At a time when the lives of trans people, migrant workers, and women, amongst others, are threatened by the far Right, it is important to engage with the demands and analyses of these groups, both on their own terms and as part of the broader struggle against the relations of capital. This necessitates an expansive definition of capitalist alienation, which extends beyond the point of production and penetrates every facet of our lives. Alan Sears’ new book Eros and Alienation brings together the Marxist theory of alienation and queer theory and argues that the alienation of labour has subordinated our creative, life-making activity to the production of capitalist profit, including the ways that we experience gender and sexuality. But this process is never total, and the potential for the realisation of our capacity for human flourishing is expressed in various ways, exemplified in queer forms of community and struggle that defend and create the possibility of a different future. In the conversation that follows, Alan discusses themes from his new book, including an expansive conception of alienation, the role of the erotic in overcoming capitalist alienation, and the utopian vision of the future.

A huge thanks to all the participants in the 2025 Historical Materialism London conference. The conference was a huge success with 1,043 presentations and over 1,400 participants. The biggest Historical Materialism London Conference ever!

Programme Amendments

In der Dämmerung: Studien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte der Kritischen Theorie (In the Twilight. Studies on the Pre- and Early History of Critical Theory) by Christian Voller, Matthes & Seitz, 2022, 414 pages, German.

Sonja Buckel, Subjectivation and Cohesion, trans. Monika Vykoukal (Brill, 2021)

Wendy Z. Goldman and Donald Filtzer (eds.), Hunger and War. Food Provisioning in the Soviet Union during World War II, Bloomington Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2015

On 29 July, Geert Reuten passed away after a short illness with liver cancer. Geert was the youngest of twelve children and belonged to a prominent Catholic family. His grandfather, textile manufacturer Vincent van den Heuvel, had for many years been a member of parliament for the Catholic Party and played an important role in the establishment of the Boerenleenbank (now Rabobank). Geert himself would become the radical outlier of the family.

The Historical Materialism journal and book series editorial boards are very sad to announce the death of Geert Reuten due to cancer.

23 July 2025

As the editorial board of Historical Materialism, we would like to express our condemnation, indignation and anger regarding the unprecedented forms of censorship and ideological silencing with which the Historical Materialism Paris Conference had to deal.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=""]The deadline for abstracts for this year’s Historical Materialism London Conference has been extended one FINAL time to 30 May, midnight GMT.

Guest editors: Anna Beria (Kingston University, London), Isabel Jacobs (Queen Mary University of London), Giorgi Kobakhidze (Université Toulouse II Jean Jaurès), Jiří Růžička (The Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences)