Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  xi
Introduction. Toward a Counter-History of the Present  1
1. A Specter Is Haunting Globalization  11
2. Are We Really Living in a Technological Era?  33
3. What Is the Use of Democracy? Urgency of an Inappropriate Question  51
Afterword. Taking Charge of the Meanings and Direction of History  103
Notes  109
Bibliography  133
Index  143

About the Author

Gabriel Rockhill is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University and the author, editor, and translator of many books, including Jacques Rancière: History, Politics, Aesthetics, also published by Duke University Press, and Interventions in Contemporary Thought: History, Politics, Aesthetics.

Reviews

"A high level polemic attacking the current enthusiasm for the notion of globalization-which Gabriel Rockhill regards as a feature of the political imaginary of our time-Counter-History of the Present will be discussed alongside work by Jameson, Harvey, and Lyotard." -- Andrew Feenberg, author of The Philosophy of Praxis: Marx, Lukacs, and the Frankfurt School "In an era that, according to Lyotard, was supposed to have seen the end of the grand narratives, a grand narrative is spreading according to which globalization, technological development, and democracy are irresistibly marching forward in step. Gabriel Rockhill refutes this apologetic discourse not simply by appealing to growing social polarization, to shantytowns condemned to backwardness, to the toppling of democratically elected governments established by self-styled champions of democracy. Counter-History of the Present is also an occasion for critical reflection on a series of theoretical categories (beginning with that of history) that dominant contemporary thought employs in an apologetic and often Eurocentric sense. In this way, Rockhill's book is thus an important reference point for understanding and transforming the present." -- Domenico Losurdo, author of War and Revolution: Rethinking the Twentieth Century