Join philosopher and author Martha C. Nussbaum for a discussion of her new book, The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis.

The discussion will be chaired by Jonathan Wolff, Blavatnik Professor of Public Policy.

The talk will be followed by a drinks reception. The book will be on sale at the event.

This event is now at capacity. The talk will be livestreamed and recorded on the Blavatnik School of Government YouTube channel.

About the book

For decades Martha C. Nussbaum has been an acclaimed scholar and humanist, earning dozens of honours for her books and essays. In The Monarchy of Fear she turns her attention to the current political crisis that has polarised America and the world since the 2016 election.

Although today's atmosphere is marked by partisanship, divisive rhetoric, and the inability of two halves of the country to communicate with one another, Nussbaum focuses on what so many pollsters and pundits have overlooked. She sees a simple truth at the heart of the problem: the political is always emotional. Globalisation has produced feelings of powerlessness in millions of people in the West. That sense of powerlessness bubbles into resentment and blame. Blame of immigrants. Blame of Muslims. Blame of other races. Blame of cultural elites. While this politics of blame is exemplified by the election of Donald Trump and the vote for Brexit, Nussbaum argues it can be found on all sides of the political spectrum, left or right.

Drawing on a mix of historical and contemporary examples, from classical Athens to the musical Hamilton, The Monarchy of Fear untangles this web of feelings and provides a roadmap of where to go next.

“Nussbaum is one of the most accomplished political and moral philosophers of our time…there is almost no domain of political and moral life and thought that her work and apparently endless curiosity have not explored.” —William Adams, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts

About the author

Martha C. Nussbaum is an American philosopher and the current Ernst Freud Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. She gave the 2017 Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities and has received both the 2016 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy, regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields not eligible for a Nobel, and the 2018 Don M. Randel Award for Achievement in the Humanities. She has written more than twenty-two books, including Upheavals of Thought, Anger and Forgiveness, Not for Profit, Aging Thoughtfully with Saul Levmore, and many more.