Synopses & Reviews
We"ve now all heard about the shocking redistribution of wealth to the rich that"s occurred during the last thirty years, and particularly during the last decade. But economic changes like this don"t occur in a vacuum; they"re always linked to politics, to ideas about things like the proper role of government, what is natural and unnatural, good and bad, and what we imagine for our country and ourselves.
The Twilight of Equality searches out these links through an analysis of the politics of the 1990s, the decade when neoliberalism free market economics became gospel. Through a series of political case studies, Duggan shows how neoliberal goals have been pursued through racial codes, populist campaigns, culture wars, and sex panics-demonstrating conclusively that progressive arguments that separate identity politics and economic policy, cultural politics and affairs of state, can only fail.
This is a book for intellectuals and activists, gay and straight, interested in how the highly successful rhetorical maneuvers of neoliberalism have functioned and seeking a way to revitalize and unify progressive politics in the U.S. today.
Review
'"In writing this superb book, Lisa Duggan has done a great service to every thinking person in America. She reveals just how much the far-reaching neoliberal revolution has been advanced, at every step of the way, through insidious appeals to race, gender, and sexuality, and warns us that efforts to resist it on strictly economic grounds will fail on all fronts." -Andrew Ross, author of The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney\'s New Town'
Review
-Andrew Ross, author of The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney's New Town
Review
"Revolution anyone? Finally, a cogent and hard-hitting attack on the cultural politics of neo-liberalism. Lisa Duggan gives us a razor-sharp analysis of the tactics of neo-liberalism and its effect upon oppositional social movements and she provides a visionary account of the task ahead. As neo-liberal rhetoric seeps into even the most avowedly oppositional discourses, the opportunities for real equality dwindle dramatically. We need Duggan's book, now more than ever, to point the way to new progressive politics, real social justice and a revitalized public intellectual sphere." -Judith Halberstam, author of Female Masculinity
"Duggan trains her formidable intellectual powers on the most urgent--and nettlesome--dilemma facing the American left: how to make identity politics and struggles for economic justice so entwined that they enhance, rather than compete with, each other. Moving gracefully back and forth between the global and the local, Duggan shows how a progressive future will never arrive until the insight, energy, and political passion of contemporary identity movements are no longer seen as distractions from the effort to build a democratic and egalitarian world order. Brava!" -John D'Emilio, co-author of Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America
In writing this superb book, Lisa Duggan has done a great service to every thinking person in America. She reveals just how much the far-reaching neoliberal revolution has been advanced, at every step of the way, through insidious appeals to race, gender, and sexuality, and warns us that efforts to resist it on strictly economic grounds will fail on all fronts.” -Andrew Ross, author of The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney's New Town
Synopsis
An analysis of the political and cultural agendas that have underpinned the success of neoliberalism. This is a book for intellecturals and activists interested in how neoliberalism has functioned to increase global inequality and seeking a way to revitalize progressive politics in the U.S. today.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. [100]-102) and index.