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Radical Politics Summary

Radical Politics: On the Causes of Contemporary Emancipation by Peter D. Thomas (Professor in the History of Political Thought, Professor in the History of Political Thought, Brunel University London)

The last twenty years have witnessed a proliferation of radical social and political movements around the world, in wave after wave of struggles against intersecting forms of exploitation, domination, and subalternization. From the International Women's Strike and Occupy, to #BlackLivesMatter and direct action against the climate emergency, a series of common questions have continually re-emerged as immediate and practical challenges. How should radical political movements relate to the state? What makes emancipatory politics fundamentally different from both technocratic and populist models of politics as usual? Which forms of organization are most likely to deepen and extend the dynamics that led to the emergence of these movements in the first place? To investigate the goal, nature, method, and organizational forms of radical political engagement against the neoliberal consensus, Peter D. Thomas draws on the work of Antonio Gramsci, the Italian Communist Party leader and political theorist best known for his ideas about hegemony. Hegemony is a concept that, most commonly understood, describes either the way in which a political system functions from the top down, through a culture of passive consent, or a process of neutralizing cultural and political differences to form unity in a nation state. Interestingly, both the left and right have seized on this idea, but, of course, to different political ends. In Radical Politics, Thomas argues that both of these interpretations are misapprehensions of the radical potential of Gramsci's ideas. Offering a new reading of Gramsci, Thomas contends that hegemony is a process of differentiation in which political culture is always changing, and always with the goal of moving toward expanded freedom. Over the course of the book, Thomas looks at the way in which various theorists have approached the dilemma of how to engage productively in radical politics and explains why hegemony is a method of doing politics rather than an end goal. A distinctive and forceful contribution to ongoing debates about the nature and orientation of contemporary emancipatory movements, Radical Politics provides a counterintuitive interpretation of Gramsci's famous and newly relevant work.

Radical Politics Reviews

Framed by a distilled and incisive analysis of the current conjuncture, Peter D. Thomas draws on his expert knowledge of Gramsci's revolutionary thought to challenge contemporary figures like Laclau and Negri, to clarify the recent cycles of mass mobilization and neoliberal reaction, and to help us 'break with the self-defeating structures of feeling and response' that remain such profoundly entrenched features of our age. * Peter Hallward, The Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University London *
Peter D. Thomas asks perhaps the most fundamental strategic question of radical politics: how can the wide-ranging and various movements for self-emancipation gain power together while also fostering the diversity of aims and strategies that is their core strength and value? This question has gained new urgency in the last decade, Thomas reminds us, as a wave of radical movements sweeps the world, astonishing in their resilience and creativity. It is also an old question, however, and Thomas shows us how we can think with-and not merely venerate-those who have faced it before, above all the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci. This book not only offers new insights to both political theorists and political activists, but also opens a place of dialogue for radical theory and radical practice. * Angela Zimmerman, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University *

About Peter D. Thomas (Professor in the History of Political Thought, Professor in the History of Political Thought, Brunel University London)

Peter D. Thomas is Professor in the History of Political Thought at Brunel University London. He is the author of The Gramscian Moment and serves on the editorial boards of Historical Materialism and the International Gramsci Journal.

Additional information

NGR9780197528075
9780197528075
0197528074
Radical Politics: On the Causes of Contemporary Emancipation by Peter D. Thomas (Professor in the History of Political Thought, Professor in the History of Political Thought, Brunel University London)
New
Hardback
Oxford University Press Inc
2024-01-25
304
N/A
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