Name: Book Launch: "IMPASSE" by Roy Scranton
Start: 2025-09-26T14:30:00-04:00
End: 2025-09-26T16:00:00-04:00

Flyer for Roy Scranton's book launch at the University of Notre Dame. Scranton, wearing glasses and a gray jacket, is shown against a teal and dark green background. Event details for the launch of "Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress" are provided, including date, time, and location in DeBartolo Hall. The book cover is also displayed.

The English Department invites you to the book launch of Roy Scranton's IMPASSE (Stanford University Press, 2025). This event will consist of a panel and discussion featuring Robert Goulding (Program of Liberal Studies), Brad Gregory (Department of History), Francisco Robles (Department of English), and Emma Planinc (Program of Liberal Studies/Department of Political Science).

Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore will be on site with copies of the author's books available for purchase.

PRAISE FOR IMPASSE

"Impasse is far-reaching, compelling, and daringly pessimistic. It confronts what we don't know about the future with unusual honesty and clarity."
—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

"The Holocene is over, and with it many of the stories we have told ourselves about agency, the enlightenment, progress, and even the nature of civilization. So argues Roy Scranton in his powerful new book, Impasse. Standing firmly against the dominant American social position that we must be optimistic—we must 'remain hopeful—' Scranton argues that an objective pessimism may just be our best tool for addressing and moving forward in the climate crisis. A powerful and provocative work."
—Naomi Oreskes, author of The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market

"Roy Scranton brings enormous erudition and a great deal of philosophical sophistication to bear on some of the knottiest aspects of our accelerating planetary crisis. In this stark and unflinching book, he shows that the global elite's reliance on technological fixes and economic growth only produces misleading and dangerous delusions. He argues instead that it is necessary at this juncture to embrace a new kind of realism—an 'ethical pessimism' that acknowledges human limitations and the fragility of our world."
—Amitav Ghosh, author of The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis

"Scranton's work is imaginative, intelligent, courageous, and honest in a rare way, and Impasse is a well-researched and, in some ways, even inspiring exploration of pessimism. Even those disagreeing with Scranton's argument will come away enriched."
—Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of The Climate of History in a Planetary Age

Roy Scranton is the author of several books, including Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, Total Mobilization: World War II and American Literature, and the novel War Porn. A 2024 Guggenheim Fellow, Scranton teaches at the University of Notre Dame, where he directs the Environmental Humanities Initiative. His most recent book is Impasse: Climate Change and the Limits of Progress.

Co-sponsors

Department of English

Originally published at english.nd.edu.