States of Emergency Essays on Culture and Politics [Paperback]

In his latest book, Patrick Brantlinger probes the state of contemporary America. Brantlinger takes aim at neoliberal economists, the Tea Party movement, gun culture, immigration, waste value, surplus people, the war on terror, technological determinism, and globalization. An invigorating return to classic cultural studies with its concern for social justice and challenges to economic orthodoxy, States of Emergency is a delightful mix of journalism, satire, and theory that addresses many of the most pressing issues of our time.

Patrick Brantlingers close reasoning and luminously beautiful prose unite in a brilliant book on the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship that blends cultural studies and social justice. Starting with a detailed and incisive account of the British cultural studies movement as a counter-discourse to conventional capitalist economics, and closing with a hopeful investigation of the alter-globalization movement, Brantlinger presents a rich, interdisciplinary blend of art, politics, history and economics that is a lively and engrossing read. States of Emergency is a stunning capstone achievement by one of our principal scholars in the fields of race and the British Empire.This book is where a lifetime of liberal scholarly study leads one: to revolution. Using his perfect skills as historical archivist, cultural critic, and critical theorist, Brantlinger writes for those insulted and injured by neoliberal economic policies and capitalist modernity in language accessible for action.

Patrick Brantlinger is James Rudy Professor of English (Emeritus) at Indiana University Bloomington. His books include The Reading Lesson: The Threat of Mass Literacy in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction (IUP, 1998); Bread and Circuses: Theories of Mass Culture as Social Decay; Crusoes Footprints: Cultural Studies in Britain and America; Who Killed Shakespeare? Whats Happened to English since the Radical Sixties; and Taming Cannibals: Race and the Victorl“$