I am very honored that an article I worked on for years, “The Myth of 1968 & the French Intelligentsia,” was just published in Monthly Review.

Abstract
This article critically examines the widespread assumption that there is such a profound connection between French theory and the political events of 1968 that the former merits the title of “68 thought.” It begins by a materialist analysis of the historical relationship between the most prominent representatives of French theory—ranging from Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida to Pierre Bourdieu and Jacques Lacan—and the actual political events unfolding at the time. After demonstrating their distance from the major political mobilizations, which often included an overt rejection of them, the article turns to the larger cultural question of the ways in which the myth of 68 thought was produced, as well as to the issue of its social function in the global theory industry. It is in this light that it proposes an analysis of the historical commodity fetishism around 68, before concluding with a critical assessment of how the presumed radicality of “68 thinkers” serves to police the left border of critique.