Niklas Plaetzer
@nplaetzer.bsky.social
PhD candidate in political theory. University of Chicago / Sciences Po Paris.
https://niklasplaetzer.com/
https://niklasplaetzer.com/
If you're at APSA, come join us for the discussion of Anna Jurkevics's excellent "Contested Territory: A Theory of Land and Democracy beyond Sovereign Bounds" (Oxford UP 2025) on Thursday. I'm honored to be a part of this conversation, and hope to see you there!
academic.oup.com/book/59797
academic.oup.com/book/59797
September 9, 2025 at 8:45 PM
If you're at APSA, come join us for the discussion of Anna Jurkevics's excellent "Contested Territory: A Theory of Land and Democracy beyond Sovereign Bounds" (Oxford UP 2025) on Thursday. I'm honored to be a part of this conversation, and hope to see you there!
academic.oup.com/book/59797
academic.oup.com/book/59797
If you are thinking with & about Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism, please consider submitting a proposal to this upcoming conference in Paderborn/Germany in May 2026 to commemorate its 75th anniversary. Organized by Ari-Elmeri Hyvönen and Maria Robaszkiewicz, abstracts due end of August.
August 14, 2025 at 9:38 PM
If you are thinking with & about Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism, please consider submitting a proposal to this upcoming conference in Paderborn/Germany in May 2026 to commemorate its 75th anniversary. Organized by Ari-Elmeri Hyvönen and Maria Robaszkiewicz, abstracts due end of August.
"Gorsuch was dead, and armed African Americans had repelled those who claimed property in their persons."
– on *Edward* Gorsuch, the Baltimore slaveholder.
From Martha Jones, "Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America" (Cambridge University Press 2018), p. 103.
– on *Edward* Gorsuch, the Baltimore slaveholder.
From Martha Jones, "Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America" (Cambridge University Press 2018), p. 103.
July 2, 2025 at 6:44 PM
"Gorsuch was dead, and armed African Americans had repelled those who claimed property in their persons."
– on *Edward* Gorsuch, the Baltimore slaveholder.
From Martha Jones, "Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America" (Cambridge University Press 2018), p. 103.
– on *Edward* Gorsuch, the Baltimore slaveholder.
From Martha Jones, "Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America" (Cambridge University Press 2018), p. 103.
Honored to be at the University of Bologna as a visiting fellow for the next month to continue work on my dissertation on radical democracy and institutional durability. Sincere thanks to Prof. Giovanni Giorgini and the Department of Political and Social Sciences for inviting me!
June 30, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Honored to be at the University of Bologna as a visiting fellow for the next month to continue work on my dissertation on radical democracy and institutional durability. Sincere thanks to Prof. Giovanni Giorgini and the Department of Political and Social Sciences for inviting me!
Excited to be in Verona to present on Arendt's councils in On Revolution (1963), imperialism as a crisis of authority, and durable republican institutions beyond the nation-state. Thanks to Olivia Guaraldo, Ilaria Possenti, Gabriele Parrino, and the entire organizing team for this timely conference!
June 25, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Excited to be in Verona to present on Arendt's councils in On Revolution (1963), imperialism as a crisis of authority, and durable republican institutions beyond the nation-state. Thanks to Olivia Guaraldo, Ilaria Possenti, Gabriele Parrino, and the entire organizing team for this timely conference!
Reminder that Carl Schmitt did not, in fact, "briefly" give "his allegiance" to the Nazi regime. He spent over four more decades fantasizing about genocide against Jews and explicitly identified with Adolf Eichmann as late as 1975.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
June 17, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Reminder that Carl Schmitt did not, in fact, "briefly" give "his allegiance" to the Nazi regime. He spent over four more decades fantasizing about genocide against Jews and explicitly identified with Adolf Eichmann as late as 1975.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
I look forward to presenting a chapter draft on the origins of the concept of "social movement" in the work of Lorenz von Stein (1850) at UChicago's Political Theory Workshop next Monday, May 19, at noon, CST. The session is hybrid – please don't hesitate to message me if you'd like to join remotely
May 14, 2025 at 5:27 PM
I look forward to presenting a chapter draft on the origins of the concept of "social movement" in the work of Lorenz von Stein (1850) at UChicago's Political Theory Workshop next Monday, May 19, at noon, CST. The session is hybrid – please don't hesitate to message me if you'd like to join remotely
"One must have spent some time in this isolating booth that we call a National Assembly to understand how the men with the most complete ignorance of the state of a country are almost always those who represent it."
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Confessions, 1849, p. 169.
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Confessions, 1849, p. 169.
April 22, 2025 at 6:01 PM
"One must have spent some time in this isolating booth that we call a National Assembly to understand how the men with the most complete ignorance of the state of a country are almost always those who represent it."
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Confessions, 1849, p. 169.
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Confessions, 1849, p. 169.
"'Make money, my son, honestly if you can, but make money.' - Proverb of the American plutocrats"
From the front page of Pierre Leroux, "De la ploutocratie ou Du gouvernement par les riches" [Of Plutocracy, or Of Government by the Rich], 1848.
From the front page of Pierre Leroux, "De la ploutocratie ou Du gouvernement par les riches" [Of Plutocracy, or Of Government by the Rich], 1848.
April 7, 2025 at 8:26 PM
"'Make money, my son, honestly if you can, but make money.' - Proverb of the American plutocrats"
From the front page of Pierre Leroux, "De la ploutocratie ou Du gouvernement par les riches" [Of Plutocracy, or Of Government by the Rich], 1848.
From the front page of Pierre Leroux, "De la ploutocratie ou Du gouvernement par les riches" [Of Plutocracy, or Of Government by the Rich], 1848.
The long-awaited book on Jacques Rancière by the Norwegian philosopher Anders Fjeld is out with @l-p-d-r.bsky.social. Based on a thesis with the late Étienne Tassin, it's a major intervention in radical democratic theory. Hopefully a translation will follow:
www.lespressesdureel.com/ouvrage.php?...
www.lespressesdureel.com/ouvrage.php?...
March 5, 2025 at 12:11 AM
The long-awaited book on Jacques Rancière by the Norwegian philosopher Anders Fjeld is out with @l-p-d-r.bsky.social. Based on a thesis with the late Étienne Tassin, it's a major intervention in radical democratic theory. Hopefully a translation will follow:
www.lespressesdureel.com/ouvrage.php?...
www.lespressesdureel.com/ouvrage.php?...
I'm honored and excited to speak about Arendt and Glissant at DePaul, February 28, on a wonderful panel on "Creolizing Hannah Arendt" (ed. Neil Robers and Marilyn Nissim-Sabat). Would love to see you there if you're in Chicago!
rowman.com/ISBN/9781538...
events.depaul.edu/event/book-d...
rowman.com/ISBN/9781538...
events.depaul.edu/event/book-d...
February 19, 2025 at 5:34 AM
I'm honored and excited to speak about Arendt and Glissant at DePaul, February 28, on a wonderful panel on "Creolizing Hannah Arendt" (ed. Neil Robers and Marilyn Nissim-Sabat). Would love to see you there if you're in Chicago!
rowman.com/ISBN/9781538...
events.depaul.edu/event/book-d...
rowman.com/ISBN/9781538...
events.depaul.edu/event/book-d...
Sharing again my article (in Political Theory, 2023) on Hannah Arendt's 1970 essay "Civil Disobedience," the crisis of white constitutionalism in America, and the lost promise of Reconstruction.
doi.org/10.1177/0090...
doi.org/10.1177/0090...
February 14, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Sharing again my article (in Political Theory, 2023) on Hannah Arendt's 1970 essay "Civil Disobedience," the crisis of white constitutionalism in America, and the lost promise of Reconstruction.
doi.org/10.1177/0090...
doi.org/10.1177/0090...
New article by Michael Lazarus (Deakin, Australia), carefully tracing a shift in Arendt's distinction between 'social' and 'political' between 'Origins' and 'Human Condition,' in light of Gillian Rose and Rosa Luxemburg. Not sure I agree, but highly recommended: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
February 1, 2025 at 8:22 PM
New article by Michael Lazarus (Deakin, Australia), carefully tracing a shift in Arendt's distinction between 'social' and 'political' between 'Origins' and 'Human Condition,' in light of Gillian Rose and Rosa Luxemburg. Not sure I agree, but highly recommended: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
As the Brazilian radical republican Luiz Gama put it in 1871: "resistance, which is a civic virtue, as the necessary sanction against noblemen-robbers, impure contrabandists, transgressor-judges, and false, shameless owners."
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
January 30, 2025 at 11:45 PM
As the Brazilian radical republican Luiz Gama put it in 1871: "resistance, which is a civic virtue, as the necessary sanction against noblemen-robbers, impure contrabandists, transgressor-judges, and false, shameless owners."
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Perhaps it's time to revisit Larry Kramer's argument that the authority of judicial review in the United States initially rested with the people themselves: "the people out of doors", not the Supreme Court.
January 28, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Perhaps it's time to revisit Larry Kramer's argument that the authority of judicial review in the United States initially rested with the people themselves: "the people out of doors", not the Supreme Court.
Symposium on Arendt's "Civil Disobedience" at Humboldt University Berin on February 7, with @gambettiz.bsky.social, Bethania Assy, and Christian Volk.
www.sowi.hu-berlin.de/en/research-...
www.sowi.hu-berlin.de/en/research-...
January 24, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Symposium on Arendt's "Civil Disobedience" at Humboldt University Berin on February 7, with @gambettiz.bsky.social, Bethania Assy, and Christian Volk.
www.sowi.hu-berlin.de/en/research-...
www.sowi.hu-berlin.de/en/research-...
Trump in Asheville, North Carolina, January 2025
(photo: Kenny Holston, New York Times)
Napoleon III visiting flood victims in Tarascon, July 1856
(painting: William-Adolphe Bouguereau)
(photo: Kenny Holston, New York Times)
Napoleon III visiting flood victims in Tarascon, July 1856
(painting: William-Adolphe Bouguereau)
January 24, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Trump in Asheville, North Carolina, January 2025
(photo: Kenny Holston, New York Times)
Napoleon III visiting flood victims in Tarascon, July 1856
(painting: William-Adolphe Bouguereau)
(photo: Kenny Holston, New York Times)
Napoleon III visiting flood victims in Tarascon, July 1856
(painting: William-Adolphe Bouguereau)
"Of course one may ask whether North America, with its royalist leftovers and its king in a dress coat, has ever been a real republic. But one cannot deny that in earlier days, after it had liberated itself from the shackles of monarchy, it contained less monarchic elements ..."
January 19, 2025 at 6:56 PM
"Of course one may ask whether North America, with its royalist leftovers and its king in a dress coat, has ever been a real republic. But one cannot deny that in earlier days, after it had liberated itself from the shackles of monarchy, it contained less monarchic elements ..."
January 12, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Membership card of the Fraternal Democrats, founded by refugees in London in 1845 as one of the first internationalist workers organizations. Their slogan is printed in English, French, German, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Swedish, Danish, and Dutch.
January 5, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Membership card of the Fraternal Democrats, founded by refugees in London in 1845 as one of the first internationalist workers organizations. Their slogan is printed in English, French, German, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Swedish, Danish, and Dutch.
From Jonathan Beecher, Charles Fourier: The Visionary and His World (1986)
December 21, 2024 at 10:51 PM
From Jonathan Beecher, Charles Fourier: The Visionary and His World (1986)
Harrington's conclusion: "Arendt sí; Arendt no."
December 15, 2024 at 3:32 PM
Harrington's conclusion: "Arendt sí; Arendt no."
Opening paragraph of Michael Harrington's review of Hannah Arendt's On Revolution (1963)
December 15, 2024 at 3:32 PM
Opening paragraph of Michael Harrington's review of Hannah Arendt's On Revolution (1963)
November 22, 2024 at 9:57 PM
From Eugène Pelletan, Le Monde Marche, 1857.
(Caricature of Eugène Pelletan as the owl of Minerva, André Gill, L'Éclipse, 1868) 6/6
(Caricature of Eugène Pelletan as the owl of Minerva, André Gill, L'Éclipse, 1868) 6/6
November 21, 2024 at 7:58 PM
From Eugène Pelletan, Le Monde Marche, 1857.
(Caricature of Eugène Pelletan as the owl of Minerva, André Gill, L'Éclipse, 1868) 6/6
(Caricature of Eugène Pelletan as the owl of Minerva, André Gill, L'Éclipse, 1868) 6/6