We live in a global age, an age of vast scale and speed, an age of great technological and economic and environmental change, in conditions our ancestors could hardly have imagined. What does this compression of geographical and temporal scale mean for our political thinking? Do we need new modes of political thought or a new kind of political imagination? How might we begin to develop a truly global political theory?Against the common belief
that we need a wholly new political theory for our global age, Susan McWilliams argues that the best foundation is already behind us and can be found by traveling back. In doing this -- revisiting the
history of political thought with a mind to the questions accompanying globalization -- it becomes clear that the greatest tool for understanding our "new world" lies in one of the oldest themes in Western political theory: travel. Since the beginnings of Western political thought -- the ancient Greeks referred to travel as theoria -- political theorists have used images of travel to illuminate the central questions of globalization; where travel stories appear, we find
serious reflection about how to live in cross-cultural and interconnected political conditions. Here we find attention to the contingency of political identity, to hybridity, and to the threats of colonialism and imperialism.
We even find self-critical questioning about the dangers that face political theorists who want to think globally.In Traveling Back, McWilliams uncovers the rich travel-story tradition of political theorizing that speaks directly to the problems of our age. She explores why this travel-story tradition has been so long neglected, especially in this time when we need its wisdom, and she calls for its rediscovery. In order to move forward toward a global political
theory, as McWilliams eloquently demonstrates, we must first learn to travel back.
We live in a global age, an age of vast scale and speed, an age of great technological and economic and environmental change, in conditions our ancestors could hardly have imagined. What does this compression of geographical and temporal scale mean for our political thinking? Do we need new modes of political thought or a new kind of political imagination? How might we begin to develop a truly global political theory?Against the common belief
that we need a wholly new political theory for our global age, Susan McWilliams argues that the best foundation is already behind us and can be found by traveling back. In doing this -- revisiting the
history of political thought with a mind to the questions accompanying globalization -- it becomes clear that the greatest tool for understanding our "new world" lies in one of the oldest themes in Western political theory: travel. Since the beginnings of Western political thought -- the ancient Greeks referred to travel as theoria -- political theorists have used images of travel to illuminate the central questions of globalization; where travel stories appear, we find
serious reflection about how to live in cross-cultural and interconnected political conditions. Here we find attention to the contingency of political identity, to hybridity, and to the threats of colonialism and imperialism.
We even find self-critical questioning about the dangers that face political theorists who want to think globally.In Traveling Back, McWilliams uncovers the rich travel-story tradition of political theorizing that speaks directly to the problems of our age. She explores why this travel-story tradition has been so long neglected, especially in this time when we need its wisdom, and she calls for its rediscovery. In order to move forward toward a global political
theory, as McWilliams eloquently demonstrates, we must first learn to travel back.
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Points of Departure
Chapter 1: Instructions for Traveling
Chapter 2: Reflections on Travel
Chapter 3: Imagined Travelers
Conclusion: Homecomings
Notes
Index
Susan McWilliams is Associate Professor of Politics at Pomona College.
"In this rich, elegant, and fascinating book, Susan McWilliams asks
us to recall the Greek theoros -- the theorist-traveller who
journeyed to other lands then returned home to describe the
institutions and habits that he saw there, and the reasons and
principles behind them. Ever since, she maintains, travel and the
imagination of travel has been an important source for thinking
about political possibility... With a tour through works about
travel,
works by traveling theorists, and works imagining theoretically
interesting travel -- from Herodotus through Montesquieu and
Tocqueville to DuBois and Baldwin, among others -- she shows how
much can be learned
from travel and its theorists. She challenges how we have thought
about the methods and boundaries of political theory at the same
time that she lets us see familiar kinds of theory in new ways.
This is a very fine piece of humanistic scholarship." --Jacob T.
Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory, McGill
University
"Susan McWilliams succeeds marvelously at making the familiar
unfamiliar. Theoretically incisive and poetic, this elegantly
written book makes a forceful case for 'traveling back' through the
Western tradition." --Anne Norton, Professor of Political Science
and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania
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