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Posted on July 8, 2025 | 6 Comments
I’ve been putting the finishing touches to my book Finding Lights in a Dark Age with the help of the wonderful folks at Chelsea Green (sorry for the consequent silence here), and it’s now going into production.
The book is available to preorder from Barnes and Noble here. Rewards members (it’s free to sign up online) get 25% discount and premium members get a further 10% off. Post-civilizational projections at a civilized price! Use PREORDER25 at checkout.
Now all that’s out of the way, I’m hoping to find the time to get back to writing some new posts here soon. Thanks for keeping things ticking over with your comments in the meantime.
Talking of books and talking of commenters, a friend of this website – known in these parts as Eric F – has written a book called O! Enkidu!, out today. What else have you been keeping under your hat, Eric? I’ll post a bit more about his book soon, and a lot more about mine after that. Watch this space…
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First of all, I am planning on reading your new book – probably in the Kindle version – especially as the Barnes & Noble webpage mentions your Viking model twice (!) and it sounds interesting. The Viking Age and its impact on our modern world are two of my research interests. [For example, law and doom come from the Old Norse lag and domr.] I have thought for a long time that if one of the old Norsemen were to magically be transported to our modern world, he would be a different kind of bloodthirsty raider and would look for the best opportunities. This time it would likely be Wall Street and corporate Amerika.
Coincidentally, this morning I happened to read a review of a new edition of Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation (orig. 1944) in the London Review of Books for 23 January 2025. In this review, Stefan Collini criticizes Polanyi’s model of market fundamentalism, which was critical in itself. To wit: ” . . . perhaps the most critical judgment that might be made of this noted critic of market fundamentalism is that he badly underestimated the resilience of capitalism, largely because his focus was on the defining principles of a market economy rather than on the power of capital itself.” Where this crosses over is in both the desire for capital and the control of it. Fafnir the gold-hoarding dragon typifies this combination in spades in Norse mythology. As I see it, we have to return to fundamentals in the New New World Order – not of markets but of basic human society and connections. As for the resilience of capitalism; it means little if you are outside the market. It may be that the LRB reviewer missed the point. [And for those who see the connection between the acceleration of acceleration of the growth economy and my criticism of the reviewer’s criticism of Polanyl’s criticism of economics – well done!]
Looking forward to reading your book here in Sweden when it’s released!
I am currently reading Stephen E. Hunt’s book “We must begin with the land”, a very inspiring book about different collective ways of having and getting access to food, from a (in my view) very nice basic outlook of the libertarian left. I highly recommend it, I think you would like it, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!
Thanks for those comments. I’ll be interested to hear what you make of my book, Walter. Agree with your criticisms of Polanyi’s critic. It’s probably true that many of capitalism’s critics have underestimated its resilience, but resilience measured in decades or even over a century or two ultimately doesn’t amount to much. Biophysical resilience over long time frames is a harder nut to crack than political resilience over short ones.
Thanks also for that book recommendation Albin. Sounds interesting – another one to add to the pile!
Chelsea Green Publishing (in the US) is currently having an End of Summer Sale with 45% off everything (including preorders for Finding Lights). The discount code is SUMMER45 and expires Sept 1, 2025.
https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/finding-lights-in-a-dark-age/
“Finding Lights in a Dark Age” preorders, along with everything else at Chelsea Green Publishing, are still available in the US with a 45% discount, since the End of Summer Sale has been extended until Sept 15, 2025.
https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/finding-lights-in-a-dark-age/
For UK readers, the Chelsea Green Publishing site says “Visit Waterstones to order in the UK”.
https://www.waterstones.com/book/finding-lights-in-a-dark-age/chris-smaje/9781915294739