

Situates Schmitt's legal scholarship in the context of debates regarding whether his thought was more theological or technocratic.

Capital in the Mirror

Analyzes contemporary capitalism through the products of culture and art for fresh insight into emancipatory possibilities concealed within capitalism’s darkest dynamics.

Announcements

A study of novelty through analyses of the language of announcement in revolutionary texts.

Leo Strauss and the Theopolitics of Culture

This archive-based study of the philosophy of Leo Strauss provides in-depth interpretations of key texts and their larger theoretical contexts.

Cosmopolitan Civility

Edited by Ruth Abbey
Subjects: Politics And Law

Essays reflecting on the prolific, pioneering, and wide-ranging scholarship of Fred Dallmayr.

Image and Argument in Plato's Republic

Argues that images are at the heart of the dialogue’s philosophical argumentation.

The Art of Jihad

Identifies and traces the evolution of a forgotten “realist” tradition in medieval Islamic political thought, and considers the prospects for its revival in the context of the contemporary Middle East.

Conflict in Aristotle's Political Philosophy

Offers a careful analysis of how Aristotle understands civil war, partisanship, distrust in government, disagreement, and competition, and explores ways in which these views are relevant to contemporary political theory.

Friedrich Engels and Modern Social and Political Theory

Offers a powerful new interpretation of Engels’s contributions to modern social and political theory.

The Politics of People

Explores the cultural dimensions of protest and dissent in China, focusing on dramatic forms of bodily, spatial, strategic, and artistic performativity.

Homer's Hero

Draws on Plato to argue that Homer elevated private life as the locus of true friendship and the catalyst of the highest human excellence.

Thoughtlessness and Decadence in Iran

Bridges Western and non-Western political thought to address the problem of democracy and political decadance in contemporary Iran and, by implication, similar Islamic societies.

Militant Acts

Offers a history of the role of investigations in radical political struggles from the nineteenth century forward.

Totalitarian Space and the Destruction of Aura

By Saladdin Ahmed
Subjects: Philosophy

Diagnoses our contemporary spatial experience as fundamentally totalitarian through a multilayered critical theory of space.

John Marshall's Constitutionalism

A study of John Marshall's political thought with special emphasis on his views of constitutional legitimacy, sovereignty, citizenship, and national identity.

Boundary Lines

Systematically addresses the philosophical implications of the postcolonial.

Fight to Live, Live to Fight

Examines US foreign and domestic policy through the narratives of post-9/11 US military veterans and the activism they are engaged in.

The Revolution Will Not Be Theorized

Studies the revolutionary theory of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s through ʼ70s, placing it within the broader social theory of black revolution in the United States since the nineteenth century.

Roberto Esposito

Analyzes key concepts and arguments in the work of one of Europe’s leading philosophers.

The New Welfare Consensus

Discusses the conservative ideological and political attack on welfare in the United States.

The Symbolic Order of the Mother

Argues that affirming the irreducible differences between men and women can lead to more transformative politics than the struggle for abstract equality between the sexes.

Confrontational Citizenship

Defends confrontational modes of citizenship as a means to reinvigorate democratic participation and regime accountability.

For Foucault

Calls for a Foucauldian approach to political thought that is intrinsically resistant to power and subordination to public policy.

State Violence and Moral Horror

Explores the concept of "moral horror" as the experience of living amidst unjustifiable state violence.

Toward a Critical Theory of States

In-depth study of the enduring impact of the 1970s debate between state theorists Ralph Miliband and Nicos Poulantzas.

Trendy Fascism

Explores how white supremacist groups use popular music and culture to teach hate and promote violence.

Containing Community

Analyzes the role of community in the writings of Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, and Jean-Luc Nancy.

Between the Rule of Law and States of Emergency

By Yoav Mehozay
Subjects: Area Studies

Raises concerns about the degree to which the rule of law and emergency powers have become fundamentally entangled, using Israel as a case study.

Power

Deepens our understanding of power through a survey of how its dynamics have been understood from ancient times to the present.

Constitutionalism, Executive Power, and the Spirit of Moderation

Leading scholars and legal practitioners explore constitutional, legal, and philosophical topics.

Political Theory and the Animal/Human Relationship

Examines how the animal/human divide has influenced power dynamics.

Anarchism and Art

Interprets popular art forms as exhibiting core anarchist values and presaging a more democratic world.

Contemporary Italian Political Philosophy

Highlights and critically assesses the work of contemporary Italian political philosophers.

Public Spaces, Marketplaces, and the Constitution

Examines how the Supreme Court has banished free expression from shopping malls and other public spaces.

Flower of the Desert

A profound meditation on Leopardi’s art and thought as well as a reframing and reassertion of Negri’s own philosophical and political project of liberation.

The Best Kind of College

Edited by Susan McWilliams & John E. Seery
Subjects: Education

Small college professors from across the United States explain why liberal arts institutions remain the gold standard for higher education.

Machiavelli's Secret

Uncovers clues regarding the inner life of Machiavelli's political leaders.

The Ethics of Democracy

Demonstrates how the ethical underpinning of Hegel’s political and social philosophy has relevance for contemporary democratic life.

Michael Oakeshott and the Conversation of Modern Political Thought

A fresh reading of Oakeshott’s contributions to the ongoing conversation of modern political thought.

Disenchanted Realists, Second Edition

New edition of the provocative history of the tenuous relationship between the scientific study of politics and the real world of American democracy.

The Political Philosophy of Francis Bacon

An ambitious and radically original reading of philosopher Francis Bacon.

The Returns of Antigone

Examines Antigone’s influence on contemporary European, Latin American, and African political activism, arts, and literature.

The Laws of the Spirit

By Shannon Hoff
Subjects: Philosophy

An account of Hegel's political insights and their contemporary relevance.

After Leo Strauss

Proposes a post-Straussian reading of Plato to advance a reconciliation of ancient and modern theories of natural right.

Happiness, Democracy, and the Cooperative Movement

Examines the political significance of ideas about happiness through the work of utilitarian philosophers William Thompson and Jeremy Bentham.

Catastrophe and Redemption

Offers a striking new reading of Agamben’s political thought and its implications for political action in the present.

Doing Democracy

Demonstrates how activists and others use art and popular culture to strive for a more democratic future.

Progressive Minds, Conservative Politics

Compelling account of Strauss's mature Maimonidean writings.

In the Spirit of Critique

Offers a new perspective on the political significance of the Hegelian dialectical legacy.

On the Ethics of Torture

By Uwe Steinhoff
Subjects: Philosophy

A detailed, clear, and comprehensive overview of the current philosophical debate on toture.

A Vigilant Society

Uncovers a fundamental change that took place in Western thinking, especially its departure from the Sephardic philosophy found in the Iberian Peninsula during the 13th century.

Felony Disenfranchisement in America, Second Edition

Reveals how state felony disenfranchisement laws are undermining American democracy.

The State of Sovereignty

Considers the problems of sovereignty through the work of Rousseau, Arendt, Foucault, Agamben, and Derrida.

Marxism and Ethics

Accessible introduction to key thinkers of Marxist theory and the debate on the nature of Marxist ethics.

Mimesis and Reason

Excavates the experiential structure of Habermas’s communicative action.

Between Nihilism and Politics

Essays describe Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo’s unique and radical hermeneutic philosophy.

Educating Democracy

Revisionist analysis of the role of strong leadership in democracies, drawing primarily upon the work of Alexis de Tocqueville.

Eros and the Intoxications of Enlightenment

Provocative reinterpretation of Plato's Symposium.

The Other Side of Gridlock

A detailed study of political gridlock in Congress, offering an alternative perspective for evaluating its persistence and charting a course for change.

The Lockean Commonwealth

Timely reappraisal of John Locke’s thoughts on the clash between executive emergency power and the importance of the rule of law.

Toward a Credible Pacifism

Argues that violence is no more reliable than any other means of conducting politics.

Radicalizing Levinas

Levinas ahead of his time--and himself--on politics, postcolonialism and globalization, animals and the environment, and science and technology.

Beyond Negritude

Key text never before in English by central figure of the Negritude movement.

Tragedy and Citizenship

A study of attitudes towards tragedy in both democratic and nondemocractic political theory.