Acknowledgements
This book has been a long time in the making. My journey with it certainly has not been straight and narrow. It was produced in stays in London, Glasgow, Bochum, Berlin, Mannheim, Rugeley, Birmingham, and Liège. It has seen me transition into fatherhood and marriage, and the book itself, perhaps like me, has undergone changes which render it almost unrecognisable from its earlier form. Bloch’s adage that hope can be disappointed certainly came to define the original PhD thesis from which this book emerged. And, if I were to be honest with myself, the present work, while better approximating the original idea, still carries with it undertones of ‘something’s missing’.
And yet, the journey I’ve gone on with this book has been one that has enriched my life. I have met people, all of whose insight, support, and friendship has made the work better than it would have been without them. Although naturally I am solely responsible for its shortcomings, David Bowie’s line that ‘I never thought I’d need so many people’ rings true here too.
For instance, Johan Siebers’s generosity of spirit was matched by his deep knowledge of the philosophical tradition; I could not have had a better guide. Volker Schneider first taught me to understand Bloch in the German – I still greatly appreciate his and Gordana’s hospitality during my first forays into the Hegel Archive. Ifor Duncan, Jessica Feely, and Daniel Neofetou all acted as excellent partners in discussion. In their own ways, knowingly or not, they helped clarify Bloch for me. And I am indebted to Rainer Zimmermann, who was also very helpful in casting a critical eye on an earlier version of the text.
Thanks should also be given to those involved in this book at Historical Materialism: Cat Moir and Sam Dolbear’s respective reviews helped me to rethink my aims, and Danny Hayward and Simon Mussell helped me to get the work over what often appeared to be an ever receding line.
But most of all I would like to thank Justine and Rauree. They have taught me what it truly means to move with an invariant of direction. Incipit vita nova.