239 Book Reviews infused with the new insights drawn from critical theory. The final part argues that anti-capitalism should centre on criticising not specific types of actor – capitalists, bankers, landlords – but the social relations that are expressed in these categories. This argument is illustrated by an unexpected but revealing analysis of antiSemitism and its relation to anti-capitalism. The book concludes that, rather than seeking scapegoats or imaginary futures, we should embrace uncertainty and strive to change our lived experience. Hugo Radice (University of Leeds) On the State: Lectures at the Collège de France 1989–1992 by Pierre Bourdieu. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014. 449pp., £30.00 (h/b), ISBN 9780745663296 On the State is a collection of Pierre Bourdieu’s lectures given at the Collège de France between 1989 and 1992. It is a lattice composed of his texts, commentaries, dialogues and digressions representing a very broad coverage of the state. To review the book is not easy, not simply because it is a collection of lecture notes, but also because of the wide variety of topics on theorising the state and also because of the methodological discussions covered in all the lectures. While criticising the conventional approaches to the state, including Weberian, institutional and particularly Marxist approaches, Bourdieu mainly addresses the ways of analysing the state and suggests an ethno-methodological approach as a way to analyse this ‘unthinkable object’. That is, you have to ask anthropological, ethno-methodological questions together with global questions to have adequate questions on the state (p. 171). The state is primarily a legitimator. Bourdieu modifies the classical definition of the Weberian state ‘as the monopoly of legitimate physical and symbolic violence’ (p. 4). ‘Symbolic’ is one of the key words in the book; it is particularly key to entering Bourdieu’s sophisticated mind. With specific reference to Durkheim, Bourdieu insists on the cultural political aspect of the rise of capitalism (p. 153) and gives priority to symbolic capital in the formation of the state. Symbolic capital is formulated against the reductionist and economistic understanding of Marxism. Although the lectures mention the interdependence between the accumulation of capital and the accumulation of symbolic capital (p. 203), their main objective is to highlight the role of ‘symbolic’ in the unique foundation of the state. With this aim, Bourdieu talks about dynasties, absolute states, feudalism and the modern state under the guidance of genetic structuralism. He gives particular weight to empirical macro-sociology. One of the most significant contributions of the lectures is the emphasis on seeing the state as a mechanism, as a field in itself and also as a junction of sub-fields. The power of the state cannot be sought in the functions it fulfils but in the way it universalises itself and becomes obsequium, (p. 35) a term from Spinoza. This enormous collection of lecture notes could make you feel lost in different countries and different historical periods, but it is successful in sounding very coherent with a very fluent narrative, and it is not distracting for the reader. These lectures certainly present an illuminating and broad content that any social scientist – not necessarily political scientists – should benefit from when reading this book. Ezgi Pinar (Istanbul University) Just War Theory by Thom Brooks (ed.). Leiden: Brill, 2013. 222pp. £85.00 (h/b), ISBN 9789004228504 Just War Theory is a collection of 10 articles from the recently formed Journal of Moral Philosophy, selected and introduced by the journal’s founder and editor, Thom Brooks. (Of the 10 essays, 3 are by the same author: Gerhard Overland of Oslo University.) According to the editor, the essays were selected not on the basis of a unifying theme or ‘single narrative’, but rather to ‘help provide clarifying illumination on central debates and ideas in the field’ (p. 6). The