Safronov’s Nietzsche’s Political Economy is a pioneering appraisal of Nietzsche’s critique of industrial culture and its unfolding crisis. The author contends that Nietzsche remains unique in conceptualizing the upheavals of modern political economy in terms of the crisis of its governing values. Nietzsche scrutinises the norms which, not only preside over the unfathomable build-up in debt, the proliferation of meaningless, impersonal slavery and the rise of increasingly repressive social control systems, but inevitably set these precarious tendencies of modern political economy on a collision course liable to culminate in an unprecedented human and environmental catastrophe. Safronov explores the core themes of Nietzsche’s political economy—debt, slavery, and the division of labour—with reference to the influential views of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, as well as against the backdrop of the Long Depression (1873–1896), the first truly international crisis of industrial capitalism, during which most of Nietzsche’s work was completed. In Nietzsche’s assessment, modern political economy is predicated on the valuations that diminish humankind’s prospects and harm the planet’s future by consistently enfeebling the present, as long as there is profit to be made from it. Nietzsche’s critical insight, which challenges the most fundamental tenet of modern economics and finance, is that in order to build a stronger and intrinsically more valuable future in lieu of simply speculating on it, as though the liberal Promised Land could descend upon us like the manna from heaven at the wave of an invisible hand [of the market], it is necessary to walk from the future we dare to envisage resolutely back to the present we inhabit to determine what demands achieving such a vision would impose upon us, instead of embellishing the ‘here and now’ by cynically discounting the future to the [net] value of the present while disparaging, disowning and rewriting the past to unburden ourselves of its troubling legacy, as we continue to frivolously squander its capital to the alluring tunes of the ‘sirens who in the marketplace sing to us of the future’. The enabling mechanism for changing our valuing perspectives, Nietzsche tells us, lies dormant in us and it must be unlocked before it is too late.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s influence on the development of modern social sciences has not been well documented. This volume reconsiders some of Nietzsche’s writings on economics and the science of state, pioneering a line of research up to now unavailable in English. The authors intend to provoke conversation and inspire research on the role that this much misunderstood philosopher and cultural critic has played – or should play – in the history of economics.

This book is intended as a major interdisciplinary contribution to the study of Nietzsche’s thought in particular, and the political right more generally. Historically the assessment of Nietzsche’s politics has ranged from denouncing him as a forerunner to Nazism to claiming he effectively did not have articulated political convictions. During the latter half of the 20th century he surprisingly became a major theoretical influence on a variety of post-structuralist radical critics, who saw in his perspectivism and genealogy of power useful tools to critique existent structures of domination. This collection of essays reframes the debate by looking at Nietzsche’s constructive political project defending aristocratic values from the levelling influence of the herd and its liberal, socialist, and democratic spokesmen. The essays will also explore how this defense of aristocratic values continues to have an influence on the political right, inspiring moderates like Jordan Peterson and far right authors and activists like Aleksandr Dugin and Steve Bannon.

This book proposes that Nietzsche should be viewed as an economic thinker to rank alongside Marx. Peter Sedgwick shows how Nietzsche views economy as the basic condition under which the 'human animal' developed. Economy, Nietzsche argues, endowed us with futurity, and is a defining aspect of human behaviour.

Containing several innovative interventions in the areas of queer theory, political economy, critical race theory, labour history, hip-hop aesthetics, social movements studies, science and technology studies, pedagogy, and ludic studies, this volume pushes Nietzsche studies in new directions.

"A superb case of deep intellectual renewal and the most important book to have been written about [Nietzsche] in the past few years."—Gavin Jacobson, New Statesman Nietzsche's impact on the world of culture, philosophy, and the arts is uncontested, but his political thought remains mired in controversy. By placing Nietzsche back in his late-nineteenth-century German context, Nietzsche's Great Politics moves away from the disputes surrounding Nietzsche's appropriation by the Nazis and challenges the use of the philosopher in postmodern democratic thought. Rather than starting with contemporary democratic theory or continental philosophy, Hugo Drochon argues that Nietzsche's political ideas must first be understood in light of Bismarck's policies, in particular his "Great Politics," which transformed the international politics of the late nineteenth century. Nietzsche's Great Politics shows how Nietzsche made Bismarck's notion his own, enabling him to offer a vision of a unified European political order that was to serve as a counterbalance to both Britain and Russia. This order was to be led by a "good European" cultural elite whose goal would be to encourage the rebirth of Greek high culture. In relocating Nietzsche's politics to their own time, the book offers not only a novel reading of the philosopher but also a more accurate picture of why his political thought remains so relevant today.

Presents unabridged works and substantive abridgments in preeminent translations, along with balanced, lucid, sophisticated introductions. This book includes a wide and balanced selection of many of the more important texts of modern political thought. To its great credit, it provides pertinent excerpts from frequently neglected authors, such as Calvin and Hume, which it nicely juxtaposes appear to be good, and the introductions to each section help to situate the writers in their historical and intellectual context and to alert students to some of the central issues that arise in the texts. This book offers an economical and useful approach to modern political thought.