Conspiracy theories are neither delusions nor lies, neither simplistic fallacies nor psychological quirks: rather, they are a political problem.  They are not so much about truth as about power.  Rather than seeking to debunk conspiracy theories as the work of fringe groups and cranks, Donatella Di Cesare develops an original account that portrays conspiracy as the spectre of a shattered community. With the proliferation of conspiracy theories, the distrust of politics and politicians turns into a boundless and pervasive suspicion.  Who is behind the scenes?  Who is pulling the strings? The world, which seems increasingly confusing and impossible to read, must have a hidden side, a secret realm, that of the Deep State and the New World Order, where plans are hatched, information is gathered and thoughts are controlled.  It is no longer a matter of a one-off plot or intrigue.  Conspiracy is the very form in which citizens who feel condemned to a frustrating impotence, helpless before a techno-economic juggernaut and manipulated by a faceless power, relate to the world. This is why conspiracy, which exposes the emptiness of democracy, proves to be a fearsome weapon of mass depoliticisation.

The fastest-rising force in Italian politics is Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia a party with a direct genealogy from Mussolini's regime. Surging to prominence in recent years, it has waged a fierce culture war against the Left, polarised political debate around World War II, and even secured the largest vote share in Italy's 2022 general election. Eighty years after the fall of Mussolini, his heirs and admirers are again on the brink of taking power. So how exactly has this situation come about? Mussolini's Grandchildren delves into Italy's self-styled 'post-fascist' movements - rooted in historical fascism yet claiming to have 'transcended' it. David Broder highlights the reinventions of far-right politics since the Second World War, and examines the interplay between a parliamentary face aimed at integrating fascists into the mainstream, and militant fringe groups which, despite their extremism, play an important role in nurturing the broader far right. Fratelli d'Italia has retained its hegemony over fascist subcultures whilst embracing a raft of more pragmatic policy positions, fusing harsh Islamophobia and anti-communism with support for the European Union and NATO. As countervailing anti-fascist forces in Italian society wane, the far-right party's mission to redeem historical fascism, legitimise its political heirs and shift the terrain of mainstream politics is proving alarmingly successful.

Human history has always been marked by the mobility of people and populations, from the earliest movement of human beings out of Africa to the flows of migrants and refugees today. While mobility is intrinsic to human nature, migration is not always voluntary: it can be the result of free choice, but it can also be forced, in different ways and to varying degrees.  In this book, Massimo Livi-Bacci examines migrations past and present with reference to the degree of free choice behind them. The degree can be minimal, as when migration is compelled by war, natural disaster or the actions of a tyrant, but in other cases the decision to migrate can be fully voluntary and deliberate, as when individuals and groups weigh up their options and decide whether to move. Between these two poles there is a continuum of different situations, with gradually increasing or decreasing degrees of freedom and choice. Livi-Bacci explores these variations by focusing on fifteen stories of migration from Antiquity to the present day, ranging from the Greek colonization of the Eastern Mediterranean in the Ancient world to the great migration of millions of people from Europe to the Americas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Taken together, these stories of human movement shed fresh light on the millennia-long history of migration and its motivations, causes and consequences.

Conspiracy theories are neither delusions nor lies, neither simplistic fallacies nor psychological quirks: rather, they are a political problem.  They are not so much about truth as about power.  Rather than seeking to debunk conspiracy theories as the work of fringe groups and cranks, Donatella Di Cesare develops an original account that portrays conspiracy as the spectre of a shattered community. With the proliferation of conspiracy theories, the distrust of politics and politicians turns into a boundless and pervasive suspicion.  Who is behind the scenes?  Who is pulling the strings? The world, which seems increasingly confusing and impossible to read, must have a hidden side, a secret realm, that of the Deep State and the New World Order, where plans are hatched, information is gathered and thoughts are controlled.  It is no longer a matter of a one-off plot or intrigue.  Conspiracy is the very form in which citizens who feel condemned to a frustrating impotence, helpless before a techno-economic juggernaut and manipulated by a faceless power, relate to the world. This is why conspiracy, which exposes the emptiness of democracy, proves to be a fearsome weapon of mass depoliticisation.

This book is an anthology of the writings of Jean Jaures, a central figure of French socialism in the period leading up to World War I, who was born in 1859 and died in 1914, a few days before the outbreak of the conflict. Jaures is one of the most celebrated politicians in France. His writings in this anthology touch on the subjects dear to him, which are then some of the great political themes of his time. In this book are writings on war and pacifism, on colonialism and anti-colonialism, and on the central themes of socialism of the time, such as reformism and revolution. Despite Jaures's notoriety in France, he is not well known abroad. This book, a corpus of his emblematic writings, aims, to make Jaures known to those who do not know him outside of France.

Human history has always been marked by the mobility of people and populations, from the earliest movement of human beings out of Africa to the flows of migrants and refugees today. While mobility is intrinsic to human nature, migration is not always voluntary: it can be the result of free choice, but it can also be forced, in different ways and to varying degrees.  In this book, Massimo Livi-Bacci examines migrations past and present with reference to the degree of free choice behind them. The degree can be minimal, as when migration is compelled by war, natural disaster or the actions of a tyrant, but in other cases the decision to migrate can be fully voluntary and deliberate, as when individuals and groups weigh up their options and decide whether to move. Between these two poles there is a continuum of different situations, with gradually increasing or decreasing degrees of freedom and choice. Livi-Bacci explores these variations by focusing on fifteen stories of migration from Antiquity to the present day, ranging from the Greek colonization of the Eastern Mediterranean in the Ancient world to the great migration of millions of people from Europe to the Americas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Taken together, these stories of human movement shed fresh light on the millennia-long history of migration and its motivations, causes and consequences.

During the final years of the Second World War, a decisive change took place in the Italian left, as the Italian Communist Party (PCI) rose from clandestinity and recast itself as a mass, patriotic force committed to building a new democracy. This book explains how this new party came into being. Using Rome as its focus, it explains that the rebirth of the PCI required that it subdue other, dissident strands of communist thinking. During the nine-month German occupation of Rome in 1943-44, dissident communists would create the capital's largest single resistance formation, the Communist Movement of Italy (MCd'I), which galvanised a social revolt in the capital's borgate slums. Exploring this wartime battle to define the rebirth of Italian communism, the author examines the ways in which a militant minority of communists rooted their activity in the everyday lives of the population under occupation. In particular, this study focuses on the role of draft resistance and the revolt against labour conscription in driving recruitment to partisan bands, and how communist militants sought to mould these recruits through an active effort of political education. Studying the political writing of these dissidents, their autodidact Marxism and the social conditions in which it emerged, this book also sheds light on an often-ignored underground culture in the years that preceded the armed resistance that began in September 1943. Revealing an almost unknown history of dissident communism in Italy, outside of more recognisable traditions like Trotskyism or Bordigism, this book provides an innovative perspective on Italian history. It will be of interest to those researching the broad topics of political and social history, but more specifically, resistance in the Second World War and the post-war European left.

This book is an anthology of the writings of Jean Jaures, a central figure of French socialism in the period leading up to World War I, who was born in 1859 and died in 1914, a few days before the outbreak of the conflict. Jaures is one of the most celebrated politicians in France. His writings in this anthology touch on the subjects dear to him, which are then some of the great political themes of his time. In this book are writings on war and pacifism, on colonialism and anti-colonialism, and on the central themes of socialism of the time, such as reformism and revolution. Despite Jaures's notoriety in France, he is not well known abroad. This book, a corpus of his emblematic writings, aims, to make Jaures known to those who do not know him outside of France.

Eminent Italian historian Giovanni Levi once notably remarked that "no one is a Marxist anymore," pointing to a paradox in Italian cultural history. While what is called "Marxism" was supposedly hegemonic over Italian culture, and especially history writing, for decades in the postwar period, it then seems to have suddenly disappeared. This study questions such a vision of a monolithic and hegemonic Marxism. It starts from the most effective anecdote to all ideologising narratives-that is, research into the texts themselves. It sees the Marxist historiography of the post-1945 period as a "history in the making," in which references to Marxian theory were a fundamental factor driving historiographical innovation. This allows the book to bring to light a highly original experience in the development of historiography, based on the long Italian tradition of reflection on historical knowledge.

During the final years of the Second World War, a decisive change took place in the Italian left, as the Italian Communist Party (PCI) rose from clandestinity and recast itself as a mass, patriotic force committed to building a new democracy. This book explains how this new party came into being. Using Rome as its focus, it explains that the rebirth of the PCI required that it subdue other, dissident strands of communist thinking. During the nine-month German occupation of Rome in 1943-44, dissident communists would create the capital's largest single resistance formation, the Communist Movement of Italy (MCd'I), which galvanised a social revolt in the capital's borgate slums. Exploring this wartime battle to define the rebirth of Italian communism, the author examines the ways in which a militant minority of communists rooted their activity in the everyday lives of the population under occupation. In particular, this study focuses on the role of draft resistance and the revolt against labour conscription in driving recruitment to partisan bands, and how communist militants sought to mould these recruits through an active effort of political education. Studying the political writing of these dissidents, their autodidact Marxism and the social conditions in which it emerged, this book also sheds light on an often-ignored underground culture in the years that preceded the armed resistance that began in September 1943. Revealing an almost unknown history of dissident communism in Italy, outside of more recognisable traditions like Trotskyism or Bordigism, this book provides an innovative perspective on Italian history. It will be of interest to those researching the broad topics of political and social history, but more specifically, resistance in the Second World War and the post-war European left.

In a work centred on Marx's harsh biography of Simon Bolvar, Jose Arico examines why Latin America was apparently excluded from Marx's thought, challenging the allegation that this expressed Eurocentric prejudice. Whilst criticising Marx's misreading of Latin American realities, Arico shows countervailing tendencies in Marx's thought, including his appraisal of non-European societies. Arico convincingly argues that Marx's work was not a dogma of linear 'progress', but a living, contradictory body of thought constantly in development.

Eminent Italian historian Giovanni Levi once notably remarked that "no one is a Marxist anymore," pointing to a paradox in Italian cultural history. While what is called "Marxism" was supposedly hegemonic over Italian culture, and especially history writing, for decades in the postwar period, it then seems to have suddenly disappeared. This study questions such a vision of a monolithic and hegemonic Marxism. It starts from the most effective anecdote to all ideologising narratives-that is, research into the texts themselves. It sees the Marxist historiography of the post-1945 period as a "history in the making," in which references to Marxian theory were a fundamental factor driving historiographical innovation. This allows the book to bring to light a highly original experience in the development of historiography, based on the long Italian tradition of reflection on historical knowledge.

What explains France's unique Left? Many works have reflected upon the importance of Marxism in France, yet few studies have been devoted to the man who did most to introduce Marxism into its political culture: the today near-forgotten figure of Jules Guesde. It was with Guesde that Karl Marx drafted the world's first Marxist program, and Guesde who aroused the enthusiasm of countless worker-militants who saw him as their most important leader. Jules Guesde represents the first book-length study of the French socialist leader translated into the English language. For the radical Left today, Guesde is often considered a dogmatist who supported the Union sacree during World War I and rejected the Bolshevik revolution; for the governmental Left, he embodies an intransigent ideologue who held back the modernization of the French Left. Throughout Jules Guesde, Jean-Numa Ducange argues that it is impossible to study the history of the French socialist movement without a close look at this singular figure and offers a fuller picture of the deep transformations of the Left and Marxism in France from the late 19th century up to the present. This scholarly biography of Jules Guesde seeks to put Guesde's record on a properly historical footing, closely analysing both archival sources and accounts by his contemporaries. Chapter One begins with his early life and the mark left on him by the Paris Commune and exile. Chapter Two emphasises Guesde's importance as leader of a distinct current of French socialism, recognised by figures like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Chapter Three sees Guesde become an MP for working-class Roubaix, exploring the contradictions between his revolutionary rhetoric and concrete political practice. Chapter Four turns to the years following his electoral defeat in 1898 and his renewed intransigence in the period of the Dreyfus affair and rivalry with Jaures. Chapter Five explores his key role in the formation of a united Socialist Party. Chapter Six examines the test of World War I and Guesde's anguish at the divisions of French socialism. The book then concludes with an examination of Guesde's contested legacy, as both a "founding father" and figure subject to often pejorative framings.

This edited volume takes a close look at Nicos Poulantzas's thought as a means of understanding the dynamics of the capitalist, neoliberal state in the 21st century. Nicos Poulantzas has left us with one of the most sophisticated theories of the state in the second half of the 20th century. Poulantzas's influential theory draws inspiration from Marx, Lenin, Weber, and Foucault, among other thinkers, conceiving of the relationship between capitalism and the state as particularly original. This book aims to use Poulantzas's theory of the capitalist state in order to understand important political and economic trends that have taken place since Poulantzas's death in 1979. By entering into a dialogue with current Marxist and critical research in diverse fields such as political science, philosophy, sociology, history, and geography, this volume purports to evaluate the actuality of Poulantzas's thought.

This edited volume takes a close look at Nicos Poulantzas's thought as a means of understanding the dynamics of the capitalist, neoliberal state in the 21st century. Nicos Poulantzas has left us with one of the most sophisticated theories of the state in the second half of the 20th century. Poulantzas's influential theory draws inspiration from Marx, Lenin, Weber, and Foucault, among other thinkers, conceiving of the relationship between capitalism and the state as particularly original. This book aims to use Poulantzas's theory of the capitalist state in order to understand important political and economic trends that have taken place since Poulantzas's death in 1979. By entering into a dialogue with current Marxist and critical research in diverse fields such as political science, philosophy, sociology, history, and geography, this volume purports to evaluate the actuality of Poulantzas's thought.

This book places two key notions up against each other to imagine a new way of conceptualizing historical time. How do the experience of deja vu and the idea 'End of History' relate to one another? Through thinkers like Bergson, Kojeve and Nietzsche, Virno explores these constructs of memory and the passage of time. In showing how the experience of time becomes historical, Virno considers two fundamental concepts from Western philosophy: Power and The Act, reinterpreting these with respect to time. Through these, he elegantly constructs a radical new theory of historical temporality.

As the financial crisis reached its climax in September 2008, the most important figure on the planet was Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. The whole financial system was collapsing, without anything to stop it. When a senator asked Bernanke what would happen if the central bank did not carry out its rescue package, he replied,"lf we don't do this, we may not have an economy on Monday." What saved finance, and the Western economy, was money. Yet it is a highly ambivalent phenomenon. It is deeply embedded in our societies, acting as a powerful link between the individual and the collective. But by no means is it neutral. Through its grip on finance and the debts system, money confers sovereign power on the economy. If confidence in money is not maintained, crises will follow. Looking over the last 5,000 years, this book explores the development of money and its close connection to sovereign power. Michel Aglietta mobilises the tools of anthropology, history and political economy in order to analyse how political structures and monetary systems have transformed one another. We can thus grasp the different eras of monetary regulation and the crises capitalism has endured throughout its history.

It is difficult for Italians to have much faith in the future. The last Labour Minister said it was a good thing if young people emigrated, to stop them 'getting under our feet'; one recent Prime Minister said that young Italians should not invest their hopes in securing a stable job, for that would be 'boring', anyway. Examining Italy's history since the end of the Cold War, Italy is the Future argues that its dismal situation should not be understood in terms of a stereotyped narrative of Italian chaos or backwardness. In a country that could once boast Europe's strongest Left, Italy today epitomises the crisis of democracy in the West. The scandals of Silvio Berlusconi's rule, the pervasive corruption of public life and sky-high youth unemployment are indicators of a particularly sick society. Yet what is also apparent is the difficulty of any new force emerging to renew Italy's institutions, as its atomised citizens lose hope in political change. What has broken apart in Italy is not just its once-mighty Left but the very bases of social solidarity. The parties of the 1990s and 2000s directly express the social demolition wrought by neoliberalism, as isolated and endangered individuals face the consequences of the crisis alone. Not this or that political party, but public life itself, is in full-scale collapse

What explains France's unique Left? Many works have reflected upon the importance of Marxism in France, yet few studies have been devoted to the man who did most to introduce Marxism into its political culture: the today near-forgotten figure of Jules Guesde. It was with Guesde that Karl Marx drafted the world's first Marxist program, and Guesde who aroused the enthusiasm of countless worker-militants who saw him as their most important leader. Jules Guesde represents the first book-length study of the French socialist leader translated into the English language. For the radical Left today, Guesde is often considered a dogmatist who supported the Union sacree during World War I and rejected the Bolshevik revolution; for the governmental Left, he embodies an intransigent ideologue who held back the modernization of the French Left. Throughout Jules Guesde, Jean-Numa Ducange argues that it is impossible to study the history of the French socialist movement without a close look at this singular figure and offers a fuller picture of the deep transformations of the Left and Marxism in France from the late 19th century up to the present. This scholarly biography of Jules Guesde seeks to put Guesde's record on a properly historical footing, closely analysing both archival sources and accounts by his contemporaries. Chapter One begins with his early life and the mark left on him by the Paris Commune and exile. Chapter Two emphasises Guesde's importance as leader of a distinct current of French socialism, recognised by figures like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Chapter Three sees Guesde become an MP for working-class Roubaix, exploring the contradictions between his revolutionary rhetoric and concrete political practice. Chapter Four turns to the years following his electoral defeat in 1898 and his renewed intransigence in the period of the Dreyfus affair and rivalry with Jaures. Chapter Five explores his key role in the formation of a united Socialist Party. Chapter Six examines the test of World War I and Guesde's anguish at the divisions of French socialism. The book then concludes with an examination of Guesde's contested legacy, as both a "founding father" and figure subject to often pejorative framings.

A stimulating and profound portrayal of the epochal event that has already left its mark on the twenty-first century. Immunodemocracy offers a stimulating and profound portrayal of the epochal event that has already left its mark on the twenty-first century. Moving from the ecological question to the rule of experts, from the state of exception to immunitarian democracy, from rule by fear to the contagion of conspiracy theory, from forced distancing to digital control, Donatella Di Cesare examines how existence is already changing--and what its future political effects may be. In her own personal style, the author reconstructs the dramatic phases of what she calls the breathing catastrophe. Coronavirus is a sovereign virus that skirts its way around the walls of patriotism and the sovereignists' imperious frontiers. And it reveals in all its terrible crudeness the immunitarian logic that excludes the weakest and hits the poorest. The Cordon sanitaire of disengagement risks expanding beyond all proportion. The disparity between the protected and the helpless--a challenge to any idea of justice--has never been so blatant. The virus has not introduced, but merely brought out into the open the ruthlessness of the capitalism that is now wrapping us in its devastating spiral, in its compulsive, asphyxial vortex. Is it our final warning? The violent global pandemic shows that it is impossible for us to survive if we don't help each other. We will need to protect ourselves from protection and the specter of absolute immunization. When breathing can no longer be taken for granted, we need to rethink a new way of living together.

When the French government passed a ban on the veil in 2011, surprisingly few French feminists spoke out against the racist measure. Christine Delphy--the sociologist who Simone de Beauvoir once described as "France's most exciting feminist writer"--was one of the notable few. Castigating humanitarian liberals for demanding cultural assimilation of the women they were purporting to "save," Delphy showed how criminalizing Islam in the name of feminism was fundamentally paradoxical. Dominating Others is Delphy's manifesto against this tendency, and for a fluid understanding of political identity that does not place different political struggles in a false opposition. Dismantling the absurd claim that Afghanistan was invaded to save women, alongside the notion that homosexuals and immigrants alike should reserve their self-expression for private settings, Dominating Others is a call for a true universalism that sacrifices no one at the expense of others.

Spinoza is among the most controversial and asymmetrical thinkers in the tradition and history of modern European philosophy. Since the 17th century, his work has aroused some of the fiercest and most intense polemics in the discipline. From his expulsion from the synagogue and onwards, Spinoza has never ceased to embody the secular, heretical and self-loathing Jew. Ivan Segre, a philosopher and celebrated scholar of the Talmud, discloses the conservative underpinnings that have animated Spinoza's numerable critics and antagonists. Through a close reading of Leo Strauss and several contemporary Jewish thinkers, such as Jean-Claude Milner and Benny Levy (Sartre's last secretary), Spinoza: the Ethics of an Outlaw aptly delineates the common cause of Spinoza's contemporary censors: an explicit hatred of reason and its emancipatory potential. Spinoza's radical heresy lies in his rejection of any and all blind adherence to Biblical Law, and in his plea for the freedom and autonomy of thought. Segre reclaims Spinoza as a faithful interpreter of the revolutionary potential contained within the Old Testament.