100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Overnight NZ-wide delivery on in-stock orders πŸš€

Enlightenment Biopolitics

A History of Race, Eugenics, and the Making of Citizens
Brief Description
A wide-ranging history tracing the birth of biopolitics in Enlightenment thought and its aftermath. In Enlightenment Biopolitics, historian William Max Nelson pursues the ambitious task of tracing the context in which biopolitical thought emerged and circulated. He locates that context in the Enlightenment when emancipatory ideals... Read More
Format: Hardback
$39600

International Supplier

This title is in-stock with overseas suppliers. While it is not available locally, we fly books in weekly from the US and UK to our Auckland warehouse for immediate dispatch.

AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 2-3 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A wide-ranging history tracing the birth of biopolitics in Enlightenment thought and its aftermath.

In Enlightenment Biopolitics, historian William Max Nelson pursues the ambitious task of tracing the context in which biopolitical thought emerged and circulated. He locates that context in the Enlightenment when emancipatory ideals sat alongside the horrors of colonialism, slavery, and race-based discrimination. In fact, these did not just coexist, Nelson argues; they were actually mutually constitutive of Enlightenment ideals.

In this book, Nelson focuses on Enlightenment-era visions of eugenics (including proposals to establish programs of selective breeding), forms of penal slavery, and spurious biological arguments about the supposed inferiority of particular groups. The Enlightenment, he shows, was rife with efforts to shape, harness, and "organize" the minds and especially the bodies of subjects and citizens. In his reading of the birth of biopolitics and its transformations, Nelson examines the shocking conceptual and practical connections between inclusion and exclusion, equality and inequality, rights and race, and the supposed "improvement of the human species" and practices of dehumanization.

Series: The Life of Ideas

View all
  • Fascism
    A wide-ranging history of the term "fascism," what it has meant, and what it means today. The rise of political figures like the United States' Donald Trump, Hungary's Viktor OrbΓ‘n, Italy's Giorgia Meloni, and Argentina's Javier Milei has spurred debates over the meaning of the term "fascist," and when and whether it is appropriate to use it. The landmark study...
    Paperback
    $6699
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Jean-Paul Marat
    A landmark biography of one of the most notorious and controversial protagonists of the French Revolutionβ€”Jean-Paul Marat. Who better to pen an authoritative biography of Jean-Paul Marat (1743–93) than the preeminent historian of France, Keith Michael Baker? Decades in the making, this monumental work takes readers on a journey through the intriguing, sometimes shocking life of this writer and thinker....
    Hardback
    $9499
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Demos Rising
    A political history exploring the concept of demos in the French government during the period of 1800 to 1850. In his previous book, Demos Assembled, historian Stephen W. Sawyer offered a transatlantic account of the birth and transformation of the modern democratic state. In Demos Rising, he presents readers of political history with a prequel whose ambitious claim is that...
    Hardback
    $21999
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Legacy of the Enlightenment
    Going against the grain, this refreshing book argues for a non-ideological portrait of the Enlightenment as having been, above all else, a self-critical enterprise. The Enlightenment has come under substantial attack over the past several years, with some going so far as to recommend leaving its thinkersβ€”and their Eurocentric prejudicesβ€”behind. On the other hand, the most orthodox defenders of the...
    Hardback
    $7599
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Enlightenment Biopolitics
    A wide-ranging history tracing the birth of biopolitics in Enlightenment thought and its aftermath. In Enlightenment Biopolitics, historian William Max Nelson pursues the ambitious task of tracing the context in which biopolitical thought emerged and circulated. He locates that context in the Enlightenment when emancipatory ideals sat alongside the horrors of colonialism, slavery, and race-based discrimination. In fact, these did...
    Hardback
    $39600
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • The Enlightenment and Original Sin
    An eloquent microhistory that argues for the centrality of the doctrine of original sin to the Enlightenment. What was the Enlightenment? This question has been endlessly debated. In The Enlightenment and Original Sin, historian Matthew Kadane advances the bold claim that the Enlightenment is best defined through what it set out to accomplish, which was nothing short of rethinking the...
    Paperback
    $5499
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • When Spinoza Met Marx
    Explores concepts that bring together the thinking of Spinoza and Marx. When Spinoza Met Marx delves into the complex interplay between the ideas of Karl Marx and Baruch Spinoza. Karl Marx was a fiery revolutionary theorist who heralded the imminent demise of capitalism, while Spinoza was a contemplative philosopher who preached rational understanding and voiced scepticism about open rebellion. Spinoza...
    Hardback
    $7599
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Adventures in the Archaic
    Examines how four intellectuals with ties to the French social sciences articulated a new primitivist sensibility between 1945 and 1975. We tend to associate primitivism with the nostalgic idealization of origins, often aimed at parts of the world that are viewed as closer to that idealized past than modern post-industrial society. Primitivist impulses still exist in popular culture, whether in...
    Paperback
    $10300
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • Adventures in the Archaic
    Examines how four intellectuals with ties to the French social sciences articulated a new primitivist sensibility between 1945 and 1975. We tend to associate primitivism with the nostalgic idealisation of origins, often aimed at parts of the world that are viewed as closer to that idealised past than modern post-industrial society. Primitivist impulses still exist in popular culture, whether in...
    Hardback
    $36200
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • Welfare for Markets
    A sweeping intellectual history of the welfare state's policy-in-waiting. The idea of a government paying its citizens to keep them out of povertyβ€”now known as basic incomeβ€”is hardly new. Often dated as far back as ancient Rome, basic income's modern conception truly emerged in the late nineteenth century. Yet as one of today's most controversial proposals, it draws supporters from...
    Paperback
    $4999
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Welfare for Markets
    A sweeping intellectual history of the welfare state’s policy-in-waiting. The idea of a government paying its citizens to keep them out of povertyβ€”now known as basic incomeβ€”is hardly new. Often dated as far back as ancient Rome, basic income’s modern conception truly emerged in the late nineteenth century. Yet as one of today’s most controversial proposals, it draws supporters from...
    Hardback
    $6199
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • A Global Enlightenment
    A revisionist history of the idea of progress reveals an unknown story about European engagement with Chinese science. The Enlightenment gave rise not only to new ideas of progress but consequential debates about them. Did distant times and places have anything to teach the here and now? Voltaire could believe that they did; Hegel was convinced that they did not....
    Hardback
    $8599
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780226825564

Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 06 May 2024

Country: United States

Imprint: University of Chicago Press

Illustration: 10 halftones

Audience: Tertiary education

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 25.0mm

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 229.0mm

Weight: 540g

Pages: 328

About the Author

William Max Nelson is associate professor of history at the University of Toronto. He is the author of The Time of Enlightenment: Constructing the Future in France, 1750 to Year OneΒ and a coeditor of The French Revolution in Global Perspective.

More from History & Military

View all
  • Saving Elli
    One child. Two years in hiding. Three lives in mortal danger. In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, near Anne Frank's house, another Jewish girl is hidden. Her name is Elli. Her father has been executed at Mauthausen concentration camp. Her mother is fleeing for her life. Elli is next. To save her, resistance couple Frits and Jo Hakkens must risk everything, concealing her...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Spy and the Traitor
    The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre is a spellbinding Cold War thriller that unravels the true story of Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB double agent who risked everything to aid the British in the battle against Soviet oppression. In meticulously researched detail, Macintyre paints a vivid portrait of espionage, double-crossing, and unparalleled bravery, giving readers a riveting glimpse into...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Suicidal Empathy
    The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Man's Search For Meaning
    Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is a profound, thought-provoking memoir and psychological exploration that delves into the harrowing experiences of life in Nazi concentration camps, intertwined with the author’s groundbreaking theories on existential psychology. The book is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, offering a beacon of hope and a roadmap for finding purpose...
    Paperback
    $1800
    Elsewhere:
    $2100
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Betrayal
    β€˜Tom Bower is the Inspector Morse of investigative biographers, a fluent, phlegmatic storyteller and a master of intricacies.’ Sunday Times The British Crown is in crisis, with constitutional threats at home and abroad. At a landmark moment in royal history, can King Charles overcome the scandals that blight the Royal family? Can the broken bonds between the Houses of Sussex...
    Paperback
    $3499
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Signed
    New Release
    The Chief and the Empire
    The Chief and the Empire uncovers the extraordinary true tale of Te Tai Tokerau rangatira Te Pahi - the first influential Māori leader to cross the Tasman - whose curiosity about the Pākehā world forged alliances, saved lives, and ultimately cost him his own. On a visit to Sydney in 1805, Te Pahi was feted as a celebrity, building close...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Discipline
    Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...
    Paperback
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Shattered Lands
    'A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian' – PETER FRANKOPAN 'This book is a revelation … both original and important' – MISHAL HUSAIN A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and...
    Paperback
    $3699
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Goliath’s Curse
    Goliath’s Curse by Luke Kemp offers a radical retelling of human history through the lens of collapse, delving into what this means for our uncertain future. This narrative spans from the dawn of our species to the urgent existential threats of the twenty-first century and beyond. It's grounded in the latest research and a comprehensive database of more than 440...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Good Settler
    β€˜Where once I saw a view as I drove around the Taranaki coast along State Highway 45, I now see confiscated land from an invasion road. The creation story I used to subscribe to, the one in which hard-working people came here and settled the land, now jars. Weirdly, even the lawn looks different. The form of things just won’t...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Banjara
    A powerful literary debut from an astonishing new Kiwi voice, focusing on the Indo-Fijian indenture system and how it affected generations across the Pacific.Rajasthan 1888: Avani Rathod, a nomad of the Banjara community, is summoned to teach a blue-eyed colonial officer the trees of her region, but instead is misled into indenture to the sugarcane plantations of Fiji. While on...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • This Way Up
    The debut book from the YouTube sensation and all-round cartographical nerds, The Map Men! In their long-awaited debut, YouTube’s Map Men bring their highly infectious enthusiasm for everything map-related to the printed page for the very first time, in a brilliantly entertaining and eye-catching tome. Packed with humour and fascinating facts, This Way Up takes a deep dive into the...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.