The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order

Books

"The word 'neoliberal' is often used to condemn a broad swath of policies thought to valorize the use of illegitimate power abroad or prize free market principles over people. Yet, as Gerstle argues in this major new history, these negative uses fail to reckon with the full contours of what neoliberalism was and why its worldview exerted such persuasive hold on both the left and right for three decades. First articulated under Reagan, facilitated under Clinton, and stretched to its breaking point under George W. Bush, the American neoliberal order fused ideas of deregulation with personal freedoms, open borders with cosmopolitanism, and globalization with the promise of increased prosperity for all. The impact of its emancipatory spirit was both global and intimate: giving shape to foreign policy first toward the Soviet Union and later the Middle East, while also animating deeply personal ideas of identity and the determination of selfhood. Tracing the rise of this worldview from the ashes of the New ...