Hayek's Bastards

""Bracingly original. . . . Hayek’s Bastards demonstrates how a history of ideas can be riveting. Slobodian grounds intellectual abstractions in the lives of the people who espoused them. . . . Slobodian’s book offers an illuminating history to our current bewildering moment.""---Jennifer Szalai, New York Times ""Indispensable. . . . Entertaining. Slobodian’s wry commentary offers welcome respite from both the difficulty and the moral odiousness of his subject.""---Becca Rothfeld, Washington Post ""With real empirical depth and analytical subtlety, Hayek’s Bastards traces the origins of today’s far-right to a split within neoliberalism, and a ‘new fusionism’ of liberal economy and hard-hereditarian ‘race science’ — and all is made clear. One of the sharpest guides to the new reaction, it also casts light on the seemingly contradictory formation of libertarian-authoritarianism, of free trade and closed borders, and of an extreme monetary populism that is also extremely deferential to the wealthy. "" * Richard Seymour * ""Quinn Slobodian has established himself as one of the sharpest intellectual historians of neoliberalism.""---Bartolomeo Sala, Jacobin ""Fascinating. . . . Slobodian’s book draws our attention to what might appear an astonishing fact. . . that it has proven very easy to support capitalism while being hostile to other fundamental liberal liberties.""---Matt McManus, Illiberalism ""Slobodian’s thesis is novel: he suggests that what is unfolding in Washington is the culmination of a strategic shift by neoliberal planners to achieve more populist support for their particular cause. . . . One of Slobodian’s key achievements. . . is in showing that the entire weight of the extraordinarily successful neoliberal project rests on a foundation of pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo.""---Dave Vetter, The Climate Laundry ""Slobodian marshals impressive archival research. . . . dazzling. ""---Aris Roussinos, Unherd