James Baldwin might be imagined as reaching his greatest level of popularity within this current decade. With the growth of social media activist movements like Black Lives Matter, which captures and catalyzes off a Baldwinian rage, and the publishing of works directly evoking Baldwin, his voice appears more pronounced between the years of 2013 and 2015. Scholars in Baldwin studies, along with strangers who were turned into witnesses of his literary oeuvre, have contributed to this renewed interest in Baldwin, or at least have been able to sharpen the significance of the phenomenon. Publications and performances highlight Baldwin’s work and how it prefigured developments in critical race and queer theories, while also demonstrating Baldwin’s critique as both prophetic and “disturbingly” contemporary. Emerging largely from Baldwin’s timelessness in social and political discourse, and from the need to conjure a figure to demystify the absurd American landscape, these interventions in Baldwin studies follow distinct trends. This essay examines the 2013–15 trends from four vantages: an examination of a return, with revision, to popular work by Baldwin; identifying Baldwin’s work as a contributor to theoretical and critical methodology; Baldwin and intertextuality or intervocality; and a new frontier in Baldwin studies.
This book explores the life, thought and political commitments of the free-thinker John Toland (1670–1722). Studying both his private archive and published works, it illustrates how he moved in both subversive and elite political circles in England and abroad. The book explores the connections between Toland's republican political thought and his irreligious belief about Christian doctrine, the ecclesiastical establishment and divine revelation, arguing that far from being a marginal and insignificant figure, he counted queens, princes and government ministers as his friends and political associates. In particular, Toland's intimate relationship with the Electress Sophia of Hanover saw him act as a court philosopher, but also as a powerful publicist for the Hanoverian succession. The book argues that he shaped the republican tradition after the Glorious Revolution into a practical and politically viable programme, focused not on destroying the monarchy but on reforming public religion and the Church of England. It also examines how Toland used his social intimacy with a wide circle of men and women (ranging from Prince Eugene of Savoy to Robert Harley) to distribute his ideas in private. The book explores the connections between his erudition and print culture, arguing that his intellectual project was aimed at compromising the authority of Christian ‘knowledge’ as much as the political power of the Church. Overall, it illustrates how Toland's ideas and influence impacted upon English political life between the 1690s and the 1720s.
This book considers the underlying causes of the end of social democracy's golden age. It argues that the cross-national trend in social democratic parties since the 1970s has been towards an accommodation with neo-liberalism and a corresponding dilution of traditional social democratic commitments. The book looks at the impact of the change in economic conditions on social democracy in general, before examining the specific cases of Germany, Sweden and Australia. It examines the ideological crisis that engulfed social democracy. The book also looks at the post-1970 development of social policy, its fiscal implications and economic consequences in three European countries. It considers the evolution of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from its re-emergence as a significant political force during the 1970s until the present day under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The book also examines the evolution of the Swedish model in conjunction with social democratic reformism and the party's relations to the union movement. It explores the latest debate about what the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) stands for. The SPD became the role model for programmatic modernisation for the European centre-left. The book considers how British socialist and social democratic thought from the late nineteenth century to the present has treated the objective of helping people to fulfil their potential, talents and ambitions. It aims to contribute to a broader conversation about the future of social democracy by considering ways in which the political thought of 'third way' social democracy might be radicalised for the twenty-first century.
capacity of social democratic parties to undertake meaningful political change. According to Moschonas, although attachment to the cause of European integration in the 1980s and 1990s enabled social democratic parties to win new support from the educated middle class, it also consolidated and deepened the decomposition of the traditional political identity of the moderate left. Part III of the book, ‘Resources for rethinking’, aims to contribute to a broader conversation about the future of social democracy by considering ways in which the political thought of ‘third way
’s identities as a ‘scientist’ and a ‘statesman’.11 It is certainly clear from several of his works that Bacon found a degree of incommensurability between ethical (specifically Christian) and civic values,12 and that many of the conditions praised in his natural philosophy are condemned Price_04_Ch4 62 14/10/02, 9:33 am Ethics and politics 63 elsewhere in his writings. Markku Peltonen stresses that the repeated identification of Bacon’s philosophical with his political thought relies upon a ‘rhetorical similarity’ which can obscure the distinction Bacon makes between
-first-century social and economic conditions. Turning to the wide-ranging form of political thought known as anarchism, we discuss anarchist views of human nature, the state, liberty and equality, and economic life. The chapter ends with a critique of anarchism and some thoughts as to its relevance to modern politics. POINTS TO CONSIDER Is Marxism correct in identifying class as the most important form of
effect, in other words, the intellectual labour of decolonisation. In outline, with necessary brevity, I’ve described the main contours of Padmore’s political thought from the days of The Negro Worker to the time of the Pan-African Congress in Manchester in October 1945. The Congress marks a turning point in Padmore’s political life. Present were Nkrumah, Kenyatta and Hastings
revival in the late twentieth century. Chapter 8 looks at the very different region of East Asia. Specifically, the chapter explores Japan’s deeper connections with China and the West and how these have influenced cultural and political thought. The Conclusion is a précis of the overall argument with highlights of what is absent from civilisational analysis at large. At the very end I ask questions about the vocation of civilisational analysis in contemporary contexts of creation and transformation, which includes critical global problems of the human condition. I
English translation after 1689, pervades Toland’s methodology and political thought. Toland’s application of historical criticism, to both Scripture and patristic sources, was undoubtedly inspired by Spinoza’s writing on the ideas of revelation and canon. The connections between virtue, liberty and a materialistic metaphysics evident in Pantheisticon (1720) show Toland thinking through the arguments linking republican politics and the rule of reason made by Spinoza in the second half of the Tractatus. The influence of Spinoza should not be overstated however. In making
of public and private discourse was made more manifest by the publication of the substance of these discussions in 1704 in Letters to Serena, a work closely associated with the Hanoverian interest, which established the connections between such metaphysical speculation and more mainstream political thought. Letters to Serena (1704) is an intriguing work. Although its first form was in a private disputation, the published text displayed a range of erudition and learning. Especially in the first three letters on the history of prejudice, idolatry and doctrine, Toland