Five Ideas Books in 2023 (Plus Another Five) - by Ferenc Laczó

Hello, my name is Feren Laczo, I am an editor at the Review of Democracy, and I am also the co-head of the Ideas section. And it is my pleasure today to share with you a brief list of some of the most impressive publications we have covered this year.

Ideas editors and podcasters have been invited to a continuous feast in 2023: the year has offered an unusual number of original publications of the highest caliber.

Natasha Wheatley’s The Life and Death of States: Central Europe and the Transformation of Modern Sovereignty, the Vienna-based discussion of which we were proud to co-organize; Sam Moyn’s Liberalism Against Itself. Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times that substantially critiques the dominant form Western liberalism has taken; Danielle Allen’s exciting proposal of a power-sharing liberalism; George Steinmetz’s major monograph on the colonial origins of modern social thought in France; or Adam Shatz’s collection of essays on the radical imagination have all been evident highlights.

Here comes an all too selective list of five recommendations from RevDem Ideas of books that deserve to be more widely read and discussed.