History and Obstinacy

“Finally, the English-language public has access to this, the most ambitious German theoretical construction since the War and an extraordinary, unsettling, and paradoxical journey through history and the construction of subjectivity, the pedagogies of labor, and the ceaseless struggles and coalitions between affect and habit — a well-nigh Blochian excavation of the layers of history and the production of the future. The richness of examples, parables, and illustrations, the unexpected originalities and unforeseeable philosophical stimulations of this unclassifiable work, are comparable, if in little else, to the shock of Deleuze and Guattari’s great collaborations.” — Fredric Jameson

“By presenting theory as montage with photos, highlighted text, excursuses, diagrams, and box quotes, History and Obstinacy takes up the legacies of the historical avant-garde, but it does so in an anti-vanguardist mode. As it explores materialist anthropology, the archeology of labor power, and histories and stories of defiance and tenacious resistance, it turns its political attention toward the extended past that grounds our evolving present. In its search for answers about the neglected organic and subjective dimension of capital’s logic, this book speaks more directly to our current condition than its historical origin in a period of post-1960s disorientation might suggest. An indispensable message in a bottle from another time and a pleasure to read.” — Andreas Huyssen