Nihilistic Times

Distinguished political theorist Wendy Brown revisits Weber’s lectures, struck by the resonance between our present moment and the plight of Weber’s audience. Universities are menaced by political and economic forces, as corrupt but charismatic demagogues reshape the social sphere. Can Weber’s stringent inspiration be a guide? -- Kieran Setiya * Los Angeles Review of Books *
What makes Brown’s book especially well worth reading is her impressive ability to show how key themes in Weber’s scholarship—including his emphasis on the defining characteristics of modernity, including disenchantment, rationalization, bureaucracy, efficiency, predictability, calculability and control and on subjective meaning—speak 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 scholarship’s 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 reading…A timely reminder of the nihilistic air we breathe. It’s easy to lose sight of this situation, especially if we’re 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 action…What she finds most valuable in Weber’s 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 Weber’s classic lectures on knowledge and politics as vocations. -- Samuel Moyn * Critical Inquiry *
Elegantly and concisely written…this 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 Consuming Religion
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 Weber’s Vocation Lectures is essential reading for everyone who harbors hope for a democratic repair of the world. -- Robert Gooding-Williams, author of In the Shadow of Du Bois
In two luminous essays, Wendy Brown rereads Max Weber’s two iconic Vocation Lectures from a century ago. Retooling Weber’s attacks on nihilistic politics and nihilistic science, Brown helps us understand—and resist—current nihilisms, like techno-rationalism and demagoguery. She gives us back what should be our highest political value: the shared act of creating values, in a feeling–thinking way. -- Paul North, author of Bizarre-Privileged Items in the Universe
In Max Weber, Wendy Brown finds an unexpected ally and a surprising contemporary who gives her the key to a post-nihilist strategy. It is the only chance we have of restoring meaning to politics, namely by shaping the world democratically and regaining control without destroying the world and our very sense of what is real. Both a masterful interpretation of Weber and a most urgent, necessary intervention in political discourse, Brown's book leads us to a new Weber for the left and a way out of what she calls our present-day ‘pre-apocalyptic survivalism.' A most exciting book that will change how we understand our disturbing times. -- Rahel Jaeggi, author of Critique of Forms of Life