BOOKS
Russia Against Modernity
Alexander Etkind
Our publishing programme is inaugurated by the work of Alexander Etkind, a professor at the Central European University in Vienna, and the author of notable works on Russian history such as Eros of the Impossible (1993), Internal Colonisation (2011), Nature’s Evil (2019), among others. His book Russia Against Modernity, published by Polity Press in March 2023, has become a vivid response by the scholar to the tragic events of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The author not only interprets the events from the perspective of global historical processes but also provides a forecast for the medium-term perspective. We are publishing an authorised and supplemented Russian translation of the work, the relevance of which is difficult to overestimate. In parallel with the Russian edition, a Latvian translation of the book is being published.
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Alexander Etkind’s Russia Against Modernity is not only essential reading but a terrific read. Weaving together an intellectual tapestry of political economy, culture and ecology he portrays contemporary Russia, its form of rule and adversarial posture in a new and illuminating light. This ambitious and compelling synthesis concludes with bold predictions about the likely fate of Russia’s “paleomodern” project. Etkind’s dazzling work stimulates fresh thinking long after the last page is turned.
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Alexander Etkind’s Russia Against Modernity presents a new thesis on the nature of Putin’s Russia that is as innovative as it is thought-provoking. Today’s Russia, argues Etkind, rages not just against fairness, justice, and the liberal world order, but against a climate transition that will destroy both the country’s corrupt political economy and the Putin’s regime’s foundations. Etkind, indubitably one of the world’s leading thinkers on Russian politics, makes his case with consummate skill. For those interested in war, political economy, global security, and the ramifications of the global transition to a green economy, Russia Against Modernity is essential reading.
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The most thought-provoking of the new crop of books about the war in Ukraine is Alexander Etkind’s quick and incisive Russia Against Modernity. The book is set in the future and cast as a postwar analysis of why Russia was defeated in Ukraine. Etkind builds his speculations off the flaws of the society Putin built— an antidemocratic, parasitic petrostate that historically relied on fossil fuels like oil and gas for two-thirds of its exports. Etkind portrays Russia’s leaders as living fossils living on fossil fuels
To be published soon
What Are You Going to Do About It?
Aldous Huxley
The author needs no introduction. However, his role as a political publicist remains relatively unexplored. In the essay What Are You Going to Do About It?: The Case for Constructive Peace (1936), published at the outbreak of World War II, Huxley debunks 11 common notions about the war being the natural state of things, providing spontaneous pacifists with rational arguments. His second work, Science, Liberty and Peace (1946), is an extensive response to the first UN assembly, which insightfully identifies the internal flaws of the emerging world order. Huxley argues that technological progress strengthens dictatorship, offers tentative alternatives to the scale economy, and warns of the danger of polarisation. Not only does he raise surprisingly relevant questions but also offers solutions that are utopian only at first glance. Tied under one cover, these works present a view of the world ‘before’ and ‘after’ the catastrophe, exemplifying intellectual honesty and high humanism — qualities that are scarce at all times.
What Are You Going to Do About It?
Aldous Huxley
The author needs no introduction. However, his role as a political publicist remains relatively unexplored. In the essay What Are You Going to Do About It?: The Case for Constructive Peace (1936), published at the outbreak of World War II, Huxley debunks 11 common notions about the war being the natural state of things, providing spontaneous pacifists with rational arguments. His second work, Science, Liberty and Peace (1946), is an extensive response to the first UN assembly, which insightfully identifies the internal flaws of the emerging world order. Huxley argues that technological progress strengthens dictatorship, offers tentative alternatives to the scale economy, and warns of the danger of polarisation. Not only does he raise surprisingly relevant questions but also offers solutions that are utopian only at first glance. Tied under one cover, these works present a view of the world ‘before’ and ‘after’ the catastrophe, exemplifying intellectual honesty and high humanism — qualities that are scarce at all times.