
Tainted tools
New materialisms as a decolonial project
Angela Last(Author)
Manchester University Press
Will be published approx. on 9. June 2026
Book
Hardback
246 pages
978-1-5261-4425-6 (ISBN)
Description
Tainted Tools offers a provocative intervention into the tense relationship between new materialist and decolonial thought. Although both seek to challenge dominant European categories and hierarchies, they are often treated as incompatible. New materialisms, in particular, have been criticised for sustaining a white, universalised vision of the human and overlooking the racialised histories embedded in the "nonhuman." The book traces these tensions to an earlier encounter between new materialist and decolonial projects forged through experimental combinations of Marx and Nietzsche. Once used to counter fascism, Stalinism and colonialism, this politically charged fusion gradually became depoliticised, leaving unresolved contradictions. Rather than reviving these early formations, the book brings their strategies into dialogue with contemporary new materialist and decolonial approaches to build greater theoretical solidarity in times of crisis. -- .
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Manchester
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
434 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5261-4425-6 (9781526144256)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
06/2026
Manchester University Press
€124.99
Available for download
Person
Angela Last is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Leicester. -- .
Content
Introduction
1 Emergency materialisms
2 Spiritualising the Common
3 Confronting Nothing
4 Have we ever been 'social'?
Openings: Towards theoretical (and practical) solidarity -- .
1 Emergency materialisms
2 Spiritualising the Common
3 Confronting Nothing
4 Have we ever been 'social'?
Openings: Towards theoretical (and practical) solidarity -- .