Edward McNally
I’m a DPhil student in political theory. My project focuses on the relationship between ecological breakdown and US empire, sitting at the intersection of intellectual history, political theory, and international relations.
Additional research interests include the history of anti-colonialism, Irish political and intellectual history, and contemporary debates within Marxism and social theory about the 'Anthropocene’.
Before coming to Oxford, I received an MPhil in World History (2020) and a BA in History (2019) from the University of Cambridge, where I was awarded the István Hont prize for my thesis on the political thought of James Connolly.
Publications
Articles
'The Irish Idea: James Connolly's political thought', Modern Intellectual History 21:4, (December 2024), pp850-873.
'Instruments of Empire', New Left Review 152 (March-April 2025), pp143-153.
'Humble Grand Strategy', New Left Review 140/141 (March-June 2023), pp191-200.
'The Plantation and the Proletariat: Black Atlantic Marxism', (in preparation)
Selected Essays
'Into the Abyss', Tribune (Spring 2025) – essay on Perry Anderson's Disputing Disaster: A Sextet on the Great War and Christopher Clark
‘Modern delusions’, New Internationalist (March-April 2024) – review of Josephine Quinn, How the World Made the West
‘The Black Anti-Colonial Tradition Fought for a Global Revolution’, Jacobin (April 2023) – review of Musab Younis, On the Scale of the World
‘Green Empire?’, Sidecar (February 2023) – review of Neta Crawford, The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War
‘Big Politics’, Sidecar (October 2021) – review of Len McCluskey, Always Red
‘Liberals Don’t Understand the American Empire’, Tribune (August 2021) — review of Ben Rhodes, After the Fall