States of Emergency: Essays on Culture and Politics

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 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; Crusoe’s Footprints: Cultural Studies in Britain and America; Who Killed Shakespeare? What’s Happened to English since the Radical Sixties; and Taming Cannibals: Race and the Victorians. Reviews: “This invigorating mix of journalism, satire, and theory addresses many of the most pressing issues of our time including the Tea Party movement, gun culture, immigration, the war on terror, technological determinism, and globalization.” “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.” — Regenia Gagnier, author of Individualism, Decadence and Globalization: On the Relationship of Part to Whole “A good read, as can be expected from this author. The themes are pertinent, the treatments are well-researched, the judgment is balanced, the style is sober. While the essays are wide ranging, the contents cohere by virtue of Brantlinger’s moral passion.” — Jan Nederveen Pieterse, author of Is There Hope for Uncle Sam? and Globalization and Culture “Patrick Brantlinger’s 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.” — Alan Wald, author of American Night: The Literary Left in the Era of the Cold War “Deeply researched (with full footnotes and bibliography), carefully thought out, and eloquently argued, [States of Emergency] offer[s] a refreshing relief from the babble of mainstream social and political commentary, and a source of hopeful vision against the varied voices of apocalypse.” — The Ryder