海角社区

Home

William Clare Roberts

Academic title(s): 

Associate Professor

William Clare Roberts
Contact Information
Address: 

855 Sherbrooke St. W.
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 2T7

Phone: 
514-398-7398
Email address: 
william.roberts3 [at] mcgill.ca
Office: 
Ferrier 426
Link(s): 
Research areas: 
Political Theory
Specialization: 

Political Theory

Areas of interest: 

In the history of political thought: Marx and Marxism, ancient Greek political philosophy, classical political economy, nineteenth century socialisms.

In contemporary ethical and political thought: republicanism, institutionalism and non-ideal theory, theories of power and domination, ideology.

In social theory and philosophy of the social sciences: social ontology, institutional economics, prudential rationality.

Current research: 
  • I鈥檓 writing an afterword to a new translation of Marx鈥檚 Capital,听Volume One, under contract with Princeton University Press. The new edition is translated by Paul Reitter (OSU) and co-edited by Reitter and Paul North (Yale). This will be the first English edition since the Fowkes translation was published 50 years ago, and the first English translation to be based on the 2nd German edition of 1872 (the last German edition seen to publication by Marx).
  • A Radical Politics of Freedom: Domination, Ideology, and Self-Emancipation. Book manuscript in progress.
  • Universal Emancipation and History: The Making and Unmaking of 鈥楬istory From Below.鈥� Book Manuscript in progress.
Selected publications: 

Book

  • ","听(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017. 276 pp.).
  • Winner of the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize (2017)
  • Reviews:
    • Jacobin. David Harvey, 鈥凌别补诲颈苍驳 Capital,鈥� 10 March 2017.
    • Choice. M. Perleman, May 2017, p. 1414.
    • Perspectives on Politics (15:2). Emanuele Saccarelli, June 2017, pp. 609-11.
    • Capital and Class (41:2). Nicholas Vrousalis, June 2017.
    • Marxism and Philosophy Review of Books. Sean Ledwith, 5 December 2017.
    • Political Studies Review (16:1). Alexander Tebble, December 2017.
    • H-Ideas. Amy E. Wendling, December 2017.
    • Disputatio (44:9). P. A. Raekstad, 2017, pp. 127-30.
    • International Socialism: A Quarterly Review of Socialist Theory (157). Sam Popowich, 8 January 2018.
    • The Nation. Daniel Luban, 鈥�,鈥� April 30-May 7, 2018.
    • Review of Politics (80:3). Alex Callinicos, Summer 2018, pp. 564-68.
    • Contemporary Political Theory (17: Supplement 3). Christian Lotz, August 2018, pp 139鈥�142.
    • The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory (26:1). Lucie Mercier & George Tomlinson, 1 November 2018, Pages 346鈥�367.
    • Sozialwissenschaftliche Literatur Rundshau (77) Michael Brie, 鈥濪urch de H枚lle鈥�, February 2018.

Journal Articles

  • "芦Une barricade, non un gouvernement禄 Contrasting Views of Association in the Paris Commune."听Nineteenth-Century French Studies听49:3 (2021): 173-193.听.

  • "." The CLR James Journal听26:1/2 (2020): 219-240.

  • .听Contemporary Political Theory听18:3听(2019):听448鈥�476.

  • 鈥溾赌淲丑补迟 Was Primitive Accumulation: Reconstructing the Origins of a Critical Concept.鈥� European Journal of Political Theory听19:4 (2020): 532-552. .

  • Marx鈥檚 Social Republic: Political, not Metaphysical.鈥� Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory. 27:2听(2019): 41-58.听.

  • 鈥淭he Idea of Emancipation after Postcolonial Theory.鈥� Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 19:6 (2017): 747-763. .

  • 鈥淐ompulsory Schooling: The University, the Market, and the Work Students Do.鈥� Part of a 鈥淐ritical Exchange on Education and Scholarship in the Twenty-First-Century Marketplace.鈥� Contemporary Political Theory 14:4 (November 2015): 409-433.

  • 鈥淎ll Natural Right Is Changeable: Aristotelian Natural Right, Prudence, and the Specter of Exceptionalism.鈥� Review of Politics 74:2 (Spring 2012): 261-283.

  • 鈥淭he Reconstitution of Marxism鈥檚 Production Paradigm: The Cases of Benjamin, Althusser, and Marx.鈥� Philosophical Forum 41:4 (Winter 2010): 413-440.

Book Chapters

  • 鈥凌别补诲颈苍驳 Capital as Political Theory.鈥� In Marx's Capital after 150 Years: Critique and Alternative to Capitalism, ed. Marcello Musto. Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy. London and New York: Routledge, 2019, 219-231.

  • 鈥淢arx鈥檚 German and British Political Encounters.鈥� In The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx, eds. Jeff Diamanti, Andrew Pendakis, and Imre Szeman. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019, 231-40.

  • 鈥淔euerbach and the Left and Right Hegelians.鈥� In听The History of Continental Philosophy, Volume Two: The Revolutionary Responses to the Existing Order (1840-1900), edited by Daniel W. Conway, general editor Alan D. Schrift. Stocksfield, UK: Acumen, 2010, 17-34.

  • 鈥淎bstraction and Productivity: Structures of Intentionality and Action in Marx鈥檚听Capital.鈥� In听Marx and Contemporary Philosophy, edited by Andrew Chitty and Martin McIvor. Harmondsworth, UK: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009, 188-203.

  • 鈥淭he Origin of Political Economy and the Descent of Marx.鈥� In听Marx, Critical Theory, and Religion: A Critique of Rational Choice. Edited by Warren S. Goldstein. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2006, 31-58.听 (Paperback edition, Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2009.)

Selected talks and presentations: 

鈥溾�楥entralism is a dangerous tool鈥�: On CLR James's history of principles,鈥� at Historical Materialism 2018, SOAS, University of London, London, UK, November 2018.

鈥淚deologies of domination and democratic theory,鈥� presented at 鈥淧olitical theory in/ and/ as political science,鈥� 海角社区, Montreal, QC, May 2018.

鈥淭he Past, Present, and Future of Primitive Accumulation,鈥� at the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, PA, September 2016.

鈥淯nfree Agents: Emancipation and Domination after Postcolonial Theory,鈥� at the Western Political Science Association, San Diego, CA, March 2016.

Projects: 

Critical Social Theory at 海角社区

Group: 
Associate Professor
Back to top