© Columbia University Press
Wars of Position: The Cultural Politics of Left and Right
Paper, 360 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13731-7
$24.50
/ £14.50
February, 2006
Cloth, 360 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13730-0
$32.00
/ £19.00
"A rich and erudite account of recent struggles among Euro-American intellectuals concerning cultural theory... Highly recommended." — Choice
"Brennan's vigorously interrogative style dramatizes an unsettling yet productive skepticism, a sobering homeopathic injection into the current euphoria about the possibilities of globalization." — American Book Review
"An important book." — Interventions
"Wars of Position is an outstanding work, bracing and provocative in its polemical aspect, erudite and compelling in its argumentative thrust, heterodox, incisive, and consistently illuminating in its intellectual performance." — Neil Lazarus, University of Warwick, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies
"A major contribution to the regeneration of critical theory. A compelling indictment of how the cultural left, in a fit of narcissistic self-regard and self-referentiality, abandoned all politics and purpose in the 1980s and 1990s, thereby leaving open the way for free-market triumphalism and the neoliberal ethic to dominate public discourse." — David Harvey, CUNY, author of Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography
"Brennan hits at the soft underbelly of the Left intelligentsia, arguing that its pet theories —poststructuralism, postcolonialism, identity-construction, bio-power—have largely abandoned democratic politics as a public practice. His attack sweeps across the big names in critical theory since the Reagan era, and few are left standing. Declaring with intelligence and boldness what many have been thinking, the book is a breath of fire-and fresh air." — Susan Buck-Morss , Cornell University, author of Thinking Past Terror: Islamism and Critical Theory on the Left
"Passionate, provocative, and incisive, Wars of Position challenges us to re-examine the politics of the academy. Making a compelling case for putting political belief at the center of discussions about identity, culture and belonging, Brennan offers persuasive re-evaluations of the intellectual and political affiliations of leading theorists, writers and thinkers of our day. The 'culture of belief' challenges many received truths about critical theory, the U.S. academy, postcolonial studies and globalization." — Ania Loomba, University of Pennsylvania, author of Shakespeare, Race, and Colonialism