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 JHI Blog, Bhadrajee Hewage follows the nineteenth-century rise and fall of the “Ceylonese Buddha,” an English bookseller’s theory of the Buddha’s Sri Lankan origins—revealing a broader effort to naturalize history through geography by fixing living traditions to verifiable sites.
The Bookseller and the Buddha: Error, Empire, and the Problem of Origins
by Bhadrajee Hewage
web.sas.upenn.edu
February 9, 2026 at 2:51 PM
Today on the JHI Blog, Bhadrajee Hewage follows the nineteenth-century rise and fall of the “Ceylonese Buddha,” an English bookseller’s theory of the Buddha’s Sri Lankan origins—revealing a broader effort to naturalize history through geography by fixing living traditions to verifiable sites.
Jackson Herndon interviews Michael Lazarus about his book "Absolute Ethical Life." They discuss Marx's Aristotelian-Hegelian ethics, Arendt's and MacIntyre's concepts of the ethical, and the enduring significance of "species-being" to Marx.
@michaellazarus.bsky.social @stanfordpress.bsky.social
@michaellazarus.bsky.social @stanfordpress.bsky.social
The Normativity of Marx’s Aristotelian-Hegelianism: An Interview with Michael Lazarus
by Jackson Herndon
www.jhiblog.org
February 4, 2026 at 2:41 PM
Jackson Herndon interviews Michael Lazarus about his book "Absolute Ethical Life." They discuss Marx's Aristotelian-Hegelian ethics, Arendt's and MacIntyre's concepts of the ethical, and the enduring significance of "species-being" to Marx.
@michaellazarus.bsky.social @stanfordpress.bsky.social
@michaellazarus.bsky.social @stanfordpress.bsky.social
For the forum on political economy, Lars Cornelissen answers Samuel Moyn’s call to conceptualize the social side of ideology by turning to Stuart Hall’s idea of ideology as “practical reason,” examining the material networks that led neoliberalism further rightward.
@lcornelissen.bsky.social
@lcornelissen.bsky.social
Stuart Hall, Ideology, and Neoliberalism’s Reactionary Drift
by Lars Cornelissen
This essay is part of a JHI Blog forum, “The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History.”
web.sas.upenn.edu
February 2, 2026 at 2:42 PM
For the forum on political economy, Lars Cornelissen answers Samuel Moyn’s call to conceptualize the social side of ideology by turning to Stuart Hall’s idea of ideology as “practical reason,” examining the material networks that led neoliberalism further rightward.
@lcornelissen.bsky.social
@lcornelissen.bsky.social
On this episode of In Theory, Disha Karnad Jani interviews Ahmad Shokr about his book, "Harvests of Liberation," which examines the history of Egyptian decolonization through one of the nation’s most valuable commodities: cotton. @stanfordpress.bsky.social
Harvests of Liberation: Disha Karnad Jani Interviews Ahmad Shokr
by Disha Karnad Jani
web.sas.upenn.edu
January 28, 2026 at 3:06 PM
On this episode of In Theory, Disha Karnad Jani interviews Ahmad Shokr about his book, "Harvests of Liberation," which examines the history of Egyptian decolonization through one of the nation’s most valuable commodities: cotton. @stanfordpress.bsky.social
In this latest addition to the JHI Blog’s Forum on political economy, Arielle Xena Alterwaite turns to C.L.R. James’s classic reading of Moby-Dick to reflect not solely on the substance of intellectual history and political economy, but also on the various styles in which this history can be told.
“Spread a Rainbow Over His Disastrous Set of Sun”: The Comedy of Colonial Enlightenment
by Arielle Xena Alterwaite
This essay is part of a JHI Blog forum, "The Return of Political Economy in Intellectual History."
web.sas.upenn.edu
January 26, 2026 at 3:17 PM
In this latest addition to the JHI Blog’s Forum on political economy, Arielle Xena Alterwaite turns to C.L.R. James’s classic reading of Moby-Dick to reflect not solely on the substance of intellectual history and political economy, but also on the various styles in which this history can be told.
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.