In the Shadow of Justice

"Winner of the S-USIH Book Prize, Society for U.S. Intellectual History" "Winner of the Merle Curti Intellectual History Award, Organization of American Historians" "Shortlisted for the RHS Gladstone Book Prize, Royal Historical Society" "Shortlisted for the ECPR Political Theory Prize, European Consortium for Political Research" "One of New Statesman's Books of the Year 2019" "Winner of the David and Elaine Spitz Prize, The International Conference for the Study of Political Thought" "A searching and brilliant history."---Jennifer Szalai, New York TImes "[An] extraordinary study . . . Forrester is a subtle intellectual historian as well as a political theorist."---Jedediah Purdy, New Republic "Political philosophy today needs the kind of bold questioning that Forrester demands."---Seyla Benhabib, The Nation "A fascinating account of how the concerns of philosophers were transformed by the work of one diffident and self-effacing philosopher, the Harvard professor John Rawls."---Alan Ryan, New Statesman "A path-breaking book that shows how postwar liberalism was transformed by the philosophy of John Rawls."---Gavin Jacobson, New Statesman "[A] magisterial history of postwar liberal political philosophy. . . . Forrester is a scholarly marvel in her combination of a writers eloquence, a historians eye for revelatory detail, and an activists commitment to social liberation. . . . In the Shadow of Justice a formidable intervention in the trajectory of contemporary political thought."---Vafa Ghazavi, The Philosopher "Exciting new leftish history."---Samuel Moyn, Commonweal "In the Shadow of Justice will particularly benefit scholars and students of philosophy, politics and history concerned with the future of political liberalism. [Forrester's] important work provides a unique resource for shedding light on the conceptual roots of modern political thought while at the same time disclosing its limits."---Rahel S, LSE Review of Books "An invaluable resource for any student of contemporary political philosophy. Clearly and engagingly written. "---David Hoekema, Christian Century "Forresters excellent recent booktells the story of how . . . Rawlss highly intricate and deceptively simple brand of abstract liberal egalitarianismfirst articulated in his A Theory of Justice in 1971came to take over academic philosophy. . . . In reminding us that even political philosophers who claim to speak outside any particular time or place are, in fact, the product of a particular time and place, Forrester undoes the pretension to timelessness that Rawls claimed, at least for a time."---Susan McWilliams Barndt, Commonweal "A forceful, encyclopedic study of the confluence and contradictions of postwar liberalism, Anglo-American thought and John Rawlss political philosophy."---Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times "Forrester is a scholarly marvel in her combination of a writers eloquence, a historians eye for revelatory detail, and an activists commitment to social liberation. [T]he trifecta makes In the Shadow of Justice a formidable intervention in the trajectory of contemporary political thought."---Vafa Ghazavi, The Philosopher "In her ingenious book, Forrester provides critical new insight both on Rawlss political thought and on liberal egalitarianism. There are numerous things to commend: from the outstanding archival work to the penetrating and in-depth analysis of the many nuances of Rawlss political philosophy. Forrester argues that uncovering the contingent nature in the development of liberal egalitarianism shows that we cannot take the main assumptions, premises, and arguments for granted. Forresters work is important in uncovering where many of these assumptions come from."---Henrik D. Kugelberg, Ju

Katrina Forrester is assistant professor of government and social studies at Harvard University. She is the coeditor of Nature, Action, and the Future. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the London Review of Books, the Nation, the Guardian, Dissent, the New Statesman, n+1, and Harpers. Twitter @katforrester