In 1960, Paul Goodman argued that the Fordist system that treated people as mere cogs in a machine had created a profound unhappiness in young people and in American society as a whole. More than half a century later, professor David Blacker recognizes that decades of neoliberalism have pushed young people beyond unhappiness and into a collective identity crisis. Overall, Americans no longer feel needed to do jobs that had previously anchored them in society and are becoming disconnected and purposeless. The proliferation of new identities, based not on work but on consumption, is symptomatic of neoliberalism and its hyper-commodification and deregulation of everyday life.

About the Author
David Blacker is Professor of Philosophy of Education and Legal Studies at the University of Delaware. He has given dozens of presentations at academic institutions worldwide, and he was selected by the University of Illinois's Center for Advanced Study for its prestigious campus-wide MillerComm Lecture Series. Blacker is a regular on radio and podcast shows such as, The Majority Report, for which he was selected by listeners as a Best Interview of the Year. He lives in Newark, Delaware.


Book Information
ISBN 9781789040104
Author David J. Blacker
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Zero Books
Publisher Collective Ink