How CCA Happened

co-authored by philosopher Eduardo Subirats and historian Christopher Britt, formulates a new understanding of a common concept (Enlightenment) by framing it as a trans-historical and cross-cultural phenomenon. This important new book (Palgrave Macmillan/Springer, 2018)  provides an alternative to current resistance theory in arguing for new modes of intellectual engagement in politics in an age of crisis, contextualizing the practice of critical theory within contemporary political discussions on topics such as climate change, nuclear proliferation, and war. 

Spectacle of Enlightenment (Accountable Publishing, 2017) which Fenn/Subirats/Britt published following a lecture at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria in anticipation of the book Enlightenment in an Age of Destruction, challenges "the self-defeating notion that intellectuals should settle for resistance" and urges them to accomplish much more. With this aim in mind, the authors construct a cosmology of enlightenment that regards it as an unstable epiphenomenon, critique the limits of the enlightenment of Pax Americana, and provide an epistemological theory and demonstration of intellectual participation in civil society. As such, Spectacle of Enlightenment presents a reflexive challenge to the spectacle that defines our reality today. "Spectacle assigns to the intellectual the role of the critic, on the one hand, and on the other, that of the soothsayer of princes." In opposition to both and on the basis of this radical critique, Spectacle of Enlightenment proposes a trespassive tradition of cultural leadership.