The Ideas Letter

Will Davies has become one of the finest essayists in the English language on a variety of themes ranging from political economy to political culture. For The Ideas Letter 49, Davies focuses his mind … on the face, and how different “facial regimes” express forms of both agency and subjection. So rich are Davies’s observations that multiple research programs will likely emerge from his conceptions.

We are also honored to spotlight a coruscatingly sharp essay on power in its most naked and perverse form. Assaf Bondy and Adam Raz assess the political economy of complicity in Israel, an eye-opening analysis of how Israel not only manufactures consent but purchases it.

Our curated essays lead off with an interview with the Finnish intellectual historian Mikko Immanen, who offers an immanent (sorry!) critique of the thought of the Frankfurt School legend Theodor Adorno. The political scientist and cultural theorist Hisham Aidi, in the legendary journal Souffles, which he has revived, then offers a clarifying introduction to the magazine’s latest number on the boundaries of the Arab and African worlds. And we feature the law professor Joan Williams, who through the noted concept of “post-materialism” looks at the shifting dynamics of class politics in the United States.

Our musical selection for Issue 49 takes us back to 1980, when Jim Carroll, an American poet (he’s best known for The Basketball Diaries), recorded his debut record, a brilliant LP entitled Catholic Boy. The standout track is “People Who Died,” about Carroll’s many friends who suffered tragic early deaths. You’d think the song would be a dirge, but it’s actually uplifting, even anthemic, in its musical power. Lou Reed meets Patti Smith at the start of Reagan’s Thermidor.