Introduction: post-concepts in historical perspective – Herman Paul
Part I: The emergence of a prefix (1930s–60s)
1 ‘Our post-Christian age’: historicist-inspired diagnoses of modernity, 1935–70 – Herman Paul
2 The post-secular in post-war American religious history – K. Healan Gaston
3 Defining the old, creating the new: post-ideology and the politics of periodisation – Adriaan van Veldhuizen
4 The death and rebirth of ‘postcapitalist society’ – Howard Brick
Part II: Post rising to prominence (1970s–90s)
5 Post-Keynesian: a rare example of a post-concept in economics – Roger E. Backhouse
6 Lost in the post: (post-)structuralism between France and the United States – Edward Baring
7 The ‘post’ in literary postmodernism: a history – Hans Bertens
8 From political reference to self-narration: ‘postcolonial’ as periodiser – Andrew Sartori
9 The tradition of post-tradition – Stephen Turner
Part III: Contemporary post-constructions (2000s–present)
10 Busting the ‘post’? Postfeminist genealogies in millennial culture – Stéphanie Genz
11 Posthumanism and the ‘posterising impulse’ – Yolande Jansen, Jasmijn Leeuwenkamp and Leire Urricelqui
Epilogue: lessons for future posts – Adriaan van Veldhuizen
Index

Postmodern, postcolonial, postfeminist, and now even post-truth – it seems as if ‘post-concepts’ are everywhere. This, however, has not always been the case. Some exceptions notwithstanding, the habit of interpreting the world in post-terms dates back no further than the 1950s, when a postwar generation tried to make sense of a world full of change.

Post-everything examines why post-Christian, post-industrial, and post-bourgeois were terms that resonated, not only among academics, but also in the popular press. It traces the historical roots of postmodern and poststructuralist, while also subjecting more recent post-constructions (posthumanist, postfeminist) to critical scrutiny.

This volume is unique in approaching these concepts from a historical point of view. Instead of engaging theoretically with post-ideology or post-capitalism, the volume offers historical explanations for their emergence and popularity. It paints vivid portraits of intellectuals (the ‘post boys’, as they were initially called) who brought these concepts into circulation – from German theologians fighting the Nazi regime to literary theorists inviting Jacques Derrida to a conference in the US.

In tracing post-terms through a broad variety of genres and fields, Post-everything illustrates the potential of a broadly conceived history of knowledge, while also contributing, more specifically, to a rapprochement between the history of the humanities and the history of the social sciences.