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Henry Farrell

Professor of international affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS, co-author of Underground Empire, and author of the Programmable Mutter newsletter.

7 things

The Singer of TalesBook Albert B. Lord

loved

That question is explored in another extraordinary book, Albert B. Lord’s The Singer of Tales

Farrell reads LLMs through the oral-formulaic theory of epic poetry.

2025-12-01·programmablemutter.com ↗

The Concept of RepresentationBook Hanna Pitkin

loved

But they are in part supported by one of the great books of modern political theory, Hanna Pitkin’s The Concept of Representation

Farrell argues the AI-and-democracy debate ignores what representation actually does.

2025-08-05·programmablemutter.com ↗

AegyptBook John Crowley

loved

Crowley is one of the great unrecognized novelists of our time, and his Aegypt novel sequence seems exactly on point for the strange days we live in.

A republished essay on Vico, Crowley's Ægypt sequence and the idea of a coming transformation.

2025-06-20·programmablemutter.com ↗

Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World EconomyBook Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman

recommendedtheir own

Nor do I do many promotional emails (this is the first in nearly a year), but if you want to provide some indirect support, and get what I sincerely think to be a very good book while you’re at it

Farrell tells readers his own co-authored book is on sale, stating up front that his judgment of it is biased.

2025-05-24·programmablemutter.com ↗

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