The first biography of Helena Sheehan, Irish-American Marxist feminist activist Why would an American girl-child, born into a good, Irish-Catholic family in the thick of the McCarthy era – a girl who, when she came of age, entered a convent – morph into an atheist, feminist, and Marxist? The answer is in Helena Sheehan’s fascinating account of her journey from her 1940s and 1950s beginnings, into the turbulent 1960s, when the Vietnam War, black power, and women’s liberation rocked her bedrock assumptions and prompted a volley of life-upending questions – questions shared by millions of young people of her generation. But, for Helena Sheehan, the increasingly radicalized answers deepened through the following decades. Beginning by overturning such certainties as America-is-the-world’s-greatest-country and the-Church-is-infallible, Sheehan went on to embrace existentialism, philosophical pragmatism, the new left, and eventually Marxism. Migrating from the United States to Ireland, she became involved with Irish republicanism and international communism in the 1970s and 1980s. Sheehan’s narrative vividly captures the global sweep and contradictions of second-wave feminism, antiwar activism, national liberation movements, and international communism in Eastern and Western Europe – as well as the quieter intellectual ferment of individuals living through these times. Navigating the Zeitgeist is an eloquently articulated voyage from faith to enlightenment to historical materialism that informs as well as entertains. This is the story of a well-lived political and philosophical life, told by a woman who continues to interrogate her times.

'From Trump's backward-looking promise to "make America great again" to the hipster's fondness for a pre-industrial age of craft, nostalgia saturates our world. Gandini's book is a remarkable and insightful guide to this phenomenon, laying out the deep roots of its origins and setting out the contours of its limits.' Nick Srnicek, co-author of Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work We live an age of nostalgia, incarnated by populist fantasies of “taking back control” and making nations “great again". In the long aftermath of the 2007-08 economic crisis, nostalgia has been established as the cultural zeitgeist of Western society. Populist fantasies of nostalgia represent a cry for help against the demise of the societal model of the postwar era, based on stable employment and mass consumption. The promise of an impossible return to the 'good life' of the 20th century, Gandini contends, particularly appeals to the older generations, who are incapable of making sense of the evolution of Western societies after decades of globalization and neoliberal policies. The younger generations, in the meantime, are instead trying to build a new 'good life' based on another form of return, this time to old practices of craft production and consumption.

At Dupont University, an innocent college freshman named Charlotte Simmons learns that her intellect alone will not help her survive.

This book explores heutagogy (self-determined learning) - a new approach to teaching and learning in higher education - and proposes a paradigm shift in teaching, learning, and the educational enterprise and ecosystem. The first part of the book presents the philosophical, psychological and sociological foundations of heutagogy, and describes lessons learned from prior experiences of its implementation. The second part presents a collaborative self-study of five heutagogy courses in higher education. The third discusses how the academic community can enhance the paradigm change, and compares heutagogy to similar academic approaches. The concluding chapter of the book explores the question of “what next”? and suggests some possible elaborations of heutagogy. “At the beginning, it was very difficult for me to appreciate the course’s mode of learning. All my life I had learned in a traditional manner. Occasionally I felt that I was being thrown into deep water without a lifeguard. ... But as the course progressed, I succeeded in letting go of my deeply rooted habits and discovered a new learning approach, through which I found in myself a new learner...” (Student’s reflection) “...this book suggests a novel approach to learning and education and will become a widely read one.” Dr. Lisa Marie Blaschke, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg

In Ernst Bloch’s Speculative Materialism: Ontology, Epistemology, Politics, Cat Moir offers a new interpretation of the philosophy of Ernst Bloch. The reception of Bloch’s work has seen him variously painted as a naïve realist, a romantic nature philosopher, a totalitarian thinker, and an irrationalist whose obscure literary style stands in for a lack of systematic rigour. Moir challenges these conceptions of Bloch by reconstructing the ontological, epistemological, and political dimensions of his speculative materialism. Through a close, historically contextualised reading of Bloch’s major work of ontology, Das Materialismusproblem, seine Geschichte und Substanz (The Materialism Problem, its History and Substance), Moir presents Bloch as one of the twentieth century’s most significant critical thinkers.

Part I, Postfashion -- What fashion strictly divided -- Adorned in Zeitgeist -- High and low: the end of a century of fashion -- Part II, Eight types of fashion -- Lagerfeld for Chanel: the griffe -- Montana, Mugler: myth -- Dolce & Gabbana: deep south -- Comme des garcçons: ex oriente lux -- Yohji Yamamoto: the secret sewn in -- Gaultier: revaluation of all values -- Helmut Lang: fabric, skin and figure -- Martin Margiela: signs of time.