“Much more useful and original than the typical populist interpretation is Slobodian's attempt to reconnect Trumpism as a distorted offshoot of orthodox liberalism... Slobodian’s humorous commentary offers a welcome break from the difficulty and moral repulsion of the subject” - The Washington Post
A revealing exploration of how today's right-wing authoritarianism emerged not in opposition to neoliberalism, but from within it. After the end of the Cold War, neoliberalism, with its faith in the virtues of markets and competition, seemed to have triumphed. Communism had been defeated – and Friedrich Hayek, the intellectual father of neoliberal economics, had nearly witnessed it. But in the decades that followed, Hayek’s disciples knew they had a problem. The rise of social movements, from civil rights and feminism to environmentalism, now proved to be bulwarks against freedom, fostering a culture of dependence on the government, public spending, political correctness, and special recognition. Neoliberals needed an antidote.
In this revelatory new book, historian Quinn Slobodian reveals how, from the 1990s onward, neoliberal thinkers turned to nature, seeking to overturn social changes and return to hierarchies of gender, race, and cultural difference. He explores how these thinkers drew from the language of science, from cognitive psychology to genetics, to embed the idea of “competition” even deeper into social life and defend cultural homogeneity as essential for the proper functioning of markets. By reading and misinterpreting the writings of their sages, Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, they validated their alliances with racial psychologists, neoconservatives, and ethnonationalists who would come to be known as the alt-right. Hayek's Bastards show that many contemporary expressions of the Far Right, from Javier Milei to Donald Trump, emerged not in opposition to neoliberalism, but from within it. As repugnant as their politics may be, these supposed disruptors are not defectors from the neoliberal order, but its most ardent supporters.
Pages: 288, Dimensions: 16x16cm
