by Adrian-George Matus
Here are five book recommendations on democracy and culture themes published in 2024 that I found important and outstanding.
Raluca Grosescu and Ned Richardson-Little (eds.), Socialism and International Law. The Cold War and its Legacies, Oxford University Press, 2024
Historians and political scientists have often overlooked the role, contributions, and initiatives of socialist countries and socialist intellectuals in international law. Raluca Grosescu and Ned-Richardson-Little’s newly edited volume is a much welcome addition as it recognizes the contributions of socialist states to questions of self-determination, decolonization, peace, and anti-apartheid. Historians and legal scholars that want to have a new perspective on internationa law will find this collection particularly rewarding. Read our review of the volume here.
Zsófia Lóránd, Adela Hîncu, Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc, Katarzyna Stańczak-Wiślicz (eds.), Texts and Contexts from the History of Feminism and Women’s Rights. East Central Europe, Second Half of the Twentieth Century, CEU Press, 2024
This edited volume contains selected, curated, and newly translated political treatises, philosophy works, literary texts, as well as reflections about films and visual arts that show how feminism was shaped in East Central Europe as a form of political thought. It focuses on topics such as women’s political rights, their right to education, role in nation building, questions of war and peace, the gendered division of labor, and violence against women. The volume is crucial as it shows the similarities and differences across the region. Moreover, it underlines overlapping agendas with socialism, liberalism, nationalism, and even eugenics. A long-awaited volume that will surely find its use in courses on history, sociology, gender studies.
Oleksandr Mykhed, The Language of War, Penguin Publishing House, 2024.
This book is a vivid testimony to the first 13 months of the full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine. Mykhed blends diary entries, interviews and memories to capture the raw destruction and the massacre of civilians. As a witness and combatant, the author reflects on how war has reshapes reality through the memory destruction, identity change, and the dissolution of meaning. The Language of War provides a devastating account of the Ukraine’s ongoing struggle that we too often overlook these days.
Amina Damerdji, Bientôt les vivants [Soon the Living], Editions Gallimard, 2024.
Algeria witnessed a civil war in the 1990s during which a generation tried to emancipate itself – despite the violence. This novel follows Selma’s – a young girl who enjoys horse-riding – quest for self-determination in a disrupted society. In the midst of the civil war, her uncle became attracted to religion, whilst her father, a doctor, and her mother engaged in the defense of human rights. Bientôt les vivants also tackles the socio-economical divisions between the rich and the poor who are separated in the novel by a forest. Through Selma’s story, the resilience, the quest for liberty, and family tensions receive new meanings through skillful narration.
Benjamin Nathans, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement, Princeton University Press, 2024
To what extent did the legalist opposition manage to achieve its aims of setting limits on the Soviet state and of challenging it? Benjamin Nathans’ richly documented monograph offers a fresh exploration of the dissident movement by drawing on new archival materials. The narrative revolves around the character of Alexander Esenin-Volpin, the son of the famous Russian poet, who had a strong interest in logic and legal studies. You can read our review here.
