Hyperpolitics - by Anton Jäger (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

What happens when politics is everywhere, yet nothing seems to change? From the abandoned dance floors of Thatcher's London to the mass mobilizations of Black Lives Matter, Anton Jäger traces how pub­lic life has become infused with protest, spectacle, and moral urgency -- while the old infrastructure of parties, unions, and civic solidarity has been hollowed out.

Hyperpolitics revisits the illusions of the "end of history" and dissects the strange energies that replaced them: viral outrage, endless culture wars, and the digital rush of causes that flare and vanish overnight. Jäger shows how the promises of post-Cold War liberalism gave way to a restless, unsteady public sphere where private pas­sions overflow into politics but rarely build enduring power.

Ranging from Guy Debord and Wolfgang Tillmans to Houellebecq's disenchanted fictions, Hyperpolitics makes sense of a world in which collective action remains fragmented and the social fabric thinner than ever. For anyone trying to grasp why our age feels so charged yet so incon­sequential, this book offers a vital map through the new contradictions of our hyperpolitical moment.

Review Quotes

"A sharp and insightful analysis of contemporary political culture"
--Konstatin Sakkas, NZZ am Sonntag

"Everything strains to be political, yet all activism fizzles out. This book explains why."
--Marc Reichwein, Welt am Sonntag

"Hyperpolitics is a very good book... It's very good because you don't need to have joined a party one wild night in 2016 to know that it's true. It's enough to live in the present."
--Nele Pollatschek, Süddeutsche Zeitung

"Hyperpolitics is among the best and most dazzling efforts to model the political present in all its maddening strangeness."
--David Wallace-Wells, The New York Times

"A text to return to again and again. Hyperpolitics is wide-ranging but never stretched, always plausible. Jäger is a rare meeting of an exciting thinker and a graceful writer"
--Nesrine Malik, Guardian

"Both revelatory and invigorating. Anton Jäger's nimble and careful reconstruction of the recent past helps us to answer two very pressing questions: What happened to our politics, and what happened to our minds?"
--Vincent Bevins, author of If We Burn

About the Author