How did the idea that choice and freedom are synonymous come to shape culture and politics across the globe? In The Age of Choice, historian Sophia Rosenfeld investigates the complex history of choice by treating the eighteenth century as a jumping-off point for her kaleidoscopic history of the concept. Moving from the history of literature to the history of politics, Rosenfeld asks how choice became so central to the way we think about the world.

Despite rising to unquestioned prominence today, the idea of choice has long had its critics on both the Left and the Right. In an interview with Jacobin, Rosenfeld explains this complex history.