Marx’s Wager: Das Kapital and Classical Sociology by Dr. Thomas Kemple

Dr. Thomas Kemple‘s book, Marx’s Wager: Das Kapital and Classical Sociology, was published on October 13, 2022 by Palgrave Macmillan Cham. PDF downloads are free for members of the UBC community.

Overview

Demonstrates how influential classical sociologists read Capital
Identifies the implications of Marx’s reception for later social scientists
Examines how early thinkers understand theory and practice

Summary

Marx’s masterpiece Capital (Das Kapital) ignored or misread as well as selectively and creatively interpreted by the generation of social scientists that came after him. Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel attempt to supplement what they call ‘historical materialism’ or to engage in debates about ‘socialism’ through their readings of The Communist Manifesto and occasional Capital. Although these and other classical sociologists did not have access to most of Marx’s published and unpublished works as we do today, each is concerned with revising and refining Marx’s unfinished critique of political economy. Despite their differences with Marx and with one another, they share his concern with how empirically detailed and scientifically valid knowledge of the social world may inform historical struggles for a more human world. This commitment can be called ‘Faustian’, after the title character of the poet J. W. von Goethe’s tragic epic of modernity, insofar as Marx and the classical sociologists hope to translate theory into practice while making a pact or wager with the diabolical social, political, and economic forces of the modern world.“Marx’s Wager explores the interconnections between the various classical sociological thinkers by focusing on their relations (direct and indirect) to the work of Karl Marx. In the process we are offered fascinating new insights into Marx, together with new ways of looking at figures as various as Herbert Spencer, Auguste Comte, Harriet Martineau, Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Max Weber, Thorstein Veblen, W.E.B. Du Bois, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Sigmund Freud. The result is an intellectual feast for sociologists.” – John Bellamy Foster, Professor of Sociology, University of Oregon, author of The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology

Reviews

“In Marx’s Wager, Thomas Kemple explores the dense and thorny bramble where the classic sociological tradition wrestled with Marx’s critique of political economy even as it tried to escape from his socialist conclusions. A book replete with keen observations and insights, this is also a profound meditation on what it means to really engage with the modern world, to study its forces and dynamics in the hope that one might, in some measure, transform it.” — William Clare Roberts, Associate Professor of Political Science, McGill University, author of Marx’s Inferno: The Political Theory of Marx’s Capital

“What a treasure of insight awaits readers who open this fine book! With a light touch and a lapidary style, Thomas Kemple offers a master class in Marx’s Capital, which he views through a double lens—on the one hand, the literary masterpieces from which Marx drew inspiration, and second, the classical sociology which drew inspiration from Marx and Capital. Wearing his erudition lightly, Kemple weaves a tapestry in which Marx appears alongside Goethe, Dante, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, and a cornucopia of others. Subtleties of Marx’s analysis are matched with corresponding subtleties in the works of his successors, and it becomes clear that, clichés to the contrary notwithstanding, all of the major classical sociologists contributed to the project he inaugurated—the effort to understand capital in the light of what Kemple calls Marx’s “surplus-value theory of labour-power.” That effort, in the age of globalization, remains as relevant as ever, and Thomas Kemple is a sure-footed guide to the classical literatures that, I am convinced, remain central to our insight into this subject.” — David N. Smith, Professor of Sociology, University of Kansas, author of Marx’s Capital: An Illustrated Introduction

“This book takes its reader on a Faustian journey, with Marx’s Capital—one of the most profound works in social theory ever written, yet largely underappreciated or misrepresented—at the center of its own wager. An exemplary work of interpretive sociology, the book animates encounters with some of the most influential early sociologists through brilliantly constructed juxtapositions and creative syntheses.The journey is as thrilling as it is thought provoking.” — Babak Amini, Visiting Research Fellow in Sociology at the London School of Economics, co-editor of the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Marx’s Capital: A Global History of Translation.

“Provides some very creative readings of Marx in relation to social theory for the twenty-first century.” — Kevin B. Anderson, Professor of Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara, author of Marx at the Margins

*All book information is copied from the publisher’s website.

Culture Work: Folklore For the Public Good ed. by Dr. Tim Frandy and Dr. B. Marcus Cederström

Culture Work: Folklore For the Public Good edited by Dr. Tim Frandy and Dr. B. Marcus Cederström was published on August 1, 2022 by the University of Wisconsin Press.

“A timely and much-needed resource for those inside and outside academia, Culture Work provides a powerful overview of the value of public folklore and humanities across private and institutional sectors while raising issues associated with cultural work in a politically and socially stratified country.” — Lisa Gilman, George Mason University

A distinct and new vision of public folklore work

How do culture workers construct public arts and culture projects that are effective and transformative? How do we create public humanities projects of the community, for the community, and with the community? How can culture work make a concrete difference in the quality of life for communities, and lead to the creation of a more just world? Why do the public humanities matter? Culture Work explores these questions through real-world examples of cultural and public humanities projects. The innovative case studies analyzed in the book demonstrate the vast numbers of creative possibilities in culture work today—in all their complexities, challenges, and potentialities.

Thematically arranged chapters embody the interconnected aspects of culture work, from amplifying local voices to galvanizing community from within, from preservation of cultural knowledge to its creative repurposing for a desired future. These inventive projects provide concrete examples and accessible theory grounded in practice, encourage readers to embark on their own public culture work, and create new forward-looking inspiration for community leaders and scholars in the field.

Tim Frandy is an assistant professor of folk studies at Western Kentucky University and the editor and translator of Inari Sámi Folklore: Stories from Aanaar.

B. Marcus Cederström is the community curator of Nordic-American folklore in the department of German, Nordic, and Slavic at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. He is the coeditor and translator, with Thomas A. DuBois, of Songs of the Finnish Migration: A Bilingual Anthology.

Praise

“A seminal work of impressively informative scholarship.” — Midwest Book Review

“An admirable set of case studies of contemporary public folklore work in and outside the academy. . . . As time goes on and the field continues to develop, Culture Work will come to be a valuable portrait and assessment of the state of the field at this moment. . . . [It] makes an articulate contribution to the ongoing project of evidencing, in emphatic and broadly understandable terms, what the humanities and humanistic social sciences are (good) for.” — Journal of Folklore Research Reviews

“Filled with stories of individuals, communities, and cultural workers dedicated to sustaining the traditional songs, stories, material culture, and knowledge of the region, and insights into how those expressions cultivate and enhance community. . . . Culture Work will be an engaging read for anyone interested in the power that lies within the practices of sustaining, reimagining, or creating new cultural traditions.” — Wisconsin People & Ideas

“A refreshing manual of sorts for collaborative research, public projects, the tools of our work, and reflection on its impacts. . . . The text’s overall structure nicely performs the balance between grounded work and distanced reflection that the authors advocate for in their conception of culture work, moving between ideas and application. . . . Overall, Culture Work does much to advance conversations about what folklore and folklorists can offer broad publics.” — Journal of Folklore and Education

*All information copied from publisher’s website.

Bilingual Legacies: Father Figures in Self-Writing from Barcelona by Dr. Anna Casas Aguilar

Dr. Anna Casas Aguilar‘s book Bilingual Legacies: Father Figures in Self-Writing from Barcelona was published by the University of Toronto Press in May 2022.

Bilingual Legacies examines fatherhood in the work of four canonical Spanish authors born in Barcelona and raised during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Drawing on the autobiographical texts of Juan Goytisolo, Carlos Barral, Terenci Moix, and Clara Janés, the book explores how these authors understood gender roles and paternal figures as well as how they positioned themselves in relation to Spanish and Catalan literary traditions.

Anna Casas Aguilar contends that through their presentation of father figures, these authors subvert static ideas surrounding fatherhood. She argues that this diversity was crucial in opening the door to revised gender models in Spain during the democratic period. Moving beyond the shadow of the dictator, Casas Aguilar shows how these writers distinguished between the patriarchal “father of the nation” and their own paternal figures. In doing so, Bilingual Legacies sheds light on the complexity of Spanish conceptions of gender, language, and family and illustrates how notions of masculinity, authorship, and canon are interrelated.

Commended – NACS Award 2024
Awarded by the North American Catalan Society

Reviews

“Through an illuminating reading of the autobiographical works of four major literary figures – Juan Goytisolo, Carlos Barral, Terenci Moix, and Clara Janés – Anna Casas Aguilar interrogates the complex interplay of compliance and rebellion and exposes how familial affiliation impacted their lives as writers and particularly their choice of literary language.” — Mario Santana, Associate Professor of Spanish Literature, University of Chicago

“Through brilliant close readings, Bilingual Legacies tackles politically fraught issues of literary, linguistic, and gender subjectivity. It also reveals the centrality, as well as the potential lines of fracture, of the masculinist and patriarchal literary economy in which the authors operated. This is an important book, one that helps us better understand the linguistic and gender dynamics of contemporary literary discourses in Spain and Catalonia.” — Javier Krauel, Associate Professor of Spanish, University of Colorado at Boulder

“An important contribution to both the study of autobiography and bilingualism in post-Franco Spain. A richly detailed analysis of canonical and less known titles puts them in a new light where the politics of language become inseparable from family stories. Bilingual Legacies is essential reading about the intricacies of literary depictions of Spanish and Catalan linguistic identities.” — Alberto Medina, Professor of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University

*All information taken from publisher’s website.

Sovereignty in German History ed. by Dr. Rüdiger Graf and Dr. Heidi Tworek

This special edition of the journal Central European History was edited by Dr. Rüdiger Graf and Dr. Heidi Tworek and published by Cambridge University Press on April 8, 2022. Read Volume 55 – Special Issue 1 “Sovereignty in German History”.

Writing Fear: Russian Realism and the Gothic by Dr. Katherine Bowers

Dr. Katherine Bowers‘ first monograph, Writing Fear: Russian Realism and the Gothic was published in 2022 by the University of Toronto Press.

About the book

In Russia, gothic fiction is often seen as an aside – a literary curiosity that experienced a brief heyday and then disappeared. In fact, its legacy is much more enduring, persisting within later Russian literary movements. Writing Fear explores Russian literature’s engagement with the gothic by analysing the practices of borrowing and adaptation. Katherine Bowers shows how these practices shaped literary realism from its romantic beginnings through the big novels of the 1860s and 1870s to its transformation during the modernist period.

Bowers traces the development of gothic realism with an emphasis on the affective power of fear. She then investigates the hybrid genre’s function in a series of case studies focused on literary texts that address social and political issues such as urban life, the woman question, revolutionary terrorism, and the decline of the family. By mapping the myriad ways political and cultural anxiety take shape via the gothic mode in the age of realism, Writing Fear challenges the conventional literary history of nineteenth-century Russia.

Praise

“Writing Fear is a rich and innovative study that reinterprets the Russian realist tradition by tracing the pervasive presence of gothic thematics and aesthetics throughout the period that we usually perceive as more ‘modern’ and socially focused and thus unconcerned with the fantastic, gothic, or sublime. This is a major contribution to Russian literary studies, as well as studies of realism and the gothic more generally.” — Valeria Sobol, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

“The scholarship presented here is excellent. Writing Fear demonstrates a striking depth and breadth of reading not only of secondary literature but also of the various primary texts it discusses. Katherine Bowers impressively brings together works from the Russian, British, and other European traditions to offer comparative readings of the exploitation of gothic imagery, preoccupations, and plots in order to throw new light on the interpretation of these works. This text will become essential reading for courses on Russian literature and the gothic, and is just as valuable in terms of its studies of individual authors and works.” — Claire Whitehead, Reader in Russian, University of St Andrews

Preparing Teachers to Work with Multilingual Learners by Meike Wernicke et al.

Preparing Teachers to Work with Multilingual Learners by Meike Wernicke, Svenja Hammer, Antje Hansen, Tobias Schroedler was published by Multilingual Matters on April 15, 2021.

This collection examines a diverse range of approaches to multilingualism in teacher education programmes across Europe and North America. The authors investigate how pre-service teachers are being prepared to work in multilingual contexts and discuss the key features of current pre-service teacher education initiatives that address the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity evident in classrooms in their respective countries. The focus is not only on migrant-background learners but includes students from Indigenous, autochthonous and heritage language backgrounds, and speakers of minoritised regional varieties. The chapters contextualise, both historically and ideologically, the specific initiatives and measures taken in the participating countries. They also reveal the complexity of each educational context and the role that history, language policies and institutional and programmatic priorities play in the development and implementation of a multilingual focus in teacher education. In exploring how pre-service teachers are being prepared to work in multilingual contexts, the authors take a critical view of how multilingualism itself is conceptualised within and across contexts. The book highlights the valuable impact that explicit instruction on theories of multilingualism, pedagogies in multilingual classrooms and lived realities of multilingual children can have on the beliefs and practices of pre-service teachers.

Reviews

“This collection makes a useful contribution to the growing research base on teacher education for multilingual learners in linguistically diverse contexts. The international scope of the volume allows for richer – and more historically informed – definitions of multilingualism, and provides insightful comparative analysis of how teacher-education policies and curricula interact in shaping the preparation of future teachers to support multilingual learners.” — Jeff Bale, University of Toronto, Canada

“This book is a long awaited deeper look into the ways teacher education responds to the multilingual reality of today’s classrooms. The selection of countries elucidates the vital importance of understanding multilingualism in the context of each country’s institutional structures and sociopolitical processes. It will help to push forward the agenda in many other countries’ teacher education as well!” — Barbara Herzog-Punzenberger, University of Innsbruck, Austria

“This much-needed volume deepens our understanding of the commonalities and complexities of preparing teachers to address linguistic and cultural diversity. The authors from nine countries have forged an international alliance that accounts for the unique historical context of each setting. This important work sets the stage for future research on the equitable education of multilingual learners across their nations and around the world.” — Nancy L. Commins, University of Colorado Denver, USA

“The studies [in this book] uncover that more effort is needed to develop knowledge, skills, experiences, and awareness in the teacher candidates to teach CLD students. One of the contributions of this volume for those who are interested in multilingual education is that it reports how pre-service teachers are prepared in Europe and North America to teach multilingual learners. The chapters also unveil that the education policies and practices are informed by monolingual ideology and focus on developing literacy skills and content knowledge in the official and/or English language.” — Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 2022

“This volume is an important contribution to the research on multilingualism and teacher education [It] is essential reading for students of applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, sociology, psychology, language acquisition and education, researchers, practitioners, teachers, educators, and members of the general public who would like to know more about the recent developments in the areas of multilingualism and teacher education.” — LINGUIST List 32.2737

Marx’s Wager: Das Kapital and Classical Sociology by Dr. Thomas Kemple