In this original and persuasive book John Roberts overturns conventional understandings of the contradiction between the universal and the particular. He provides a critique of a universalism of limits through a series of reflections on the current crisis of the labour and capital, the formation of political subjectivity, and nationalism and modernity. Looking at, amongst others; Jullien, Slavoj Zizek, Ernesto Laclau, Robert Brandom, Alain Badiou, Maurizio Lazzarato, Nick Hostettler, Vivek Chibber, Karen E. Fields, and Barbara J. Fields, John Roberts proposes to reconceptualize our contemporary political moment in terms of a new antagonism, between two competing universalisms: the positive universalism of divisive inequality (the 'diabolic reason' of disenlightenment) and the negative universalism of unifying equality.

Roberts makes a significant contribution to debates on the current crisis of capitalism, emancipatory politics and universalism. With historical analysis ranging from the radical particularism of the 15th century through to Anders Breivik's 2011 manifesto, this book diagnoses long-standing conservative operations of thought, and lacunas within left and liberal critique.