Jeanne Morefield publishes first political theory book on Edward Said.

In Unsettling the World: Edward Said and Political Theory Dr Jeanne Morefield provides the first book-length treatment of Palestinian American Edward Said’s influential cultural criticism from the perspective of a political theorist.

In her book, Morefield argues that Said’s approach offers a model of how to bring historical insights and analyses of imperialism and anti-colonialism to bear on contemporary critiques of global politics. This is a timely and important lesson, she argues, which can help lead us to a greater understanding of the “American led liberal world order.”

Published by Rowman & Littlefield on 1 June, the book explores Said’s writings on the experience of exile, the methods of analysing colonial and post-colonial literature and the illuminating potential of worldly humanism.

It is the 20th book to come out in the publisher’s Modernity and Political Thought series – one of the most prestigious book series in political theory in North America.

Jeanne comments: “What I found most surprising in writing the book was just how few political theorists have engaged Said’s work.

“This is a man whose 1979 book, Orientalism, utterly transformed most of political theory’s cognate disciplines in the humanities. He was hugely influential, both as a scholar and a public intellectual.

“Writing a book about Edward Said’s political thinking means beginning from an absence, a Said-shaped hole that requires both explanation and explication.

“The double goal of the book is thus to introduce Said’s work to a field which has largely ignored him, and then begin to make a case for why they should not.”