Ensemblance

Since Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari and, more recently, Badiou, there has been considerable interest in countervailing the history of individualism with others on the production of group subjectivities, where the individual emerges from out of, or is sacrificially sublimated into, a cog in the machine of a no-less manufactured collective identity. Luis de Miranda's enquiry into the origins and ambivalent spread of esprit de corps, or the subjectivation of 'ensembles', marks a major intervention in this debate. Ensemblance is a remarkable 'histosophical' achievement, a compellingly original mix of transnational history and philosophy, from the philosophes to the present, and beautifully written to boot. * Gerald Moore, Associate Professor in Digital Studies, Durham University *