“Feldman delivers an essential dossier on the conceptual straitjacketing to which every terrestrial being, whether ethically bound or in the wild, is currently subjected. Scouring the political unconscious with exquisite precision and sovereign decisiveness—all the while leaving intact the blurs and shudders of discursive power failures—Archives of the Insensible will become the go-to work to help us confront unmanageably traumatizing realities by which we are seized and the cutthroat politics of our era. From media-theoretical downloads to subtle philosophical sting operations, the book doesn’t let up. Ever.”
— Avital Ronell, author of Loser Sons: Politics and Authority
“Archives of the Insensible is a remarkable diagnosis of our time, tracing with great subtlety the multiple ways in which violence is transformed into justice and justice gives birth to destruction. This is a startling book written with passion and insight, and a valuable contribution to our understanding of the relationship of violence to international law in the contemporary world.”
— Talal Asad, author of On Suicide Bombing
“The indefatigable rigor with which Feldman limns the media, archives, practices, and metaphysics of contemporary sovereignty, along with its myriad forms of victimage, has the potential to educate and inspire a generation or more of counter-hegemonic, social-justice workers across multiple institutions, media, and national contexts. Feldman relentlessly pursues a mode of geopolitically emergent sovereignty that is fundamentally inseparable from war, terror, torture, clandestinity, and the programmed prohibition of the comprehension of these violent processes.”
— Jonathan Beller, author of The Cinematic Mode of Production
"I am struck by the rich and provocative detail of this remarkable book and by the disturbing insights it offers into the performance of violence in our time and how its representations make it banal and acceptable."
— Social Text Journal
"...a challenging but rewarding collection of essays by one of anthropology’s leading voices on the politics of violence."
— Joseph Feldman, PoLAR Online