“Make no mistake. This book is audacious. Many readers will be taken aback by an account of Spinoza that seems deeply at odds with conventional understandings of the character of 17th-century rationalism and of Spinoza as an important proto-liberal. Moreover, throughout the volume Sharp more often and more closely engages with the work of deep ecologists, feminists, critical race theorists, and posthumanists than with other historians of philosophy. However, the historiography and textual analysis are careful, rigorous, and, in the end, highly plausible. Of the recent spate of work on Spinoza’s political philosophy, Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization is the most novel, the most ambitious, and quite possibly the most important contribution.”

Shannon Dea | Philosophy in Review

“Sharp demonstrates that Spinoza’s metaphysical account of nature has much to contribute to contemporary debates surrounding theories of oppression….Her discussion touches on topics ranging widely from feminism and identity politics to deep ecology and animal rights.”

Choice

“Hasana Sharp’s Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization is one the most invigorating books published in philosophy this year. Where Deleuzian and post-Althusserian accounts of Spinoza occasionally take all the affect out of one of the tradition’s most effective writers, Sharp’s book is eminently readable and clear about the stakes of rethinking Spinoza after the linguistic and discursive turns of the last half of the twentieth century.”

Peter Gratton | Environment and Planning D: Society and Space

“Sharp has written a stimulating and thought-provoking book that brings a fresh perspective to many issues that have been occupying center stage in Spinoza’s philosophy. Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization is a highly commendable book, which makes one look forward to the author’s next production.”

Analysis and Metaphysics

“Ecocriticism is in dire need of philosophical support from either new directions or new perspectives on old methods. Hasana Sharp’s Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization provides just such a new vantage on the writings of Baruch Spinoza, the seventeenth-century Dutch philosopher whose writings have inspired Arne Naess, deep ecology, and much contemporary environmental philosophy. Although not directed toward the study of literature and environment per se, Sharp’s exemplary reading of Spinoza (and Spinozists) accrues ample materials for a fruitful re-appreciation of ecocritical thought.”

Andrew Husband | Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment

“In [the] more focused and condensed arguments, Sharp emerges as an important new thinker to watch for anyone interested in Spinoza, posthumanism or affective politics”  

Beth Lord | Radical Philosophy