Smash the Pillars - (Decolonial Options for the Social Sciences) by Melissa F Weiner & Antonio Carmona Báez (Paperback)

About the Book

Smash the Pillars explores the efforts by scholars and activists to decolonize Dutch history and memory and resist the physical, epistemological, and psychological violence imposed by the Dutch state, its institutions, and dominant narratives.

Book Synopsis

Smash the Pillars builds on the efforts by scholars and activists to decolonize Dutch history and memory, as they resist the epistemological violence imposed by the state, its institutions, and dominant narratives. Contributions offer an unparalleled glimpse into decolonial activism in the Dutch kingdom and provide us with a new lens to view contemporary decolonial efforts. The book argues that to fully decolonize Dutch society, the current social organization in the Kingdom of the Netherlands relying on separate pillars for each religious and/or racial group, must be dismantled.

Review Quotes

For too long the Netherlands has been considered an innocent and benevolent country, without apparently a significant colonial past or a racist present. This volume not only completely shatters this illusion, but also demonstrates the significance of multiple contemporary efforts to critically engage and decolonize Dutch society, culture, and political life. The impressive theoretical breadth of the text makes it an essential one not only for Dutch and European Studies, but also for decolonial thinking, the study of social movements, the study of Caribbean and African diasporas, and for the critical engagement with race, racism, and other forms of dehumanization in the contemporary world. In short, this text places Dutch anti-racist and decolonial activism at the forefront of debates and scholarship on decoloniality today.

Smash the Pillars is a wonderfully curated collection that shakes the very roots of contemporary Dutch colonial practice. A stellar group of contributors present powerful personal, political, and theoretical accounts of antiracist activism and analysis. This book is a 'must read' for anyone interested in antiracism and decoloniality.

This book enacts its political commitments in its own methodology, bringing together more practice-based contributions with more theoretically-oriented contributions. This juxtaposition enriches both conversations and serves as an example of how theory can be lived beyond the university, as well as how scholarship can take up an ethical and political commitment.

This is a tour de force in Decolonial Studies. The myth of Dutch tolerance is demolished. Dutch political complicity with racial/colonial domination is very well analyzed and made explicit in this book. A must to read!

About the Author

Melissa F. Weiner is associate professor of sociology at The College of the Holy Cross.
Antonio Carmona Báez is president of the University of St. Martin, at Philipsburg, Sint Maarten.