DISPATCHES FROM AN APOCALYPSE: ESSAYS ON POLITICAL CULTURE IN THE LATE UNITED STATES

Written from within and about a moment in which crises are spilling over and the texture of living appears haunted by an excess of devastating political failures, Dispatches from an Apocalypse: Essays on Political Culture in the Late United States explores how the constellation of cultural feelings and experiences that gather under the sign of “apocalypse” only make sense as integral parts of a larger struggle between various formations of capital to scavenge the scraps of the modern world. Inspired by the work of Ernesto de Martino and in coordination with the political intellectual project of cultural studies, Wood explores the meanings and significance of the idea of apocalypse not simply as a term for the “end of the world,” but as a cultural form that demands to be taken seriously as both the primary discourse and affective engine of the political sensorium. Engaging theory alongside material from the arenas of popular and vernacular culture—from apocalyptic fiction and Supreme Court rulings to scenes of protest and Donald Trump’s tweets—Dispatches aims to take the measure of an apocalypse in progress, exploring how political practices of contestation are imagined and expressed in the context of a nation’s undoing.