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The unique qualities of this rich book lie in the way it approaches its subject and addresses its readers through a way of writing and thinking that defamiliarizes them, thus profoundly questioning what they thought they knew. Amer Meziane completely revamps the political concepts that we thought we knew. A breath of fresh air and audacity. Some extraordinary passages leave us breathless. -- Ann Laura Stoler, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and History, The New School An extremely important and erudite book. Extraordinary in many parts, it will be discussed for a long time to come and is doomed to generate new debates. It will be difficult from now on to think without some of the main concepts it invents, such as imperiality, which disrupts the way we write the history of modern political regimes. It is impressive in its erudition, in its knowledge - it is the result of a considerable amount of work - and also in its impetus, strength and commitment. It is a book that is not only content to assemble knowledge, to refine concepts, but that wants to defend an argument - several arguments in fact - and thus launch a discussion. This is what is going to happen and it is already happening. This discussion is starting and it will grow. -- Etienne Balibar, Philosopher, Author with Immanuel Wallerstein, of <i>Race, Nation, Class</i> and with Louis Althusser of <i>Reading Capital</i> I would characterize this book in one word by saying that it is an important and wonderfully written book. Its importance lies in the way it recasts the concept of secularization by redefining it in a particularly precise and illuminating way. This book, in its present form, beckons to another book, which I would call his absent book and in which a direct conversation with Hegel will give a conceptual continuation to this marvelous historical-philosophical investigation. -- Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University The young philosopher Mohamed Amer Meziane has recently proposed a stimulating and iconoclastic argument in his book The States of the Earth (Des empires sous la terre). According to this professor at Columbia University in New York, the West is underpinned by an imperialism initially expressed by Christianity, in particular with the papal revolution. Modern secularization does not constitute the death of Christianity, but operates a transfer of this religious sovereignty into an earthly mission, with the colonial enterprise and the massive exploitation of the Earth. The critique of heaven has overturned the Earth, summarizes Meziane - who calls Secularocene the concrete implementation of an imperialism consisting in realizing Christianity on Earth. * Le Monde * In a fascinating investigation, the philosopher Mohamad Amer Meziane explores the roots of the secularization process, which led to the separation of politics and religion. And shows that the erasure of God was never the goal of this great movement, whose motive was primarily imperial and colonial. The flight of the gods was a collateral effect of this change of discourse, which engendered a new, predatory relationship with nature. Imperialism, ecological crisis and secularization are inseparable. An astonishing argument defended by Amer Meziane in a book as innovative as ambitious. Secularization is not, contrary to the way the problem is generally approached, a question of disenchantment of the world or death of God . It is an instrument in the hands of colonial domination. And also, in an indissociable way, one of the deep sources of the contemporary ecological crisis, to the point that we should speak of the Secularocene . * Philosophie Magazine * By weaving unprecedented links between secularization, colonization and ecological catastrophe, Mohamed Amer Meziane lays the foundations of a work that is likely to open up radically new, and perhaps even revolutionary, horizons of thought * Hors-serie * The consequences of this book are considerable. It will take time to meditate on them, to unfold them, to measure their scope. * Lundi Matin * Young philosopher and historian Mohamed Amer Meziane, in his recently published book, argues that Europe, and France specifically, give themselves credit for having modernized during the 19th century. But this was the period of France's imperial adventures in the Muslim world, which - not coincidentally, he powerfully argues - racialized the concept of religiosity, rendering it uncivilized. * New York Times *

"Young philosopher and historian Mohamed Amer Meziane, in his recently published book, argues that Europe, and France specifically, give themselves credit for having modernized during the 19th century. But this was the period of France's imperial adventures in the Muslim world, which - not coincidentally, he powerfully argues - racialized the concept of ""religiosity,"" rendering it ""uncivilized."" * New York Times * The young philosopher Mohamed Amer Meziane has recently proposed a stimulating and iconoclastic argument in his book The States of the Earth (Des empires sous la terre). According to this professor at Columbia University in New York, the West is underpinned by an imperialism initially expressed by Christianity, in particular with the papal revolution. Modern secularization does not constitute the death of Christianity, but operates a transfer of this religious sovereignty into an earthly mission, with the colonial enterprise and the massive exploitation of the Earth. ""The critique of heaven has overturned the Earth,"" summarizes Meziane - who calls ""Secularocene"" the concrete implementation of an imperialism consisting in realizing Christianity on Earth. * Le Monde * By weaving unprecedented links between secularization, colonization and ecological catastrophe, Mohamed Amer Meziane lays the foundations of a work that is likely to open up radically new, and perhaps even revolutionary, horizons of thought * Hors-série * The consequences of this book are considerable. It will take time to meditate on them, to unfold them, to measure their scope. * Lundi Matin * An extremely important and erudite book. Extraordinary in many parts, it will be discussed for a long time to come and is destined to generate new debates. It will be difficult from now on to think without some of the main concepts it invents, such as imperiality, which disrupts the way we write the history of modern political regimes. It is impressive in its erudition, in its knowledge - it is the result of a considerable amount of work - and also in its impetus, strength and commitment. It is a book that is not only content to assemble knowledge, to refine concepts, but that wants to defend an argument - several arguments in fact - and thus launch a discussion. This is what is going to happen and it is already happening. This discussion is starting and it will grow. -- Étienne Balibar, Philosopher, Author with Immanuel Wallerstein, of <i>Race, Nation, Class</i> and with Louis Althusser of <i>Reading Capital</i> An extraordinary book. Mohamed Amer Meziane's breathtaking analysis of the making of fossil states opens to a new genre of history writing where the very layers of earth's riches are at its center. -- Ann Laura Stoler, The New School, author of <i>Carnal Knowledge</i> and <i>Imperial Power, Along the Archival Grain</i> In this fascinating book, Mohamed Amer Meziane has brought together a number of themes in a thought-provoking way: the crisis of climate change, the rampant exploitation and pollution of the earth, the state and imperialism, and what Weber famously called the disenchantment of the modern world. It deserves to be widely read. -- Talal Asad An important and wonderfully written book. Its importance lies in the way it recasts the concept of secularization by redefining it in a rigorous and illuminating way. A marvellous historical and philosophical investigation. -- Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University, author of <i>African Art as Philosophy</i> and <i>Open to Reason: Muslim Philosophers in Dialogue with the Western Tradition</i> In a fascinating investigation, the philosopher Mohamad Amer Meziane explores the roots of the secularization process, which led to the separation of politics and religion. And shows that the erasure of God was never the goal of this great movement, whose motive was primarily imperial and colonial. The flight of the gods was a collateral effect of this change of discourse, which engendered a new, predatory relationship with nature. Imperialism, ecological crisis and secularization are inseparable. An astonishing argument defended by Amer Meziane in a book as innovative as ambitious. Secularization is not, contrary to the way the problem is generally approached, a question of ""disenchantment of the world"" or ""death of God"". It is an instrument in the hands of colonial domination. And also, in an indissociable way, one of the deep sources of the contemporary ecological crisis, to the point that we should speak of the ""Secularocene"". * Philosophie Magazine *"

Author Information

Mohamed Amer Meziane is a philosopher, historian and performer based in New York. Born in London to Algerian parents, he spent his early childhood in the Middle East and North Africa before settling in France. He then grew up near Paris, thorned between a Muslim Algerian upbringing nurtured by the legacy of Third World Revolutions and the French secular school system in which Arabs were systematically racialized. Initially a musician, he decided to become a philosopher to inquire on the roots of this racial conflict. As a result, he defended a PhD at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and criticized the Western canon from his own perspective. In the aftermath of the Parisian attacks of 2015, his work became a target of the far right and he moved to New York, where he taught for 4 years at Columbia University before joining Brown University as an Assistant Professor.

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