Junk Politics

Benjamin DeMott
January 2004     ISBN: 156025565X

Junk Politics is defined by a perception that a lack of character, civility and feeling are the root cause of our national woes, not inequality and injustice. Historically great causes, such as the civil rights movement, have been nurtured on the substance of injustice. But as DeMott warns, these and other causes are losing their voice as junk politics gains ascendance. DeMott examines the broad cultural influences and political signals that have stamped the apolitical style of those currently in power, especially in reference to the political culture of post-9/11 America, and he focuses on some of the lesser-known but defining elements of Bush-era anti-politics, rhetoric and action.

"A penetrating analysis of how the fashionable language of 'I feel your pain' empathy and touch-feely personal testimony has supplanted [political] debate."

--Sunday Times (South Africa)

"Benjamin DeMott is probably America's foremost detester of cliches."
--Norman Cousins

"Benjamin DeMott is one of the shrewdest critics of our tragic intellectual snares and delusions."

--Sean Wilentz

"One couldn't ask for a more observant and trenchant cultural critic.... DeMott is an impassioned, combative contrairian with few peers [and] Junk Politics boils over with his anger and contempt.... The book is a necessary call to action."

--San Francisco Chronicle

"A refreshingly impious denunciation of the movement for 'civility' in public life [and] a promising new approach to...Americans' disengagement from democracy."

--Publishers Weekly

Benjamin DeMott is emeritus professor of English at Amherst College and author of many books, including Killer Woman Blues: Why Americans Can't Think Straight About Gender and Power.