Remember the Bastille

Terror, Terrorism, and Jihadist Capitalism

Introduction: Terror and Terrorism On Friday, June 19th, a man rammed into a police car on the Champs Elysses. Though the driver died before he could carry out further violence, it was evident that his intention was to commit a larger-scale attack; inside the incinerated vehicle, investigators found explosives, ammunition, and ...
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Remember the Bastille

The Controversy Over Democracy in Chains

A Review Essay

You may be aware that the new book by Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America (Viking, 2017) has received a lot of notice over the past week or two. Some of this notice has been very positive, but much more has been ...
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The Controversy Over Democracy in Chains

Illiberal Democracy, CEU, and the Frog

Responding to Jeffrey C. Isaac’s Illiberal Democracy

This piece is part of the discussion generated by Jeffrey C. Isaac's piece, Illiberal Democracy.  As I was taking the escalator up in one of Budapest’s most central subway stations on a sunny July day in 2017, I counted forty-eight advertising spaces along the walls. Of the 48, forty-seven carried one ...
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Illiberal Democracy, CEU, and the Frog

The Politics of Russian Nationalism

Vladimir Putin as Centrist

In this essay, national intelligence expert Richard D. Anderson forwards our first critical perspective: Vladimir Putin is, in the context of Russian authoritarianism, a political centrist. Promoting and managing conflict with the United States, Anderson argues, allows Putin to balance the competing demands of kleptocracy and nationalism without giving in ...
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The Politics of Russian Nationalism

The Work of Art in the Age of Deindustrialization

Poetry, Art, and the New Spirit of Capitalism

Updating Walter Benjamin -- whose famous essay 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' on which the title of his book riffs -- poet and critic Jasper Bernes seeks nothing less than a complete reconsideration of poetry and art over the past 50 years, coinciding with the ...
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The Work of Art in the Age of Deindustrialization

Michael Taussig | The New School

2017 ICSI Public Lecture

Sponsored by The New School for Social Research. The Institute for Critical Social Inquiry will open part of its programming to the public – a series of lectures taught by this Summer's faculty cohort of K. Anthony Appiah (Professor of Philosophy and Law, NYU), David Harvey (Professor of Anthropology and Geography, CUNY), ...
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Michael Taussig | The New School

‘Völkisch’ and ‘Überfremdung’

Different Enemies, Same Fascist Ideology?

Language not only has the potential to provoke certain images or metaphors, but it also influences ways of thinking and determines the perception of reality. It is an essential element of culture and therefore exercises enormous power to shape every individual, as well as society. Language is therefore not only ...
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‘Völkisch’ and ‘Überfremdung’

What Older Workers in the Rust Belt Need From Trump

June Unemployment Report for Workers Over 55

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today reported a 3.2% unemployment rate for workers age 55 and older in June, an increase of 0.1 percentage points from May. The low unemployment rate for near retirees is good news. The bad news is that no one can work forever, and our calculations report a ...
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What Older Workers in the Rust Belt Need From Trump

Is There Illiberal Democracy?

A Problem with no Semantic Solution

Editor's note: This is the introduction to an in depth essay on a major problem of our times, the international development of a form of authoritarianism that uses the rhetoric of democracy. The full essay can be found here. This then will be followed with a series of commentaries, opening a new ...
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Is There Illiberal Democracy?

K. Anthony Appiah | The New School

2017 ICSI Public Lecture

Sponsored by The New School for Social Research. The Institute for Critical Social Inquiry will open part of its programming to the public -- a series of lectures taught by this Summer's faculty cohort of K. Anthony Appiah (Professor of Philosophy and Law, NYU), David Harvey (Professor of Anthropology and Geography, CUNY), ...
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K. Anthony Appiah | The New School

Practice Makes Practicable

From Participation to Interaction in Contemporary Art

Clocking in at nearly 900 pages of dense text plus index, Practicable: From Participation to Interaction in Contemporary Art, edited by artist and researcher Samuel Bianchini and curator and critic Erik Verhagen, is a door-stopper of a book. Its ambition is equal to its mass -- it proposes to rewrite postwar Western ...
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Practice Makes Practicable

Protesting Shakespeare in Central Park

Reflections on the Meaning of Anti-theatrical Controversy

Over the last few weeks, I've been thinking about the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar, one that featured a Donald Trump lookalike. The assassination of Caesar, a key moral turning point in the play, prompted repeated right-wing protests until the production closed on June 19. ...
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Protesting Shakespeare in Central Park