New Books In Critical Theory

The resurgence of the radical Right in America and Europe has drawn attention to the existence of political philosophers and writers whose names are only sometimes familiar and whose thought is generally unknown. It even comes as a surprise to some that the radical Right actually has a political philosophy, other than that of Nazism or of Mussolini’s Fascism, both of which in fact remain discredited and marginal. Instead, the resurgent Right draws on well-known thinkers like Nietzsche and Hegel, on less-known thinkers like Oswald Spengler and Julius Evola, and on the relatively obscure writings of living political philosophers such as Alain de Benoist in France and Alexander Dugin in Russia. And then there is a whole range of emergent thinkers, often American, some unknown, and some famous only for their media stunts. In his new book Key Thinkers of the Radical Right: Behind the New Threat to Liberal Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2019), Mark Sedgwick looks at the classic canon, at the most influential m