Quinn Slobodian is a specialist in the history of neoliberalism and a professor of global economic and political history at Boston University. He notably published Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism (Seuil, 2022).

If we take a quick look at a world map, we’ll see a patchwork of nation-states, clear and familiar. But what if our reality were something else entirely? Globalization has disrupted the world order, leading to a proliferation of new entities: tax havens, free ports, city-states, closed enclaves, and special economic zones. These new spaces, freed from ordinary forms of regulation, taxation, and mutual obligations, puncture the map of countries. Here, the fanatics of ultra-capitalism escape the power of governments and democratic control.

This is the world, made up of holes, rough edges, and gray zones, that Quinn Slobodian describes, tracing the footsteps of the most notorious radical libertarians—from Milton Friedman to Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. This masterful investigation takes us from 1970s Hong Kong to post-apartheid South Africa, from the American South to the City of London, from Dubai to war-torn Somalia, and even into the metaverse, revealing in dizzying detail the terrifying advances of capitalism without democracy.

Capitalism of the Apocalypse offers an unprecedented history of recent decades and an alarming vision of our near future.