Final Book Review Assignment
Currents of Political Thought – Final Book Review Assignment
Instructions
Your task is straightforward: Choose one of the following books on contemporary politics and review it with an eye to their implications for understandings of freedom, domination, and/or responsibility developed throughout the course. This could involve ‘testing’ conceptions of freedom we’ve encountered. For example, which conception of freedom best speaks to the question of police abolition? Or this could involve ‘constructing’ a conception of freedom from what we’ve encountered. For example, what conception of freedom best responds to the problem outlined by the author? Please note that a review is not a summary, so you should not recount every detail or argument the author(s) provides. There might be a couple chapters that will be most relevant to the concern of freedom, domination, or responsibility – if so, focus on those. Some of these books (Threadcraft, McKean) are written by political theorists and so they do this comparative ‘testing’ and ‘constructing’ themselves, and your task here will be more one of explication and reflection. There are two options for the review.
The first option is a standard book review. This should be between 5-7 pages (12-point font, double-spaced) and include references (and a bibliography) to material covered in the course( Chicago, APA, etc. are fine).
Here you should:
1. Briefly review the book’s content: What is the book about? What is the book’s argument? How persuasively does the author demonstrate that argument?
2. Identify the book’s key strengths: What does the book do exceptionally well?
3. Offer constructive criticism: What are key limitations or problems with the book and its argument(s)?
4. Situate the book within our discussions of freedom, domination, and responsibility, and highlight its contribution: How does the book relate to our discussions of freedom, domination, and responsibility? Does it affirm or challenge certain conceptions of freedom, domination, and responsibility over others?
The second option is to provide a book review in an alternative format. This could look like a Twitter thread, a mini-podcast or interview, a series of Instagram posts, etc. You could also do something even more creative – a collage, a painting, etc. – if this is one of your strengths. The more creative and abstract you get will require at least an accompanying one page ‘interpretative’ reflection that makes explicit the relation to course themes, and the book under consideration. If you are doing a book review in an alternative format, please reach out to me with a brief explanation of what you plan to do. This way we can both be on the same page regarding expectations.
Both options will be evaluated on the same criteria: Did you connect the book to course discussions on freedom, responsibility and domination? Have you communicated your ideas clearly? As you’ll see below, complimenting this assignment is an online discussion board for your book chosen (this is worth 10% of your final grade). The purpose of this is to help resolve confusions the texts raise, as well as to assist in coming up with ideas of what to discuss in your reviews.
The books to choose from are as follows:
•Harsha Walia, Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism (2021)
•Mariame Kaba, We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice (2021)
•William Anderson and Zoe Samudzi, As Black as Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation (2018) (choose this book)
•Jovan Scott Lewis, Scammer’s Yard: The Crime of Black Repair in Jamaica (2020)
•Benjamin McKean, Disorienting Neoliberalism: Global Justice and the Outer Limits of Freedom (2020)
•Giorgio Kallis, Limits: Why Malthus Was Wrong and Why Environmentalists Should Care (2019)
•Robin Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge (2013)
•Shatema Threadcraft, Intimate Justice: The Black Female Body and the Body Politic (2016)
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