Professor Hensley publishes new book on the prehistory of the climate crisis

Posted in Announcement News Story  |  Tagged Department of English, Faculty, Faculty Publications

Professor Nathan Hensley has published a new book, Action without Hope: Victorian Literature after Climate Collapse. The book is a “study of how writers from the early phases of our prolonged climate emergency used aesthetic strategies to redefine the category of action.” Hensley says that the book makes the case for strategies of solidarity and connection in the face of vast systems and the feeling that they’re falling apart. Its aim, Hensley says, “is to help explain a contemporary situation where ‘doing something’ feels crucial but it’s hard to know if individual action makes any difference at all.”

The book will be published officially on June 4th by the University of Chicago Press. Hensley adds: “Whatever its flaws, this book could never been written anywhere else than in the Georgetown English Department.” He continues: “I’ve developed these ideas alongside students in classes at Georgetown reaching back many years, from my Intro to Environmental Humanities courses and senior seminars like “Tragic Ecologies” to my Ignatius Seminar called “Thinking in a Changed World.” In this sense the book is a core-sample of humanities education at Georgetown.”