Why am I passionate about this?
I’m a journalist in Edmonton, Canada, who covered former premier Jason Kenney’s rise through Alberta politics, in which he tapped into the populist zeitgeist of Donald Trump and Brexit, and his eventual implosion. I have a newsletter on Substack, "The Orchard," where I cover the intersection of politics, the media, and corporate power. Through my journalism, I’ve developed a keen interest in this age of mass discontent we find ourselves in, with right-wing political and economic elites promising to blow up the entire system they embody while feckless liberal politicians seek to tinker around the edges to make the established order more palatable.
Jeremy's book list on understanding the political moment we’re in
Why did Jeremy love this book?
True to its title, David Harvey provides a succinct yet rigorous outline of the predominant economic ideology of our age—neoliberalism.
Harvey explains how a consensus was forged in the late-1970s in favour of market-based solutions to all social ills, with political parties across the partisan divide accepting, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, that the state no longer has a role to play in providing for its citizens.
He outlines how the rampant individualism and empty social relations ushered in by neoliberalism pave the way for the authoritarianism embodied by neoconservatism, with its emphasis on upholding a traditional moral order — through force if necessary.
2 authors picked A Brief History of Neoliberalism as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Neoliberalism - the doctrine that market exchange is an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action - has become dominant in both thought and practice throughout much of the world since 1970 or so.
Its spread has depended upon a reconstitution of state powers such that privatization, finance, and market processes are emphasized. State interventions in the economy are minimized, while the obligations of the state to provide for the welfare of its citizens are diminished. David Harvey, author of 'The New Imperialism' and 'The Condition of Postmodernity', here tells the political-economic story of…