Eric Fassin 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. He argues that today’s world requires an examination of this phenomenon beyond Cold War geopolitical divisions and highlights a global shift towards authoritarian neoliberalism. His book 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, not only in France, but also in Brazil, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, and the United States, with examples of State racism and the argument of the State against antiracism. The book also considers issues of censorship and cancel culture, concluding with Fassin’s firsthand account of attacks on him from the far-right.
Éric Fassin serves as Professor of Sociology at Université Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis. He taught in the United States from 1989 to 1994, at Brandeis University and NYU. From 1994 to 2012, he was an Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social Sciences at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.
Introduction: Anti-Intellectualism and the Politics of Truth
Chapter 1: Anti-Academic Politics
Introduction 1: Against “gender theory”
Introduction 2: International solidarity
Chapter 2: Censorship and Cancel Culture
Introduction 1: The politics of censorship
Introduction 2: The polemic against "cancel culture"
Chapter 3: The Return of Race
Introduction 1: Racism and the state
Introduction 2: The racial question
Chapter 4: Anti-Racism and the State
Introduction 1: From racism to anti-racism, and back
Introduction 2: The politics of definition
Conclusion: Democracy and the Intersectional Politics of Mourning
Epilogue: In the First Person
Notes
About the author
Index
