NB Intellectual History

18/07/2022

LIVING in the FUTURE: Utopianism and the Long Civil Rights Movement (University of Chicago Press) reveals the unexplored impact of utopian thought on the major figures of the Civil Rights Movement.

Utopian thinking is often dismissed as unrealistic, overly idealized, and flat-out impractical-in short, wholly divorced from the urgent conditions of daily life. This is perhaps especially true when the utopian ideal in question is reforming and repairing the United States' bitter history of racial injustice. But as Victoria W. Wolcott provocatively argues, utopianism is actually the foundation of a rich and visionary worldview, one that specifically inspired the major figures of the Civil Rights Movement in ways that haven't yet been fully understood or appreciated.

Wolcott makes clear that the idealism and pragmatism of the Civil Rights Movement were grounded in nothing less than an intensely utopian yearning. Key figures of the time, from Martin Luther King Jr. and Pauli Murray to Father Divine and Howard Thurman, all shared a belief in a radical pacificism that was both specifically utopian and deeply engaged in changing the current conditions of the existing world. Living in the Future recasts the various strains of mid-twentieth-century civil rights activism in a utopian light, revealing the power of dreaming in a profound and concrete fashion, one that can be emulated in other times that are desperate for change, like today. Author interview podcast link ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/living-in-the-future

29/06/2022

Niels Bohr was a central figure in quantum physics, well known for his work on atomic structure and his contributions to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. In FROM DATA to QUANTA: Niels Bohr’s Vision of Physics (University of Chicago Press), philosopher of science Slobodan Perović explores the way Bohr practiced and understood physics, and analyzes its implications for our understanding of modern science. Perović develops a novel approach to Bohr’s understanding of physics and his method of inquiry, presenting an exploratory symbiosis of historical and philosophical analysis that uncovers the key aspects of Bohr’s philosophical vision of physics within a given historical context. Check out the author's NBN interview ⬇️
https://newbooksnetwork.com/from-data-to-quanta

29/06/2022

Howard Gardner's FRAMES OF MIND was that rare publishing phenomenon--a mind-changer. Widely read by the general public as well as by educators, this influential book laid out Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. It debunked the primacy of the IQ test and inspired new approaches to education; entire curricula, schools, museums, and parents' guides were dedicated to the nurturing of the several intelligences.

In his new book, A SYNTHESIZING MIND: A Memoir from the Creator of Multiple Intelligences Theory (MIT Press), Gardner reflects on his intellectual development and his groundbreaking work, tracing his evolution from bookish child to eager college student to disengaged graduate student to Harvard professor. Learn more on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/a-synthesizing-mind-2

28/06/2022

How much does the average person know about Alexander Hamilton? Most of us know that he was killed by his political enemy Aaron Burr in a duel. But long before that fatal encounter, Hamilton had engaged in major rows with several of his fellow founding fathers, notably Thomas Jefferson but also James Madison and John Adams. Because he cared so deeply about the fate of the newly established United States and its foreign relations, he dipped his pen in rhetorical vitriol when describing many of his rivals and former close allies in private letters and in public writings detailing where he felt they had gone wrong and were, in his view, harming the country.

The angrier side of this brilliant man is on full view in the compendious 2017 two-volume set, THE POLITICAL WRITINGS of ALEXANDER HAMILTON: Volume 1, 1769-1789 and The Political Writings of Alexander Hamilton: Volume 2, 1789-1804, edited by Bradford P. Wilson and Carson Holloway.

Today, we will talk Wilson about this important collection of the political writings of that rare combination of man of action and world-shaping public intellectual that was Alexander Hamilton. PODCAST LINK 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-political-writings-of-alexander-hamilton-volume-1-1769-1789

16/06/2022

In THE ATLANTIC REALISTS: Empire and International Political Thought Between Germany and the United States (Stanford University Press), intellectual historian Matthew Specter offers a boldly revisionist interpretation of "realism," a prevalent stance in post-WWII US foreign policy and public discourse and the dominant international relations theory during the Cold War. Challenging the common view of realism as a set of universally binding truths about international affairs, Specter argues that its major features emerged from a century-long dialogue between American and German intellectuals beginning in the late nineteenth century. Specter uncovers an "Atlantic realist" tradition of reflection on the prerogatives of empire and the nature of power politics conditioned by fin de siècle imperial competition, two world wars, the Holocaust, and the Cold War. Focusing on key figures in the evolution of realist thought, including Carl Schmitt, Hans Morgenthau, and Wilhelm Grewe, this book traces the development of the realist worldview over a century, dismantling myths about the national interest, Realpolitik, and the "art" of statesmanship. Hear Specter on the podcast ↙️
https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-atlantic-realists

08/06/2022

The history of revolutionary politics is rich enough that it includes the full spectrum of inspiration and tragedy. Those with revolutionary aspirations have a number of rocks in their shoes to deal with, perhaps most famously the failure of the Soviet Union and the shadow of Stalinism. Those looking to remain faithful to the spirit of revolutionary Marxism while still seriously reckoning with the tragedies of the past will need to develop new routes, and for that to happen, alternative figures and histories will need to be turned to.

One such figure many have found inspiration in is James P. Cannon, the American activist and agitator, most famous as the leading founder of American Trotskyism, and no one knows his life and times better than Bryan D. Palmer, here to discuss the first entry in his multi-volume biography of Cannon. The volume discussed in this episode, JAMES P. CANNON and the ORIGINS of the AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY LEFT, 1890-1928 (University of Illinois Press), covers Cannon’s life from his birth in a small town in Kansas to his expulsion in 1928 from the Communist Party. It’s a story of a small-town local agitator who ends up mired in international controversy, surrounded by factional infighting in his own country but also deeply rooted in the revolutionary degeneration happening in Moscow as Stalin took over the party. Learn more on the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/james-p-cannon-and-the-origins-of-the-american-revolutionary-left-1890-1928

06/06/2022

Revolutionary politics are experiencing a resurgence in popularity, and a quick look at today’s headlines make it easy to see why. For those dipping their toes in the massive history and theory under the revolutionary umbrella, however, it can be quite intimidating, with shelves upon shelves of massive tomes confronting readers, filled to the brim with dense jargon and obscure theories. Knowing which author and book to start with can throw new readers off.

Fortunately Paul Le Blanc, a lifelong activist and historian of radical politics and movements, has stepped in with a short and accessibly written book that will serve as a refreshing primer to the revolutionary tradition. REVOLUTIONARY COLLECTIVE: Comrades, Critics, and Dynamics in the Struggle for Socialism (Haymarket Books) looks at the resurgence of interest in radical politics and offers a series of essays on a number of key figures that will be of immense use to those looking for an onramp to Marxist theory. A number of well-known figures make an appearance, such as Lenin, Trotsky and Gramsci, but a number of lesser-known figures also receive attention, such as Karl Korsch, Daniel Bensaid and Dennis Brutus. What unites all of them for Le Blanc is their participation in a massive conversation, a revolutionary collective dialogue, in which everyone has tried to think critically about our present and in a way that opens up possibilities for a brighter future. Delve deeper on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/revolutionary-collective

06/06/2022

Andy Hines' new book, OUTSIDE LITERARY STUDIES: Black Criticism and the University (University of Chicago Press), uncovers a vibrant history of interpretive resistance to university-based New Criticism by Black writers of the American left. These include well-known figures such as Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry as well as still underappreciated writers like Melvin B. Tolson and Doxey Wilkerson. In their critical practice, these and other Black writers levied their critique from “outside” venues: behind the closed doors of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, in the classroom at a communist labor school under FBI surveillance, and in a host of journals. From these vantages, Black writers not only called out the racist assumptions of the New Criticism, but also defined Black literary and interpretive practices to support communist and other radical world-making efforts in the mid-twentieth century. Hines’s book thus offers a number of urgent contributions to literary studies. Learn more on the podcast ⬇️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/outside-literary-studies

26/05/2022

Jacob Collins's THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL TURN: French Political Through After 1968 (University of Pennsylvania Press) examines some of the most important currents in French intellectual life through the 1970s. In the wake of the upheaval of 1968, and confronted with the economic and other crises of the decade that followed, a number of political thinkers and social theorists in France interrogated "the social" borrowing anthropological concepts and approaches to religion, identity, citizenship, and the state.

Collins's account of the decade focuses on the work of 4 key thinkers from across the political spectrum in France: Alain de Benoist, Marcel Gauchet, Emmanuel Todd, and Régis Debray. Across chapters that explore the work of these authors in depth, the book tracks the common methodological ground these figures shared, the individual and collective influence they exerted on the French political landscape of the era. Learn more as Collins joins Roxanne Panchasi on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-anthropological-turn

26/05/2022

Walt Whitman knew a great deal about democracy that we don’t. Most of that knowledge is concentrated in one stunning poem, Song of Myself.

In SONG of OURSELVES: Walt Whitman and the Fight for Democracy (Harvard University Press), cultural and literary thinker Mark Edmundson offers a bold reading of the 1855 poem, included here in its entirety. In Edmundson’s account, Whitman’s great poem does not end with its last line. Seven years after the poem was published, Whitman went to work in hospitals, where he attended to the Civil War’s wounded, sick, and dying. He thus became in life the democratic individual he had prophesied in art. Even now, that prophecy gives us words, thoughts, and feelings to feed the democratic spirit of self. Learn more as Edmundson joins us on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/song-of-ourselves

24/05/2022

Founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies, the American Historical Association provides leadership for the discipline and promotes the critical role of historical thinking in public life. The Association defends academic freedom, develops professional standards, supports innovative scholarship and teaching, and helps to sustain and enhance the work of historians. As the largest membership association of professional historians in the world (over 11,500 members), the AHA serves historians in a wide variety of professions and represents every historical era and geographical area. On this episode of the NBN's Scholarly Societies Series, Caleb Zakarin interviews AHA Executive Director James Grossman and James H. Sweet, Vilas-Jartz Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. PODCAST LINK ⤵️

The American Historical Association: A Discussion with Jim Grossman and James Sweet

23/05/2022

In NEUROMATIC: Or, a Particular History of Religion and the Brain (University of Chicago Press), John Lardas Modern offers a sprawling examination of the history of the cognitive revolution and current attempts to locate all that is human in the brain, including spirituality itself. NEUROMATIC is a wildly original take on the entangled histories of science and religion that lie behind our brain-laden present: from 18th-century revivals to the origins of neurology and mystic visions of mental piety in the 19th century; from cyberneticians, Scientologists, and parapsychologists in the 20th century to contemporary claims to have discovered the neural correlates of religion.

What Modern reveals via this grand tour is that our ostensibly secular turn to the brain is bound up at every turn with the religion it discounts, ignores, or actively dismisses. In foregrounding the myths, ritual schemes, and cosmic concerns that have accompanied idealizations of neural networks and inquiries into their structure, NEUROMATIC takes the reader on a dazzling and disturbing ride through the history of our strange subservience to the brain. PODCAST LINK ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/neuromatic