The Cambridge School
@thecambridgeschool.bsky.social
Political Thought and Intellectual History. Posting from the Cambridge Centre for Political Thought. https://www.polthought.cam.ac.uk
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The De-politicization and naturalization of twentieth Century Adam Smith (traced to Halévy) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
The De-politicization and naturalization of twentieth Century Adam Smith (traced to Halévy)
Earlier in the week I discussed how at the start of the twentieth century, Adam Smith was seen as one of the key founders of the English liberal tradition that combined the ‘Manchester’ school of Cobd...
open.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:16 PM
The De-politicization and naturalization of twentieth Century Adam Smith (traced to Halévy) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
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Carl Schmitt, State Composition and Collapse of the Second Reich: The Victory of the Bourgeois Citizen over the Soldier - trans Samuel Garrett Zeitlin, @politybooks.bsky.social, December 2025
www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
State Composition and Collapse of the Second Reich: The Victory of the Bourgeois Citizen over the Soldier
State Composition and Collapse of the Second Reich: The Victory of the Bourgeois Citizen over the Soldier, Newly published for the first time in English translation, Carl Schmitt’s 1934 tract, <i>Stat...
www.politybooks.com
December 6, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Carl Schmitt, State Composition and Collapse of the Second Reich: The Victory of the Bourgeois Citizen over the Soldier - trans Samuel Garrett Zeitlin, @politybooks.bsky.social, December 2025
www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
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On Berlin's reading of Bacon on Machiavelli--with some excitement over Lucian.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
@jcherniss.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
@jcherniss.bsky.social
On Berlin's reading of Bacon on Machiavelli--with some excitement over Lucian.
As I noted yesterday, Josh Chernish nudged me into re-reading Isaiah Berlin’s (1972) “The Originality of Machiavelli” reprinted in Against the Current.
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:24 AM
On Berlin's reading of Bacon on Machiavelli--with some excitement over Lucian.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
@jcherniss.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
@jcherniss.bsky.social
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I'm looking forward to presenting at the Yale Political Theory workshop next week. My paper:
"Socialism and Telepathy: Collective Intelligence, Freedom, and Individuality, in Interwar Britain"
politicaltheory.yale.edu/fall-2025-sc...
@thecambridgeschool.bsky.social
"Socialism and Telepathy: Collective Intelligence, Freedom, and Individuality, in Interwar Britain"
politicaltheory.yale.edu/fall-2025-sc...
@thecambridgeschool.bsky.social
Fall 2025 Schedule
| Political Theory Workshop
politicaltheory.yale.edu
December 3, 2025 at 12:49 PM
I'm looking forward to presenting at the Yale Political Theory workshop next week. My paper:
"Socialism and Telepathy: Collective Intelligence, Freedom, and Individuality, in Interwar Britain"
politicaltheory.yale.edu/fall-2025-sc...
@thecambridgeschool.bsky.social
"Socialism and Telepathy: Collective Intelligence, Freedom, and Individuality, in Interwar Britain"
politicaltheory.yale.edu/fall-2025-sc...
@thecambridgeschool.bsky.social
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On the Pull of Transitional Despotism on the Plebeian Left. McCormick and Isaiah Berlin on Machiavelli, Agathocles & Glory (with a shout out to @jcherniss.bsky.social) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On the Pull of Transitional Despotism on the Plebeian Left. McCormick and Isaiah Berlin on Machiavelli, Agathocles & Glory.
John P.
open.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 12:46 PM
On the Pull of Transitional Despotism on the Plebeian Left. McCormick and Isaiah Berlin on Machiavelli, Agathocles & Glory (with a shout out to @jcherniss.bsky.social) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
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What Paul is describing is scandalous. But I am also weirdly cheered up by seeing pics of him since the accident. So much willpower, such determination to rebuild a meaningful life. Unchanged is his ridiculous articulacy and humour. His substack is very good too, subscribe!
‘I wish I could say I kept my cool’: my maddening experience with the NHS wheelchair service
‘I wish I could say I kept my cool’: my maddening experience with the NHS wheelchair service
The long read: After I was paralysed in a climbing accident, I discovered how inconsiderate, illogical and incompetent many wheelchair providers can be
www.theguardian.com
December 2, 2025 at 11:26 AM
What Paul is describing is scandalous. But I am also weirdly cheered up by seeing pics of him since the accident. So much willpower, such determination to rebuild a meaningful life. Unchanged is his ridiculous articulacy and humour. His substack is very good too, subscribe!
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On Hobhouse and Hirst on Adam Smith
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Hobhouse and Hirst on Adam Smith
The conduct of individuals guided by their rational plans should be coordinated as far as possible to achieve results which although not intended or perhaps even foreseen by them are nevertheless the ...
open.substack.com
December 1, 2025 at 3:52 PM
On Hobhouse and Hirst on Adam Smith
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
Paul Sagar recently presented his paper on Aristotle, Williams, and Rawls to the #MondaySeminar. Here he is in today's Guardian, on the business of wheelchairs:
‘I wish I could say I kept my cool’: my maddening experience with the NHS wheelchair service
The long read: After I was paralysed in a climbing accident, I discovered how inconsiderate, illogical and incompetent many wheelchair providers can be
www.theguardian.com
December 2, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Paul Sagar recently presented his paper on Aristotle, Williams, and Rawls to the #MondaySeminar. Here he is in today's Guardian, on the business of wheelchairs:
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Out in January. cambridgeblog.org/2025/11/back...
Back to the Future with István Hont
When the intellectual historian István Hont (1947-2013) defected to the United Kingdom in 1975, he knew that he would likely never see his native country or much of his family ever again.
cambridgeblog.org
November 29, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Out in January. cambridgeblog.org/2025/11/back...
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Shklar, Althusser, and Montesquieu's purported Liberalism
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
with a passing shout out to @duncanbell.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
with a passing shout out to @duncanbell.bsky.social
Shklar, Althusser, and Montesquieu's purported Liberalism
I learned from Edward Hall’s Power and Powerlessness: The Liberalism of Fear in the Twenty-First Century (OUP 2025) that Judith Shklar uses the phrase ‘liberalism of fear’ already in her (1987) book, ...
open.substack.com
November 27, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Shklar, Althusser, and Montesquieu's purported Liberalism
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
with a passing shout out to @duncanbell.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
with a passing shout out to @duncanbell.bsky.social
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On Pompey's Bonapartism according to Montesquieu.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Pompey's Bonapartism according to Montesquieu.
As regular readers know, I follow Benjamin Constant in treating Cromwell and Napoleon as the first ‘Bonapartists,’ that is, the usurpers of democracy through democratic means.
open.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:39 PM
On Pompey's Bonapartism according to Montesquieu.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
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Join us tomorrow!
November 24, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Join us tomorrow!
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In my little corner of the academic world Larry Summers soiled himself many years ago when he vetoed the appointment of István Hont to a tenured post at Harvard. #nemesis
November 18, 2025 at 5:36 PM
In my little corner of the academic world Larry Summers soiled himself many years ago when he vetoed the appointment of István Hont to a tenured post at Harvard. #nemesis
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Visiting Cambridge next week and, as in the old joke about my lectures, muttering about Augustine and death.
November 18, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Visiting Cambridge next week and, as in the old joke about my lectures, muttering about Augustine and death.
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Call for Papers: "The World in 1776/2026." 250 years after Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations blasted monopolists, mercantilists and enslavers as the scourges of a free society, what light can his ideas shed on the world today?
Abstracts due December 15th. Details: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Abstracts due December 15th. Details: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
The World in 1776/2026: The Wealth of Nations at 250
The World in 1776/2026: The Wealth of Nations at 250 Conveners: Maha Rafi Atal and Craig Smith, University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow and the British Academy invite submissions to "The Worl...
docs.google.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Call for Papers: "The World in 1776/2026." 250 years after Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations blasted monopolists, mercantilists and enslavers as the scourges of a free society, what light can his ideas shed on the world today?
Abstracts due December 15th. Details: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Abstracts due December 15th. Details: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
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Out today (in USA)
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Liberal Worlds
The intellectual biography of a Victorian Liberal polymath
press.princeton.edu
November 18, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Out today (in USA)
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
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On Imperial Boomerangs in Montesquieu
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Imperial Boomerangs in Montesquieu
One of the joys of blogging is meeting distinguished and young scholars at conferences who confide to me that they are regular, even daily readers of these digressions. They swell my head in the most ...
open.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:21 AM
On Imperial Boomerangs in Montesquieu
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
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Next week! Join @jacobtlevy.bsky.social’s talk at Jesus College, Cambridge.
November 18, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Next week! Join @jacobtlevy.bsky.social’s talk at Jesus College, Cambridge.
Tom Arnold-Foster (Oxford) replies to Anton Jäger (also Oxford) on the political theory of the American Populists at the #MondaySeminar #Neo-RomanCounter-Revisionism
November 17, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Tom Arnold-Foster (Oxford) replies to Anton Jäger (also Oxford) on the political theory of the American Populists at the #MondaySeminar #Neo-RomanCounter-Revisionism
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On Smith and Montesquieu and that sleeping Sentinel (with a touch of Machiavelli)
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Smith and Montesquieu and that sleeping Sentinel (with a touch of Machiavelli)
In chapter 13 of his (1734) Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and Their Decline, Montesquieu notes that Roman military imperial decline is, in part, caused by a change of und...
open.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:10 AM
On Smith and Montesquieu and that sleeping Sentinel (with a touch of Machiavelli)
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
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Foucault's Multiple Plans for his History of Sexuality progressivegeographies.com/2025/11/16/f... - building on earlier work, and discussing a couple of other bits of evidence about the changing nature of Foucault's plans for this series from the mid-1970s until his 1984 death
Foucault’s Multiple Plans for his History of Sexuality
Some years ago, Philippe Chevallier alerted me to the importance of the 1977 German translation of the first volume of Foucault’s History of Sexuality as Sexualität und Wahrheit: Der Wille zum Wiss…
progressivegeographies.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Foucault's Multiple Plans for his History of Sexuality progressivegeographies.com/2025/11/16/f... - building on earlier work, and discussing a couple of other bits of evidence about the changing nature of Foucault's plans for this series from the mid-1970s until his 1984 death
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Congratulations to Dr Marc Palen @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social, following the award of the Elise M. Boulding Prize in Peace History to his book, Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World (Princeton University Press, 2024).
peacehistorysociety.org/phs2025/awards.php
peacehistorysociety.org/phs2025/awards.php
Peace History Society
peacehistorysociety.org
November 13, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Congratulations to Dr Marc Palen @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social, following the award of the Elise M. Boulding Prize in Peace History to his book, Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World (Princeton University Press, 2024).
peacehistorysociety.org/phs2025/awards.php
peacehistorysociety.org/phs2025/awards.php
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Join us next Friday 21 for a roundtable on John McCormick's excellent new book The People's Princes at King's College London w/ comments by David Wootton (York), Lawrence Hamilton (Cambridge) & myself. There will be wine & great conversation on leadership & politics
Register here
👇
shorturl.at/XmAsZ
Register here
👇
shorturl.at/XmAsZ
November 14, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Join us next Friday 21 for a roundtable on John McCormick's excellent new book The People's Princes at King's College London w/ comments by David Wootton (York), Lawrence Hamilton (Cambridge) & myself. There will be wine & great conversation on leadership & politics
Register here
👇
shorturl.at/XmAsZ
Register here
👇
shorturl.at/XmAsZ
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Congratulations to @brunoleipold.com, whose book #Citizen #Marx has been awarded the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize which is given "for a book which exemplifies the best and most innovative new writing in or about the Marxist tradition".
www.deutscherprize.org.uk/wp/
www.deutscherprize.org.uk/wp/
The Deutscher Memorial Prize
www.deutscherprize.org.uk
November 14, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Congratulations to @brunoleipold.com, whose book #Citizen #Marx has been awarded the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize which is given "for a book which exemplifies the best and most innovative new writing in or about the Marxist tradition".
www.deutscherprize.org.uk/wp/
www.deutscherprize.org.uk/wp/
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On Montesquieu and the enemies of truth.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Montesquieu and the enemies of truth.
During the last 24hrs my review of Philosophical Mechanics in the Age of Reason by Katherine Brading and Marius Stan (Oxford University Press, 2024) appeared at Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (here)...
open.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:25 PM
On Montesquieu and the enemies of truth.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...