The State of Anti-Intellectualism

This book examines the trend of State anti-intellectualism in France using the nation as a case study to demonstrate that this tendency is not limited to ostensibly illiberal regimes. The text argues that the world we are in today requires examining this phenomenon beyond Cold War geopolitical divisions. The book highlights the global shift towards authoritarian neoliberalism. Further, it is a plea for the political urgency of intellectual work in a global moment of political anti-intellectualism.
The book covers the period from President Sarkozy to Prime Minister Valls and includes both firsthand and public cases of attacks against academics in Brazil, France, Hungary, Russia, Turkey and the United States; examples of State Racism and the argument of the State against Antiracism. The book considers issues of censorship and cancel culture, concluding with firsthand accounts of attacks on the author from the far-right, which further grounds the work, presenting more than abstract concepts to the reader.