
Capitalism and Christianity, American Style
William E. Connolly
Connolly describes how the evangelical-capitalist machine works, how its themes resound across class lines, and how it infiltrates numerous aspects of American life. Proposing changes in sensibility and strategy to challenge this machine, Connolly contends that the liberal distinction between secular public and religious private life must be reworked. Traditional notions of unity or solidarity must be translated into drives to forge provisional assemblages comprised of multiple constituencies and creeds. The left must also learn from the political right how power is infused into everyday institutions such as the media, schools, churches, consumption practices, corporations, and neighborhoods. Connolly explores the potential of a “tragic vision” to contest the current politics of existential resentment and political hubris, explores potential lines of connection between it and theistic faiths that break with the evangelical right, and charts the possibility of forging an “eco-egalitarian” economy. Capitalism and Christianity, American Style is William E. Connolly’s most urgent work to date.
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About William E. Connolly
Reviews for Capitalism and Christianity, American Style
Jason Dittmer
Environment and Planning D
“[T]his is classic William Connolly. It is fresh in theme and consistent in promoting his longstanding commitment to pluralism in this case with a programmatic twist outlining a visible way out of the American crisis of crony capitalism, apocalyptic evangelical doctrines, and environmental degradation.”
Tristan Sturm
Antipode
“This is a book that is a must read for anyone seeking to capture the rhizome of US Empire global capitalism and develop a counter-resonance of heterogeneous sub-discourses that express ‘pluripotentiality’ for a more equalitarian capitalism (p. 25). I would recommend this book as a blueprint for the Obama administration as it sets about the impossible task of disassembling the evangelical-cowboy capitalism resonance machine of vengeance and entitlement that has wrecked havoc on the global economy by its rampant deregulation, imbrication of Church and State, abolishment of civil liberties and using junk science to define global warming as leftist delusion against God’s more divine plan.”
David M. Boje
Critical Discourse Studies
“Written primarily from a political science perspective, Connolly’s identifications of the spiritual and religious dimensions that dominate economic discourse in the United States provides an insightful and rigorous study on topics that will be (and should be, according to [Stuart] Hall) of interest to cultural studies researchers.”
Holly Randell-Moon
Cultural Studies Review