Security: Politics, Humanity, and the Philology of Care

Awards:   Short-listed for Harvard University Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship 2014 Short-listed for Named a Harvard University Walter Channing Cabot Fellow 2014 Shortlisted for Harvard University Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship 2014.
Author:   John T. Hamilton
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Volume:   39
ISBN:  

9780691171227


Pages:   336
Publication Date:   31 May 2016
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Security: Politics, Humanity, and the Philology of Care


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Awards

  • Short-listed for Harvard University Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship 2014
  • Short-listed for Named a Harvard University Walter Channing Cabot Fellow 2014
  • Shortlisted for Harvard University Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship 2014.

Overview

"From national security and social security to homeland and cyber-security, ""security"" has become one of the most overused words in culture and politics today. Yet it also remains one of the most undefined. What exactly are we talking about when we talk about security? In this original and timely book, John Hamilton examines the discursive versatility and semantic vagueness of security both in current and historical usage. Adopting a philological approach, he explores the fundamental ambiguity of this word, which denotes the removal of ""concern"" or ""care"" and therefore implies a condition that is either carefree or careless. Spanning texts from ancient Greek poetry to Roman Stoicism, from Augustine and Luther to Machiavelli and Hobbes, from Kant and Nietzsche to Heidegger and Carl Schmitt, Hamilton analyzes formulations of security that involve both safety and negligence, confidence and complacency, certitude and ignorance. Does security instill more fear than it assuages? Is a security purchased with freedom or human rights morally viable? How do security projects inform our expectations, desires, and anxieties? And how does the will to security relate to human finitude?Although the book makes clear that security has always been a major preoccupation of humanity, it also suggests that contemporary panics about security and the related desire to achieve perfect safety carry their own very significant risks."

Full Product Details

Author:   John T. Hamilton
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Imprint:   Princeton University Press
Volume:   39
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.709kg
ISBN:  

9780691171227


ISBN 10:   069117122
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   31 May 2016
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Language:   English

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix Part One: Preliminary Concerns 1 1. Homo Curans 3 2. Security Studies and Philology 7 3. Handle with Care 25 Part Two: Etymologies and Figures 49 4. A Brief Semantic History of Securitas 51 5. The Pasture and the Garden 68 6. Security on the Beach 83 7. Tranquillity, Anger, and Caution 114 Part Three: Occupying Security 135 8. Fortitude and Maternal Care 137 9. Embarkations 168 10. Lingua Homini Lupus 182 11. Repercussions 201 12. Revolution's Chances 224 13. Vital Instabilities 238 14. The Sorrow of Thinking 262 15. Surveillance, Conspiracy, and the Nanny State 284 On the Main 299 Works Cited 301 Index 317

Reviews

Named a Harvard University Walter Channing Cabot Fellow for 2014 [This] is a wonderfully rich volume that makes punctual yet decisive incursions leading to brilliant new readings of canonical texts... Through the cornucopia of its corpus and the generosity of its gesture, Security is above all an invitation to think along, to think further and deeper, to pursue the project of the book on a yet wider corpus. It invites us to practice the philology of care in our approach to books but also to the world. --Hall Bjornstad, L'Esprit Createur [A] masterful meditation. --Ellwood Wiggins, Modern Language Quarterly


Author Information

John T. Hamilton is professor of comparative literature at Harvard University. He is the author of Music, Madness, and the Unworking of Language and Soliciting Darkness: Pindar, Obscurity, and the Classical Tradition.

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