‘Christoph Schuringa’s A Social History of Analytic Philosophy achieves the impossible: while it follows a clear line of interpretation – analytic philosophy is not politically neutral, it is deeply rooted in capitalist liberalism and its struggle against Leftist engagement -, it develops this line in a vast and complex narrative full of fascinating historical and personal details, from the Cambridge beginnings of analytic thought (Russell, Moore) through the key role of analytic philosophy in McCarthy purges up to how analytic approach was crucial in including anti-colonial and feminist orientations into the liberal frame (Appiah). Schuringa’s book is unputdownable – applied to it, this term is not a cliché but a simple description of its effect on a reader.‘– Slavoj ŽižekIn the English speaking world, self-described ‘analytic philosophy’ has become the predominant method of philosophical inquiry, at least within the majority of university philosophy departments. By some, it is celebrated for it’s exhalting of rigorousness and pursuit ‘the empirical.’ Others find these theoretical claims to be dubious and naieve. Christoph Schuringa, in its brilliantly argued book, A Social History of Analytic Philosophy, argues that the enduring power of analytic philosophy can only be understood by examining its social history. The mode tends to think of itself as concerned with eternal questions, transcending the changing scenes of history. It thinks of itself as apolitical. Schuringa, however, convincingly shows that the opposite is true.The origins of analytic philosophy are in a set of distinct movements, shaped by highly specific sets of political and social forces. Only after the Second World War were these disparate, often dynamic movements joined together to make ‘analytic philosophy’ as we know it. In the climate of McCarthyism, analytic philosophy was robbed of political force.To this day, analytic philosophy is the ideology of the status quo. It may seem arcane and largely removed from the real world, but it is a crucial component in upholding liberalism, through its central role in elite educational institutions. As Schuringa concludes, the apparently increasing friendliness of analytic philosophers to rival approaches in philosophy should be understood as a form of colonization; thanks to its hegemonic status, it reformats all it touches in service of its own imperatives, going so far as to colonize decolonial efforts in the discipline.Christoph Schuringa studied philosophy at King’s College, Cambridge and Birkbeck College, University of London. He has published widely on the history of philosophy and on Marx and Marxism, and is associate professor of philosophy at Northeastern University, London. He is Editor of the Hegel Bulletin, and his writing has appeared in Jacobin, New Left Review, European Journal of Philosophy and elsewhere.He will be joined in conversation with Jonathan Egid, lecturer in Philosophy at SOAS. Jonathan recently completed my PhD at King’s College London on the Ḥatäta Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob and the controversy over its authorship. Beyond the aim of clarifying this intractable debate, and bringing neglected works to a wider audience, Jonathan is interested in thinking about different ways of writing the history of philosophy, in particular what a truly global history of philosophy would look like.