1st Edition
Terror of Neoliberalism Authoritarianism and the Eclipse of Democracy
This book argues that neoliberalism is not simply an economic theory but also a set of values, ideologies, and practices that works more like a cultural field that is not only refiguring political and economic power, but eliminating the very categories of the social and political as essential elements of democratic life. Neoliberalism has become the most dangerous ideology of our time. Collapsing the link between corporate power and the state, neoliberalism is putting into place the conditions for a new kind of authoritarianism in which large sections of the population are increasingly denied the symbolic and economic capital necessary for engaged citizenship. Moreover, as corporate power gains a stranglehold on the media, the educational conditions necessary for a democracy are undermined as politics is reduced to a spectacle, essentially both depoliticizing politics and privatizing culture. This series addresses the relationship among culture, power, politics, and democratic struggles. Focusing on how culture offers opportunities that may expand and deepen the prospects for an inclusive democracy, it draws from struggles over the media, youth, political economy, workers, race, feminism, and more, highlighting how each offers a site of both resistance and transformation.
Biography
Henry A. Giroux
“Against the Terror of Neoliberalism showcases why Henry A. Giroux is one of the most important and influential thinkers on the cultural left. … [He] critiques the present of politics, as always, eloquently and yet clearly and pointedly, with theoretical sophistication, acute insights into the structures in which power operates, a careful reading of its contemporary manifestations as well as its historical roots, and an in-depth grasp of current academic debates. … Against the Terror of Neoliberalism makes an incontrovertible demonstration of the ways that education is at the center of both how the forces of oppression gain ascendance and how the forces of dissent need to think [about] the future of opposition.”
—Robin Truth Goodman, Florida State University, in Symploke
“At the core of Henry Giroux’s latest, and perhaps most incisive, encompassing and challenging book, Against the Terror of Neoliberalism, are urgent questions and concerns about youth, education, responsibility, the future, and democracy, all rigorously examined and captured brilliantly. … [The book] should be obligatory reading across the spectrum of US education, from high schools and schools of education, to cultural studies, political science, union halls, military barracks, and departments of communications. Giroux thinks and writes with an unrelenting urgency, rigor, and clarity that provides us with critical tools for thinking hard about the world.”
—Scott D. Morris in Dissident Voice
“Henry Giroux has done it again! Against a fastball from Wall Street, the World Bank and the IMF, and the ideologues and practitioners of free market fundamentalism, he smashes a home run. Giroux surgically and decisively dissects the contradictions and the brutal inhumanity and injustice of the ‘free market.’ He also provides the outlines for a roadmap to get out of this living hell.”
—Robert W. McChesney, author, The Problem of the Media
