Appeals to Interest

“For some political theorists, interests are the nitty-gritty of political life, the bedrock beneath the airy fantasies of culture and identity. For others, interest-talk is a sign of the corruption of the political by a crass, narrow rationalism that can't do justice to the larger stakes of life in common. Dean Mathiowetz's new book—as meticulous in its readings as it is revolutionary in its consequences—challenges both sides of this all-too-familiar argument by showing that appeals to interest have always been about much more than their most influential defenders and critics have thought. Erudite and gripping, Appeals to Interest is an exemplary bridge between the history of political thought and critical engagement with contemporary political problems.”

—Patchen Markell, University of Chicago

“In a feat of conceptual restoration, Dean Mathiowetz rescues a genuinely political language of interest from its confinement as calculating self-regard in (neo)liberal political science and political theory. The scholarship of Appeals to Interest is truly impressive, and its surprising findings will engage audiences across law, social science, and the humanities.”

—Stephen Engelmann, University of Illinois at Chicago

“Appeals to Interest is a stunning accomplishment, a deeply scholarly and highly original work of historical analysis and political theory that will provoke intellectual controversy for years to come. It is also a great read. Bringing the insights associated with Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, and Foucault together with impressive expertise in the fields of economic history and the intellectual history of liberal political thought, Dean Mathiowetz shows us the hidden ‘juridical and plural’ side of the concept of interest as it develops over centuries of political arguments. We learn how the concept of interest as self-regarding rational calculation has illegitimately supplanted alternative uses of the word, and we experience the unfortunate consequences of the suppression of these alternatives. Appeals to Interest makes substantial contributions to the intellectual history of liberalism, to the methodology of the history of concepts, and to the study of politics generally. Combining wisdom culled from the linguistic turn with an astonishingly high level of scholarship, Appeals to Interest reveals the present world to us by redescribing familiar events and ideas. We understand our world as the product of the past as never before.”

—Elisabeth Ellis, Texas A&M University

“Why don't citizens vote in their interests? On what grounds can anyone other than the citizen herself say what her interest might be? Mathiowetz’s eloquent book breaks through this stalemated debate, explaining the seeming intransigence of these questions as a conceptual confusion rooted in the dominant individualist and psychological conception of interest as calculating self-regard. Bringing the linguistic turn to the study of interest, Mathiowetz recovers the ‘juridical,’ contestatory, and action-oriented uses of the word that make appeals to interest a site of contests over identity rather than a fixed ground of political demands. This insightful, exciting work brings interest to the center of democratic political thought.”

—Lisa Disch, University of Michigan

“Dean Mathiowetz’s careful and creative reconstruction of the history of the related, but evolving, concepts to which the word ‘interest’ has been applied provides an effective critical perspective on the contemporary narrow understanding of this crucial element of our political language. At the same time, he reveals the richer possibilities that have been immanent in earlier formulations.”

—John G. Gunnell, State University of New York at Albany and University of California, Davis

“Appeals to Interest is a meticulous work, compelling and full of insight. It provides a resoundingly astute analysis of how and why appeals to interest depend on agency, specifically in terms of ‘who’ an agent is. There is no doubt that this book has the potential to add substantially to our understanding of the ever-evolving realm of politics.”

—Akinbola E. Akinwumi Political Studies Review