Recent News

Best known as the author of On Liberty, John Stuart Mill remains a canonical figure in liberalism today. Yet according to his autobiography, by the mid-1840s he placed himself “under the general designation of Socialist.”

For this week’s blog post, MQUP author Helen McCabe takes a closer look at Mill’s life and work in relation … Read More >

“Can humans transcend the view ingrained in them for more than two millennia that they have dominion over nature? The question burns because if even the plight of birds is ignored, what hope is there that humans will move to protect the rest of nature?” Flight from Grace

While the world’s attention remains … Read More >

From anti-mask protests, to conspiracy theories, to the repercussions of a Trump presidency, the global pandemic has done more than alter our daily routines, it has also forced us to confront some uncomfortable truths about ourselves and our societal ideals of masculinity. In this week’s blog post, MQUP author Daniel Hannah sheds light on … Read More >

Myth criticism flourished in the mid-twentieth century under the powerful influence of Canadian thinker Northrop Frye. It asserted the need to identify common, unifying patterns in literature, arts, and religion. Although it was eclipsed by postmodern theories that asserted difference and conflict, those theories proved incapable of inspiring solidarity or guiding social … Read More >

“Liberal freedoms should not trump public safety, especially not during a pandemic.” Daniel J. Robinson

Despite the recent passing of the COVID-19 pandemic’s one year anniversary, a surprisingly large portion of the public has remained skeptical or dismissive. While this response – ranging from anti-lockdown protests to the circulation of wild Read More >

While the experiences of eighteenth-century Irish and Scottish North American immigrants are in many ways vastly different from our own, some of the challenges they faced are surprisingly comparable to those we might encounter today – even during the current global pandemic.

In this week’s guest blog post, Natasha Sumner and Aidan Doyle reflect on … Read More >

McGill-Queen’s University Press is thrilled to announce that Gregory Forth’s A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path: Animal Metaphors in an Eastern Indonesian Society is the winner of The Bookseller’s 2020 Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. Forth is the first Canadian author and … Read More >

“Presidents alone do not make foreign policy. Nor can they change it on their own.” National Security Entrepreneurs and the Making of American Foreign Policy

The unprecedented—and at times unusually chaotic—nature of this year’s American presidential election captured international attention, leaving many to wonder at the fate and future of American politics and … Read More >

“This is a guide to living with sound, and especially with noise. Not constantly fighting battles against it, not inflicting it on others, not hiding it, or yourself, under more layers of sound. This is about being a listener, whatever else you also are.” Marcia Jenneth Epstein, Sound and Noise

Noise surrounds us … Read More >

Devastating wildfires continue to scorch Western United States, an unprecedented and alarming addition to an already intense year of social, medical, and economic instability. We asked historian and MQUP author Alan MacEachern to reflect on the current disaster in the context of his book, The Miramichi Fire: A History.

On 7 October 1825, a … Read More >