Journal of the History of Ideas
@jhideas.bsky.social
Official account of the JHI Blog. Zac Endter, Tomi Onabanjo, and Mrinalini Sisodia Wadhwa.
Listen to In Theory: http://soundcloud.com/jhi-blog
JHIBlog.org
Listen to In Theory: http://soundcloud.com/jhi-blog
JHIBlog.org
Today on the podcast, Disha Karnad Jani interviews Quinn Slobodian on his latest book, “Hayek's Bastards." From Murray Rothbard to Javier Milei, Slobodian looks to "Hayek's bastards" to show the ties between neoliberalism and today's Far Right. @quinnslobodian.com
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
Hayek’s Bastards: Disha Karnad Jani Interviews Quinn Slobodian
by Disha Karnad Jani On this episode of In Theory, Disha Karnad Jani interviews Quinn Slobodian about his latest book, Hayek’s Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right (Zone Bo...
web.sas.upenn.edu
January 21, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Today on the podcast, Disha Karnad Jani interviews Quinn Slobodian on his latest book, “Hayek's Bastards." From Murray Rothbard to Javier Milei, Slobodian looks to "Hayek's bastards" to show the ties between neoliberalism and today's Far Right. @quinnslobodian.com
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
In an essay for the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Mattia Steardo examines the obscurity of thinkers from the Spanish Empire in historians' discussions of early political economy—particularly those thinkers’ alternative, normative conceptualizations of labor.
Labor in the Hispanic Enlightenment: Some Implications for a History of Political Economy
by Mattia Steardo
This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum, “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
January 19, 2026 at 2:36 PM
In an essay for the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Mattia Steardo examines the obscurity of thinkers from the Spanish Empire in historians' discussions of early political economy—particularly those thinkers’ alternative, normative conceptualizations of labor.
For the JHI Blog, Rose Facchini interviews Andrea Bagnato about his new book, Terra Infecta: Disease and the Italian Landscape (Mack, 2025), which shows how sanitation and its metaphors were central to Italy’s internal colonialism and persist today.
@rosefacchini.bsky.social
@rosefacchini.bsky.social
Diseased and Reclaimed Landscapes: An Interview with Andrea Bagnato
by Rose Facchini
web.sas.upenn.edu
January 14, 2026 at 3:17 PM
For the JHI Blog, Rose Facchini interviews Andrea Bagnato about his new book, Terra Infecta: Disease and the Italian Landscape (Mack, 2025), which shows how sanitation and its metaphors were central to Italy’s internal colonialism and persist today.
@rosefacchini.bsky.social
@rosefacchini.bsky.social
In an essay in the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Facundo Rocca discusses the relationship between modern rationalizations of unjust labor, ecological destruction, and the rise of the Caribbean slave trade.
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
How Reason Cultivated Abstraction: The Plantation Roots of Economic Modernity
by Facundo Rocca
This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum: “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
January 12, 2026 at 2:49 PM
In an essay in the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Facundo Rocca discusses the relationship between modern rationalizations of unjust labor, ecological destruction, and the rise of the Caribbean slave trade.
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2026...
Today on the blog, Kai Mora examines how gender and race figured into the literary and visual landscape of nineteenth-century France and the role of this discourse in both the French conquest of Algeria and, later, in the Algerian War of Independence.
Colonialism Unveiled: Women, Race, and Orientalism in the Conquest of Algiers
by Kai Mora
web.sas.upenn.edu
January 7, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Today on the blog, Kai Mora examines how gender and race figured into the literary and visual landscape of nineteenth-century France and the role of this discourse in both the French conquest of Algeria and, later, in the Algerian War of Independence.
For the JHI Blog's Forum on political economy, Véronique Mickisch critiques the continued association of "Marxism in practice” with the First Five-Year Plan in the Soviet Union and raises the need to recover the work of Marxist thinkers violently suppressed during the Stalinist purges of the 1930s.
The First Five-Year Plan, Stalinism, and the Fate of Marxist Political Economy in the USSR
Véronique Mickisch
This think piece is part of the forum “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
January 5, 2026 at 2:34 PM
For the JHI Blog's Forum on political economy, Véronique Mickisch critiques the continued association of "Marxism in practice” with the First Five-Year Plan in the Soviet Union and raises the need to recover the work of Marxist thinkers violently suppressed during the Stalinist purges of the 1930s.
This selection of essays and interviews reflects the wide range of scholarship published on the blog in 2025.
Year in Review: Best of 2025
by the Primary Editors
www.jhiblog.org
December 31, 2025 at 4:30 PM
This selection of essays and interviews reflects the wide range of scholarship published on the blog in 2025.
In an essay in the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Nate Holdren elaborates three levels of analytical abstraction at which intellectual historians invoke the term "political economy," turning our attention to the way that capitalism structurally conditions ignorance of the social totality.
Three Meanings of Political Economy: Reflections on Intellectual History, Marxism, and Capitalism’s Unthought
by Nate Holdren
This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum, “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
December 29, 2025 at 3:46 PM
In an essay in the JHI Blog’s forum on political economy, Nate Holdren elaborates three levels of analytical abstraction at which intellectual historians invoke the term "political economy," turning our attention to the way that capitalism structurally conditions ignorance of the social totality.
In a new piece for the JHI Forum on political economy, Alec Israeli reflects on recent debates on the method and stakes of "high" versus "low" intellectual histories, arguing for a neo-materialist approach that nuances those discursive boundaries.
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2025...
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2025...
Mind, Matter, and the Question of Materialist Intellectual History
by Alec Israeli
This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum, “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
December 22, 2025 at 2:30 PM
In a new piece for the JHI Forum on political economy, Alec Israeli reflects on recent debates on the method and stakes of "high" versus "low" intellectual histories, arguing for a neo-materialist approach that nuances those discursive boundaries.
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2025...
web.sas.upenn.edu/jhiblog/2025...
In the JHI forum on political economy, David Vertty considers the intersection between intellectual history and political economy as developed in and around Latin America, focusing on avenues of future research and methodological lessons from their historical, geographic, and conceptual interplay.
Beyond Misplaced Ideas: Latin American Perspectives on Intellectual History and Political Economy
by David Vertty
This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum, “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
December 17, 2025 at 2:12 PM
In the JHI forum on political economy, David Vertty considers the intersection between intellectual history and political economy as developed in and around Latin America, focusing on avenues of future research and methodological lessons from their historical, geographic, and conceptual interplay.
In a new piece for the JHI forum on political economy, Federico D’Onofrio discusses the rise of a class of "agricultural economists" as part of a broader trend intersecting with and going beyond "rural modernism" in twentieth-century Europe.
@fdonoff.bsky.social
@fdonoff.bsky.social
The Margins of the Field: Rediscovering Agricultural Economists for the History of Ideas
by Federico D’Onofrio
This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum, “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
December 15, 2025 at 2:37 PM
In a new piece for the JHI forum on political economy, Federico D’Onofrio discusses the rise of a class of "agricultural economists" as part of a broader trend intersecting with and going beyond "rural modernism" in twentieth-century Europe.
@fdonoff.bsky.social
@fdonoff.bsky.social
What was the Mau Mau Uprising? In today's essay, Christian Alvarado reconsiders this conflict in 20th-century Kenya through the lens of conspiracy and traces what this narrative rendering (the "Mau Mau conspiracy") reveals about colonialism and anti-communism in the past and our post-truth present.
Mau Mau and/as Conspiracy: A Reconsideration
by Christian Alvarado
web.sas.upenn.edu
December 10, 2025 at 2:41 PM
What was the Mau Mau Uprising? In today's essay, Christian Alvarado reconsiders this conflict in 20th-century Kenya through the lens of conspiracy and traces what this narrative rendering (the "Mau Mau conspiracy") reveals about colonialism and anti-communism in the past and our post-truth present.
In a new piece for the JHI Forum on political economy, Lotte Liste critically situates Reinhart Koselleck's concept of the Sattelzeit with Adam Smith's philosophy of history. @lottelist.bsky.social
Economy and History in the Sattelzeit: On Adam Smith’s Alleged Sobriety
by Lotte List
This think piece is part of a JHI Blog forum: “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
December 8, 2025 at 3:45 PM
In a new piece for the JHI Forum on political economy, Lotte Liste critically situates Reinhart Koselleck's concept of the Sattelzeit with Adam Smith's philosophy of history. @lottelist.bsky.social
Today on the blog Carolina Iribarren interviews Julien Stout about his new book, "L’auteur retrouvé," which challenges established assumptions about vernacular authorship in medieval French literature but also invites us to reconsider narratives of modernity, subjectivity, and individualism.
Authorship Regained: An Interview with Julien Stout
By Carolina Iribarren
web.sas.upenn.edu
December 3, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Today on the blog Carolina Iribarren interviews Julien Stout about his new book, "L’auteur retrouvé," which challenges established assumptions about vernacular authorship in medieval French literature but also invites us to reconsider narratives of modernity, subjectivity, and individualism.
Part II of this interview about Federico Marcon’s new book covers its relation to the recent “Fascism Debate," debts to Frankfurt School critical theory and other forms of historical semantics, impact on the conceptual historian's craft, and more. @joncatlin.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
The Disadvantages of “Fascism” for Life: An Interview with Federico Marcon (Part II)
by Jonathon Catlin
www.jhiblog.org
December 1, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Part II of this interview about Federico Marcon’s new book covers its relation to the recent “Fascism Debate," debts to Frankfurt School critical theory and other forms of historical semantics, impact on the conceptual historian's craft, and more. @joncatlin.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
Today on the blog, Jon Catlin interviews Federico Marcon on his latest book, "Fascism: History of a Word," which uses semiotics to chart fascism’s changing political and heuristic meanings from its invention in Italy in 1919 to the present.
@joncatlin.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
@joncatlin.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
The Disadvantages of “Fascism” for Life: An Interview with Federico Marcon (Part I)
by Jonathon Catlin
www.jhiblog.org
November 26, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Today on the blog, Jon Catlin interviews Federico Marcon on his latest book, "Fascism: History of a Word," which uses semiotics to chart fascism’s changing political and heuristic meanings from its invention in Italy in 1919 to the present.
@joncatlin.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
@joncatlin.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
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...
www.jhiblog.org/2025/11/24/t...
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.”
www.jhiblog.org
November 24, 2025 at 4:20 PM
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...
www.jhiblog.org/2025/11/24/t...
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.
The Fractured Clock: Exploitation and Control of Transport Workers in Colonial Calcutta
by Amartyajyoti Basu
web.sas.upenn.edu
November 19, 2025 at 2:45 PM
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.
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.
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.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
November 17, 2025 at 3:46 PM
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.
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.
From Petro-Modernity to Petro-Post-Modernity: Disney and the American Cultural Imagination of the Oil Industry
by Levi Thompson
www.jhiblog.org
November 12, 2025 at 2:50 PM
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.
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
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.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
November 10, 2025 at 2:45 PM
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
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."
“Passing” as Japanese at the Turn of the Century: On Civilizational Equivalence in Onoto Watanna’s Oeuvre
by Julia Meghan Walton
web.sas.upenn.edu
November 5, 2025 at 2:38 PM
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."
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.
“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.”
www.jhiblog.org
November 3, 2025 at 3:06 PM
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.
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...
October 30, 2025 at 3:24 PM
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...
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
@princetonupress.bsky.social
The Age of Choice: Disha Karnad Jani Interviews Sophia Rosenfeld
by Disha Karnad Jani
web.sas.upenn.edu
October 29, 2025 at 3:08 PM
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
@princetonupress.bsky.social