Everything, All the Time, Everywhere: How We Became Postmodern

Description

Post-Modernity is the creative destruction that has shattered our present times into fragments. It dynamited modernism which had dominated the western world for most of the 20th century. Post-modernism stood for everything modernism rejected: fun, exuberance, irresponsibility. But beneath its glitzy surface, post-modernism had a dirty secret: it was the fig leaf for a rapacious new kind of capitalism. It was alsoseemsthe forcing ground of the 'post truth', by means of which western values got turned upside down. But where do these ideas come from and how have they impacted on the world? In his brilliant history of a dangerous idea, Stuart Jeffries tells a narrative that starts in the early 1970s and continue to today. He tells this history through a riotous gallery that includes, amongst others: David Bowie * the Ipod * Frederic Jameson * the demolition of Pruit-Igoe * Madonna * Post-Fordism * Jeff Koon's 'Rabbit' * Deleuze and Guattari * the Nixon Shock * The Bowery series * Judith Butler * Las Vegas * Margaret Thatcher * Grand Master Flash * I Love Dick * the RAND Corporation * the Sex Pistols *Princess Diana * the Musee D'Orsay * Grand Theft Auto* Perry Anderson * Netflix * 9/11 We are today scarcely capable of conceiving politics as a communal activity because we have become habituated to being consumers rather than citizens. Politicians treat us as consumers to whom they must deliver. Can we do anything else than suffer from buyer's remorse?

Stuart Jeffries is a Journalist and Author. He was for many years on the staff of the Guardian, working as subeditor, TV critic, Friday Review editor and Paris correspondent. He now works as a freelance writer, mostly for the Guardian, Spectator, Financial Times and the London Review of Books. He has written two books Mrs Slocombe's Pussy and Grand Hotel Abyss.

Marvellously entertaining, exciting and informative. -- John Banville * Guardian Books of the Year [For Grand Hotel Abyss] * This seemingly daunting book turned out to be an exhilarating page-turner.Grand Hotel Abyss is an outstanding critical introduction to some of the most fertile, and still relevant, thinkers of the 20th century. -- Michael Dirda * Washington Post [For Grand Hotel Abyss] * Attempts something rather daring . An easily accessible, funny history of one of the more formidable intellectual movements of the 20th century . an easy, witty, pacy read -- Owen Hatherley * [for Grand Hotel Abyss] * Throughout the book, Jeffries demonstrates that he is comfortable and conversant with the often thorny philosophical ideas of his subjects. A rich, intellectually meaty history. * Kirkus [for Grand Hotel Abyss] * Stuart Jeffries has produced a compelling and politically pressing group portrait of the philosophers associated with the Frankfurt School. Their thinking has never seemed less forbidding and more inspiring -- Matthew Beaumont * [for Grand Hotel Abyss] * An engaging and accessible history of the lives and main ideas of the leading thinkers of the Frankfurt School * New York Review of Books [for Grand Hotel Abyss] * Erudite and entertaining ... Everything, All the Time, Everywhere is a detailed and convincing horror story of the amalgamation of the two most dominant intellectual paradigms of the past half century. -- Ryne Clos * Spectrum Culture * Jeffries is a rarity: a journalist with a serious interest in cultural theory ... who writes about it in a way that is both scholarly and welcoming to non-theorists ... entertaining and astute -- Joe Moran * Times Literary Supplement * In holding a mirror to a familiar world, Everything looks to reveal hidden complexities ... eminently readable, without eliding the difficulties that are so key to its intrigue -- Daniel Baksi * The Arts Desk * Splendidly readable ... Jeffries packs a remarkable knowledge of postmodern culture into these pages -- Terry Eagleton * Guardian * Intriguing -- William Davies * New Statesman * Everything, All the Time, Everywhere finds Stuart Jeffries examining simply and engagingly how a loss of values and critical thought has led to our 'post-truth', irrational world. * Choice Magazine * A lively, sparky book -- Michael Rosen * BBC Front Row * Not only instructive; [Everything, All the Time, Everywhere] is a pleasurable read ... brilliant and entertaining -- Lisa Downing * Financial Times * Engaging and richly detailed -- Christopher McMichael * New Frame * Astute -- D.L. Dusenbury * Spectator * Everything, All the Time, Everywhere is a book replete with philosophical, social, and political references and its range of material is truly impressive. -- Sean Sheehan * popmatters * Pertinent ... on class, and capital, [Jeffries] is good. -- Scotsman * Stuart Kelly * Stuart Jeffries' animated and witty approach in Everything, All the Time, Everywhere is an exhilarating and even intoxicating look at the shambles the relationship between postmodernism and neoliberal capitalism has created. -- Ron Jacobs * Counterpunch *