Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Enzo Traverso is an Italian scholar of European intellectual history, and the author of several books on critical theory, Marxism, Fascism, revolution, and contemporary historiography. He teaches at Cornell University, and his most recent book is Revolution: An Intellectual History versobooks.com/products/2783-revolution?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=verso_video

In this interview with his Verso editor, Sebastian Budgen, he discusses the origins of his political thinking, fascism in Europe in the 20th century, the new far-right, totalitarianism, and Israel.

You can find all his work, including Revolution: An Intellectual History, here versobooks.com/blogs/authors/traverso-enzo?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=verso_video

0:00:00 Political beginnings
0:20:12 Marxism and the Jewish question
0:28:48 Siegfried Kracauer, Frankfurt School and Post-structuralism
0:49:35 Totalitarianism
0:59:33 Fascism in Europe in the 20th century
1:10:57 The New Far Right
1:21:17 Left melancholy
1:31:10 Israel and Jewish modernity