Abstract

In the general introduction to Routledge’s new “Thinking the Political” series, the editors state that their purpose is “to present the work of the major Continental thinkers... to a wider audience in philosophy and in political, social and cultural theory.” Richard Beardsworth’s book on Derrida does not do this, but that in no way means it is a bad book. My argument, rather, is that Derrida and the Political is a book for specialists, and will likely only frustrate that “wider audience” in the humanities for whom it is ostensibly intended.