NLR 59

articles
Gopal BalakrishnanSpeculations on the Stationary State

Will the present crisis issue in a new phase of accumulation, or a growthless ‘stationary state’? Gopal Balakrishnan charts epochal trends in world capitalism, and their imbrication with the debt-fuelled imbalances of the long downturn.

Jan BremanMyth of the Global Safety Net

Report from the lower depths of the global employment hierarchy, as the economic crisis multiplies the effects of informalization and agrarian decline on the billion-strong reserve army of labour.

obituary
Tariq AliDeath of a Comrade

Tariq Ali pays tribute to Peter Gowan, long-standing friend and mainstay of NLR’s editorial board, and his unique combination of analytical acuity, appetite for debate and generosity of spirit.

interview
Peter GowanThe Ways of the World

In an interview recorded earlier this year, Peter Gowan recalls his political and intellectual trajectory, from the end of empires to Marxist militancy, from Eastern Bloc shipyards to the rise of the Dollar–Wall Street Regime.

articles
James BuchanA Bazaari Bonaparte?

James Buchan traces historical patterns of revolution and reaction behind the June Days in Iran. Echoes of the past and likely after-shocks of Ahmadinejad’s electoral coup.

Jean-Paul SartreWar Diary

Selections from Sartre’s first notebook of the Phony War, previously untranslated. Elegant elaborations on an array of themes—philosophy, history, politics, personal life—compose a dazzling self-portrait of the thinker within the frame of his times.

Terry EagletonJameson and Form

Identifying Fredric Jameson’s literary style as one of his signal achievements, Eagleton asks whether his formal emphases also serve to stave off questions of content: morality, sexuality, subjectivity.

reviews
Misconceiving Asia

Achin Vanaik on Bill Emmott, Rivals. Contending Asian powers as arbiters of the 21st century, through Western establishment eyes.

Converts to Colonizers?

Gabriel Piterberg on Shlomo Sand, When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?. Heterodox attempt to refute Israel’s founding myths of historical exile.

Post-Postmodernism?

Owen Hatherley on Nicolas Bourriaud, The Radicant. A super-curator wanders in search of art after postmodernism.