Leviathan’s Revenge is a deep dive into Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan but, more than that, is an exploration of intellectual history and emergent patterns of sociopolitical thought as manifested in the present moment.
The course is taught by Professor Farid Azfar, an Early Modern European historian whose teaching and research takes him to the intersections of Atlantic history, the history of ideas, the history of sexuality and urban history.
We begin with an analysis of the frontispiece (pictured below) after reading chapters 1-3 of Charles Mills The Racial Contract and Albert Hirschman’s The Passions and the Interests. From this image alone, we concluded that Leviathan must include, among other things, discussion on the tensions between church and state as ruling bodies, commentary on war, and reflection on the power.
The experience of Leviathan Book 1 was informed by our previous readings and our impressions of the frontispiece. In class, we produced drawings and diagrams (pictured below) that captured our initial understanding of Hobbes’s Leviathan figure.
