Journal of the History of Ideas

The Repressed Political Economy of Global Intellectual History Veronica Lazăr This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum: “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”

In the JHI Blog's forum on political economy, Veronica Lazăr argues that the turn to global intellectual history has failed to take account of the financial and symbolic economy of contemporary knowledge production.
www.jhiblog.org/2025/11/24/t...

The Fractured Clock: Exploitation and Control of Transport Workers in Colonial Calcutta by Amartyajyoti Basu

Today on the blog, Amartyajyoti Basu writes on the exploitation of transport workers in colonial Calcutta, demonstrating that Indian capitalism has operated through two temporal regimes: abstract, homogeneous clock-time and concrete, task-oriented time rooted in agrarian and communal rhythms.

Zvi Griliches and the Productivity Puzzle in Midcentury American Agriculture by Ibanca Anand This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum: “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”

For the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Ibanca Anand recounts how midcentury US growth economists' influential models of "multi-factor productivity" in agriculture systematically occluded the role of labor and supported narrow, warped criteria of economic health.

From Petro-Modernity to Petro-Post-Modernity: Disney and the American Cultural Imagination of the Oil Industry by Levi Thompson

In today's think piece, Levi Thompson analyzes an under-explored shift from petro-modernity to petro-post-modernity through Fredric Jameson's theory of culture and film.

The Roots of the Neoliberal Subject: Margaret Thatcher and the Creation of Homo Oeconomicus by Alexander Curtis This think piece is part of the forum “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”

In a new think piece for the JHI Forum on political economy, Alexander Curtis intervenes into today's debates around neoliberalism, arguing for the role of "irrational subjecthood" in the context of Margaret Thatcher's economic policies during the 1980s. @alexandercurtis.bsky.social

“Passing” as Japanese at the Turn of the Century: On Civilizational Equivalence in Onoto Watanna’s Oeuvre by Julia Meghan Walton

In today's think-piece, Julia Meghan Walton examines British-Chinese writer Winnifred Eaton, situating her life and career more broadly through concepts of "passing" and "civilizational equivalence."

“To Repair Evil and Enrich the Nation”: Moral Doctrine and Political Economy in Joaquín de Finestrad’s Vasallo instruido by Benjamín Gaillard-Garrido This think piece is part of the forum “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”

In a new think-piece for the JHI forum on political economy, Benjamín Gaillard-Garrido discusses the thought of 18th-century Catholic friar Joaquín de Finestrad as an attempt to reconcile sacred morality with materialist-oriented discourses of imperial economics and monarchism in South America.

A quote from the article: "The critical force of much of interwar ethnography has dulled with the passage of time, but Séjourné and Carrington's engagement with Indigenous Mexico, past and present, continues to shine brightly."

The October issue of the journal includes an article by Ian Merkel: "Laurette Séjourné and Leonora Carrington, Ethnography and Surrealism in Mexico." Read it here on Project Muse: muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...

The Age of Choice: Disha Karnad Jani Interviews Sophia Rosenfeld by Disha Karnad Jani

On today’s episode of In Theory, Disha Karnad Jani interviews Sophia Rosenfeld on her new book, “The Age of Choice," which explores how the idea of choice became related to what it meant to be free between the early modern period and the 20th century.
@princetonupress.bsky.social

A quote from the article: "Schmitt's essays . . . in which he presents a vision of the Third Reich as a post-state political organism . . . were for him an attempt to adapt Hegel's ethical state to the conditions of the 1930s and to identify the Third Reich as the political community that most fully realized the march of the spirit."

The recent issue of the journal includes an article by Wojciech Engelking: "Schmitt's Reinterpretation of Hegel During His Nazi Period." Read it here: muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...

The Labor Question and the Critique of Caste in Global Intellectual History by Vishal Verma

In this new think piece for the JHI Blog Forum on Political Economy, Vishal Verma studies the historical linkages between labor and caste through the intellectual debates underpinning the origins and evolution of the theorization of caste across time and space.

web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2025...

A quote from the article: "In sum, démocratie libérale was not merely a theoretical project but a practical compromise—a balancing act between the demands of popular sovereignty and the fear of democratic excess. It reveals the ambivalence of both liberals and Bonapartists toward democracy, foreshadowing the uneasy cohabitation of democratic and authoritarian tendencies that continues to shape political systems today."

The recent issue of the journal includes an article by Hugo Bonin: "'True Liberal Democracy . . . Belongs to Napoléon III': The Rise and Fall of Démocratie Libérale in the French Second Empire" muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...

The Intellectual History of Worker Education: An Interview with Edward Baring by Sam Franz and Véronique Mickisch

Today on the blog, Sam Franz and Véronique Mickisch interview Edward Baring about his forthcoming book, "Vulgar Marxism," which studies how projects for worker education shaped 20th-c. Marxist thought.
@uchicagopress.bsky.social @samfranz.bsky.social

A quote from the article: "Openness toward Averroes signaled a turn away from the anti-Arabic polemics that roiled medical humanism in the first decades of the sixteenth century and reveal a lack of concern about philosophical controversies surrounding his views about the human soul and the eternity of the world."

The new issue of the JHI includes an article by Craig Martin: "Averroes Among the Paduan Physicians, 1540 to 1600": muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...

“Culture Talk” and Indigenous Economic History by Miranda Johnson This think piece is part of the forum “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”

Miranda Johnson contributes to the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy with a think piece about how the mythos surrounding New Zealand’s "biculturalism" obscures older indigenous strategies of economic development and centuries-long relations between settlers and indigenous peoples.

Congratulations to Priyasha Mukhopadhyay, winner of the Morris D. Forkosch Book Prize! Announcing the winner of the JHI's 2024 Morris D. Forkosch Book Prize.

The winner of the JHI’s 2024 Morris D. Forkosch Book Prize for the best first book in intellectual history is Priyasha Mukhopadhyay for Required Reading: The Life of Everyday Texts in the British Empire!
@princetonupress.bsky.social

Literature’s Circulation Across Fields and Nations: An Interview with Gisèle Sapiro by Rose Facchini

For the JHI Blog, Rose Facchini interviewed Gisèle Sapiro about her latest book, "Qu'est-ce qu'un auteur mondial? Le champ littéraire transnational" (Seuil, 2024), which studies the role of intermediaries, translators, and mediators in the making of world authorship.
@rosefacchini.bsky.social

A quote from the article: "We do not have an appropriate word for bad democracy in our constitutional discourse; and that is because we never had one."

In the new issue of the JHI, Daniel Sutton explores how ancient Greek theorists struggled to find the terminology to distinguish good and bad forms of popular government:
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...

“Authoritarian Neoliberalism”: The Concept of Our Time? by Alexandre Aloy This think piece is part of the forum “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History”

In a new think piece for the JHI forum on Political Economy, Alexandre Aloy interrogates the concept and historical genealogy of neoliberalism by situating it alongside transnational narratives of authoritarianism.

A quote from the article: "After the disciplinary differentiation of the individual sciences, which has replaced philosophy as a universal discourse from the nineteenth century onward, and with the emergence of plural public spheres based on new media, knowledge has become splintered and fragmented, so that the forms and contexts of the production of meaning can only be explored in an interdisciplinary and historical-epistemologicai perspective."

The new issue of the JHI includes a discussion of the lexicon project, “The Twentieth Century in Basic Concepts: A Dictionary of Historical Semantics in Germany,” by Ernst Müller, Barbara Picht, and Falko Schmieder. Access is free for the next few weeks on Project Muse: muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...

When Theology Became Political: An Interview with Brandon Bloch by Jacob Saliba

Today on the blog, Jacob Saliba interviews Brandon Bloch on his recent book, "Reinventing Protestant Germany: Religious Nationalists and the Contest for Post-Nazi Democracy."
@harvardpress.bsky.social

Nayeli L. Riano's article in the new JHI, "The Pueblo and the Politics of History and Historiography in the Writings of Andrés Bello and Francisco Bilbao," is now available for free. Read it here on Project Muse: muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...

Freedom and the State in Thomas Sowell’s America by Oscar Hughff-Coates This think piece is part of the forum “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”

In a new think piece for the JHI Forum on Political Economy, Oscar Hughff-Coates discusses Chicago School economist Thomas Sowell and how his work contributed to key discourses on race, post-war economics, and the state in the wake of the neoliberal order.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: JHI Graduate Student Symposium, "Between the Text and Material History". After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Between the Text and Material History Saturday, October 4, 2025 10:00am (Eastern): Knowledge Beyond the Text Peter Gaber (Columbia University & London School of Economics) “Canon and Constitution: G...

The JHI's Graduate Student Symposium, "Between the Text and Material History," will be held this Saturday, October 4, on Zoom! Events kick off at 10:00 am Eastern. Check out the complete schedule and register here:

Surreal Geographies of Holocaust Memory: An Interview with Kathryn L. Brackney by Jonathon Catlin

Today on the blog, Jon Catlin interviews Kathryn Brackney on her latest, award-winning book, "Surreal Geographies: A New History of Holocaust Consciousness"
@joncatlin.bsky.social @uwiscpress.bsky.social

What Should We Call a Bad Democracy? DANIEL SUTTON Averroes Among the Paduan Physicians, 1540 to 1600 CRAIG MARTIN The Pueblo and the Politics of History and Historiography in the Writings NAYELI L. RIANO “True Liberal Democracy . . . Belongs to Napoléon III”: The Rise and Fall of Démocratie Libérale in the French Second Empire HUGO BONIN Schmitt’s Reinterpretation of Hegel During His Nazi Period WOJCIECH ENGELKING Laurette Séjourné and Leonora Carrington, Ethnography and Surrealism in Mexico IAN MERKEL The Twentieth Century in Basic Concepts: A Dictionary of Historical Semantics in Germany ERNST MÜLLER, BARBARA PICHT, AND FALKO SCHMIEDER

A new issue of the journal is now available, with articles by Daniel Sutton, Craig Martin, Nayeli L. Riano, Hugo Bonin, Wojciech Engelking, Ian Merkel, and Ernst Müller, Barbara Picht, and Falko Schmieder.

Have a look, here on Project Muse: muse.jhu.edu/issue/55549

@pennpress.bsky.social

The Brain as Economy: Intellectual Labor and Mental Efficiency in Twentieth-Century Poland by Marek Maj This think piece is part of the forum “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History”

In a new think piece for the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Marek Maj discusses how, before the Soviet Union's détente with the West, Polish scientists attempted to render intellectual labor more efficient by adapting and revising the Western managerial turn to motivation.

Cashing Lives: A History of Indian Life Insurance by Mayukh Chakrabarty

Today’s think piece explores how life insurance—often seen as a dry, technical instrument—became a surprising site for negotiating modernity in the colonial world.

Are you dying to know if Hegel hated ersatz coffee? Then boy do I have the piece for you. Very happy to be part of the JHI blog forum on political economy in intellectual history!

Hegel’s “Brown Rivulet of Coffee”: Colonies, Commodities, and Context by Marie Louise Krogh This think piece is part of the forum “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History”

As part of the JHI Blog forum on political economy, Marie Louise Krogh examines Hegel's rare reflections on the 19th century international coffee industry as an entry point into the theoretical stakes of political economy in the midst of European imperialism.