A special invitation to all subscribers of The Full Brexit
Book Launch
12 May 2023, 6pm
London School of Economics
New Academic Building, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2
Tickets are free but registration is required. Click the button below.
‘This is the most important book to come out of the struggles over Britain’s membership of the EU, and it makes all other works on the subject look trivial.’
- Richard Tuck, Professor of Government Theory, University of Harvard
Britain’s politics are once again at an impasse as our bankrupt political parties work together to draw Britain back into the EU’s orbit. Taking Control offers a new political perspective that aims to realise the potential of democratic national sovereignty.
In Taking Control, four of The Full Brexit's co-founders argue that Brexit has confronted Britain with the task of building a new nation out of the political void left by decades of EU member-statehood. They explore the contradictions of the Brexit process and the way that Brexit and its aftermath have exposed the complete exhaustion of Britain’s political traditions, both on the right and the left. They show how a new political nation can only be built by internationalists who reject both liberal cosmopolitanism and national populism.
Taking Control is a summation of the authors’ efforts, as participants in The Full Brexit project, to promote the democratic potential of Brexit through a better understanding of its paradoxes.
Come and find out more, buy a book, and enjoy a glass of wine. It’s free to attend but registration is required.
Taking Control is published by Polity on 30 March (£15.99 pbk, £50 hbk). You can pre-order here.
Launch events in other cities are being arranged. Would you like to organise an event near you? Please get in touch by replying to this email.
BIRMINGHAM LAUNCH of Taking Control
22 April 2023,1pm
Birmingham & Midland Institute 9 Margaret Street, Birmingham
Part of the Birmingham Salon's United? Kingdom? event
Full agenda and ticket details here.
PRE-PUBLICATION PRAISE FOR TAKING CONTROL
‘This is the most important book to come out of the struggles over Britain’s membership of the EU, and it makes all other works on the subject look trivial. The authors provide a profound analysis of the issues involved, and show how only thorough-going changes in Britain’s political and constitutional arrangements will be able to respond to the challenges of this near-revolutionary moment.’
Richard Tuck, Professor of Government Theory, University of Harvard
‘This book forcefully argues that Brexit was no more than the first step in a long process of rebuilding a democratic nation-state, indeed a democratic nation, out of the ruins of a politics without national sovereignty. Sovereign democracy requires effective institutions of civic representation that disempower a political elite content with ruling the void. Taking Control is a breakthrough for democratic theory and a milestone for political debates on the future of democracy.’ Wolfgang Streeck, Emeritus Director, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Germany
‘The condition of post-Brexit Britain is grim. This excellent book shows that this has little to do with having lost the putative benefits of EU membership. Far more important is the British state's steady incapacitation and the decay of neoliberal political parties. The promise of “taking control” remains, but only if Britain undergoes a democratic and social transformation.’ Costas Lapavitsas, Professor of Economics, SOAS London
‘A crucial book for understanding the Brexit paradox: why it failed catastrophically to deliver on its promise to re-democratise British politics, but why it remains a necessary precondition for achieving just that.’ Thomas Fazi, Co-author Reclaiming the State and The Covid Consensus
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