Description
Book SynopsisThe Dead Center takes an acerbic and often ribald eye to contemporary politics, particularly those of mainstream liberals in the United States. Combining engaging polemic and serious intellectual analysis, it offers a timely portrait of a political landscape sullied by an already ineffectual Biden administration, the marginalization of forces around Bernie Sanders and the ominous shadow of Donald Trump in the wings.
In these pages Jacobin staff writer Luke Savage exposes the hollowness and futility of the liberal project in the 21st century, offering searing critiques of some of its leading figures, notably Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau, and touching on topics that extend over the milquetoast politics of the Biden presidency, Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing, the monopolists of Silicon Valley, and the worst excesses of cable news punditry. Always deeply informed, often on the basis of direct personal experience, Savage’s book also explores the recent trajectory of younger people away from the liberal mainstream and towards the socialist left.
Trade Review“If you have appreciated Luke Savage's work… as much as I have, then you must pick up a copy of this book. Luke brings a smart, informed, critical perspective to bear on the crisis of American democratic life and the continuing class war from above against the democratic achievements of generations.”
— Harvey J. Kaye, Professor Emeritus of Democracy & Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay and author of Thomas Paine and the Promise of America
“Sardonic and hilarious, The Dead Center contains some of the best political, media, and cultural criticism I’ve read in some time. It’s clear-eyed about the immensely powerful forces working against progress and the working-class. It left me feeling both angrier about liberalism’s failures and more hopeful. This is a book that understands the past, present, and future of left politics as well as any I’ve read.”
— Alex Shephard, The New Republic
“Luke Savage is one of the contemporary left’s finest writers and one of liberalism’s most astute and merciless critics. These qualities converge in The Dead Center, which catalogues twenty-first century liberalism’s worst embarrassments and darkest betrayals. This entertaining and timely book will unsettle political moderates — and, more importantly, provide ample reinforcement for a rising generation of leftists intent on challenging them.”
— Meagan Day, Associate Editor, Jacobin
“Liberalism, we know, is in crisis, and few people are better at dissecting the tensions of contemporary liberalism than Luke Savage… Savage illuminates the contradictions and blindspots that have made modern liberalism so ill-suited to solving the problems that bedevil the present moment. A must-read for anyone of any ideological persuasion interested in better understanding our age and its pathologies.”
— Daniel Bessner, Joff Hanauer Honors Associate Professor, University of Washington
“Everyone should read this book. Luke Savage is a perceptive thinker and a lively and entertaining writer, and skewering centrist liberalism is what he does best. The socialist left is lucky to have him.”
— Ben Burgis, author of Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters
“It’s more than a little infuriating that one of the most clear-eyed and insightful writers on American politics is Canadian, but I suppose that’s just a sign of the times we live in.”
— Josh Olson, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, co-host of The West Wing Thing
Table of Contents Introduction: The Dead Center
A Note to the Reader
Part I: Salvos
Liberalism in Theory and Practice
Why Liberals Pretend They Have No Power
David Brooks’ Capitalist Fatalism
What Canada Can Teach Us About Liberals Everywhere
Part II: Bipartisan Bromides
The Curse of Bipartisanship
Liberalism’s Veil of Ignorance
2004 Redux
How Liberals Fell in Love with The West Wing
The Never Trump Delusion
Part III: Dramatis Personae
The Fraudulent Universalism of Barack Obama—co-authored with Nathan J. Robinson
Justin Trudeau and the Politics of Spectacle
Fear and LARPing on the Campaign Trail
Farewell to Betomania
Why The Pundit Class Loves Amy Klobuchar|
Variations in B-Flat Minor
Keir Starmer and the Genealogy of Centrist Non-Belief
Joe Biden Is Not a Radical
Part IV: On the Media
Manufacturing Consent, One Chyron at a Time
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Chris Matthews
All the President’s Tweets
Erasing the Working Class
James Carville Will Never Stop Being Wrong
The Progressive Era That Wasn’t
Part V: All That’s Solid…
Savory Snacks for Social Justice
The British Monarchy Will Not Survive Late Capitalism
Barons of the Valley
From New Deal to Nudge
Neoliberalism? Never Heard of It.
Acknowledgements
Endnotes
About the Author
