Nine Lives of Neoliberalism

Description

Neoliberalism is dead. Again. Yet the philosophy of the free market and the strong state has an uncanny capacity to survive and even thrive in crisis. This volume breaks with the caricature of neoliberalism as a simple belief in market fundamentalism to show how neoliberal thinkers perceived institutions from the family to the university, disagreed over issues from intellectual property rights and human behaviour to social complexity and monetary order, and sought to win consent for their project through new honours, disciples, and networks.

Quinn Slobodian is the author of Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. He teaches History at Wellesley College. Dieter Plehwe is a Research Fellow the Center for Civil Society Research unit of the WZB Social Science Centre Berlin. Philip Mirowski is a Historian and Philosopher of Economic Thought at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. His many previous books include Machine Dreams and More Heat than Light, and he appeared in Adam Curtis's BBC documentary The Trap.

Praise for The Road from Mont Pelerin: The Road from Mont Pelerin reminds us that social movements succeed by drawing in many others who undertake the work that actually drives the movement forward. The book is full of stories of those individuals and related organizations that formed strategies, carried out the logistics and legwork, and brought legislators and others into contact with [Mont Pelerin Society] ideas. In other words, if you work on post-war history of economics, there is almost no reason not to read this book. -- Ross B. Emmett * Journal of the History of Economic Thought * Praise for The Road from Mont Pelerin: The Road from Mont Pelerin is indispensable for anyone wishing to gain an understanding of neoliberalism, whether as an end in itself or as a means for constructing alternative, non-neoliberal futures. -- Daniel Kinderman * Critical Policy Studies * Praise for The Globalists: Conversant in high theory yet grounded in archival research, Slobodian's book represents a step forward in scholarship on neoliberalism. It deserves to be widely read not merely by historians interested in the twentieth century, but by anyone looking for more depth and broader context on the populist uprisings reshaping global relations today. -- Jennifer Burns * American Historical Review * Praise for The Globalists: Slobodian's book is one of the most important of our times, and is essential to understanding both the history of the late twentieth century and the populist moment we inhabit now. -- Matthew McManus * Areo * Praise for The Globalists: The term neoliberalism provokes much choleric denial. But Quinn Slobodian's Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism decisively establishes it as a coherent project, tracing it back to the political and intellectual synergies of the 1920s. -- Pankaj Mishra * Guardian * Praise for The Globalists: [A] magnificent history of neoliberalism.Offers a rich, lucid, and illuminating genealogy of neoliberal theory and practice, from its inception after World War I to the formation of the World Trade Organization. -- Eugene McCarraher * Commonweal * Praise for Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: A powerful critique of neoclassical economics. * Times Higher Education * Praise for Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: It is hard to imagine a historian who was not an economist (as Mirowski is) being able to encompass the economics of the second half of the 20th century in its diversity and technicality. * London Review of Books * Praise for Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: Philip Mirowksi is the most imaginative and provocative writer at work today on the recent history of economics. * Boston Globe * Praise for On Neoliberal Hegemony: A Global Critique The book's central thrust, that the international ideational infrastructure of neoliberalism is indispensable for understanding global neoliberal hegemony, is a compelling argument. Against the backdrop of literatures which emphasize different varieties of capitalism, the neo-Gramscian focus on the unity of the global neoliberal project is refreshing and could be helpful for understanding the growing similarity or convergence of economic policy orientations across states. -- Daniel Kinderman * Millenium *