Can dialectical thought still carve our late capitalist reality at its joints? In this bold, lucid, and searching book, Vangelis Giannakakis revisits the writings of Theodor W. Adorno to make a compelling case for negative dialectics as a vital intellectual resource in the face of our ‘new old barbarism.’ He does so by recalling, from different angles, the imperative to think together negation and novelty—and by bringing Adorno into an unexpected if fruitful dialogue with the philosophy of Alain Badiou. An important intervention for all those persuaded that the first axiom of a critical, emancipatory philosophy is: society must not be defended.

Alberto Toscano, Simon Fraser University and Goldsmiths, University of London

What is the connection between a critical, historical experience and the concept of the event? In his superb and penetrating study of Adorno and Badiou, Vangelis Giannakakis articulates a compelling and novel response to this question. Through illuminating explorations of the concepts of experience, the nonidentical, the shudder and the event, Giannakakis outlines a new path for Critical Theory in the 21st Century. This fine book is itself an event, a breakout from totality into undiminished experience.

Alastair Morgan, University of Manchester