• A green field with a hedge in the left background. The field is covered with thin, eerie mist.

Young people and activism

By Niall Nance-Carroll Young people are a coveted demographic in politics, and they are increasingly shaping both the message and the movement of progressives. Far from being the “youth wing” of a larger adult-led activist movement (indeed, one of the…

Photograph of the US Capitol at night

Spinoza and democracy in peril

By Dan Taylor In October 2020, in the days leading up to the US Presidential Election, over 130 leading historians of fascism signed an open letter. They warned that democracy today is deeply imperilled. It is either ‘withering or in…

Remembering the history of Scottish land reform

By Ewen Cameron I was delighted to publish Freshness, Freedom, and Peace?: Land Settlement in Scotland after the Great War  in Northern Scotland, 2nd series, 11.2 (2020), 161–75. This was a special issue arising from a stimulating conference held at…

The world of Spinoza's Theological–Political Treatise

The world of Spinoza’s Theological–Political Treatise

By Dan Taylor Baruch Spinoza’s Theological–Political Treatise, published anonymously in 1670, quickly turned Europe upside-down. Dismissed by one contemporary as a book ‘forged in hell by the Devil himself’, it argued that for societies to endure conflict and flourish, they…

What is Progressive Realism? The ‘other’ Kelsen

by Robert Schuett, Ph.D. When I began working on what would eventually become Hans Kelsen’s Political Realism I wasn’t sure what to expect of this Austrian–American jurist. The only thing I knew for sure was that there’s far more to…