Pyropolitics in the World Ablaze

Michael Marder

From books and heretics burnt on the pyres of the Inquisition to self-immolations at protest rallies, from the burning of fossil fuels to inflammatory speech, from the imagery of revolutionary sparks ready to ignite the spirits of the oppressed to car bombings and “scorched earth” policy, fire proves to be an indispensable element of the political.

Pyropolitics in the World Ablaze builds upon the scintillating, by turns horrifying and hopeful, images and realities of flames, hearths, sparks, immolations, melting pots, incinerations, and burning in political thought and practices. Relying on classical political theory, theology, philosophy, literature and cinema, as well as an analysis of current events, Michael Marder argues that geo-politics, or the politics of the Earth, has always had an unstable, at once shadowy and blinding, underside—pyro-politics, or the politics of fire. If this obscure double of geopolitics is increasingly dictating the rules of the game today, then it is crucial to learn to speak its language, to discern its manifestations and to project where our world ablaze is heading.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International

Pages: 160 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-5381-4331-5 • Hardback • October 2020 • $125.00 • (£96.00)

978-1-5381-4332-2 • Paperback • October 2020 • $41.95 • (£32.00)

978-1-5381-4333-9 • eBook • October 2020 • $39.50 • (£30.00) (coming soon)

Subjects: Political Science / Globalization, Philosophy / Political, Social Science / Environment

Pyropolitics in the World Ablaze

Hardback

Paperback

Summary

From books and heretics burnt on the pyres of the Inquisition to self-immolations at protest rallies, from the burning of fossil fuels to inflammatory speech, from the imagery of revolutionary sparks ready to ignite the spirits of the oppressed to car bombings and “scorched earth” policy, fire proves to be an indispensable element of the political.

Pyropolitics in the World Ablaze builds upon the scintillating, by turns horrifying and hopeful, images and realities of flames, hearths, sparks, immolations, melting pots, incinerations, and burning in political thought and practices. Relying on classical political theory, theology, philosophy, literature and cinema, as well as an analysis of current events, Michael Marder argues that geo-politics, or the politics of the Earth, has always had an unstable, at once shadowy and blinding, underside—pyro-politics, or the politics of fire. If this obscure double of geopolitics is increasingly dictating the rules of the game today, then it is crucial to learn to speak its language, to discern its manifestations and to project where our world ablaze is heading.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International

Pages: 160 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-5381-4331-5 • Hardback • October 2020 • $125.00 • (£96.00)

978-1-5381-4332-2 • Paperback • October 2020 • $41.95 • (£32.00)

978-1-5381-4333-9 • eBook • October 2020 • $39.50 • (£30.00) (coming soon)

Subjects: Political Science / Globalization, Philosophy / Political, Social Science / Environment

Author

Michael Marder is IKERBASQUE Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, Spain.

Table of Contents

Preface to the New Edition

Introduction - Kindling: The World on Fire

Chapter 1: The ABC of Pyropolitics, or the ‘Elemental Regimes’ of Carl Schmitt

Chapter 2: Light without Heat, Heat without Light, and the Problem of Evil

Chapter 3: Pyropolitical Theology I: The Fires of Revolution

Chapter 4: Pyropolitical Theology II: The Politics of Sacrifice

Chapter 5: The End of Heliotropic Utopias: When the Sun Sets on the City upon the Hill

Chapter 6: Around the Hearth: Politics in the Kitchen

Conclusion – Extinguishing: The Politics of Ashes

Appendices

Index

Reviews

With fires raging in Australia, with epidemics threatening to engulf us all in their gigantic blaze, with explosions of religious and ethnic fanaticism, and with armed conflicts leaving behind cities in ruins, Marder's Pyropolitics has gained an unexpected actuality. It has become a book for everyone who wants to understand not only what is going on in our crazy world, but also the deeper ideological background of the events that shatter our daily lives. In short, it has become a book for everyone.
— Slavoj Zizek, Author of Disparities and Sex and the Failed Absolute

In a highly suggestive scenario, Michael Marder captures the unfounded relationship between politics and fire. More than earth, water, and air, it is fire that best represents the political turning point that characterizes hypermodernity. At the heart of a secularization that has not erased political theology, fire constitutes the incandescent element that envelops, as a risk and an extreme possibility, the language and practice of politics.
— Roberto Esposito, Professor of Theoretical Philosophy, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy

Pyropolitics in the World Ablaze

Michael Marder

Pyropolitics in the World Ablaze

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