The “End of History” is over. The idea that Western liberal democracy was the “final form of human government” has been exposed as bluster: the old order is crumbling before our eyes. Angry anti-politics have arisen to threaten political establishments across the world. Elites have fallen into hysteria, blaming voters, “populism”, Putin, Facebook… anyone but themselves. They are suffering from Neoliberal Order Breakdown Syndrome.
Emerging from four years of interviews and debates on the popular global politics podcast Aufhebunga Bunga, The End of the End of History examines how the political consequences of the 2008 financial crisis have come home to roost. If Trump and Brexit shattered the liberal-democratic consensus in 2016, then the global pandemic of 2020 put a final end to the “End of History”. Politics is back, but it’s stranger than ever.
Praise for the book
VINCENT BEVINS, author, The Jakarta Method
It’s been a long time since a text was so useful… a clear, powerful and panoramic analysis of our world at the dawn of the 2020s… and very surprisingly for a theoretically sophisticated work, it’s also a page-turner. A valuable tool for deciphering our very messy political condition.
LEIGH PHILLIPS, journalist and co-author, The People’s Republic of Walmart
Without exaggeration, the best left book I’ve read in years. Everyone on the left must read this, especially amidst the persistent refusal to face up to our many, punishing defeats of the last 20 (40?) years. A genuine marvel of a work of political theory.
CATHERINE LIU, Professor of Film and Media Studies/Visual Studies, UC Irvine
A rare book that gives us a total picture of the recent history of global politics. Despite the darkness of the times, the book will give you a sliver of hope. It’s a page turner as one wonders how the authors will lead us to that tiny ray of light: socialist Enlightenment.
ANGELA NAGLE, author, Kill All Normies
Suddenly we find ourselves thrown into a time of chaos and confusion, breakdown and decline. This short, smart book navigates a terrain of ideological mystification and encourages us to take a sober look at the balance of forces going into this tumultuous period, waking from the boredom of the end of history.
PAOLO GERBAUDO, Director of the Centre for Digital Culture, King’s College London; author, The Digital Party
The Aufhebunga Bunga crew vividly demonstrate that, while neoliberalism’s contradictions are plainly visible, the Left is incapable of responding to a profound crisis of authority. A must-read for all those willing to gaze into the depths of contemporary ideological and cultural wars.
BENJAMIN FONG, Editor, Damage Magazine
Regular listeners of Aufhebunga Bunga – one of the best left podcasts around – will be happy to see some of the ideas developed on the podcast – post-politics, anti-politics, and the eminently useful Neoliberal Order Breakdown Syndrome (NOBS) – formalized in this book. The authors are developing an indispensable orienting theory in conversation with some of the best minds on the Left.
Aufhebunga Bunga 