Social Research: An International Quarterly

“The paralyzing fear of getting dirty in party politics is understandable, but activists should get their hands dirty if they are serious about making a lasting change in the world. By dirty I mean being immersed in the bargaining and compromising that are needed to carry on party politics.” 1/2

Economist Anwar Shaikh was #BOTD in 1945 in Karachi. He passed away earlier this month, a few days short of his 81st birthday. Shaikh joined the New School for Social Research in 1972 and stayed for his entire academic career. 1/3

A heterodox economist in the Marxian tradition, Shaikh was critical not only of capitalism but also of neoclassical economics that views capitalism as a system of perfect competition serving perfectly efficiently the interests of all of its participants. 2/3

Philosopher and public intellectual Yirmiyahu Yovel was #BOTD in 1935 in Haifa. Focusing on Spinoza & Kant, he was a key figure in modern philosophy. In addition to his position at Hebrew University, he taught at the New School for Social Research in 1994–2010 and served on our editorial board. 1/2

Adam Michnik was #BOTD in 1946 in Warsaw, Poland. Michnik is a journalist, public intellectual, and pro-democracy activist, both during the communist period and since. 1/3

He was imprisoned twice for opposing the Soviet regime, eventually becoming a part of the Polish Round Table talks that ended the communist dictatorship in Poland in 1989. 2/3

#BOTD 120 years ago in Hanover, Germany, was Hannah Arendt, a key political theorist of the last century, whose work remains highly relevant today. A refugee from Nazism, she found a home in NYC and at the New School, where she taught political philosophy in 1968–1975. 1/3

Arendt’s first publication in Social Research was “Thinking and Moral Considerations” in the fall of 1971. www.jstor.org/stable... 2/3

On the week of what would have been Vaclav Havel’s 90th birthday (born on Oct. 5, 1936, in Prague), we invite you to revisit his contribution to a discussion on the possibility and forms of independent society under totalitarianism. 1/2

As Japan faces rapid aging, low fertility, and a rise in solo living, traditional family-managed deathcare is collapsing. 1/2

Our monthly top 5 is here! See what was popular in September: 1/6

🌟 Bent Flyvbjerg and Cass R. Sunstein, “The Principle of the Malevolent Hiding Hand; or, The Planning Fallacy Writ Large” (Winter 2016) muse.jhu.edu/article... 5/6

Our monthly top 5 is here! See what was popular in September: 1/6

🌟 Joseph E. Davis, William Hasselberger, and Paul Scherz, “Disrupting Death: Technology, Grief, and the Afterlife. Guest Editors’ Introduction” (Fall 2026) muse.jhu.edu/article... 3/6

Our monthly top 5 is here! See what was popular in September: 1/6

#TodayinHistory 1949: The Declaration of the People's Republic of China 75 years later, has Mao’s socialism been superseded by neoliberalism? 1/2

Robert Nisbet, #BOTD in 1913 in Los Angeles, was an American sociologist and professor known for his seminal work on community, authority, and the historical decline of intermediate social institutions. 1/2

#BOTD in 1930 in New York City was renowned sociologist and pioneer of world-systems analysis Immanuel Wallerstein. He transformed how we understand global capitalism and historical social structures. 1/3

In “What Are We Bounding, and Whom, When We Bound Social Research?" (Winter 1995) Wallerstein investigates the social creation of academic boundaries, showing how strict divisions in inquiry emerged primarily between 1750 and 1850 in Western Europe but crystallized only by the mid-20th century. 2/3

September usually marks the statistical peak of the hurricane season. Luckily for communities that often lie in hurricanes’ path, the Atlantic basin has not seen a major storm this year. However, the Eastern Seaboard is now in the grip of a rare for this season nor’easter. 1/2

Judith N. Shklar, #BOTD in 1928 in Riga, Latvia, was a political theorist and the first woman to be tenured (in 1971) by Harvard’s Department of Government. She’s best known for contributions to liberalism, the philosophy of fear, and the complexities of political injustice. 1/2

#TodayinHistory in 1980: The birth of Solidarność, Poland’s Solidarity movement, a surge of civil resistance amid an economic crisis and the Helsinki Accords. Solidarity played a key role in bringing about the end of communism in Europe at the close of the decade. 1/2

Leo Strauss, #BOTD in 1899, was a towering German-American political philosopher and historian renowned for reviving classical political rationalism and championing esoteric reading of texts. 1/3

After escaping Nazi Germany for the US in 1937, for 10 years he taught at the New School and served on the editorial board of “Social Research,” heading it for 2 years. 2/3