Nihilistic Times

Distinguished political theorist Wendy Brown revisits Webers lectures, struck by the resonance between our present moment and the plight of Webers audience. Universities are menaced by political and economic forces, as corrupt but charismatic demagogues reshape the social sphere. Can Webers stringent inspiration be a guide? -- Kieran Setiya * Los Angeles Review of Books * What makes Browns book especially well worth reading is her impressive ability to show how key themes in Webers scholarshipincluding his emphasis on the defining characteristics of modernity, including disenchantment, rationalization, bureaucracy, efficiency, predictability, calculability and control and on subjective meaningspeak to our own time. -- Steven Mintz * Inside Higher Ed * For Brown, scholarship and teaching are callings in the Weberian sense to the extent that they demand a range of renunciations (of political propagandizing, moral preaching, and practical payoff), but she departs from Weber in her far more optimistic assessment of scholarships role in developing an informed, politically engaged citizenry. -- Len Gutkin * Chronicle of Higher Education * Presses us to think more carefully and imaginatively about the relationships among human freedom, human value, and something beyond purely human concerns, be it truth, God, or Gaia. -- Maeve Cook * Commonweal * Worth readingA timely reminder of the nihilistic air we breathe. Its easy to lose sight of this situation, especially if were caught up in defending some particular worldview or policy proposal. A well-crafted reminder of fundamental features of the contemporary human condition is always beneficial. -- Mark K. Spencer * Law & Liberty * In recent years, Brown has been best known for her critical analysis of neoliberal rationality and the way it has weakened resources for political actionWhat she finds most valuable in Webers ethos, not least in its implications both for the left and for the academy, is the willingness to face uncomfortable truths without lapsing into wishful thinking or despair. -- William Davies * London Review of Books * An exquisite meditation on Max Webers classic lectures on knowledge and politics as vocations. -- Samuel Moyn * Critical Inquiry * Elegantly and concisely writtenthis insightful, thought-provoking book illuminates some objective culture factors contributing to the social division and degradation of public life in many democracies today. -- Don Schweitzer * Critical Theology * [Nihilistic Times] is a passionate book about passion. It falls into what is now a long post-Weberian tradition of works seeking a transformative solution to the apparently irresolvable dilemmas and conflicts of the moment in the form of a spiritual revolution. -- Stephen Turner * Society * In Nihilistic Times, the most important political theorist of her generation models how to think with someone else. Through a spirited engagement with Max Weber, Wendy Brown confronts the challenge of creating meaning in a disturbed age. To read this book is to rediscover what the real work of higher education is. -- Kathryn Lofton, author of <i>Consuming Religion</i> Drawing inspiration from Max Weber, as well as Friedrich Nietzsche, Wendy Brown boldly and incisively argues that nihilism underpins our current social, economic, and political crises. Brown is one of the most original political theorists writing today, and her analytically astute engagement with Webers Vocation Lectures is essential reading for everyone who harbors hope for a democratic repair of the world. -- Robert Gooding-Williams, author of <i>In the Shadow of Du Bois</i> In two luminous essays, Wendy Brown rereads Max Webers two iconic Vocation Lectures from a century ago. Retooling Webers attacks on nihilistic politics and nihilistic science, Brown helps us understandand resistcurrent nihilisms, like techno-rationalism and demagoguery.

Wendy Brown is UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study and was for many years Class of 1936 First Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her books, which have been translated into more than twenty languages, include In the Ruins of Neoliberalism, States of Injury, Undoing the Demos, and Walled States, Waning Sovereignty.