Description: In its comparison of anarchist and poststructuralist thought, From Bakunin to Lacan contends that the most pressing political problem we face today is the proliferation and intensification of power. Saul Newman targets the tendency of radical political theories and movements to reaffirm power and authority, in different guises, in their very attempt to overcome it. In his examination of thinkers such as Bakunin, Lacan, Stirner, and Foucault Newman explores important epistemological, ontological, and political questions: Is the essential human subject the point of departure from which power and authority can be opposed? Or, is the humanist subject itself a site of domination that must be unmasked? As it deftly charts this debate's paths of emergence in political thought, the book illustrates how the question of essential identities defines and re-defines the limits and possibilities of radical politics today.
Brief description:
Saul Newman is Professor of Political Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. His latest titles include Postanarchism (2016) and Political Theology: A Critical Introduction (2019).
SAUL NEWMAN is Associate Professor of Government at American University. His articles have appeared in journals such as World Politics, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Regional Politics and Policy, and Nationalism and Ethnic Politics.Review Quotes:
"Newman seems to me to be right on target in seeing anarchism rather than Marxism as the proper jumping-off point for progressive political theory. I recommend the book highly to scholars of progressive thought." --Tod May, Clemson University
"This is an intriguing and ambitious addition to the now growing literature attempting to recuperate, or at least reappraise, the legacy of anarchism for the development of anti-authoritarian, post-Marxian, yet still radical politics. . . . [A] fascinating and well-written book." --Contemporary Political Theory