When people say “comrade”, they change the world
Jodi Dean teaches political and media theory in Geneva, New York. She has written or edited eleven books, including The Communist Horizon and Crowds and Party.
Jodi's sharp analysis of the impasses of the left is also a kind of
requiem for much of the 2.0 bluster of the last decade.
*Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism*
Comrade - both a nom de guerreand a sign of love. One which
constructs political organisation and struggle, and which brings
back from the grave the fallen heroes.
*Antonio Negri*
Part speculative conceptual history and part militant political
theory continuing in the same vein as her previous publications The
Communist Horizon and Crowds and Party, this new book on the
generic figure of the comrade as a form of address, an index of
belonging, and a carrier of expectations presents Jodi Dean at her
very best: witty from beginning to end, scathing as need be against
those who would prefer to hamper, mock, or red-bait the prospects
of egalitarian communist and socialist politics, and never less
than urgently needed as a program for common struggle in these
times of renewed authoritarianism, unabashed sexism, and emboldened
racism.
*Bruno Bosteels, author of The Actuality of Communism*
I can't shut up about Comrade, a brilliant and hopeful book. In her
sharp critique of neoliberalism's creepy capture of left politics
and relations, Jodi Dean points the way forward with clarity, humor
and joy. This is the book that the left urgently needs right now,
and I can't wait to make everyone read it.
*Liza Featherstone, columnist, The Nation and Jacobin*
Rarely has the notion of 'comrade', symbolic, imaginary and
concrete, been more needed than now. In this vivid, elegant and
persuasive text, Jodi Dean confronts the dystopic present to insist
upon the necessity for building unifying solidarities across our
proliferating political differences. Comrade is essential reading
for all those committed to a politics of hope in any inclusive
emancipatory and egalitarian struggles.
*Lynne Segal, author of Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective
Joy*
In this era of hashtag politics, branding, and call out culture,
when 'identity politics' functions more like enclosure than grounds
for solidarity, when planetary annihilation is deemed inevitable
and racism permanent, Jodi Dean recovers the keyword absent from
our radical vocabulary: Comrade. Her guided tour through communist
histories reveals the power of comrade as a form of revolutionary
belonging, a mode of address, a great equalizer, and an expression
of disciplined and committed love distinct from eros, philia, and
agape. Read Comrade. Be Comrades!
*Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical
Tradition*
For Jodi Dean, the word "comrade" is by no means a simple
descriptor, nor is it some dusty relic of the bygone days of
actually-existing state socialism.
*Chronicle of Higher Education*
One of the most innovative and imaginative political theorists on
the contemporary scene.
*The Nation*
A welcome effort to recover the concept of a comrade. By calling
attention to the expectations and practices of solidarity among
those who share a commitment to emancipatory struggle, Dean's
account represents an advance over the much looser conception of
allies, those whose alliance may prove to be quite transitory with
corresponding fluctuations in organizational structures.
*Marx and Philosophy*
The great strength of this book lies in Dean's ability to not only
powerfully critique the individualisation of political subjectivity
- characteristic of her other recent works, like Crowds and Party -
but also to propose solutions.
*Sydney Review of Books*
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