World Turned Inside Out: Settler Colonialism as a Political Idea

People often suggest settling communities in empty lands as a solution to growing contradictions, but this has led to both success and failure. This book explores a political tradition of seeking change elsewhere, tracing the ideas and projects of those who left or planned to leave cities, protect endangered nationalities, and pre-empt revolutions. It outlines the global history of this resilient political idea, highlighting its relevance in today's world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 21 September 2021
Publisher: Verso Books

Many people would rather change worlds than change the world. The settlement of communities in empty lands elsewhere has often been proposed as a solution to growing contradictions. While the lands were never empty, sometimes these communities failed miserably, and sometimes they prospered and grew until they became entire countries. Building on a growing body of transnational and interdisciplinary research on the political imaginaries of settler colonialism as a specific mode of domination, this book uncovers and critiques an autonomous, influential, and coherent political tradition - a tradition still relevant today. It follows the ideas and the projects (and the failures) of those who left or planned to leave growing and chaotic cities and challenging and confusing new economic circumstances, those who wanted to protect endangered nationalities, and those who intended to pre-empt forthcoming revolutions of all sorts, including civil and social wars. They displaced, and moved to other islands and continents, beyond the settled regions, to rural districts and to secluded suburbs, to communes and intentional communities, and to cyberspace. This book outlines the global history of a resilient political idea: to seek change somewhere else as an alternative to embracing (or resisting) transformation where one is.

Many people would rather change worlds than change the world.

The settlement of communities in empty lands elsewhere has often been proposed as a solution to growing contradictions. While the lands were never empty, sometimes these communities failed miserably, and sometimes they prospered and grew until they became entire countries. Building on a growing body of transnational and interdisciplinary research on the political imaginaries of settler colonialism as a specific mode of domination, this book uncovers and critiques an autonomous, influential, and coherent political tradition - a tradition still relevant today. It follows the ideas and the projects (and the failures) of those who left or planned to leave growing and chaotic cities and challenging and confusing new economic circumstances, those who wanted to protect endangered nationalities, and those who intended to pre-empt forthcoming revolutions of all sorts, including civil and social wars. They displaced, and moved to other islands and continents, beyond the settled regions, to rural districts and to secluded suburbs, to communes and intentional communities, and to cyberspace. This book outlines the global history of a resilient political idea: to seek change somewhere else as an alternative to embracing (or resisting) transformation where one is.

Weight: 368g
Dimension: 233 x 152 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781839763823